State officials are planning to offer a Ketchikan company nearly 500 acres of old-growth timber on Gravina Island for harvest as part of the governor's efforts to increase logging on state land.
State officials are planning to offer a Ketchikan company nearly 500 acres of old-growth timber on Gravina Island for harvest as part of the governor's efforts to increase logging on state land.
Under a law passed during the Knowles administration, the state can enter into what are essentially sole-source contracts with timber companies as long as the wood gets processed locally. Officials tailor a sale with one company in mind and negotiate directly with the principals of that firm. The timber is not open for bid by others, according to Division of Forestry officials.
On Gravina, an island that's home to Ketchikan's airport, the Department of Natural Resources is planning to make the timber available to Pacific Log & Lumber Ltd., owned by Steve Seley. It's a 13 million board foot sale that would be logged over three years and involves nine miles of road construction, said Mike Curran, area forester. The logging would target hemlock Sitka spruce saw logs, as well as red and yellow cedar on a 495-acre tract.
The proposal that is out for public comment until today does not offer any specifics on how much the timber is worth. Unlike the Forest Service, the state is not required to include that information when asking the public to comment and normally does not, Curran said.
Seley runs the only medium-sized sawmill in Southeast that manufactures kiln-dried products such as flooring, interior beams, window frames, rail ties and molding These products are called "high value-added" because they create more jobs than if the timber was simply cut and shipped out as raw logs or green boards.
Seley said his plant encompasses about 30 acres with 11 buildings on Gravina Island. Seley, who grew up in Thorne Bay on nearby Prince of Wales Island, employs 83 people and has an annual payroll of over $2 million, he said. He's considered a survivor and an innovator within Alaska's battered timber industry, which has shrunk over the past decade due to fewer timber sales in the giant Tongass National Forest and increased competition from lower-cost suppliers.
The idea of sole-sourcing state resources can raise public policy questions. But in this case Seley said he has the only nearby mill and he already has built part of the road to the project area.
"This is unique in that we actually own today three miles of road and a log transfer facility. So for another person to come in and bid it and come back and pay us road-use fees, I don't think it really makes sense to do that," Seley said.
The state is wise to pursue negotiated sales such as this one, he said.
The sale, called Bostwick No. 1 after a nearby lake, is one of the larger ones the state has offered in recent history.
Last summer, Gov. Frank Murkowski said he planned to ramp up state timber sales to help Southeast loggers. State timber harvests in Southeast have basically doubled in volume since Murkowksi became governor in 2002, said Jim Eleazer, coastal regional forester.
The Southeast Alaska Conservation Council opposes the Gravina timber sale. The group has told the state that it's primarily concerned about access the nine miles of logging road will bring to the island and other potential logging nearby.
"It's the first step in the unraveling of Gravina Island," said Buck Lindekugel, conservation director. "With this and other proposed logging on (state) Mental Health Trust Authority land, Ketchikan Gateway Borough land, and National Forest lands, over 3,000 acres could be cut in the next few years on Gravina."
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