Alaska timber: making do, but making it.

• Author: Swagel, Will
• Position: Industry Overview

That darn Alaskan timber industry - it just won't go away. Despite massive cuts in the wood supply, the loss of the two major industrial facilities and countless smaller downsizings, the Alaskan timber business, from Ketchikan to the Tanana Valley, is adapting to a new environment emphasizing value-added manufacturing, local partnerships and a woodbasket that taps both public and private sources.

"We just make do with what we've got and not worry about what might happen," says Allen Menaker, operations manager for Northland Wood Products in Fairbanks, a firm that could be viewed as a model of what is to come.

Northland, which also sells general building supplies, employs about 25 people. A dozen work for the firm's sawmill operation, which produces white spruce lumber harvested from the Tanana Valley. Northland turns about 2 million board feet (mmbf) of it into building lumber for the Fairbanks construction market annually.

A dozen jobs does not equal 400, so it would be foolish to compare Northland to, for example, Sitka's now-closed pulp mill. But 2 mmbf is also not the 100 mmbf or more guarantee which a pulp mill would need in order to operate.

Ten mills like Northland's could yield 120 jobs for 20 mmbf. And, even in a political climate that consistently draws howls of protest from loggers and manufacturers alike, many are of the opinion that a local supply goal of 20 mmbf might actually be attainable.

What Does Value-Added Mean?

One thing that rankles veterans of the old timber industry in Southeast Alaska is the people that think value-added is a new concept.

"What does value-added mean?" says Jack Phelps, executive director of the Ketchikan-based Alaska Forest Association. "A sawmill is adding value - a pulp mill adds value. 'Value-added' (means) creating jobs and economic activity. The (Ketchikan) pulp mill created 1,000 high-paying jobs." The Sitka and Ketchikan pulp mills were indeed value-added facilities - turning low-grade utility logs into high-grade, easily transportable pulp that was then converted into rayon cloth, automobile tires, and synthetic sponges and rope overseas.

But pulp and its products are a little hard to imagine leading to the kind of vertically integrated timber industry most Alaskans envision when they talk about value-added products. Beyond the loggers, and truckers and pilots and primary wood processors - the public sees building lumber retailers, furniture makers, and other manufacturers of specialty wood products.

A big trend in building - both domestically and overseas - is the increasing use of "manufactured wood products" such as wood beams or planks made from smaller pieces of wood or even chips, and engineered to meet or exceed the performance of all but the finest of naturally-grown products.

Interestingly, one of those top-notch natural products is the boreal white spruce found in much of Southcentral...