Forest Service flight moratorium lifted in Southeast Alaska

The Carlanna Lake Trail near Ketchikan. (U.S. Forest Service photo)

By Orin Pierson

Petersburg Pilot

The U.S. Forest Service has received approval to resume aviation operations in Southeast Alaska after a flight moratorium that halted much of the forest management work across the region’s remote federal lands.

“The Tongass National Forest has recently received approval to move forward with securing aviation support for its work,” Paul Robbins Jr., Public Affairs Officer for the Tongass National Forest told the Petersburg Pilot on Friday. “Due to the geographic layout of Southeast Alaska and remote nature of most aspects of the Tongass National Forest, the Forest Service relies on aviation support to complete its program of work.”

The news comes as a relief to Scott Newman, owner of Petersburg Flying Services, who had invested tens of thousands of dollars to meet the Forest Service requirements in the lead up to the 2025 season – including, installing over the winter an additional $18 thousand radio system required by the USFS – only to see the flights he was banking on suddenly suspended indefinitely. “We got four trips in and then the work got shut down.” According to Newman he is one of only a handful of flight operators in Southeast Alaska certified to work with the Forest Service.

Newman emphasized that Forest Service staff in the Tongass weren’t to blame for the moratorium. He just sees it as unfortunate after having gone through so much to secure the contract, but he notes, “it wasn’t their fault.”

Petersburg District Ranger Carey Case had acknowledged the moratorium during her report last Monday to Petersburg Borough Assembly, explaining that it halted projects including trail maintenance at Petersburg Lake because crews couldn’t get materials flown in and transported.

As of Friday, Newman hadn’t received official word of the moratorium lifting, but he had been contacted by “a field person who had heard and wanted to see about getting on the schedule.” He is hopeful this means they can get back to flying soon.

The Forest Service contract represents about 40% of Newman’s business and includes flights for comprehensive forest health surveys that involve flying personnel with laptops and satellite equipment across islands, valleys, and drainages from Ketchikan to Yakutat to catalog insect damage that affects timber inventories; transporting work crews and equipment to remote wilderness areas; and flying Forest Service staff and personnel from Trout Unlimited and the Southeast Alaska Watershed Coalition to locations like Rowan Bay for collaborative stream restoration projects.

Beyond Forest Service work, Newman provides medical evacuation flights, flightseeing and recreational access to remote cabins, and other essential aviation services to the Petersburg community. But he was unsure his business could withstand the loss of nearly half of his work for the season. “It’s really hard to make a living with an airplane because the cost of the business is so significant …I need to fly to remain economically solvent,” said Newman.

Mercifully, it seems skies are clearing for take-off again.

• This story originally appeared in the Petersburg Pilot.