For years, there have been concerns about the impact of noise on wildlife—especially mountain goats, on BLM lands in southeast Alaska, where heliskiing and helitours are part of the economy. That will be one of the issues addressed at open house meetings being hosted by the Bureau of Land Management Glennallen Field Office this week in Haines and Skagway.
The BLM, which manages more than 320-thousand acres of public lands in the Haines and Skagway areas, hopes to gather information about how the land will be managed for the next twenty years. Helicopters are part of that discussion.
“A lot of the helicopter supported recreation that occurs is for heli-skiing or filming associated with heli-skiing. In the summer months there could be helicopter landings from cruise ships out of Skagway,” said Marnie Graham, the Acting Field Manager for the BLM Glennallen Field Office.
Map of the Haines-Skagway mountain goat study area. Mountain goat capture locations and areas designated for summer and winter helicopter tourism are described. (Alaska Department of Fish & Game)
There are BLM managed lands North and South of Haines just outside Borough lands. Helicopter supported recreation activities grew on these lands in the 1990’s and early 2000’s then were reduced while research about their noise impact to wildlife, including mountain goats, was carried out.
Graham says the meetings are being held to look at new information, talk about previous alternatives for how to manage those lands, and to give people a chance to comment.
“What we’ll be doing at the beginning of each of those meetings is kind of bringing people back up to speed— this is what we’ve done before, this is where we are at now, this is the new information [that] we need to consider,” said Graham. “And then we will have different stations around the room so [that] people can kind of delve into the different considerations a little bit more, and talk to different specialists and look at maps and there will be a station where people can actually provide some written comments for consideration in the plan.”
Information gathered will be used to develop supplemental alternatives to the previous Ring of Fire Draft Resource Management Plan Amendment, as applied in the Haines area.
In 2013, the BLM put the plan amendment process on hold because the agency needed additional resource studies.
Decisions to be made include whether to retain or change special land area designations, whether to retain a monitor and control area for wildlife studies, and whether to establish a maximum number of annual helicopter landings.
Public comments will be accepted through May 31, 2018.
An open house was held Monday in Juneau on the issue and two more will be held in Haines and Skagway this week. Wednesday, April 4, from 6:30-8:30 p.m. at the Chilkat Center for the Arts in Haines and Thursday, April 5, from 4:30-6:30 p.m. at the AB Hall Reception Room in Skagway.
In addition, the BLM will be holding government-to-government consultation meetings with area tribes.
Comments can also be submitted through the project website at www.blm.gov/alaska/rof-haines-amendment.
