A dispute between Pacific Log and Lumber on Gravina Island and the U.S. Forest Service over the timing of sales, the availability and the economic viability of the timber could force the company's owner to close his mill.
Officials from Alaska Pacific Logging and Road Construction, and Silver Bar Logging said may also have to close if they can't get timber sales.
The closures would leave Silver Bay in Wrangell, Viking Lumber in Klawock, and Icy Straits in Hoonah as the last large mills in operation in Southeast Alaska.
Steve Seley, owner of Pacific Log, said the current logging situation is not conducive to profitable business and he will not re-open his sawmill unless the Forest Service makes some changes.
"I can live with the reality of saying, 'OK, you guys, there will be no more logging.' But promises to sell and then not providing enough to do business is unacceptable," he said.
Pacific Log grosses $8 million yearly and has 23 employees. The mill closed for the holiday season and will not re-open unless the Forest Service opens up more Tongass timber for sale by Feb. 15, Seley said.
Of concern is the failure to offer road contracts for access into the Tongass, and a sale offering date that would provide Seley's company with timber to log.
Forest Service supervisor Forest Cole, responsible for logging in the Tongass, did not return several phone calls seeking comment for this story. Office personnel said Cole and other Forest Service management were in Juneau in a weeklong meeting and could not be reached.
Seley said the sale of Forest Service timber in the Tongass has only been offered once in the last six months, and that a trade-off for timber in the Orion North district for timber in the Buckdance-Madder stand for 16 million board feet has never happened.
Pressure from the National Resource Defense Council to "trade" the agreement to release the Buckdance-Madder timber sale in exchange for an agreement with Pacific Lumber that it would not pursue the harvest of the Orion North Timber sale seems to have complicated Seley's situation.
The NRDC had been successful in bringing the action against the Forest Service, resulting in a court order not to proceed until the judge had completed his review of the facts. This would take from six to eight months, and Seley's mill needed something to harvest.
To date, despite the approval for the Forest Service to sell the timber in the spring of 2004, the Forest Service hasn't done so. The Buckdance-Madder timber is the same product that the Forest Service says it will offer in February.
Forest Service's Cole has said that he can't understand why Seley is closing his mill before the sale opens. Seley said that the time that the Forest Service is taking to offer contract sales is costing him money.
"In good faith last year, we cut deficit lumber, that was just to keep my employees working," Seley said. "We negotiated a deal, and months later the Forest Service put out a bid for the roads, and still to this day they have not let the contract for building a road. They can't sell the timber until the roads are in."
Seley said the current system is broken, and with no lumber, he is running out of money and is tired of waiting.
"I'm just tired of the political rhetoric and hollow promises, time is of no concern to the Forest Service," he said.
Alaska Forest Association past president George Woodbury is worried.
"It is a bad situation," he said. "We had high hopes, and thought that when the new administration (Bush) came in, that the Forest Service would work with us to build the industry back up."
The association is a trade group whose members are mill owners and logging industry businesses. Woodbury said that when issues come up, it is impossible to contact officials who are cloistered away in weeklong meetings.
"They meet all the time, but the result is, there are no new sales of timber," Woodbury said. "Basically we are starved out and there is nothing left to buy."
Cole seems to see it differently.
In an interview with radio station KRBD aired on Alaska Public Radio Network Friday Jan. 20, he said, "There is sufficient lumber for Seley's mill."
"Yes there is timber, but the real question is: 'Is the timber economically viable?'" Seley said.
Seley explains that by the Forest Services' own admission that to cut the 16 million board feet of the Buckdance-Madder stand that he would lose $1.8 million. Seley also said the Forest Service has underestimated logging expenses by 23 percent, and has recently admitted it.
"We lost money last year, and there is no more money to lose," he said. "Unless there is something dramatic that happens in the next two weeks, its over."
Despite the situation Seley said he admires the power and tenacity of the environmental community, who he says has affected his situation.
"If we can't get support for drilling in ANWR, where the result will be lower prices on fuel, then we are damn sure not going to get support to open the Tongass up to logging," he said. "I admire the tenacity and power of the environmental groups, which seem to have more affect on the Forest Service than we in the industry do."
Woodbury said the logging industry has tried everything, including going to Gov. Frank Murkowski, the Congressional delegation and to the Agriculture Undersecretary Mark Rey looking for help.
"We have really tried to work with them, and nothing has worked," Woodbury said. "We hope it's not the end, but we don't see anything else happening. It was a good business 50 years ago, but now it looks like it is over."
For now, an empty barge is tied up in front of Pacific Log mill that may signal the end logging operations.
"That barge will be full of sawmill equipment headed for Seattle in March if the Forest Service doesn't get off their butts and sell me some timber," Seley said.
Rob Stapleton can be reached at rob.stapleton@alaskajournal.com
