I am merely a logger who has
seen hard service in the pine,
redwood and fir forests of the
Pacific Coast states, with seven
teen years at the game here in
Southeastern Alaska I have had
the pleasure of looking at a vast
lot of country and timber in the
twenty-two years of my resi
dence here in Alaska. This is my
verdict: If the forests of South
eastern Alaska are pulp forests
and nothing else, then so also
are the forests of California,
Oregon and Washington.
We have just as nice timber,
end in many places heavier
stands than many countries en
joying the benefits of a prosper
ous mill business. The only dif
ference I can see, ether than a
.difference in species, is the a
mount of rotten or cull timber;
caused by the lack of cleansing
fires. This inferior grade of tim
ber, which is mixed with the
be tter timber in greater or less
er proportions, is what I have
always considered pulp timber.
It is a timber which, with our
present market demands, cannot
be handled at a profit as a saw
mill timber. It is a timber which
is not very desireable even as a
pulp timber altho it is possible
to utilize seme of it. It is this
timber which is being used as a
club to hold cur sawmills from
expansion ar 1 to thereby pre
vent the development of a lum
her industry in Alaska.
If you owned a store and were
ccrooelled to buy goods from a
wholesaler who would not fill
your order for butter and sugar,
which sold fairly well, unless
you took a like amount of dry
beans which your costumers
didn’t wa^t regardless of how
manv be"us you already had in
stock, you would be in the same
position that the Alaska mil!
man and logger is in todav.
In order to get timber to fill
orders the mills have to take a
varying amount of timber unfit
ted for available markets. It
speaks well of the Alaska forests
that they have been able to
operate even to the extent they
have.
The cutting regulations of the
Forest Department take no heed
of this fact, nor do they take
any heed of modern forest prac
tice which has come to recog
nize the added waste of hand
ling unprofitable material. They
introduced several years ago and
ftre still enforcing the cutting
tecbinque of the timber hog,
without the saving grace of al
lowing the market demands to
determine, what is and what is
not, merchantable. They tell us
we must sell beans to a world
market already overstocked with
beans and to do without milk
and sugar.
No one can afford to pay the
freight on a rotten log when the
freight on a sound one is no
more. No sawmill can survive
sawing rotten timber. Even a
pulp mill will turn up its nose
at a ten inch log which is two
thirds rotten, yet here is the de
finition of merchantable timber
as defined in the cutting regula
tions of the Forest Department
in the Tongass National Forests:
"All spruce saw logs are mer
chantable which are not less
than 16 feet long, at least ten
inches in diameter inside bark
at the small end and scaling 50
per cent of their gross scale;
Provided, that sound knots shall
not be regarded as defects”
The trees whi^h must be cut
are defined as follows: “Any tree
which in the iudgement of the
Forest officer contains one or
more logs, merchantable as
hereinafter defined and having
a nQt total scale of 25 per cent
of the tvee, may be marked or
oesignated for cutting as a mer
chantable tree.”
The above two paragraphs are
taken from a seven-page docu
ment which constitutes a timber
sales agreement. I have no quar
icl with the balance of the con
ditions under which the logger
must operate. They deal with
sanitation brush disposal fire
control, height of stumps, etc.,
but under the head of other
conditions, the vicious cycle to
which I referred to above is
completed. Here it is: “Timber
cut under this contract shall not
be exported from the Territory
of Alaska in the form of logs,
cordwood, bolts or other raw
products for primary manufac
ture elsewhere without the con
sent of the District Forester ”
you nave a right to ask: Can
not you get his consent? I leave
it to others to answer that ques
tion. It seems that some can and
seme cannot I recognize the
futility of trying to build up or
get financial backing for a busi
ness which can be swept away at
the whim of one man, who poor
cevil, is merely the mouthpiece,
the puppet who jumps, runs
and speaks when the strings are
pulled.
So you see how the vicious
cycle works If you try to operate
a sawmill in Southeastern Alas
ka, you are compelled to saw
Mmber, cut after the most ap
proved timber hog methods from
a forest which has never had the
benefit of a cleansing fire. You
have to use Limber, which, in its
entirety is not attractive even
to pidp mills at present. If you
will notice how the two pulp
sales at present laid out are
strung out to include young
growth, green timber with the
least percentage of cull stuff,
even if they do have to make a
tow of a hundred miles, you have
(he proof of this. To discourage
local operators from putting in
to operation e much discussed
plan cf working up and shipping
to outside pulp mills such tim
ber as was not profitable to mill
here and thus relieve the saw
mill of the burden of trash, the