KENAI -- The Kenai Peninsula timber industry is taking its first steps at trying to make a comeback.
Representatives from the logging industry met Jan. 21 in a forum organized by the Kenai Peninsula Economic Development District and the Kenai Peninsula Borough's Division of Economic and Development to come up with strategies to revitalize a business which many said has seen better days.
"The value of wood is far less than it was 100 years ago," said Mitch Michaud, a representative of the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Resource Conservation and Development program.
"It's cheaper to ship wood up here than it is to operate a sawmill."
The 25 men who gathered in the conference room of the Red Diamond Center sought to create an alliance of the many loggers, mill owners and assorted timber industry members on the peninsula.
KPEDD project coordinator Andrew Schmahl said bringing the different parts of the industry together is the only way for it to survive.
"We want to form a viable organization that is able to accomplish more as a whole than individuals could accomplish," he said.
Jack Brown, the borough's business development manager, officiated the meeting, and proposed forming an organization similar to the one Cook Inlet commercial fishermen formed last year to revitalize their industry, through the borough-supported Kenai Wild branding program.
"If we elect to go ahead with a timber coalition, we have a model," Brown said. "If we can form an organization that has credibility and is supported by local politicians, we can be as successful as the fishing industry."
Among the issues identified that could help improve business for the logging industry were increasing access to timber, developing markets, establishing a central area for sorting and grading, and developing value-added products.
Mill owner Tim O'Brien, who spearheaded the meeting, referred to a timber cooperative which was started in the early 1980s through KPEDD, suggesting this same idea be used to move the timber industry forward. He said one reason that project failed was because there was minimal funding available to help.
O'Brien said with the right funding, a cooperative could actually become the central hub of timber business and could free individuals to focus on what they specialize in.
"If we can do this, we can be the mill," O'Brien said. "If you're a logger, you log. I'm a mill owner. You haul (the timber) to us and we'll take care of it from there."
Ron Pipkin of Alaskan Composite Technology said his company could contribute a binder that would press lumber byproducts like branches, stumps and chips into value-added products.
Juan Jorgensen said Pipkin's offer would be an integral part of a future program, but landowners with access to timber also need to be included.
"If we're going to just build two-by-fours, it's a lost cause," Jorgensen said. "But if we get into selling railroad ties and other products like siding and molding, we can be successful. The only way we're going to come out on top is if we have our own harvester."
