The Cordova daily times. [volume] (Cordova, Alaska) 1914-1947, 1919-10-31
ALASKA TIMBER
ISSUITABLEFOR
PAPER MAKING
(By w. F. Weigle, Forest Supervisor
Snoqualmie National Forest, and
Former Superintendent Alaska
National Forests)

| %"''cphi l. vi OoISJ
Most people throughout the States
think of Alaska only in terms of ice
| bergs and polar bears, and they look
up with surprise when told of it's
splendid summer climate and luxuri-
GUS vegetation, which includes vast
| areas of continuous forest.
The forests of Alaska come under
two classes-the forests of the wet
and the forests of the dry regions,
with an annual precipitation of from
eighty to hundred inches in the wet
| and ten to twenty inches in the dry
| regions.
The forests of the wet regions cover
| numerous large and small islands and
| narrow coastal belt on the mainland
extending from the southern boun-
dairy Of Alaska north to Kodiak. This
coastal belt is very narrow, and the
total area of the forests of the wet
belt, although covering about 10000
| acres, is very small in comparison to
the forested area of the dry region
Country Has Much Timber
The timber species of the wet belt
are very similar to those of the Puget
sound region, consisting of Sitka
spruce, western hemlock, black hem
lock, red cedar, yellow cypress (yel-
low CEDAR, with a small amount of
| lodgepole pine, yew amabilis fir and
cottonwood. In the dry region the
| species consist of white spruce, black
spruce, ASPEN white birch, cotton
wood, lodgepole pine and larch.
Much of the area comprising the
great valleys of the Yukon Tanana,
Kuskokwim. Susitna and Copper riv-
ers, with their tributaries, either are
now or have been timbered; the slopes
with pure stands or heavy mixture
of birch and aspen, while the bottom
of the valleys along the streams con
tain the best stands of spruce.
The birch on the slopes seldom at
tains a diameter of more than from
six to twelve inches and a height of
from forty to sixty feet, while the
best spruce, which is the saw timber
of the Yukon, Tanana, Kuskokwim,
Susitna and Copper river valleys, sell
dom exceeds twenty inches in diam
eter and seventy-five feet in height.
The white birch and white spruce have
contributed most of the saw timber
and fuel used in the great gold re-
gions of the Yukon and Tanana rivers.
Although millions of acres of this
small timber, which extends in many
places far north Of the Arctic circle,
have been burned, there is yet many
millions of acres in good condition,
waiting to serve as an aid to various
kinds of local development. Much of
the small timber that has been logged
throughout the Yukon valley and
other places in the dry region has
|
of use by means of dog teams.
The best timber in the coastal re-
gion or wet belt is found in the Ton
gass national forest, which comprises
practically all of Southeastern Alaska,
1t is estimated that this region con-
tains 70,000,000 $1,000 board feet of mer-
charitable timber, the several species
occurring approximately as follows:
Hemlock, 65 per cent; Sitka spruce,
20 per cent; red cedar, per cent;
yellow cypress, 5 per cent; other
species, 3 per cent.
| Even though the quantity of tim
Der in Alaska is quite large, on &C
count of it being badly scattered, sal
dom occurring in bodies sufficiently
large to justify the necessary improve
ments to get it out, and the quality not
, being equal in every respect to the
| finest belt of timber in the world
along the coast farther south with
which it must compete, it is not con-
| sidered that Alaska will ever contrib
ute any large quantity of saw timber
to the general market.
Timber Good for Pulp
The timber in Alaska is much more
!