Natural Resource Management Plan approved

The Mat Su Borough Assembly unanimously approved the Natural Resource Management unit plan after Assemblyman Vern Halter introduced six or seven amendments to the plan.

The 750-page plan lays out the management of one hundred and sixty five-thousand acres of Borough owned land. There are a total of 22 management units, mostly in the northern Valley.

The plan revises the forest management plan that was adopted over 20 years ago.  The borough received about 380 comments on the plan, with 82 individuals and groups commenting.

Halter said a number of changes were made to the plan before it came in front of the Borough.  He saw that a few more changes needed to be made and introduced those written amendments at the meeting Tuesday evening. Halter asked that the plan be amended to reserve some areas for the proposed wood fired boiler at Su Valley High School.

He said he wanted to ensure that there would be local preference for accessing personal use firewood.  He also wanted to ensure that there was an annual inventory available for personal use and that objectives and goals for the wood fired boiler would be met if the project would ever go forward.

All of Assemblyman Halter’s amendments were approved without question.

Borough spokesperson Patty Sullivan says the newly adopted asset management plan is now part of the Borough’s comprehensive plan and available on the Borough website.