KMXT 100.1 FM Public Radio in Kodiak, Alaska
Kayla Desroches/KMXT
Kodiak Island Borough staff and assembly members have been planning for timber salvage and replanting in Chiniak since the Twin Creeks fire ravaged the area in 2015. Staff will update the assembly on recovery efforts at the assembly work session tonight.
Resource Management Officer Maggie Slife says A-1 Timber Consultants has wrapped up logging the damaged trees. NorthWind Forest Consultants is in the middle of replanting. They began in June.
“They’ve planted some 12,000 seedlings every day, which is an awful lot of work if you look at the tiny little trees they’ve been putting out there. They’re really cute.”
She says Jere’s Tree Service is busy cleaning up slash, or wood debris.
“There’s still lots of wood out there. So, about 75 percent of the wood that was cut up and left for people to come grab is still there. So, there’s an awful lot of public firewood resource available.”
Slife says people who want to collect timber should pick up a Chiniak area wood permit from the borough resource management office. Like the slash, filing a permit is free of charge.
Slife will speak more at length about Chiniak and the forest recovery at the assembly work session tonight. That’ll be at 6:30 p.m. in the school district conference room.
