If you’re interested in seeing a public use cabin built in the Haines State Forest, it’s time to act, or at least to write.
The state Division of Forestry is seeking public comments on its five-year-plan, including potential cabins at Walker Lake and Chilkat Lake. At Walker Lake, foresters have identified preliminary trail and road sites, as well as a spot for a cabin.
The 128-acre lake, which supports Dolly Varden, sits 1.3 miles off the Sunshine Mountain Road on state forest land designated for recreation.
What’s needed now is some momentum in the form of public support to get the project rolling. The deadline for comments is June 25. They can be sent to Division of Forestry, P.O. Box 263, Haines and to greg.palmieri@alaska.gov.
“I can’t do anything if there’s no public interest, so getting that is Step 1,” Haines resource forester Greg Palmieri said this week. “If we have interest, we can all sit down and figure out a way to move forward.”
There are about 240 public use cabins in Southeast Alaska, most of them within the Tongass National Forest and managed by the U.S. Forest Service. There’s only one cabin within the Haines Borough, a rarely used shelter orphaned by the Forest Service at Katzehin Flats, across Chilkoot Inlet from town.
Most of the forest around town is part of the Haines State Forest, which is late to developing recreation uses, but willing. Increasing recreation uses has been in the five-year-plan for the local forest since about 2002, but public comment supporting cabins has been sporadic. More evidence of support is needed for the state to take action, Palmieri said.
People can write to support cabin projects or any other recreation uses, such as mountain bike trails, he said.
With enough comments, Palmieri said he would organize a meeting of interested residents and – and with consensus on a specific project or program – begin targeting funding sources and open a line of communication with the Haines Borough.
Foresters would be responsible for providing cabin access and engineering work. At Walker Lake, a project might include an access road and a boat launch, or just a trail from the road. The cabin itself would be built and managed by the state Division of Parks.
“It would be an enjoyable recreation site, summer and winter,” Palmieri said.
Another state recreation site and possible cabin location sits on the east side of Chilkat Lake, but that would be more involved to develop for lack of road access and a requirement of a cultural resource survey, he said.
Other state forest recreation sites where development of recreation facilities is appropriate include Chilkoot, Herman and Davidson lakes, he said.
With an anticipated downturn in Alaska’s economy, we all might be taking more vacations closer to home. A few cabins to use on weekends would provide us more opportunities to get out of the house, to go fishing, hiking, skiing or hunting, and see a bit more of the valley, year-round.
(There is another public-use cabin effort afoot, but that’s an alpine shelter some 3,000 feet up on Takshanuk Ridge that would be accessible only to the most robust hikers and skiers.)
A few public use cabins just off the road system – or on it – are overdue, considering the abundance of such cabins at other locations throughout the Panhandle. The idea is attractive enough that it would likely generate considerable volunteer support in terms of funding and construction.
So how about it? It takes only a minute to send an email or write a postcard. Let’s get this ball rolling.