Chilkat Valley News - Serving Haines and Klukwan, Alaska since 1966

The heliski map committee may dissolve as joint borough boards take responsibility over heliski map change proposals.

The Haines Borough Parks and Recreation Advisory Committee and Tourism Advisory Board partnered to address previous conflict of interest allegations this spring.

The boards met together Aug. 10 to review and change a draft ordinance regarding heliski map amendments to pass on to the borough assembly for approval.

Their recommendations also call for borough staff every three years to evaluate applications for “completeness” and “incorporate the most recent management recommendations if they affect the area of the proposed amendment.” Staff also will forward proposed amendments to the Alaska Department of Fish and Game, Bureau of Land Management, Alaska Department of Natural Resources and the U.S. Forest Service.

The boards will then consider the amendments with public hearings and make recommendations to the assembly.

Tourism Advisory Board chair and heliski company operator Sean Gaffney requested a better definition of completeness so applicants can have a definite list of requirements.

“I’d like to see completeness more fully defined,” Gaffney said. “I’d like it to be boiler plate steps that are; just check the box, go forward.”

An original version of the draft ordinance included incorporating standards from the Northern Wild Sheep and Goat Council. Parks and rec committee member Lori Smith said that was too restrictive.

“I looked up these folks, and they sound like very extreme conservationists to me,” Smith said. “So we’re going to now let them weigh in on this industry?...You’re giving this entity a lot of power when we’ve been waiting and respectfully waiting on Fish and Game,” Smith said.

heliski operator Scott Sundberg said the heliski and conservation communities have waited almost seven years for an updated study on mountain goats from the state Department of Fish and Game.

Assembly member Ron Jackson said the agency is supposed to report its results in September.

“I want real-time data now, not guess work,” Sundberg said. Parks and rec committee members Rich Chappell and Thom Ely instead said the agency from which the borough sets its standards should be defined.A motion to remove the Northern Wild Sheep and Goat Council from the ordinance passed, 6-5.

Gaffney was also concerned that experts from the heliski industries would have an opportunity to explain themselves.

“What I see in the assembly again and again is there’s not the expertise to really understand where these changes are coming from…I think that that insight is critical.”

He said there were people on both the tourism board and parks and rec committee with valid outdoors experience.

Board members also voted unanimously to send the amendment applications to the Forest Service and DNR, not listed in the original draft.But Sundberg said if more agencies were added, the timeline needed to be extended by a month.

The assembly must make a decision on the amendment proposals by Oct. 31, a month after the date in the original draft ordinance.