FIFTH OPENING – The Sitka seine boats Hukilau and Rose Lee pump herring aboard this afternoon at the end of Deep Inlet during the fifth opening in the Sitka Sound sac roe herring fishery. The opening was being held in two locations beginning at 11 a.m. (Sentinel Photo by James Poulson) 

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    The Sitka Sound commercial herring sac roe fishery continued today with open [ ... ]

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27 Mar 2024 12:26

Police Blotter
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26 Mar 2024 13:49

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Daily Sitka Sentinel

Starrigavan Slide Damages Trail, Stream

By SHANNON HAUGLAND
Sentinel Staff Writer
    A landslide Thursday night or Friday morning in the Starrigavan Valley covered 75 to 100 acres, destroying fish habitat and blocking parts of the ATV trail, the Forest Service said today.

TOP PHOTO – U.S. Forest Service crew members, from left, Jacquie Foss, Martin Becker and Mike Mullin look at the base of the main land slide at Starrigavan Valley Monday. Several land slides, triggered by recent heavy rains, damaged an ATV trail. (Photo by KK Prussian)  ABOVE: An aerial view provided by Harris Air.


    A team of soil, water and recreation specialists on Monday surveyed the area, about three-quarters of a mile from the trailhead. Marty Becker, watershed program coordinator for the Sitka Ranger District, said the slide on the north side of the valley and its runout zone covered up to 100 acres, and affected more than 50 additional acres.
    Two smaller slides also occurred in the Starrigavan Valley, Becker said: one at the very head of the north fork of Starrigavan Creek, and one on the side slopes of the south fork, which crossed and blocked the “C Loop” of the ATV trail.
    Becker said the C loop of the trail was damaged and blocked in places. About 850 meters of Class I fish habitat was affected along the main stem north fork of Starrigavan Creek, as well as “unknown lengths along several Class I tributaries.” Three coho rearing ponds have been destroyed, and one other is “severely impaired,” he said. Two fish pipes are “blown out” and a stringer bridge is destroyed, he added.
    Two sections of the ATV trail are blocked, and 300 meters of the trail are eroded or buried, he said.
    Annemarie LaPalme, Sitka Ranger District recreation staff member, said the Forest Service has put up a sign at the Nelson Logging Road trailhead that marks in red the areas that are impassable because of debris or running water.
    “We didn’t close the trail,” she said. “You can still ride out there in certain areas, but you can’t ride everywhere. There are some parts ... they’re impassable.”
    LaPalme sent out a public service advisory to news outlets Monday to warn riders, hikers and hunters who use the popular trail.
    Becker said he first heard of the slide early Friday from Fish and Game wildlife biologist Phil Mooney, who was in the area to check on the deer cameras he has placed in the upper valley. He was unable to recover his cameras and called the Forest Service to advise the agency of the slide.
    Becker said he has sent a report to Tongass Supervisor Forrest Cole, and plans to meet today with Sitka Ranger District leadership to discuss what action to take and when to clear the area.
    “That is the big question,” Becker said. He said Cole is eager to know plans for restoration work.
    Becker said he and other specialists will continue to investigate, but the area is “really unstable” right now.
    “It’s soupy,” he said. “We stepped in a few places and we were up to our knees.”
    Diverted running water also is going underneath debris and shifting it around.
    “We still need to get out there and investigate areas, but it’s not safe to walk around,” Becker said. “We have (only) walked up the middle of the slide.” Scientists could see where the water was running, and where the water was diverted and routed.
    “We need to figure out what’s going on out there,” Becker said.
    He said he and the other scientists don’t yet know the exact cause of the slide, and the investigation will be ongoing. He said official reports from the airport put rainfall at an inch and a half for Thursday and Friday, but that rainfall is extremely variable throughout the area. (Becker noted that official reports of the storm that hit a few weeks ago stated 3.5 inches fell in Sitka in a single day, while 7.5 inches was measured at the Blue Lake dam, and 8 inches showed in the rain gauge at his downtown home.)
    Others who investigated the Starrigavan landslide besides Becker were Mike Mullin, Sitka Ranger District natural resources specialist, and soil scientist Jacquie Foss and hydrologist K.K. Prussian, both with the Tongass Supervisor’s Office.

Comments  

 
# Florian Sever 2014-09-23 20:58
This area looks like it was in second growth timber. It's probably the case since it was uphill from a logging road. Alaska Pulp Corporation was the prime beneficiary of all the logging that took place up in Starigavan. This looks like just another mess they left us with after they sucked the cream off the top (just like the dioxin-laced mill site)..
 

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20 YEARS AGO

March 2004

Matthew C. Hunter of Sitka recently returned from Cuba as part of a St. Olaf College International and Off-Campus Studies program. Hunter, a junior physics major at St. Olaf College, is the son of Robert and Kim Hunter of Sitka.


50 YEARS AGO

March 1974

Eighth graders have returned from a visit to Juneau to see the Legislature. They had worked for it since Christmas vacation ... Clarice Johnson’s idea of a “White Elephant” sales was chosen as the best money-maker; Joe Roth won the political cartoon assignment; highest government test scorers were Ken Armstrong, Joanna Hearn, Linda Montgomery, Lisa Henry, Calvin Taylor and David Licari .....

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