Seward daily gateway., 1925-12-05
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formed the Forest Service subdivides the locality occupied into streets and lots to insure an orderly develop ment of the town. The lots are rent ed for nominal yearly fee until the population is sufficient to maintain town government when the area is eliminated from the National Forest to permit of titles being secured un- der the general town-site laws. Plank ed and graded streets have frequent ly been built to stimulate the growth of these new communities.
 Three such towns were eliminated for patenting in 1922.
 Local Lumber Industry.
 Practically all of the timber used | locally on the coast of Alaska is talk en from the National Forests, includ- ing the requirements of seven saw mills cutting for the local trade and l for shipment from the Territory. The two principal forest products are sawlogs and fish trap piling.
 The timber may be purchased as needed, or unit capable of provid- | ing a supply for number of years 1 can be contracted. The material is paid for as cutting proceeds and on the basis of a log scale made by the local rangers. The prices being re- ceived for timber now average about S1.75 per M feet for spruce and ce- dar, and $1.OO per M feet for hem | lock-
 The local sawmills first entered the export lumber markets several years ago making full cargo ship ments direct to trans-Pacific ports. There is every indication that this business will expand materially.
 About sixty million feet of tim Der will be sold from the National Forests in 1925. 550OOO,OOO board feet has been sold since 1909.
 Development Pulp and Paper
 The great future forest industry of Alaska is the manufacturer of pulp and paper and especially newsprint paper. The extensive forests are we'll suited to this use, abundant wa ter power is available for the con- version of the raw material and the region has other advantages that will contribute to the success of this industry.
 The National Forests are capable of producing 100000 tons of news print paper annually in perpetuity. This amount is almost one-half of the present total requirements of the United States.
 Cheap and abundant power is sec- ond only in importance to the tim- Der supply in the development of the newsprint industry and this exists in Alaska in the form of water power. 350,000 horsepower is required for an annual production of 100000 tons of paper and Investigations made to date show this amount of power to be readily available.
 Other favorable factors for the in- dustry include water transportation for logs from the woods to the mills and for paper from the mills to mar ket, low logging costs as to timber is readily accessible and the volume per acre is high; climate which per. mits of mill operations and shipping turnout the year.
 Changing conditions in the paper industry indicate that Alaska should become an important source of SUD- ply for newsprint in tle near future. Timber depletion in the established production regions is forcing paper manufacturers to new sources of raw material much more distant from the large consuming centers and this ex- banding production zone is now reach ing the forests of Alaska. A small pulp mill is now in operation and number of large newsprint paper pro- jects are in prospect.
 Extensive Investigations are being made by the Forest Service of the possibilities for industry on the Tongass Forest. 6OO,0OO acres of pulp timber have been cruised and mapped and all of the larger power sites
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