36i 



FORESTS OF ALASKA 



B. FRANK HEINTZLEMAN 



When the United States bought 

 Alaska from Russia in 1867,, neither 

 party to the transaction ascribed much 

 value to the forests embraced in the 

 purchase, even though the best known 

 section at the time, the southern coast, 

 was largely clothed with a dense 

 mantle of deep-green tree growth from 

 the seashore to elevations of 3,000 feet. 



We can understand this lack of 

 interest in the forests, however, when 

 we consider that there the coastal 

 forest was merely the northern tip of 

 a far greater timbered area, which ex- 

 tended down along the northwestern 

 coast of North America to the southern 

 boundary of Oregon, and that all the 

 timber of this vast area was then 

 practically untapped. 



This great real estate transfer oc- 

 curred only 82 years ago, but already 

 the forest situation has changed radi- 

 cally. Large-scale timber industries 

 have long since spread over the whole 

 of the coastal forest area lying to the 

 south of Alaska; pulp and paper manu- 

 facturers now are considering the 

 extension of their operations to the 

 hemlock and spruce stands of Alaska's 

 southern coast to meet the constantly 

 increasing demand for pulp products 

 in the United States. Farther north, in 

 interior Alaska, the light stands of 

 white spruce and white birch have long 

 been used by the small population, but 

 increasing public interest in develop- 

 ment there is focusing more attention 

 on the value of those forests. 



Alaska, one-fifth the size of conti- 

 nental United States, has many kinds 

 of climate and many types of vegeta- 

 tive cover. A forester, though, divides 

 the Territory roughly into three vege- 

 tative regions the nontimbered Arc- 

 tic and Bering Sea coast, the lightly 

 timbered interior, and the well-tim- 

 bered south coast. 



The Arctic and Bering Sea coast 

 embraces about 30 percent of the area 



of the Territory and includes most of 

 the Alaska Peninsula, Aleutian Islands, 

 the Bering Sea coastal region to an 

 average width of about 100 miles, and 

 the land draining into the Arctic 

 Ocean. Generally, the region is untim- 

 bered, the climate being too severe for 

 tree growth. Surprisingly, however, 

 white spruce trees sufficiently large for 

 cabin logs and narrow boards grow 

 along the banks of the Noatak and 

 Kobuk Rivers and some branches of 

 the Yukon River, well north of the 

 Arctic Circle. Much of the region is 

 flat lowland and rounded ridges cov- 

 ered with a swamp and tundra vege- 

 tation of moss, lichens, sedges, dwarf 

 willows, and other short shrubs. The 

 more southerly lands, the Alaska Penin- 

 sula and Aleutian Islands, are moun- 

 tainous and support a. luxuriant 

 growth of grass, alder, and willow. 



Interior Alaska, as here considered, 

 lies between the mountain chain, which 

 forms the Arctic Divide on the north, 

 and the crest of the Coastal Range, 

 which borders the Pacific Ocean on 

 the south. It covers about 60 percent 

 of the area of the Territory, and com- 

 prises the watersheds of the Yukon, 

 Kuskokwim, Copper, Susitna, and 

 other large rivers. This is the region 

 that meets the popular conception of 

 Alaska. The winters are long and in- 

 tensely cold. The summers are short 

 but warm, and daylight lasts 20 hours 

 or more of each 24 days. Much of the 

 area has permanently frozen ground 

 (permafrost) to within a foot or two of 

 the surface. The annual rainfall is ex- 

 ceedingly light (being only 12 to 16 

 inches) but permafrost and the short 

 summers prevent the development of 

 desert conditions. Millions of acres of 

 sparse timber give this region the classi- 

 fication of a forested country, but the 

 forests occur as many scattered islands 

 among the extensive areas of swamp 

 and tundra vegetation on the valley 



