Alaskanomics

Southeast State Forest to Double in Size; Managed for Timber Harvest and other Uses

The Alaska Legislature passed a bill this session to add 23,000 acres to the Southeast State Forest (SESF). The SESF was established by the legislature in 2010, with an initial designation of about 25,000 acres, with the objective of creating and sustaining jobs in the timber industry in Alaska. Governor Parnell introduced the bill, and is expected to sign it, as part of a long-term strategy to "stabilize and revitalize the timber industry" in Southeast Alaska.

The Alaska Division of Forestry will manage the SESF for long-term timber supply and other uses, including fish and wildlife habitat, recreation, hunting, fishing and mining through a Forest Management Plan that will be prepared within three years.

The Southeast State Forest is Alaska's third State Forest. The 268,000 acre Haines State Forest was established in 1982 and the 1.8 million acre Tanana Valley State Forest was established in 1983.

For more information about Alaska's State Forests, including maps and fact sheets, click here for the Alaska Division of Forestry's State Forests page.

 

Is Alaska's Timber Industry Dead?

In a presentation at the Resource Development Council's conference today, Owen Graham of the Alaska Forest Association, asked that question as he outlined the challenges facing the timber industry in Alaska. The industry employed nearly 5,000 people in 1990 but employs just over 500 today. The federal government owns more than 50% of the forests in Alaska - 94% in Southeast Alaska - and timber sales have been consistently challenged by conservation groups. Now nearly 80% of Alaska's timber industry employment relies on timber from state and private lands, but there is not enough timber on those lands to support a strong industry. "With a reliable timber supply, we could quickly rebuild our timber industry in Alaska," said Graham. 

Federal forest management practices are also a concern for Alaska's timber industry, according to Graham, who gave examples of thinning projects that remove valuable timber to create browse for an already healthy deer population at a cost of $200,000 per deer, to habitat projects where logs are "beaverized" (cut to look like a beaver chewed them down), to newly announced transition policy to harvest "young growth" timber that Graham says is not yet at its peak harvestable age of about 100 years. 

Graham recommended that the State advocate that 10% of federal forest land be turned over to the State to manage in perpetuity to support the timber industry.