Tim Bradner's Dec. 29 article on Southeast Alaska's timber industry paints a sorrowful picture of the industry as long-suffering due to logging restrictions. However, because market forces are keeping timber prices at rock-bottom and operators have ample timber supply, court decisions granting protection to roadless areas of the Tongass will have little impact on Southeast Alaska's timber industry.
Bradner quotes Alaska Forest Association's George Woodbury as saying Gateway Forest Products failed because of diminished timber supply. This is simply wrong. Even the strongly pro-timber Ketchikan Gateway Borough acknowledges that Gatewayas veneer plant failed because the company lied from day one, lined its pockets with over $17 million of public funds, highgraded Tongass timber, conspired with Ketchikan Pulp Co. and multinational parent company Louisiana-Pacific Corp., and left the public owning a toxic waste site.
We keep hearing that we should log more in the Tongass National Forest, but operators have plenty of timber and simply arenat cutting it. Timber prices are so low, that logging simply isnat profitable. In fact, as of this fall, Southeast operators had nearly 230 million board feet of timber (free and clear of any lawsuits) available to log that they haven't cut that's nearly a seven-year supply at 2002 logging rates. Much of this logging wonat even create processing jobs for Alaskans, as in the Kuakan timber sale on Deer Island where nearly half of the sale is cedar and will likely be exported.
Though some want to scapegoat environmentalists or others for timber industry decline, don't buy it. The Forest Service Deputy Regional Forester says worldwide markets for Alaskan wood are so low that 90-95 percent of all existing timber contracts are unprofitable. The Forest Service just gave many Tongass timber contract holders a three-year extension to allow them to wait for better timber prices and avoid contract defaults.
The timber industry struggles because of problems staying competitive under long-term global timber market changes/not for the lack of cheap timber or free-flowing federal subsidies. Alaska's timber operators are up against worldwide market forces, like cheap logs from Russia and the slumping Japanese timber market that has replaced Alaskaas minimally processed wood products with engineered wood products from Europe.
Not even huge federal subsidies are helping. Taxpayers lost more than $36 million on the Tongass road building and logging program last year. That comes out to more than $90,000 of our money per Tongass timber job.
At the same time, our wildlands are pumping millions of dollars into our economy every year through commercial guiding, fishing, hunting, wildlife viewing, and tourism. Yet the Forest Serviceas recreation and tourism budget continues to lag far behind the timber budget. If the Tongass timber program is a jobs program, weare betting on the wrong horse. When the timber horse doesn't win, Southeast's future will be the loser.
Yes, let's develop, but develop responsibly. Taxpayer subsidies to build roads and log in roadless areas like the Cleveland Peninsula or Gravina Island could be much better spent hiring Alaskans to do things that cause less damage to our environment and better prepare our communities for the future.
These subsidies could be invested in improving ferry service, repairing culverts that prevent salmon from reaching spawning habitat, building or maintaining trails and campgrounds to attract independent travelers, or finding niche markets for value-added timber products. A reasonable timber program would focus on creating smaller timber sales from the existing road system that get processed locally and put local people to work.
It's time to put the misleading rhetoric about lack of timber supply aside and start working together to invest in our future.
Aurah Landau
Southeast Alaska Conservation Council
