Timber Harvests In Alaska

Southeast Alaska has 11.2 million acres of forest land, of which 4.9 million acres are considered commercial. This commercial acreage supports 166 billion board feet of sawtimber. These primarily old-growth stands of Sitka spruce and western hemlock are supporting a growing wood products industry that ranks first in the southeast economy and third in the State. This report summarizes current knowledge of the timber resource (areas, volumes, growth, mortality, quality, productivity, and trends) from the initial inventory, a partial remeasurement, and a second inventory now in progress. Historical data of wood products use, output, value, and markets are given and discussed. The report gives sources for much published and unpublished information for those who need to pursue these subjects more completely.

Updated projections of demand for Alaska timber were published July 2006. Their application in land management planning for the Tongass National Forest has resulted in numerous questions and requests for clarification. This note discusses a broad range of these questions from the context of why we do projections, the model we used, the assumptions that determine the levels of timber harvest, our use of scenario planning, comments about how producers in Alaska compete with other North American producers, and the potential that some significant changes in southeast Alaska markets have changed the demand projections.

This publication provides estimates of total softwood harvest by owner for Alaska for 1910-2006. This information is a mix of reported and estimated data. These data are being used to develop assumptions needed in forest planning by both public and private forest managers.