Southeast Alaska forest industry continues to struggle

By Carl Portman

Owen Graham, Executive Director of the Alaska Forest Association, presented an overview of the state’s struggling forest industry at RDC’s Alaska Resources Conference last month. Graham pinned the industry’s depressed condition on federal policy makers who have severely restricted access to timber. “The markets are not a problem for our industry, it is entirely a timber supply issue,” Graham said.

Graham pointed out that the timber industry in the Fairbanks area is stable as the state is providing timber to keep local mills in operation. He noted the state is looking at developing additional timber lands in Southcentral.

However, the industry’s status in Southeast Alaska is dire with only one medium sawmill remaining, and it may be forced to close next summer due to a dwindling timber supply.

Graham noted the Forest Service under the Obama administration has basically abandoned the 2008 Tongass land management plan, which was to provide approximately 267 million board feet of timber annually to local mills. Graham said that last year the Forest Service supplied only 36 million board feet of timber, choosing to “move in a different direction.”

Graham reported that Sealaska Corporation may be forced to wind down timber operations in the region if legislation providing for its remaining land entitlements does not pass Congress. Graham explained the corporation’s remaining selections amount to 1.5 percent of the commercial timber land of the Tongass. Given the Forest Service is managing only one percent of the Tongass for timber sales, “Sealaska being able to select from different areas of the forest will have no impact on the agency’s timber sale program,” Graham said.

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