Veteran Sitka spruce in creek bottom near Ketchikan, Alaska 



THE FORESTS OF ALASKA 



By R. S. KELLOGG 



(Abstract of United States Forest Service Bulletin, No. 81.) 



MORE than one-third of Alaska's 

 immense territory is yet but little 

 explored. The permanent pop- 

 ulation at the present time is estimated 

 at some 40,000 white and 25,000 na- 

 tives ; about half of the latter are Es- 

 kimo in the region adjacent to Bering 

 Sea and the Arctic Ocean. The most 

 important product is gold, of which the 

 output in 1908 was valued at more 

 than $19,000,000. Fisheries rank sec- 

 ond, and the salmon packed in 1908 

 had a value in excess of $10,000,000. 

 Most of the internal improvements of 

 Alaska have been made by the War 

 Department. The telegraph system is 

 constructed and operated by the Signal 

 Corps, with offices at all important 

 points. Transmission depends not only 

 upon cable and land lines, but on high- 

 power wireless stations as well. Roads 

 are built chiefly by the corps of engi- 

 neers of the War Department. Rail- 



704 



roads, except for short lines running 

 out to a few mining camps, are utterly 

 lacking, and the total railway mileage 

 does not exceed 350. Alaska has 4,000 

 miles of navigable rivers ; without them 

 most of the present development would 

 have been impossible. 



On the coast of southeastern Alaska 

 trees grow to large size; in the inte- 

 rior the timber is much smaller. The 

 higher mountain areas are completely 

 above the timber line. 



The coast forests of southeastern and 

 southern Alaska are nearly all included 

 in the Tongass and Chugach national 

 forests, which comprise 26,761,626 

 acres, and a large proportion of this 

 area is forested. 



In the coast region the stand is gen- 

 erally dense, and as much as 25,000 

 feet per acre has been estimated for con- 

 siderable tracts. Sitka spruce probably 



