“The importance of these numbers should not be underestimated,” Phelps said. “The idea that with the pulp mills closed there is no need to continue industrial timber harvests is shown to be nonsense. If demand is related to installed capacity, as the Forest Service has always maintained, then demand is much higher than even the most optimistic estimates of future Tongass timber offerings. The government has stated its intention to sell about 200 million per year, which clearly isn’t enough. So far this fiscal year, they have offered only 29.8 mmbf, with only 3 months left to go. Can anyone wonder why our mills are operating below capacity and why so many people have lost their jobs over the past few years?”

The AFA survey shows the primary manufacturing capability of 10 small and medium size sawmills, one large sawmill and a group of tiny mills, mostly on Prince of Wales Island. “All the talk about “value-added” secondary manufacturing will get us nowhere if we don’t have a healthy primary manufacturing sector,” Phelps said. “The sawmills listed in the survey represent the backbone of Alaska’s present and future forest products manufacturing industry. Currently, they are all operating below capacity.”

"Despite the severe economic troubles around the Pacific Rim,” Phelps said, “over the long haul there is tremendous potential for selling Alaska wood, especially sawn products and manufactured wood products, in Asia. These opportunities are likely to extend well into the next century. But for us to take advantage of those prospects, we must have a stable and sufficient supply of logs to our sawmills. Because it is the principal forest land owner, the federal government holds the key to the future success of Alaska’s sawmill industry. They simply have to get off the dime and start selling timber at a rate that will let Alaska mills operate efficiently."