Forest Service asks public comment on fees for new cabins

The U.S. Forest Service plans to build six new cabins and a new campground in Southeast Alaska and wants to hear from the public on proposed fees for the facilities.

One of the new cabins will be constructed at Little Lakes, on a former logging road about 25 miles from downtown Wrangell and near the Long Lake Trailhead.

The proposed fee for the Little Lakes cabin is $75 a night, which is at the high end of the range of fees charged for use of existing cabins in the Tongass National Forest. Cabins in the Wrangell district range from $30 to $75.

“The proposed fee prices are based on a market review of similar recreation opportunities within the state,” said Paul Robbins Jr., Forest Service public affairs officer based in Ketchikan.

The revenue “will assist the Forest Service in closing the gap between normal appropriations and cost to maintain and operate (the cabins),” he said May 2.

The Little Lakes cabin is planned for 2025 construction, Robbins said. It is the Wrangell Ranger District’s top priority for a new public-use cabin in the area.

“The cabin site is on the north end of a small lake surrounded by muskeg. The site is easily accessible by the road system with 300-foot trail to the cabin,” the Forest Service said in its description of the site.

The cabin site will be drivable by car in the summer and will be hidden from the road by a small hill. It will include a wood stove, vault toilet, water (not drinkable), food lockers and bear box.

Federal money for the Wrangell cabin and others in this round is coming from $14.4 million allocated to Alaska projects in the Tongass and Chugach national forests under the federal Bipartisan Infrastructure Law of 2021.

Another one of the six new Southeast cabin sites is close to Wrangell — the Woodpecker cabin will be built on the southern end of Mitkof Island, accessible by road and a 300-foot trail, with a south-facing view of Sumner Strait and Zarembo Island.

The other new cabins are planned for closer to Ketchikan and Juneau.

Public comments on the proposed fees are due by July 2. People can submit their comments online, by email, phone, in person at any Forest Service office, or by U.S. mail.

The email address is sm.fs.tnfrecfee@usda.gov, or call 907-228-6215. Letters should be mailed to Recreation Program Manager, 648 Mission St., Suite No. 110, Ketchikan, AK 99901-6591.

More information is available on the Forest Service website bit.ly/3wn0XM1.