It Takes "All Lands/All Hands"
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Since 1990, the spruce forests of Southcentral Alaska have been dramatically affected by the spruce bark beetle. This has created risks of catastrophic wildfire, especially on the Kenai Peninsula, where most of the borough’s 51,200 residents live and work. About 89% of the borough’s private property valuation (assessed at $2.7 billion) is located in 15 communities that have a wildfire risk rating of extreme or high.

In recognition of this wildfire risk, the Kenai Forest, Wildfire, and Fuels Management Coordinating Committee was formed in 2003 with representatives from: the Kenai Peninsula Borough; State Division of Forestry; Kenai National Wildlife Refuge; BLM-Anchorage Field Office; Kenai Fjords National Park; Bureau of Indian Affairs; and the Chugach National Forest and the Alaska Region Forest Service’s Office of State and Private Forestry. The new interagency committee signed a memorandum of understanding and agreed to work together to address the problem.

The Kenai interagency committee developed the All Lands/All Hands Action Plan for FY 2005-2009 under the National Fire Plan and Healthy Forest Restoration Act (HFRA) for:

<empty> Fire protection and prevention.

<empty> Hazardous fuels reduction from the "back porch out"
(concept of homeowners on the wildland/urban interface to take steps to protect their own property).

<empty> Insect and disease suppression.

<empty> Forest health restoration and rehabilitation treatments

<empty> Community assistance.

Bug-killed trees on the Kenai Peninsula.

Bug-killed trees at Moose Creek.
Bug-killed trees on the Kenai Peninsula.

 
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The All Lands/All Hands Five Year Plan Implementation Projects include:

<empty> Collaborative development of community wildfire protection plans for all "at risk" communities

<empty> Increased interagency capabilities for fire prevention and protection. Defensible space fuel reduction on 17,550 private land parcels containing structures.

<empty> Fuel reduction on 97,000 Wildland Urban Interface and non-WUI acres.

<empty> Mechanical fuel reduction adjacent to 641 miles of power lines & 222 miles of highway/road evacuation routes.

<empty> Restoration of forest cover on 199,000 acres

<empty> Construction of two strategic fuel breaks on the west side of the Kenai Peninsula.
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Emerging Markets


Currently, many Kenai Peninsula projects are stalled by a lack of demand for small diameter spruce or wood chips. Accomplishments such as those presented above could be significantly higher if market demands existed. In the search for emerging markets, one promising area involves wood-plastic composites. According to recent updates from the Pacific Northwest Research Station, "…wood- plastic composite market segments have been growing at an average of 25% per year since 1998. Based on 2000 projections, 50% growth is predicted by 2005 for wood-plastic composites in building materials." Extrusion technologies for manufacturing wood-plastic composites may be an economically viable option for using dead and dying spruce removed in woody fuel reduction treatments on the Kenai Peninsula.
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