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Alaska's forest products companies, hit by a rising tide of regulatory restrictions, are still eking out production in Southeast, while a lucky few with Southcentral operations are finding strong markets and looking to expand.
"The environmental problems are tough, and the economics is tough," says Dick Buhler, owner of Silver Bay logging in Juneau.
Environmental groups maintain that the activities of forest products companies in Southeast have been detrimental to the area's natural habitat.
Silver Bay, which operates logging camps on Admiralty, Chicagof, Montague and Afognak islands, is a contractor for Wrangell Saw Mill and Koncor Forest Products. At peak production, Silver Bay employs 350 workers. Buhler said the wood products made from its logs are sold in Japan, Korea, China and Washington state.
"Every (year) the sales and timber made available for market gets harder in Alaska," he said. "There's less of it, it's harder to get and the price goes up. It's an ongoing process where we have to battle to survive.