CHAPTER 2 



VALUES AT STAKE 



TIMBER RESOURCES 



Volumes have been published during the 

 past few years describing the population explo- 

 sion in the United States and showing how it 

 will increase demands for all types of manufac- 

 tured products. The demand for and the avail- 

 able supply of wood products during the next 40 

 or more years will have to be reckoned with now 

 if a balance is to be obtained. 



The recent Timber Resource Review empha- 

 sizes the fact that national demands can be met 

 only if better and more ingenious forestry prac- 

 tices are instituted and utilization is made of 

 large volumes of wood not presently usable or 

 available. 



Statements in the Timber Resource Review 

 repeatedly note that the trend during the first 

 half of the 20th century has been from a pre- 

 dominantly lumber consumption economy toward 

 a pulpwood consumption economy. During the 

 last half century, total consumption of lumber 

 (boards, dimension stock, etc.) has not changed, 

 but the population increase has abouT halved 

 the per capita use. On the other hand, total 

 pulpwood consumption has increased about 

 twelvefold, causing a per capita consumption 

 increase of about sixfold. 



One way to help insure adequate timber 

 supplies for the United States through the next 

 50 years is to increase utilization of a vast tract 

 of forest land hitherto virtually untapped; name- 

 ly, Interior Alaska. Timber resources of Interior 

 Alaska were not included either in the statistical 

 summaries or in analytical discussions in the 

 Timber Resource Review because accurate infor- 

 mation was almost nonexistent. Out of approxi- 

 mately 300 million acres of Interior Alaska land 

 administered by the Bureau of Land Manage- 

 ment, 120 million acres is forested; one-third of 

 this forested land, or 40 millior. acres, is con- 

 sidered to be of commercial quality. Of this, 4 

 million acres or 10 percent is presently consid- 

 ered accessible from towns, roads, or railroads. 



Many persons believe that Interior forests 

 are slow-growing, stunted Arctic stands that 

 have little or no value. Taylor (1956) has shown 

 that this is not so. The estimated annual net 



growth of 20 cubic feet per acre can be increased 

 considerably under good management. Well- 

 protected managed stands should produce 3,900 

 cubic feet, or 15,500 board feet, of timber per 

 acre at a rotation age of 160 years; this indicates 

 a good margin of operability, since stands of 

 3,000 cubic feet in Maine and 1,500 cubic feet 

 in Finland are now supporting pulp industries. 1 

 Canada has built a major pulp industry upon 

 the same species of white spruce that grows in 

 Interior Alaska. The timber economy of northern 

 European countries is based upon small diameter 

 spruce and hardwood forests growing under 

 much the same conditions as exist in Interior 

 Alaska. Perhaps when many of the present 

 economic problems of labor, power, accessibil- 

 ity, and distance to market can be solved, a 

 thriving pulp industry can be built upon this vast 

 store of timber. 



Interior Alaska holds many attractions for 

 an increased wood fiber industry. Timberlands 

 in large blocks no longer exist in mainland 

 United States. The timber in Alaska's interior 

 probably will have little value on the export 

 lumber market because of high costs and low 

 lumber grades, but Alaska's pulp can sell profit- 

 ably on the world markets. Southeastern Alaska 

 has already benefited by the establishment of 

 two pulpmills since 1954. 



Any proposal to increase productivity must 

 be accompanied by a plan to increase protection 

 of the investment. History and personal observa- 

 tions indicate that 80 percent of the forest land 

 in Interior Alaska has been burned over some- 

 time during the past 70 years. No large business 

 concern can afford to invest 25 to 50 million dol- 

 lars in a pulpmill without reasonable assurance 

 that the raw material will be protected and kept 

 available during the long number of years the 

 mill must operate. Today, fire is a major danger 

 to pulp stands, and one fire can wipe out many 

 years' backlog of raw material required for oper- 

 ating a multimillion-dollar mill. 2 



'More recent plot data indicate 140 years is a better suited 

 rotation age. and an optimum volume per acre would be 

 somewhere between 10,000 and 15,000 board feet. 



^The cost of one mill proposed for Alaska will be five times 

 the price the United States paid for Alaska in 1 867. 



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