Alaska should fight back against bad federal forest policy

By Carl Portman

Alaska’s forest industry in Southeast Alaska is in serious jeopardy and is barely holding on, but reform of bad federal policy in the Tongass National Forest is not impossible to fix, said Keith Coulter, Lands Manager for Koncor Forest Products. Coulter presented the forest industry update at RDC’s Alaska Resources Conference.

“Commercial fishing and timber harvests are both sustainable, and renewable, and they are not mutually exclusive,” Coulter said. “If you are not cutting trees, you are not managing the forest. The costs of not managing federal forests are staggering.”

Coulter said the Tongass land management plan is being amended to force a transition to second growth timber. He warned the transition is premature as local mills are not equipped to handle the younger timber, which has not yet matured.

Statewide, timber harvests have fallen to 150 million board feet and Coulter expects harvests will fall under 100 million board feet. He warned that revisions to Alaska’s forest practices law should be informed by a full body of contemporary science as opposed to knee-jerk public opinion.

Coulter said it is imperative that the Sealaska lands bill pass Congress soon and that the Big Thorne timber sale move forward. Otherwise, what remains of the industry and its jobs in Southeast Alaska will vanish. See video of his update at akrdc.org.

Keith Coulter

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