Young Growth Timber By Owen Graham August 27, 2014
The Department of Agriculture Undersecretary for Natural Resources and Environment recently offered an opinion that the timber industry in Southeast Alaska should accept a forced transition to a young-growth timber economy. Like most government imposed economic programs, this one won t work; bad assumptions lead to bad decisions. The Undersecretary states that a transition to young-growth will create a more diverse economy and recognize the importance of the salmon industry, recreation, tourism and subsistence. The reality is young-growth timber will not support nearly as many diverse products as the mature timber that the industry has relied on for the last 60-years. The remark about recognizing other beneficial uses of the forest creates a deception that those benefits are not already recognized and protected. Likewise, the rhetoric about conserving stands of old-growth for future generations ignores the fact that Congress has already set aside in perpetuity, half of the commercial old-growth timberlands on the Tongass. The set-aside lands were chosen for their unique and spectacular characteristics as well as for fish and wildlife conservation. Congress has also mandated that the Tongass, like all national forests be managed for multiple-use with no presumption that timber harvesting is less important than the other uses of the national forests. Only about 450,000 acres of the Tongass has been converted to young-growth timber. That is less than a tenth of the 5,600,000 acres of commercial timberlands on the Tongass and it is not enough acres of young-growth to support a viable timber manufacturing industry, particularly when the government is considering harvesting the young trees long before they are mature. Alaskan s don t need the federal government telling them how to make a living. Our salmon populations have doubled during the 60-years that the timber industry has been operating and our deer and other wildlife are doing just fine too, despite rhetoric to the contrary. The tourism industry flourished while we were logging and the only recreation problem we have is due to recent road closures by the Forest Service. If the Department of Agriculture wants to help the economy of Southeast Alaska, they need only tell the Forest Service to resume honoring the promises made to supply timber to support our jobs. The transition to young-growth will commence as the young trees mature, just as the Forest Service has planned since the days of Gifford Pinchot and Teddy Roosevelt. Regards, Owen Graham Received August 26, 2014 - Published August 27, 2014
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