Alaska Forest Products

The Alaska timber industry in A.D. 2000 finds itself a period of significant transition. Southeast Alaska, where most of the timber development has taken place since the 1950s, has moved from a forest products manufacturing sector tied to pulp production to one that is focusing on lumber and other sawn products. Principal markets have shifted from mainly foreign with emphasis on Japan, to primarily domestic, feeding secondary manufacturing plants in the Pacific Northwest.

Round-log production, from private and University of Alaska land, is also experiencing a period of shifting markets. While most round-log exporters are still selling most of their products into Asia, changes in the target countries have required marketing adjustments. Although Japan will continue to be a net importer of wood, the Japanese market is trending toward one that buys more manufactured products than it does round logs, especially engineered wood products. These goods include laminated veneer lumber and products made from it such as wood I beams, glulam beams, oriented strandboard, and similar panel products. This trend has sent the Alaska export sector scrambling to make adjustments, looking for the niches they are best equipped to fill.

Alaska forests grow a unique product, which bodes well for Alaska's ability to compete in the huge global market for wood, provided the industry here can stabilize its supply of raw material. No other place in the United States produces the tight-grained, old growth hemlock found in Alaska's coastal forests, particularly in the Tongass National Forest. Efforts by other hemlock growing states, such as Washington and Maine, have not been able to overcome the Japanese preference for Alaska hemlock. Increased competition from other white woods, particularly those from Scandinavia, however, has made the marketplace more difficult for...