Slana, Nabesna
The Slana / Nabesna Community Wildfire Protection Planning Area covers from mile 53 to 81 of the Tok Cut off Highway continuing to include the entire Nabesna Road spanning to the base of the Wrangell Mountains. Nabesna is located at the end of the Nabesna Road 43 miles from Slana. This planning area incudes historical mines, such as, the Nabesna Mine which opened in 1923, at its height the mine employed 60 people. Over thirty different minerals were extracted from this site, although gold was the primary source of profit. It operated sporadically through the late 1940s. Slana is an Alaska Native village name, derived from the name of the Slana River. Slana developed rapidly in the 1980s when homesteads were offered for settlement by the federal government. Slana grew around the Slana Roadhouse, which is listed in the U.S. National Register of Historic Places. Currently, there is a post office, K-8 school, Wrangell St. Elias Ranger Station, a National Park Service public use cabin, and several business including a store, lodge, and rental cabins. The Nebesna Rd. is one of only two roads that enter Wrangell-St. Elias National Park and Preserve and therefore, has recreational use of both established trails and modern day explorers planning their own routes into the backcountry. Additionally, the valley floor and nearby surrounding mountains offer a wide variety of hunting and fishing opportunities leading to visitors year-round.
This planning area is continuously forested land of spruce and mixed hardwood, areas impacted by beetle kill from an outbreak in the 1990’s and several burn scars. There are burn scars within this area that date back to the 1940’s. Cobb Lakes fire in 1942 left a 685 acre burn scar, in 1948 there were two fires one being the 12 mile Slana River Fire which encompassed over 2,000 acres and the Nabesna River Fire which left a burn scar over 6,000 acres, the Carlson Lake Fire of 1953 burned more than 1,000 acres and in 1967 the Ahtell Creek fire burned over 2,000 acres.
Land ownership in this area includes private, state, BLM, national park and preserve land, village and tribal corporation lands, and native allotments. This area holds a rich history deeply embedded with cultural and historic mining sites.
We are currently in the process of creating a CWPP for the Slana / Nelchina planning area. It will be available here once it is published.
CWPP Planning Area Map
Community planning areas include the wildland urban interface (WUI), defined as the area where human development meets and intermingles with undeveloped wildland and vegetative fuels. Included are lands designated as “Critical” and “Full” fire management options. Fire management options are assigned by jurisdictional agencies (landowners/managers), while protection agencies provide fire suppression responsibilities and initial response to wildfires. Alaska Division of Forestry and Fire Protection is the protection agency responsible for fire suppression in the Copper River Basin. See https://forestry.alaska.gov/fire/fireplans for more information on fire management options.
The goal of creating a community wildfire protection plan is to reduce the potential for disaster within the planning boundary by recognizing the hazards, prioritizing areas of protection, and developing a workable action plan with clear goals and objectives to mitigate the risks from wildfire, life, and property.
Explore the CWPP Planning Map App. with useful planning layers including CWPP areas, fire management options, land ownership, vegetation layers, and fire return interval models.
Community Wildfire Protection Plan survey results:
Thank you for participating
Notes from past meetings
The First meeting for the Slana / Nabesna area was combined with 2021 Fall VFD meeting and was not recorded. Please reach out to Emily Hjortstorp at 907-822-5534 if you have questions regarding this meeting.