PLAN FOR THE MANAGEMENT OF BROWN BEAR 7 



and no commitments to establish plants for this purpose are now in 

 effect, but it is expected that construction of at least one large mill 

 will be started as soon as general business conditions improve ma- 

 terially. As not less than 3 years will be required to complete the 

 plant after construction has begun, it will be seen that the beginning 

 of pulp-timber logging on the island is not imminent. 



Admiralty Island is highly important to this proposed paper- 

 making development. Its 460,000 acres of commercial timberland, 

 8,500,000,000 board feet of standing timber, and exceptionally good 

 tree-growing soils make it the keystone to paper-manufacturing 

 projects in the Juneau section. It is capable of a sustained production 

 of enough pulpwood to make 440 tons of newsprint paper daily, or 

 132,000 tons yearly. The full development of the island's commercial 

 timber would require a capital investment of $17,000,000 in paper 

 mills, power plants, and logging equipment; produce paper valued 

 at $5,000,000 yearly at the plant, and give year-long employment to 

 about 1,000 persons. 



Management of the commercial-timber stands is not incompatible 

 with the maintenance of a numerous bear population on the island. 

 Possible points of conflict exist, but they are in the details of the 

 actual day-to-day and year-to-year handling of the woods activities 

 rather than in the general scheme. Moreover, there is ample oppor- 

 tunity for men who are interested in both timber and game to make 

 adjustments that entail little sacrifice on the part of either. 



Timber-management activities will be confined to the areas of com- 

 mercial timber and some of the intermixed patches of scrub timber, 

 less those portions of the well-timbered area that are found to be too 

 rough and inaccessible to log economically. The area affected by the 

 timber-management plans will not exceed 425,000 acres, or two-fifths 

 of the total land area, and this workable section occupies the outer 

 portions of the island nearest tidewater. Its inland limits, however, 

 form a very irregular and somewhat indefinite line, so that the estab- 

 lishment of a practical boundary to limit the area to be worked is im- 

 possible. The location and area of the commercial timber leaves a 

 vast interior region, comprising three-fifths of the total area, into 

 which there is no necessity for the woods workers to penetrate. This 

 is now the preferred habitat of the bear. The isolation, rough ter- 

 rain, vegetation, and more especially the food supply, except in the 

 salmon-spawning season, make this much better bear country than 

 the dense forests at lower altitudes with their limited food supply. 



The period necessary to grow trees to economical pulp-timber size 

 in this region is not less than 75 years, and as the forests will be 

 handled on the sustained-yield principle, the timber-management 

 plan will provide in effect that not to exceed one seventy-fifth of the 

 commercial area shall be logged in any 1 year. This is slightly more 

 than 0.5 percent of the total area of the island. Clear-cutting, leav- 

 ing large groups of seed trees intact, will be the logging method used, 

 so that a tract once cut over will not be logged again for 75 years. 

 The number of going logging operations at any one time on the island 

 will probably be not more than six or eight. There is no apparent 

 reason why the bears should necessarily be molested during logging 

 operations. The animals naturally shun noisy, human activities, such 



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