THE NATIONAL FOREST RESOURCES OF ALASKA 



ARE FOR USE 



BY JOHN D. GUTHRIE, U. S. FOREST SERVICE 



rIE National Forests of Alaska are playing an in- has changed slightly. It is now claimed that the Forest 

 creasingly important role in the development of Service has been forced to sell Government stumpage in 

 that rich storehouse of the Nation. Within a few Alaska! The facts, easily accessible in many public re- 

 years they will probably play the leading role. The ports, are that the Forest Service has been offering timber 

 timber resources of the Tongass and Chugach Forests for sale on the Alaskan National Forests ever since 



it took over these Forests in 

 1905. It is selling timber today 

 under practically the same regu- 

 lations as those of 1905 and 

 each year since. The actual pur- 

 chasers of National !< 

 stumpage on the Alaskan For- 

 ests during the past fifteen years 

 have known that they could buy 

 Government timber at any time, 

 anywhere. They have also 

 known that the many sawmills 

 in Alaska have been buying and 

 sawing Government timber since 

 1905. Not only has this lumber 

 supplied the material for local 

 uses, such as canneries, resi- 

 dences, stores, boats, and boxes, 

 but the highest grade of Sitka 

 spruce was shipped out for air- 

 plane stock during the war, and 

 Sitka spruce is now being ship- 

 ped to eastern markets. 



SAW MILL OF THE KETCHIKAN LIGHT AND POWER COMPANY. ALL TIMBER CUT FROM r 



the tongass national forest 1 he total of 444 million board 



feet of timber cut from the 

 have served local development ever since the adminis- Alaskan National Forests in the past fifteen years cover- 

 tration of these Forests was taken over by the Forest ed a large number of individual sales, advertised and 

 Service in 1905. Now a larger form of development is offered to the highest bidder as required by Federal 

 in prospect. Its effect on the 

 economic upbuilding of the Ter- 

 ritory is bound to be of an al- 

 most revolutionary character. 



It has become a habit to say 

 that Alaska's resources are 

 locked up. The fact that over 

 444 million board feet of timber 

 has been cut from the Tongass 

 and Chugach Forests during the 

 past fifteen years, while the For- 

 est Service has been in charge, 

 has not prevented a parrot-like 

 chorus of the assertion that 

 Alaskan timber is still "bottled 

 up." Within the past few 

 months, however, and especially 

 since the 100 million foot pulp 

 sale has been consummated by 



.. o 1 1 WHITE SPRUCE BRIDGE TIMBERS CUT ALONG RIGHT OF WAY, NEAR HEALY, AT THE END 



the Forest Service, the plaint of steel on the government road 



n 



