Adding Value to Alaska Timber.

The Sitka Wood Utilization Center was created to develop a market for Alaska's wood products.

In Haines, a small-scale manufacturer fashions hot tubs from Alaska yellow cedar. In Port Alexander, a Baranof Island fishing community of fewer than 200 people, an entrepreneur is making high-backed wooden deck chairs. In Dyea, near Skagway, a new roadway bridge is entirely composed of Alaska timber. In Sitka, a demonstration of a portable wood kiln draws curious wood products manufacturers from throughout the state.

Examples of the value-added processing of wood products like these are now being nurtured by a new USDA Forest Service facility-the Wood Utilization Center.

Organizing an Approach

The Alaska timber industry has faced reduced harvests for nearly a decade and a wide range of voices have called for more value-added processing and less whole log export as a way of maximizing the number of jobs and economic benefits to timber-dependent communities. Since last year, the industry has been receiving new help from WUC, now fully staffed and running in the Forest Service Tongass area headquarters in Sitka.

The Wood Utilization Center is essentially a branch office of the Forest Service's Pacific Northwest Research Station, one of a network of USDA research facilities that also interacts with other scientific agencies in government and academia throughout the U.S. The Sitka office was established in early 1999 after Alaska Senators Ted Stevens and Frank Murkowski secured $1.13 million in federal funds for the project.

Since then, WUC has been analyzing the reams of data and stacks of studies previously compiled, says Ted Laufenberg, who ran the center for the first year before returning in December to his home-base, the world-famous Forest Service products lab in Madison, Wis. His job was also to hire a permanent WUC staff.

Laufenberg hired Forest Products Specialist Ken Kilborn, who assumed leadership of the five-person WUC team upon Laufenberg's departure. Kilborn is a walking example of WUC's deep networking resource, with 35 years of experience as both a Forest Service employee and a private consultant, with a stint at Colorado State University. He has worked on timber issues from Arctic Village to Metlakatla. The WUC team also includes a forest products technologist and an economist.

Since opening its doors, the center has co-sponsored two conferences on value-added forest products and plans to hold at least two more conferences this year-Sitka in March and Fairbanks in April.

Improvement Very Possible

Ken Kilborn says the Alaska market-notably the Railbelt-is a nearly ignored market for timber cut from Alaska forests, despite being a market that could potentially absorb 100 million board feet of wood products from in-state.

"There's a fairly large market for decks and patio furniture in Anchorage and it is all being supplied with (pressure-treated wood) from the Pacific Northwest," says Kilborn. "It could all be done with untreated Alaska yellow cedar."

Kilborn quotes from a study of the timber industry by the Juneau economic research firm, McDowell Group.

"The study shows that 95 percent of all the wood used in Alaska is imported," Kilborn says. "And 95 percent of what we produce goes to export."

A list of WUC activities describes an organization trying to change those percentages. The examples of projects under development include:

* Using Alaska yellow cedar, an extremely long-lasting wood, for 20- to 40-foot roadway bridges.

* Developing Alaska sort yards, allowing logs of different types to be stored so manufacturers can choose logs specific to their needs.

* Studying the economics of clear-cutting.

* Making ethanol from wood waste and other biomass in Ketchikan and Tanana. (Also, WUC has helped a Sitka-based project intending to create potting soils and other garden products from fish and wood waste.)

* Studying and coordinating vendor and manufacturer information for a variety of Alaska species in domestic and international markets.

* Operating a test wood kiln, which is packed into a shipping container and can be moved to different areas wishing to try it out. WUC also plans to make wood-drying services available to entrepreneurs, possibly at a reduced cost.

* Using alder, birch and other hardwood species for manufactured wood products, like furniture and window casings.

Forging Alaska Ties

Kilborn says that Alaska manufacturers and vendors could benefit greatly by small improvements--two examples are establishing a more accurate rating for Alaska yellow cedar and the use of hemlock and other Alaska woods a railroad ties.

Kilborn says Alaska Railroad President, former Gov. Bill Sheffield, is interested in buying from in-state sources at least 10,000 of the 100,000 railroad tie, the Alaska Railroad uses annually.

This past October, Kilborn and other timber experts examined western hemlock cut in Alaska that had been treated with preservatives and laid in the railroad bed in 1988. The ties are in excellent shape, Kilborn says, indicating that Sheffield could get his wish for Alaska-made ties.

The key is a 1940s-era technology called double-diffusion wood preservative treatment. Modern treating of wood is done under pressure and takes a matter of hours. Double diffusion involves soaking the wood in a warm and then cold solution for about six days. The treatment holds great promise to permit Alaska western hemlock and both Interior white and coastal Sitka spruce to be used where pressure-treated lumber imported to Alaska is now used.

Kilborn also pointed to more precise certifications leading to new opportunities in the timber business. Alaska yellow cedar, though strong and extremely durable, is classified with the grade of western cedar good for making pencils, Kilborn says.

The Alaska spruce that grow at high latitudes are even stronger than famously strong Engelmann spruce that grow in the Rocky Mountain because there are more growth rings per inch, he explains. "We are looking at (establishing) an Alaska spruce grade so that (manufacturers) can take advantage of that increased density. And the same thing is true with hemlock and yellow cedar."

Though based in Southeast, WUC is committed to timber issues throughout the state of Alaska, Laufenberg said. But the organization's influence could soon reach farther.

"The Forest Service has an international mission, as well," Laufenberg noted. "There's an opportunity for the technology that gets developed at this center to be used elsewhere, whether it's n tropical countries or in Russia, as they develop their industry."