P.O. Box 1908 Telephone (907)283-7684 Kenai, AK 9961 1 Fax (907)283-7684

Vibration Analysis Dynamic Machinery Balancing Predictive Maintenance Programs 1991 Western States Forest Employment Alaskan Agent for Mech sis products Vibration Analysers Data Collectors

Balancing Machines , Machinery Monitoring Systems It's the law of supply and demand -- as more timber lands are taken out of production by government restrictions, supplies dwindle and prices rise.

The smell of fresh sawdust is fad- ing from the old mills in and , but sharp contraction of

the timber industry in the Pacific North- Omgon' washington Callfornlh Montana west is resulting in monumental in- creases in the price of lumber, sending a message to consumers that federal environmental laws will cost everyone. Increased government restrictions of harvestable land in the Pacific North- Barge Beaching west is greatly shrinking the supply of * Contract Towing wood reaching the market from Seattle and Portland. In many areas open to Serving Pacific Northwest cutting, sustained yields have been & All Alaska Waters reached. And public opinion has been calling for even greater preservation of Although Alaska has over 10% of the nation's forest resource, it is far behind most other the older forests. 0-" states in forest industry employment. As the timber industry contracts in the Northwest, These factors, combined with the opportunity raps on the door of a potential multi-billion dollar wood products industry in demands of a recovering economy, Alaska. have strained the system. The demand for wood products - by the same soci- never been greater. successful campaigns and lawsuits of ety that desires to see vast regions of The pulp and paper industry is now environmental groups to withdraw mil- the forest off limits to logging - has poised for a rebound. Housing con- lions of acres ofthe Northwest timber struction and remodeling are both up. base into no-harvest zones. With less Remodeling itself has become a sus- timber available for cutting, 168 saw- Resource Development Council 1 e elated stories 1 1 1 tained growth industry, especially as mills have closed and over 20,000 Bulk Rate America moves to rehabilitate inner cit- 121 W. Fireweed, Suite 250 U.S. Postage people have lost jobs. ~nchorage;AK 99503 PAID ies. But now it's not only the loggers in ADDRESSCORRECTIONREQUESTED Anchorage, AK 1 The bad news is that national sup- the Northwest feeling the pinch, con- Permit No. 377 ply of wood products is falling sharply, sumers across America are having to brought on to a large extent by the (Continued to page 4) by Lew M. Williams

In the debate over timber harvesting in Southcentral and Interior Alaska, timber cutting in Southeast Alaska is cited as (Continued from page 6) a bad example. The implication is that it has ruined the area. That's wrong. It's more accurate to say Southeast timber timber could generate over $1 billion in harvesting is a good example. economic activity during the next de- Since Tongass National Forest was established in 1909, cade. He stressed that an aggressive only 435,000 acres of trees have been cut. That is 4.5% of the harvesting plan, coupled with an in- 9.5 million acres of forested land in the 16.9 million-acre tense reforestation program,would lead Tongass. to avibrant, green forest in 30 years. On The 550,000 acres of Southeast granted to Native corpo- the other hand, letting nature take its rations in 1971 are not included in those figures, but their course, the option preferred by many clearcuts have been misinterpreted as part of the Tongass Before the oil boom came to Alaska, Ketchikan Pulp Company preservationists, could result in devas- harvest. Because native timber is on private land, logs can be provided 20% of the corporate income tax collected by the state. tating multi-million dollar wildfires and exported in the round. Primary manufacture in Alaska is Timber corporations still pay healthy income taxes. grasslands void of evergreens for gen- required of timber cut on the Tongass, which is why we have erations. an industry in Southeast whose positive impact far outweighs By comparison, after deer were hunted commercially in Some preservationists are resist- its small impact on the volume of trees and on fish and game. Southeast early in the century to feed crews building the ing logging of the dead and dying tim- In addition, no harvest acreage has failed to produce a Alaska Railroad, and before the major timber industry came ber and the construction of roads to the continual increase in the beetle The minerals and tourism indus- second growth, some which are good size trees. No streams to Alaska in 1954, the bag limit was only two bucks a season reach the trees. They are working to infestations, there is reason to believe tries, in cooperation with the timber have been destroyed. At Harris River and the Maybeso Valley throughout Southeast. convince fishing, recreation and tour- that mortality on state lands is now industry, should benefit from increased on Prince of Whales Island, where timber was first clear cut Salmon runs and salmon harvests in Southeast in the ism interests to oppose logging. greater than new growth. surface transportation" that logging to the stream bank in 1954, the new trees are 10-20 inches 1980s have been greater than in any decade in the modern This conflict infuriates private for- 'Despite the prdmise Of sustained would bring, Brady noted. in diameter and between 60 and 80 feet tall. The river is still history of Alaska. This doesn't prove that logging enhances ester Terry Brady who charged "the yield utilization envisioned in the Con- All these side benefits would lead a major salmon producer and a popular sport fishing stream fish and game, but it proves that they can coexist with current environmentalcommunity on one hand stitution of the State of Alaska, and to a healthier range of conditions for accessible by road. management policies. The coexistence has occurred suc- is now espousing 'sustainabledevelop- aggressively pushed by early state ad- large and small game, and more fishing It is logistically impossible for a Tongass timber harvest, cessfully for longer than many of the timber industry's critics merit' while working overtime to tor- ministrations, we have now had 20 years opportunities for the common citizen as which will'have occurred on no more than 10% of the timber have been alive. History contradicts their science. pedo any reasonable use of the renew- of the opposite," Brady charged. "The remote rivers become accessible, Brady acreage by 2054 (the end of what is called the first 100-year The 700 miles of roads on Prince of Whales Island, built able forest resources." great experiment of the owner state, at contends. "The current 'combatfishing' cutting cycle), to harm the Tongass or Southeast Alaska. In by the timber harvesters, are part of the infrastructurethat led Unfavorable government policy least as far as forest resources are by Alaskans atong the Russian River addition to affecting so few areas compared with the whole, to a stable year-around economy. The new economy justified Brady was also critical of both fed- concerned, is teetering on the brink of could be reduced considerably if other the re-growth potential of the Tongass is over billion board new schools, a new airport, new hunting and fishing lodges, eral and state policy which he claims disaster." options become available. The envi- feet a year, more than two and one half times the current 450 new sawmills and cedar mills and the incorporation of two has for more than 20 years been nega- With more than 10 percent of the ronment itself, now under severe strain million board foot harvest rate. new communities. tive to the development of aforest prod- entire nation's forest resource, the peak because of mismanagement and no A claim by some biologists new to the state that timber More than 4,000 jobs in Southeast are directly tied to the ucts industry in Alaska. harvest of Alaska wood has never management, can benefit." harvest ruins game habitat for up to 150 years is not sup- timber industry. They are year-around jobs. People build 'This has been accomplished reached above one half of one percent Recent moves by Governor Walter ported by their own agency or by hunters. According to game homes, families, communities and they vote. They don't head through law, regulation, attitude, prior- of the nation's output. This puts Alaska Hickel and Commissioner Glenn Olds regulations, the bag limit for deer is four bucks on Prince of south each fall as do many employed in the visitor and fishing ity, and alienation of the forest resource far below such states as Michigan, Min- of the Department of Natural Resources Whales Island and on Ketchikan's Revillagigedo Island, and industries, some of whom claim logging on less than 5% of the by creation of wilderness and off-limit nesota, New York, Georgia, Texas and indicate that a turnabout may occur, six on Chuchagof Island, all areas where the most timber has Tongass threatens their jobs. park and wildlife areas," Brady said. the Carolinas, all of which support an- provided there is sufficient public sup- been cut. The bag limit is only two bucks around Juneau Before the oil boom came to Alaska, Ketchikan Pulp 'The result has been virtually no utiliza- nual multi-billion dollar industries with port to convert dead and dying timber where there has been no logging. less resource than is found in Alaska. It into useful products. According to pri- (Continued to page 3) tion on state lands, while the forest progresses through fire, disease and is no wonder that Alaska is last in forest vate and state foresters, there is strong insect attacks, which destroys wood industry employment, Brady said. public support for harvesting such tim- while precluding beneficial uses." "The petroleum industry should not ber. But it won't happen, Brady warned, Brady pointed out that natural mor- have to send to Oregon to get timbers, unlessgovernmentcomes to termswith tality has, in many areas, surpassed the Alaska Railroad should not have to its responsibility to manage renewable growth. For example, on America's two send to Montana to get ties and Alaska resources under sustained yield pro- largest national forests, the Tongass home builders should not have to use grams. and the Chugach, natural mortality far Canadian and Oregon products," Brady outstrips growth. And since 1987, with added.

March 1993 / RESOURCE REVIEW / Page 7 "These numbers are difficult to rationalize from a Congress and a Chief Executive that professes their priority is to reduce the deficit and create jobs."

who pays $1 for a product and who is constrained by competition to a five percent mark-up and so sells the product for $1.05. The merchant's tax as per Rahall and Bumpers (Continued from page 5) Paul S. Glavinovich would be eight percent times $1.05 or approximately $.08. With his profit fixed at $.05 and the government demanding every long-term timber sale area pro- importanceof keeping private land open Mining Law $.O8, the merchant won't stay in business long and neitherwill posed for the two Southeast pulp mills. to development. When land is taken out the miner. The mills are now experiencing severe of production, tax revenues, local eco- There is an additional calculation peculiar to mineral log shortages and sizable increases in nomic spinoffs and jobs are lost, Will- me again" economics called "Net Smelter Return," the result of which the prices for logs they buy. With new iams noted. returns to the miner, particularly of base metals, only 50% to areas being put off limits to logging, the A case-in-point is the $20 million A similar exclamation was probably shouted by Col. 60% of the gross value of his product. The eight percent gross mills are being forced to harvest lower- Seward sawmill which just re-opened Travis as he faced another assault from Santa Anna's troops tax sought by Bumpers and Rahall quickly escalates to quality timber in remote areas that cost and is expected to employ over 100 Only one-third of the commercial timber in the historic defense of the Alamo. approximately 16% of the miners' total return on his product; more to access. people by this summer. With little log- lands in the Tongass remain open to logging. America's mining industry must feel a little like Col. Travis no expenses are deductible. Few mines will survive at this Meanwhile, environmentalistshave ging occurring in the Chugach National as it witnesses assault after assault on the 1872 Mining Law rate, and President Clinton now says that he will seeka 12.5% been working overtime to prevent log- Forest, the mill is heavily dependent on A 1992 aerial survey showed that by those stalwart defenders of public lands from non-public tax rate on gross value. gers from getting afoot-hold elsewhere private timber lands owned by Native there were 365,000 acres on the Kenai land states, Sen. Dale Bumpers (D-Arkansas) and Rep. Nick These numbers are difficult to rationalize from a Con- in Alaska. corporations in Prince William Sound infested by the beetle. Hall, President Rahall (D-West Virginia). Rahall was successful in the last gress and a Chief Executive of the federal government that The Sierra Club and other environ- and the Kenai Peninsula. Wood prod- of Taiga Resource Consultants, sub- Congress in convincing the House to pass his mining law professes their priority is to reduce the deficit and create jobs. mental groups are backing massive ucts from the mill will be sold to Alaska mitted a master harvesting plan to the reform legislation, but Bumpers -- in the Senate -- was not. The current mining legislation proposed by Bumpers and land purchases to prevent logging on consumers, as well as those in the Kenai Peninsula Borough for harvest- Unlike the defenders of the Alamo, reinforcements in the form Rahall will have just the opposite effect. It will force present over 380,000 acres of private land in Northwest and overseas. ing beetle-killed timber. of U.S. Senators from the public land states arrived in time to tax paying mining operations out of business, greatly restrict Prince William Sound, on Kodiak and As supplies dwindle in the Lower The plan calls for logging and utili- preserve the basic tenets of the mining law, at least for one the initiation of any new mines and result in the loss of an Afognak islands and along the Gulf of 48 and overseas, timber operators will zation - over a ten-year period - of more year. unknown number of new and existing jobs in mining, manu- Alaska. The groups are pressuring the be taking a closer look at the thin trees 800 million to 1.5 billion board feet of Rahall and Bumpers are back again with legislation facturing and support industries as the U.S. mining industry Exxon Valdez Oil Spill Trustees Coun- of the boreal forest, where one-third of spruce timber recently infested and on which basically mirrors their previous efforts. The new legis- moves offshore. cil to spend hundreds of millions of the state's forest resource is located. the verge of destruction by the beetle. lation, like the former, totally ignores the hundreds of hours of The mining industry is once again attempting to educate dollars in oil spill settlement funds on This vast, largely untouched Interior "The harvest can be done properly and expert testimony offered by industry and government agen- those members of Congress to the value of a domestic timber "buyouts." forest has the potential to fulfill a large professionally with coordinated input of cies on the previous bills. In addition, it includes an eight minerals industry. It goes something like this: deficit reduc- Jim Cloud, one of several citizen share of wood product commodity pro- wildlife and fisheries biologists, fire con- percent royalty assessed upon all production. That may not tion, foreign trade balance and new jobs, and not necessarily advisors to the Trustees Council, duction. With new technology, this trol specialists, forest entomologists, sound like much, but put it in the context of a retail merchant in that order. Hopefully they will be successful. warned that while it may be necessary smaller sub-arctic timber can be manu- silviculturists,forest engineersand other to protect some habitat in the region, factured into quality value-added forest forestry personnel," Hall said. large-scale timber buyouts would with- products ranging from lumber and ply- The objective of the plan would be draw enormous amounts of timber that wood to reconstituted wood building to establish a healthy forest which has Tongass cutting is a good example, despite what opponents say would otherwise be available for public panels. But virtually no logging is occur- or will be devastated or deforested by (Continued from page 2) consumption. Cloud explained that as ring on the boreal forest. And plans to the beetle. Hall warned that the beetle fisheries and recreation are considered log there have also met the hammer of is spreading across the Peninsula like a Company provided 20% of the corporate income tax col- assessed against the year by terms of the Tongass Timber a public use in Prince. William Sound, the powerful environmental lobby. slow-moving fire and something has to lected by the state. Corporations still pay healthy income Reform Act of 1990. Nearly all of the loss was accredited to so is timber, a renewable resource that The Kenai bark beetle debate be done about it. taxes. The critics of industry- non-profit organizations and a write-off of road costs to timber that the Act took out of the provides Alaskans with jobs and sup- Even on the Kenai Peninsula, where If nothing is done, the forest will die individuals-pay nothing and have 95% of the national forest timber base. Actually the Forest Service netted $25.5 million plies consumers with.a varied assort- an over-mature forest is dying from a and become an unsightly graveyard of in which to hunt, fish, hike and recreate without seeing a on a harvest of 1.65 billion board feet over the four year period ment of wood products. severe spruce bark beetle infestation, dead trees and grass, a habitat fit only second growth tree or a clearcut. of 1989-1992. Cloud suggested that where it is efforts to log dead timber are bogged for woodpeckers, Hall said. Twenty-five percent of the stumpage dollars the Forest We invite visitors to enjoy the 6.6 million acres of un- absolutely necessary to acquire tim- down by environmental politics. But A major component of the master Service collects from the timber harvest on national forests touched designated Wilderness (3.7 million of those acres berlands for habitat protection, other long-timeAlaska forester John Hall says plan is a $1.5 million reforestation cen- returns to states and is distributed to local governments for covered with trees) in Southeast. That Wilderness is 15 times lands with equivalent resources should logging on the Kenai is necessary to ter that would include a nursery, green- school and road use. That exceeded $20 million for the past more acreage than has been logged in the past 84 years. be made available to the forest prod- restore the forest's health. He contends house and research facility staffed by four years, almost all of it from the Tongass and distributed to And there are the other 8.8 million acres where the deer ucts industry to replace the loss of wood that fish streams, wildlife habitat and silviculturists, fisheries and wildlife bi- communities in the Tongass. and the non-loggers play after deducting the 1.5 million acres products to consumers. view sheds are in greater jeopardy from ologists, fire control specialistsand other Except for a few years in the 1980s when the timber open to logging between 1909 and 2054. Some of the Lew Williams, another citizen advi- the aging spruce dying and falling down. team members. market slumped worldwide, the Forest Service has made regrowth areas are enjoyable, support fish and game popu- sor to the Trustees Council, is also cool Hall also cited the growing risks of cata- Arvid Hall, also of Taiga, noted that money selling Tongass timber, such as $1 8 million in 1990 on lations and are readily accessible by road. on the buyout proposal. With some 89 strophic wildfires in the dry beetle-killed logging the Peninsula's dead and dying gross sales of $36.6 million. The Forest Service reported a May Southcentral and Interior Alaska have such a suc- percent of~laskaalready in govern- forest and the high cost of fire suppres- loss of $1 0.14 million for 1992, caused by one-time costs cessful program some day by doing so much with so little. (Continued to page 7) ment ownership, Williams stressed the sion. Page 6 1 RESOURCE REVIEW / March 1993 Standing Volume Available Commercial Timber - western States 1 Western States Timber Harvest - 1990 Western States -Annual Forest Growth & Natural Mortality ~. 1600000 1

Alaskan industry will have to overcome its

own problems and convince public that Alaska Omgot Washington California Montana Idaho logging will not ruin the land Alaska has the fourth largest acreage of a f any of the Unites States, following Oregon, Washingtonand California. With more tha (Continued from page 1) the peak harvest of Alaska wood has le-half of one percent of the nation's output. This puts Alaska far below many others industries with less resource than is ality, ~laska'sforests are over-mature and dying, resulting in massive infestations. Mortality almost excel ~dsnatural growth. pick up part of the tab for wilderness combined, harvest levels are steadily preservation through higher lumber falling as more land is put off-limits to sion of Forestry. The state has the troubles. Just as there is strong oppo- Although it has not even scratched from the one-third of theTongass open prices, which have jumped as much as logging. Seymour warned that addi- second greatest acreage of potential sition to cutting trees in the Northwest, the surface of its enormous timber re- to logging while Native corporation 90 percent in six months. Basically, it's tional price hikes in housing construc- commercial forest and the fourth larg- there is also opposition to logging in source, Alaska- like the Northwest - lands in Southeast accounted for451.3' Economics 101, the law of supply and tion and remodelingcould occur if short- est acreage of actual commercial forest Alaska where most of the forest has yet is experiencing a drop in overall timber million board feet of the harvest. An- demand. When supply decreases and ages worsen. of any state following Oregon, Wash- to be touched by a chainsaw. production and sales in part because of other 137 million board feet was cut off demand increases, prices are bound to Alaska opportunity ington and California. State and private "The reality is that society does not new Wilderness set-asides. Alaskanow Native lands in Southcentral. rise. While the forests of the southeast foresters say Alaska's wood products look favorably on timber harvesting ranks far ahead of all states in dedi- Don't cut the trees! The Congressional Research Cen- have filled some of the industry is a sleeping giant, a potential because it has lost touch with the basic cated Wilderness created from poten- While the total value of Alaska ter, however, claims many factors have void, the resource is limited and of multi-billion dollar economic force that factthat trees are a renewable resource tial commercial forest land. sales is expected to jump because of contributed to the price rise and that lower quality than can be found in the some day could employ over 10,000 -a crop that grows back, given proper The value of Alaska wood product steep market price hikes, the volume logging closures have only played a Northwest. This fact alone opens the people while sustainably harvesting management and care,"said Joe Henri, sales fell from $1 .Ibillion in 1989 to harvested will likely fall as environ- marginal role in pushing prices up. It door to opportunity for Alaska's timber more than 3 billion board feet of timber President of Southcentral Timber De- $562.7 million in 1991, the last report- mental interests push for additional said the nation's economic recovery is industry in serving the huge markets in annually. velopment Corporation. "The same ing period available. Well over one no-harvest zones. New reductions in the driving force behind the sharp in- California and the Northwest. But to move on the opportunity public that doesn't want to see a tree cut billion board feet of timber was har- the timber base will only aggravate creases. But the National Association Over ten percent of the forested created by conditions in British Colum- anywhere is now screaming about the vested in Alaska in 1989, compared to supply problems. of Home Builders, the American Forest lands in the entire United States are in bia and the Northwest, Alaska's timber soaring prices of lumber and otherwood about 960 million board feet last year. The Tongass Reform Act of 1990 and Paper Association and the United Alaska, according to the Alaska Divi- industry will have to overcome its own products." Some 264.2 million board feet came designated an additional one million Carpenters and Joiners of Americadis- acres of the Tongass National Forest agree. The timber industry insists the as Wilderness. That means over two- shortages are real and will grow worse thirds of the commercial forested lands as more land is taken out of production. in the Tongass, the nation's largest The steep increase in the price of national forest, are now off-limits to wood products is bad news for the logging. The loss of this wood is par- consumer. The price escalation has ticularly painful because it is processed added $4,500 to the price of an average in Alaska before being exported, while new home, pricing about 127,000 buy- a substantial portion of timber owned ers out of the market. by Alaska Native corporations is Frank Seymour, a forest products shipped outside the state as round specialist with the State of Alaska, said logs. Processing means more jobs in there is little relief in sight since there Alaska and higher prices for the prod- are no new timber supplies to mitigate uct. shortages created by taking land out of Moreover, since the passage of production. the Tongass legislation, environmen- Even in British Columbia, where tal groups have challengedevery single the volume of timber cut is twice that of Utilizing a fraction of its forest resource, Alaska has the potential to supply American and As more old-growth forest in the Northwest and the Tongass are closed to harvesting, the Forest Service timber sale offered and Oregon, Washington and California foreign markets with a wide variety of wood products. boreal forest of Interior Alaska may play a role in supplying needed wood products. (Continued to page 6) March 1993 / RESOURCE REVIEW / Page 5 Page 4 1 RESOURCE REVIEW 1 March 1993