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Alaska Regional Forester Denny Bschor upheld a timber sale on Prince of Wales Island that will allow 73 million board-feet of timber to be sold in the Tongass National Forest.

Several environmental groups had appealed the Forest Service decision announced in June, saying it allowed too much cutting and would degrade unique ecological values in the area.

Bschor's decision was released Thursday.

Environmental groups were disappointed in the decision.

The Southeast Alaska Conservation Council, which filed its appeal with Audubon Alaska and the Alaska Wilderness League, said environmental groups tried to work with the agency to resolve differences in how to manage the Tongass.

The groups submitted a "conservation alternative" that would have allowed 37 million board feet of cutting.

"We came to the middle with a well-researched approach, but the Forest Service slammed the door in our faces complaining we cut the sale in half," said SEACC Conservation Director Buck Lindekugel.

The project area is 60 miles northwest of Ketchikan, near the community of Coffman Cove on Prince of Wales Island.

The project area encompasses more than 56,000 acres but the record of decision allows timber harvest on up to 3,400 acres within the area.

The timber harvest will provide between 251 and 356 jobs over the life of the project, according to the Forest Service, which said the sale would revitalize the island economy by helping develop the timber contracts needed to supply local mill operators and the wood-products industry.

Alaska Congressman Don Young was quick to applaud Bschor's decision in a statement. Young said the timber industry has gone from thousands of jobs to "nothing" over the past few decades.

"Big corporations are already gone, and now we are fighting over this minute timber sale which will keep small family-owned mills in business," Young said in the statement.

He added that the project would provide jobs "as long as the extreme environmentalists stop putting their fundraising goals before our people and don't file suit."

One group of appellants - Greenpeace, Cascadia Wildlands, the Tongass Conservation Society and the Juneau Group of the Sierra Club - said in a joint statement the groups would "evaluate their options" after Thursday's announcement.

Lindekugel said it was too early to say whether SEACC would file suit.

The environmentalists' preferred approach would have allowed about 30 million board-feet while balancing the need for jobs, economic timber supply and healthy fish and wildlife populations, the groups said.

SEACC said it would protect links between blocks of old-growth habitat around Sweetwater Lake and Logjam Creek area that they said are important for deer and wolves.

"We are disappointed that the Forest Service did not incorporate adequate conservation measures in these critical habitat areas," said John Schoen, senior scientist for Audubon Alaska in a joint statement filed with SEACC. "The Sweetwater Lake watershed ranks as the number four watershed for deer, and number two for salmon values out of 117 watersheds on north Prince of Wales."

Bschor recognized the collaborative efforts associated with timber harvests, but he instructed the forest supervisor to develop a process for interested groups to become involved in the initial phases of long-term planning for timber sales, the agency said in a statement.

• Contact reporter Kim Marquis at 523-2279 or kim.marquis@junauempire.com.