Official Luthiers Forum!

Greeting tonewood using family! I thought I'd share this tidbit of news that you most likely didn't here about in your corners of the world.
The topic is most of remaining Old Growth forest that is accessible on Prince Of Wales Island, Alaska. The 3rd largest Island in the US. All of you that have ordered product from us, have received the POW Chamber Of Commerce travel guide that contains all kinds of info about our island communities and culture.
Here is the article published by KRBD radio in Ketchikan, Alaska.
https://www.krbd.org/2019/04/29/tongass ... s0M-TMuYwU

Of all the old growth forest ever existing in the US of A, only 10% remains, and most is in Alaska. The South East Alaska Temperate Rainforest. Most of this forest makes up the Tongass National Forest and is managed by the USDA Forest Service.

I have been working on a paper to share with anyone interested, The makeup of this temperate Rainforest treasure, The Tongass, where 80% of all sitka Spruce used in the world comes from. I have lived and worked in this forest for 32 years. And prior, worked in forest elsewhere.. The paper I am working on tells about the forest makeup by timber specie, The amount of timber harvested per acreage clear-cut and volumes of timber by grade/specie. A very small percentage is high grade Sitka spruce. So of every 80 acre clear-cut, there are just a few trees suitable for soundboard production. and only a few of those suitable, are actually sell-able.
Of coarse we at Alaska Specialty Woods Inc. a 100% salvage sourced old growth producer, do not participate in clearcuts, or using, or buying any green standing live old growth timber.

This forest of it's current makeup of hemlock and spruce specie, is about 8000 yrs old. The forest is mixed age timber with under story habitat for protection and food for the wildlife. Many believe the forest is destroyed when logged. I beg to differ.. It';s not destroyed, but it is changed. Changed for at least the next 1000 yrs, before an old growth type eco-system habitat is restored.
For me, I'm not keen on clear-cutting all of our remaining Old Growth and changing the forest into a young growth forest like so much of the rest of the USA. Anyway, you folks can make your own decisions and research further if you want. I'll be around And I'll get back on that paper and most likely publish it in our Blog on the ASW website and on the ASW Facebook page.

Thank you for the information. That story doesn’t make my day. When it’s gone, it’s gone... at least in our lifetimes.

Several lifetimes Bob. You see old growth fiber is not just an old tree. It is a fiber type that grows Very slowly in an old growth eco-system. An eco-system That has developed with natural crowding and heavy canopy. Allowing a certain amount of sunlight through to the understory below. The trees we harvest. Blowdowns and dead standing average over 400 years of growth. An average guitar top bookset from us has over 200 years of growth recorded in its growth lines/rings. I believe the old growth should be managed in perpetuity.. but that is a very complex undertaking.. one needs to consider many elements of the forest. From specie of trees and how they grow or not. And wildlife. Especially the sitka blacktail deer. There are way too many wolves and bears.. No, I don’t want to see it gone.. your not going to get sitka guitar tops from trees under 200 yrs old, if you want 2 pc bookset tops with the growth line texture that is accepted as any quality today. the first 50+ years are nothing but pulpwood fiber and pretty much junk as a tonewood product

Yeah thanks for keeping us informed. I have been there myself and I can't imagine what this world would be like if it was gone.

It's my understanding that aside from the environmental concerns, the damage from clear-cut logging threatens also the salmon, fishery, and tourism industries, which provide way more jobs then the timber industry. I remember reading that the Viking company employed like 35-40 people or something like that and they are the ones doing the lions share of clear cutting forests that existed before Europeans even came to the new world. Not only that but the industry is subsidized by the US tax payer and much of their product is exported so it doesn't even stay right here in our own country.

I can't say much more about this without breaking the rules of the forum so I'll shut up. But it's as damnned shame is what it is.

Viking is breakdown mill.. most of the sitka I believe is purchased by one customer in Japan. The red cedar is milled and shipped south to customer/s in lower 48. The hemlock is broken down from log into timbers and cants and sold to a “Sister” Mill in Hoquim Washington, where it is turned into doors, moulding and other higher value products. This 225 million is only on National Forest managed land. Then there is another 500,000+/- million that is clearcut by private party on Alaska Native Corporation lands and more sold by state agency Alaska Mental health trust to timber exporters, that is all exported to Asia in the round.

There are some things that should be "preserved" rather than "conserved". Unfortunately there are some who only see the green of the forest as the greenbacks that can be made from cutting it down. Old growth forests have value beyond the guitar tops and other products that can be made from them.
That foreign buyers are buying the raw timber is something "American" companies did for many years. Other countries have enacted laws to prohibit the sale and export of raw materials to bolster their economies. Perhaps it's time we do the same.
(climbing down off the "stump" while we still have one)