THE NATIONAL FORESTS OF ALASKA
There are two great National Forests in Alaska. They cover
20,579,740 acres or about 5-1/2 per cent. of the total area of
Alaska. The larger of these woodlands, the Tongass National
Forest, is estimated to contain 70,000,000,000 board feet of
timber ripe for marketing. Stands of 100,000 board feet per acre
are not infrequent. This is the Alaskan forest that will some day
be shipping large amounts of timber to the States. It has over
12,000 miles of shore line and ninety per cent. of the usable
timber is within two miles of tidewater. This makes it easy to
log the timber and load the lumber directly from the forests to
the steamers. This forest is 1500 miles closer to the mainland
markets than is the other Alaskan National Forest.
In most of the National Forests the rangers ride around their
beats on horseback. The foresters in the Tongass use motor boats.
They travel in couples; two men to a 35-foot boat, which is
provided with comfortable eating and sleeping quarters. The
rangers live on the boat all the time. During the summer they
work sixteen to twenty hours daily. The days are long and the
nights short, and they must travel long distances between points
of work. On such runs one man steers the boat and watches the
forested shoreline for three or four hours at a time, while his
mate reads or sleeps; then they change off. In this way, they are
able to make the most efficient use of the long periods of
daylight.
The other big timberland in Alaska is the Chugach National
Forest. It is a smaller edition of the Tongass Forest. Its trees
are not so large and the stand of timber only about one-half as
heavy as in the Tongass. Experts estimate that it contains
7,000,000,000 board feet of lumber. Western hemlock predominates.
There is also much spruce, poplar and birch. Stands of 40,000 to
50,000 feet of lumber an acre are not unusual. In the future, the
lumber of the Chugach National Forest will play an important part
in the industrial life of Alaska. Even now, it is used by the
fishing, mining, railroad and agricultural interests. On account
of its great distance from the markets of the Pacific Northwest
it will be a long time before lumber from this forest will be
exported.
The timber in the Tongass National Forest runs 60 per cent.
western hemlock and 20 per cent. Sitka spruce. The other 20 per
cent. consists of western red cedar, yellow cypress, lodge-pole
pine, cottonwood and white fir. The yellow cypress is very
valuable for cabinet making. All these species except the
cedar are suitable for pulp manufacture. Peculiarly enough,
considerable of the lumber used in Alaska for box shooks in the
canneries and in building work is imported from the United
States. The local residents do not think their native timber is
as good as that which they import.
Alaska will probably develop into one of the principal paper
sources of the United States. Our National Forests in Alaska
contain approximately 100,000,000 cords of timber suitable for
paper manufacture. Experts report that these forests could
produce 2,000,000 cords of pulpwood annually for centuries
without depletion. About 6,000,000 tons of pulpwood annually are
now required to keep us supplied with enough paper. The Tongass
National Forest could easily supply one-third of this amount
indefinitely. This forest is also rich in water power. It would
take more than 250,000 horses to produce as much power as that
which the streams and rivers of southern Alaska supply.
The western hemlock and Sitka spruce are the best for paper
making. The spruce trees are generally sound and of good quality.
The hemlock trees are not so good, being subject to decay at the
butts. This often causes fluted trunks. The butt logs from such
trees usually are inferior. This defect in the hemlock reduces
its market value to about one-half that of the spruce for paper
making. Some of the paper mills in British Columbia are now using
these species of pulpwood and report that they make high-grade
paper.
The pulp logs are floated down to the paper mill. In the mill the
bark is removed from the logs. Special knives remove all the
knots and cut the logs into pieces twelve inches long and six
inches thick. These sticks then pass into a powerful grinding
machine which tears them into small chips. The chips are cooked
in special steamers until they are soft. The softened chips are
beaten to pieces in large vats until they form a pasty pulp. The
pulp is spread over an endless belt of woven wire cloth of small
mesh. The water runs off and leaves a sheet of wet pulp which
then is run between a large number of heated and polished steel
cylinders which press and dry the pulp into sheets of paper.
Finally, it is wound into large rolls ready for commercial use.
If a pulp and paper industry is built up in Alaska, it will be of
great benefit to that northern country. It will increase the
population by creating a demand for more labor. It will aid the
farming operations by making a home market for their products. It
will improve transportation and develop all kinds of business.
Altogether 420,000,000 feet of lumber have been cut and sold from
the national forests of Alaska in the past ten years. This
material has been made into such products as piling, saw logs and
shingle bolts. All this lumber has been used in Alaska and none
of it has been exported. Much of the timber was cut so that it
would fall almost into tide-water. Then the logs were fastened
together in rafts and towed to the sawmills. One typical raft of
logs contained more than 1,500,000 feet of lumber. It is not
unusual for spruce trees in Alaska to attain a diameter of from
six to nine feet and to contain 10,000 or 15,000 feet of lumber.
Southeastern Alaska has many deep-water harbors which are open
the year round. Practically all the timber in that section is
controlled by the Government and is within the Tongass National
Forest. This means that this important crop will be handled
properly. No waste of material will occur. Cutting will be
permitted only where the good of the forest justifies such work.