The memorandum of understanding between the Forest Service and the state will offer a timber sale to Pacific Log and Lumber in Ketchikan.

There are two memorandums of understanding, one to provide a framework for economically viable timber sales and the other to share biological information that will be used in a rewrite of the Tongass National Forest Plan by the Forest Service.

Pacific Log and Lumber, located on Gravina Island, was on the threshold of closing before the penning of the agreement.

"This is a cooperative agreement that accomplishes two things: to provide a timber supply, and to collectively share state data on all biological information gathered and collected with the Forest Service to help rewrite the Tongass Land Management Plan," said Michael Menge, commissioner of the state Department of Natural Resources.

One of the Forest Service's sticking points in offering sales, according to industry and state officials, is the rewrite of the plan.

"The formalizing of the agreement is unusual, but we work with the state all the time," said Dan Castillo, director of forest management for the Forest Service in Juneau. "One of the key databases that we need for the Tongass Plan is data about the goshawk. This type of information will help us with the new plan."

But some in the timber industry think the agreements are too little too late.

"This is just a Band-Aid measure," said Bob Hild, president of Alaska Pacific Logging, who left Yakutat last year. "I don't think this will go far enough into the future for us to bank on."

Hild, whose company builds roads, and logs the timber for companies like SeaAlaska and Viking Lumber, said Pacific Log and Lumber owner Steve Seley may be in for a surprise.

"He's not going to get any timber," Hild said. "The environmental community will sue, and then it will end up in the Ninth Circuit Court. The attorneys will make sure of that."

Buck Lindekugel, conservation director for the Southeast Alaska Conservation Council, is adamantly against long-term timber sales. The biggest problem the timber industry faces is not sales of timber, but that there is no market for the wood, he said.

"This is just paper, and it doesn't mean anything," Lindekugel said of the agreements. "This is the same old policies of the past, and an old way of doing business ... behind closed doors. The reality here is it won't work."

Lindekugel is quick to point out that Gov. Frank Murkowski's chief of staff, Jim Clark, who was the former chief lobbyist and attorney for the Alaska Logging Association, signed the memorandums for the state, and that Jack Phelps, special projects manager for the state, is the former executive director of the Alaska Forest Association.

Seley threatened to close his mill in early January. After not getting satisfaction from the local Forest Service, he took his complaints and wishes to the U.S. Department of Agriculture office in Washington, D.C., in hopes of getting a sale that would keep his Gravina Island mill open and profitable.

"They are just using Seley's plight for their own agenda to create long-term contract sales, which are not good for the Tongass," Lindekugel said. "Not to mention that the timber is just too far from the market and the costs don't make it economically feasible."

Seley on the other hand is optimistic, as are state officials, about the two agreements that offer viable timber and a "quid pro quo" arrangement for wildlife and biology information from the state Department of Fish and Game.

Menge said the memorandums, a cooperative agreement between the state and the Forest Service, were "unprecedented" and that the agreements came as a result of a meeting the governor had called with one of the USDA's top officials.

"The governor called Mark Rey to Juneau to work this out," Menge said.

Mark Rey is the USDA's undersecretary for Natural Resources and Environment.

After cries for help to the Forest Service and the local forest supervisor, Seley openly threatened to close down his mill. The move was taken into consideration by the state and Forest Service, according to Menge.

"I am optimistic that this will give both governments the chance to show that they can prove up," Seley said. "But what is at hand here is whether the timber is economically viable, and whether the public will accept the forest plan for logging access at the end of this arrangement."

The agreement is in effect until July 1, 2007, but may be canceled, amended or extended at any time.

As part of the plan, the state has offered not only help with the Tongass plan with valuable state data of observations about the ecosystem, but also will examine the economic viability of the sales.

"This is a step in a different direction," said state forester Chris Maisch. "We, the state, will take a look at the economic viability of the Forest Service sales and make comments on proposed sales early on in the process."

Maisch says this will help determine if the sales are economic for the logging company. Also, according to the agreement, the state and the Forest Service will work together to identify timber and logging aspects, such as roads, access and the quality of the timber to determine that the sale offered is economically viable.

Maisch said that this would eliminate time and the costly and mandatory National Environmental Protection Act processes if a sale is not viable economically.

Maisch also said that the state has immediately identified 12.2 million board feet of lumber, called the Bostwick sale, on Gravina Island, near Seley's mill.

"We have already identified the sale, and Seley has the contract on it. But he has not executed the contract yet," Maisch said.

"Yes, I have identified both the Buckdance/Madder (in the Tongass) sale and the Bostwick sale as my options for 2006 and 2007," Seley said.

However, while the state and Forest Service officials work out the exact details of the two memorandums of agreement, Lindekugel says they are wasting their time.

"These agreements are worthless paper tigers," Lindekugel said. "The reality is that they had their time in the Tongass, and we don't want to see anymore 360 million-board-feet contracts for logging. This is a multiple-use forest that has more value standing than being cut."

Lindekugel said that the small specialty mills, and special micro-sale programs are the future for Southeast logging.

"This is a new era," Lindekugel said. "They need to wake up to the reality that British Columbia beetle kill spruce is going to flood the market, and New Zealand plantation wood that grows faster is also available. There is no way the Alaska industry can compete, with or without these pieces of paper."

Hild, who has soured on Alaska because of the environmental communitys' challenges and lawsuits, says there is another factor that is driving up industry costs and killing the logging business.

"Its the attorneys who are killing the logging business in Alaska," Hild said. "They get paid, whether they win or lose."