370 



Yearboo^ of Agriculture 1949 



the spruce are shallow-rooted, and the 

 heavy winds of this region cause seri- 

 ous windfall to the remaining trees if 

 the stands are opened up by selective 

 cutting. Consequently, the forest man- 

 ager has to clear-cut the forest and, to 

 insure natural reseeding, leave seed 

 trees in the form of large patches of 

 undisturbed timber spotted over the 

 cutting area. The areas that have been 

 cut over in this region show abundant 

 natural reproduction under this clear- 

 cutting, grouped seed-tree system. 

 Selective cutting is also impracticable 

 on most areas here from a logging 

 standpoint. Because of the large size of 

 the timber, the dense brush, and moist 

 soils, powerful donkey engines and 

 heavy wire cables must be used to pull 

 the logs from the woods, and if indi- 

 vidual trees were left standing through- 

 out the logging area they could not be 

 protected from destruction or injury by 

 the logging equipment and machinery. 

 The common practice in the Pacific 

 Northwest of broadcast burning of 

 slash left in logging as a fire-preven- 

 tion measure is unnecessary here be- 

 cause of the heavy rainfall. This is 

 distinctly advantageous to the Alaska 

 forester, as the logging areas usually 

 have much advance reproduction of 

 young hemlock and spruce that can be 

 saved to provide a fine start toward 

 the next timber crop. 



THIS IS A PROSPECTIVE PULP- AND 



PAPER-MAKING region. The Tongass 

 National Forest, with an extensive 

 stand of fine pulp timber, excellent 

 water-power resources, its cheap tide- 

 water transportation, and mild winter 

 climate, offers good possibilities for the 

 development of a large, prosperous, 

 and permanent regional pulp industry 

 based on a system of timber cropping 

 and the sale of the output in the gen- 

 eral markets of the United States. If 

 fully developed, the industry could 

 support, directly and indirectly, a total 

 of 30,000 persons in southeastern 

 Alaska. 



Pulp manufacturers would have the 

 obviously very great advantage here of 



being able to obtain an assured supply 

 of timber for a long term of years on 

 a basis of paying for this material as 

 cutting proceeds. Other favorable fea- 

 tures include low logging costs because 

 of the ready accessibility of the timber 

 stands to tidewater, cheap log towing 

 to the mills along the protected sea- 

 ways, a mild winter climate, which 

 permits of practically yearlong logging 

 and offers no handicap to mill opera- 

 tion, and ocean transportation for the 

 product direct from the mill to the 

 general markets. In view of those fea- 

 tures, men in the Forest Service believe 

 that the development of this industry, 

 which can contribute so substantially 

 to the pulp and paper needs of the 

 United States and to the permanent 

 development of Alaska, will not be long 

 delayed. 



The first promising prospects for 

 pulp and paper mills on the Tongass 

 Forest developed in the late 1920's. At 

 that time a large Pacific coast paper 

 manufacturer and a combination of 

 Pacific coast newspaper publishers ap- 

 plied for and received awards of timber 

 and of water-power sites for the estab- 

 lishment of two large newsprint mills. 

 Substantial sums were spent by these 

 prospective operators on surveys and 

 plans over a period of 3 years, but the 

 depression that began in 1929 blocked 

 further progress, and in 1933 the proj- 

 ects were definitely dropped. Subse- 

 quently, until the start of the Second 

 World War, a number of manufactur- 

 ers and users of pulp and paper made 

 preliminary investigations of the possi- 

 bilities, but financial and market condi- 

 tions in those years did not encourage 

 them to go further. In no case did 

 interest during that period reach the 

 point where timber- and power-site 

 awards were applied for. Since the close 

 of the war there has been a resurgence 

 in interest. 



The timber-management policies 

 provide that the timber resources of 

 the Tongass Forest shall be used for the 

 upbuilding and the support of perma- 

 nent, modern communities throughout 

 southeastern Alaska. In line with this 



