Resource Development Council for Alaska, Inc

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 Oregon and Washington, but sharp contraction of the timber industry in the Pacific North- Alaska Omgon' washington Callfornlh Montana Idaho 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.

Load more