Subsistence panel told of shifts by US Forest Service

A family fishing day event hosted by the U.S. Forest Service in Wrangell. (U.S. Forest Service photo)

By Anna Laffrey

Daily Sitka Sentinel

U.S. Forest Service leadership is in flux as the agency takes sweeping actions in managing the 17-million-acre Tongass National Forest, and making regulatory and administrative changes at all levels, Alaska-based officials reported this week.

At the beginning of a four-day federal subsistence Regional Advisory Council meeting in Juneau on Tuesday, Tongass Supervisor Monique Nelson spoke about shifts in the Forest Service since President Donald Trump took office in January 2025.

Nelson said staffing on the Tongass is down 30% from this time last year; in the wake of federal workforce reductions by the U.S. Department of Government Efficiency, 270 USFS employees are currently working in Southeast Alaska.

Nelson, who's worked for the Forest Service in Alaska for several years, stepped into the Tongass supervisor role last spring. She said that "since the changes in the administration, we have shifted our work from the focus on the Southeast Alaska Sustainability Strategy to other agency priorities that include active forest management, disaster recovery, minerals and energy and access to outdoor recreation."

"While I say that there is a shift, those things are always our agency priorities, and so we are certainly happy and dedicated to doing that work in front of us," she said.

USFS personnel are currently working through planning processes for logging, mining, and energy projects, Nelson said.

The largest of the planned logging projects are the South Revilla project east of Ketchikan and the Twin Mountain II project on eastern Prince of Wales Island, both of which include old-growth timber harvest, Nelson said.

“For both of those projects, we did find a significant likelihood of impacts to subsistence resources,” Nelson told the subsistence council members.

Among its energy projects, USFS is continuing to work on the Angoon-area Thayer Creek Hydropower project.

“With regard to minerals, I'll say that really there is not a change. We are required to be very responsive to minerals needs,” Nelson said, noting there is currently a high price on gold.

The service is preparing for tourist season by hiring seasonal staff to take care of Tongass National Forest day-use sites, bear viewing areas, camp grounds and visitor centers.

Following Nelson’s presentation, council member Ted Sandhofer remarked on the size and scope of current USFS projects on the Tongass.

Sandhofer worked with USFS for about 35 years, starting in 1987 as a forester based in Hoonah, and retiring in 2021 as the head of the Petersburg Ranger District.

He said that the current USFS project list is "a big workload, as big as I've seen on the Tongass.”

“I know that there's a reduction in (workforce), so it seems like you're going to be doing more with less. … Do you have enough people?” Sanhofer asked.

Nelson told him the agency currently is working through “interim operations" while adjusting to staffing reductions.

“Our regional offices and our Washington office are acting as consolidated units where we have that high-level expertise working in much larger groups across much larger land masses,” Nelson said. “Now, we in Alaska are now working as part of a larger Pacific team with California, Oregon, Washington and Hawaii, overseen by a (Pacific Northwest) Regional Forester on their executive leadership team.”

Acting Regional Forester for Alaska, Jerry Ingersoll, started in the role in October. He previously worked with USFS in Ketchikan and Juneau for about seven years.

Introducing himself at the council meeting Tuesday, Ingersoll said that he’ll be retiring at the end of April.

The permanent Regional Forester for the Pacific Northwest Region, Jacque Buchanan, spoke to the transition in USFS leadership for Alaska.

“When Jerry steps out, I'm going to step fully into it, to get us through the interim place to you getting back to a full staff at the Alaska level," Buchanan said.

“This is the interim space,” Buchanan said. “I think we will probably be in this space for the next six to eight months. And so what the future is exactly going to look like, we don't know.”

“I have pretty high assurance that, especially here in Alaska, there will remain a state-level leadership,” Buchanan said “It may be called something different, you know, it's probably, it's not going to be (an Alaska) Regional Forester, but it would be a state leadership at the same level.”

Buchanan said she’d like to help USFS get back to full staffing levels.

Nelson said that, with reduced staffing levels, “a lot of the local projects will be harder to address, and the emphasis on partnerships is really what's going to make a difference for us to be able to make sure that we're attending to those very local needs.”

She said partnerships remain a priority for USFS.

“Just recently, we entered into a shared stewardship agreement with the State of Alaska, and that agreement is focused on providing wood to the wood products industry, and pairing that with restoration actions on the forest,” Nelson said.

“We also have the opportunity to enter into more shared stewardship agreements, and we hope to be able to do so with many tribes and tribal partners, as well as other landowners in Southeast,” Nelson said.

Nelson said the Trump administration is prioritizing “deregulation and organizational efficiency, and then also an emphasis on partnerships as part of the deregulation agenda.”

Forest Service personnel in Washington, D.C., are working through the process to repeal the 2001 Roadless Rule, which could open the Tongass to more logging. A draft environmental impact statement is expected this spring, and will be released for a public comment period.

Last month the Forest Service issued a notice of intent for its ongoing Tongass National Forest Management Plan; public comments are due by March 20 as to “purpose and need for action” driving the Tongass plan revision by USFS. 

Meanwhile, personnel in Washington, D.C., are working on changing the agency’s National Environmental Policy Act regulations and administrative review regulations, Nelson said.

• This story originally appeared in the Daily Sitka Sentinel.