NATURAL RESOURCE DEVELOPMENT.

Economists consider resource extraction to be a primary activity. Without raw materials, the secondary sector (manufacturing) would twiddle its thumbs in idle mills and factories, and without workers supporting those two, the tertiary sector (services) would pass the same dollars around among themselves until the bills wore out.

Alaska's abundance of minerals, timber, energy, and other extractible outputs from land and water form the foundation upon which the rest of the state's economic activity depends. Natural resource development is so essential that it extends outside the pages of this special section. "45 Years of TAPS" celebrates the monumental infrastructure that brings North Slope crude oil to the world, and "Into the West" reports on new infrastructure to access mining areas in Southcentral and Northwest Alaska.

Within the special section, guest authors Hillary Palmer and Ed Fogels explain how mapping is an ongoing effort in Alaska, essential to any resource development endeavors. Those could include new hydropower projects or picking through forests for niche timber...