Skagway was added to the list of communities the U.S. Forest Service will visit to talk about why it is pursuing a full exemption to the Roadless Rule in the Tongass National Forest. All Skagway had to do was ask.
The eastern shores of the Lynn Canal are lined by the trees of the Tongass National Forest. It’s the scenery that draws about a million cruise ship visitors per year to the tiny Gold Rush town of Skagway.
“You get what’s advertised in the brochure. You see an unspoiled natural area, you see mountainsides that are pristine, said Mayor Andrew Cremata.
He said that if the forest is compromised, so is Skagway’s largest industry. He says clear cuts and roads could undermine growth in tourism.
“Everything is at stake for Skagway,” Cremata said.
“I mean, it’s obvious that our economy based on tourism. We are one of the highest rated destinations in the world, not just Southeast Alaska, but Skagway.”
The Forest Service announced that it will work towards a full exemption of the Roadless Rule in October, but Skagway wasn’t on the list of communities that got a public meeting about it. So Cremata asked them to schedule one. He didn’t hear back.
“So, [I] decided to take the bull by the horns and bring a resolution to the assembly, so that we could have some kind of say in what’s going on,” he said.
He drafted a resolution that the city weigh in and throw its to support alternative one–the alternative that maintains the rule. Public support was strong and the borough assembly passed the resolution unanimously.
Within a couple of weeks, the Forest Service contacted Cremata to schedule a meeting. Public Affairs Officer Paul Robbins said the Forest Service didn’t intentionally overlook Skagway–they scheduled these meetings in communities that requested scoping meetings last year.
“Rather than reaching out again for this one we just went with all the scoping communities and made the schedule off of that,” Robbins said.
“And when Skagway reached out and said, ‘Hey, we’d like one?’ Well, we made it happen.”
Robbins said the change was simply a matter of finding a mutually agreeable date.
“We want as much public input as possible in these processes, so it was fairly simple to do. Just coordination with the mayor and making sure our teams were available,” he said.
The public information meeting will be November 26 at the Arctic Brotherhood Hall from 5:00 p.m. to 6:30 p.m. followed by a subsistence meeting. Public comment is open through December 17.
