FAQs about the Natural History of the Inside Passage

In the 1950’s, the Forest Service signed a 50-year exclusive contract with two Japanese-owned firms, the Ketchikan Pulp Company and the Alaska Lumber and Pulp Company for the harvesting of billions of board feet of lumber in Southeast Alaska. Not only did the pulp mills enjoy special contract privileges for decades, but also engaged in price fixing and violated EPA pollution regulations. The pulp mills, located in Sitka and Ketchikan, drove most small, independent milling and logging companies in Southeast Alaska out of business. The pulp mills were closed down in 1993 and 1997, respectively, due to declining business conditions.

The Tongass Land Use Management Plan issued in 1997-99, significantly reduced allowable timber harvest levels. Consequently, the sawmill industry has suffered. A study by the U.S. Department of Agriculture identified 20 of the “most active” sawmills in the Tongass National Forest in 2000. In that year, the sawmills in Southeast Alaska were only operating at 17 percent of capacity. Two years later, nine of the sawmills were idle or had closed and the production of the other 11 had declined by 55 percent. Today, sawmills are still open in Ketchikan, Wrangell and Klawock.