97 



planning for timber harvest on east Kuiu began in connection with the Alaska Pulp Company's long 

 term contract. 



In March 1979, the Tongass Land Management Plan was adopted and it designated the No 

 Name Bay region as Land Use Designation IV, meaning that it was available for timber harvest. 

 Consequently, in April 1980, the Forest Service issued an Environment Impact Statement which 

 identified No Name Bay for extensive timber harvest activity. At the same time, the Alaska National 

 Interest Lands Conservation Act ( ANILCA) created wilderness areas on west and north Chichagof 

 Island, greatly increasing the importance to the industry of the east Kuiu LUD IV designation. 



By 1986, however, there had been no harvest in the area, and the Forest Service was required 

 to produce a second EIS for east Kuiu. It also found the area suitable for harvest with little 

 environmental effect, and again approved extensive harvest in the No Name Bay area. 



On each of these EISs, an environmentalist group filed appeals and, failing to achieve 

 satisfaction, filed suit. The Circuit Court ordered a supplemental EIS, which was concluded and 

 signed in 1987. This was now the third EIS prepared for the same site. It, too, was appealed and 

 litigated. 



In May of 1989, the state of Alaska, exercising its land selection rights under the Alaska 

 Statehood Act, selected 3400 acres around No Name Bay for eventual conveyance to the state, thus 

 further complicating the appeals process under NEPA. The state selection controls access to the 

 planned site of the Log Transfer Facility. In October of the same year, the Forest Service filed with 

 the state a request for road reservations in the No Name Bay sale area. The actual harvest units 

 within the selection were considered a prior existing right, and were still slated for harvest. 



In 1990, Congress placed 35,000 acres of Kuiu Island into a new wilderness area, 

 immediately to the south of the 66,000 acre Tebenkof Bay Wilderness Area (TBWA) which lies due 

 west of No Name Bay. The TBWA was created by ANILCA. 



In 1993, the Forest Service issued the fourth EIS on the east Kuiu harvest area, the North 

 and East Kuiu Environmental Impact Statement. It was appealed and litigated. Furthermore, all 

 efforts by the Forest Service to get concurrence from the state on planned actions affecting its 

 interests were also appealed. Meanwhile, the state was getting pressure from environmental groups 

 to change the intended purpose of the No Name Bay state selection from "remote settlement," the 

 state's given reason for the selection under the Forest Service Community Grant program (FSCG), 

 to "wildlife habitat." It should be noted that "wildlife habitat" would not have been a legally 

 acceptable reason for a state selection under the FSCG guidelines which have been upheld by the 

 United States Supreme Court. 



During negotiations on the state's Mental Health Land Trust Settlement case, the 

 environmentalists succeeded in their quest, and No Name Bay was given a tentative reclassification 

 for "wildlife habitat." This resulted in the state dropping the priority for conveyance of this selection 

 from a priority A to priority C. Given the ratio of allowable overselections and the number of 



