The U.S. Forest Service is seeking input on how it should manage Prince of Wales Island’s federally owned landscapes. The public comment period is open for a Landscape Level Analysis project, or an LLA.
The Forest Service held a public workshop at the Generations Southeast Building in Klawock on Wednesday.
Ken Ostrom, Deputy District Ranger on Prince of Wales, says these public meetings satisfy requirements from the National Environmental Policy Act. That’s a federal law that requires the agency to evaluate social and environmental impacts of their actions. The meetings are also valuable in getting an understanding of community priorities.
“It’s just an interactive project,” Ostrom said. “It’s based on communications and in full disclosure of what we have planned. Sometimes we don’t know what we don’t know, and we need that feedback.”
The long-term plan includes sustainable recreation, like trails and campgrounds, water passage improvements for fish, and invasive plant management.
Ostrom says the invasive plant management projects on POW typically get the most pushback. He wants people to know that the Forest Service is cautious and strategic when using herbicides. Ostrom says last year, they only treated six acres out of over 3 million on the island. And the treatment areas are typically away from where people live.
Ostrom says it’s important to be preventative with treating these invasive species.
“Like I say, we do just a very little bit because we don’t have the invasive problems that they do in other places,” Ostrom said. “And so it’s better to be in front of it than to be chasing it.”
At the meeting, department representatives expressed concern about Canada thistle and other invasive species crowding out the plants native to the region. That can alter nutrients in streams, change stream temperatures and impact fish habitats.
At Wednesday night’s meeting, fish biologist Hannah Harris said the Forest Service’s 2026 schedule for the island is busy. Many of the projects planned are for stream restoration, something she says they’ve made a lot of progress on in recent years.
“2025 was a year of change for the Forest Service, and continues to be,” Harris said. “But even with a lot of uncertainty and some delays, we’re able to accomplish some projects under POWLLA that we’re really proud of.”
The plan is a live, ongoing document that was initially drafted in 2019.
Public comment opened on April 15 and is accepted until May 15. That can be submitted online or in person at the Thorne Bay or Craig Ranger Stations.
The Forest Service will be incorporating public comment into the finalized draft plan next month when the comment period closes. The full plan can be found on the Forest Service website.
