ALASKA—New communities visited. New data gathered. New emphasis on young growth. These were three of the new elements added to the Alaska Region’s annual survey of southeast Alaska sawmills.

Since 2000, Forest Service staff have compiled and released the Sawmill Capacity and Production Report, which summarizes key findings from onsite discussions with Southeast Alaska sawmill operators and explores sawmill trends and performance over time.

The mill survey team, consisting of Alaska Region employees Jean Daniels and Dan O’Leary alongside Priscilla Morris from State and Private Forestry, traveled for the first time to mills in the communities of Kake, Tenakee Springs, Wrangell, Coffman Cove and Craig, in addition to the usual visits to mills in Hoonah, Petersburg, Klawock and Thorne Bay.

Through the onsite visits, the team was to examine equipment and gather information about current sawmill operations including total estimated production capacity, actual production, employment, wood supply source, types of forest products, and domestic and international market destinations.

These annual visits provide an opportunity to see sawmill operations firsthand and engage with operators about their concerns and challenges.

“This year we saw a lot of the mills actively making improvements to equipment and operations,” said regional economist Jean Daniels. “We look forward to revisiting next year to see how recent improvements are making a difference, in terms of forest product output, and stimulating economic activity in our rural southeast communities.”

Twenty-one years of mill surveys have documented significant changes within the industry. Over time, the existing sample size contracted from 20 active sawmills operating in years past, to four active and five idle mills in 2019. The survey was not conducted in 2020 owing to staffing issues and travel restrictions from the COVID-19 pandemic.

This year, the sawmill survey pool was expanded for the first time to better represent the current industry, which is composed of one large and several small operations scattered across the region. Eight mills were added to the survey pool. Expanding the survey pool will help staff gain a better perspective of the business landscape and raw material needs of the current industry, as well as economic impacts such as employment in rural communities.

“We developed a list of mills with a history of purchasing timber from the Tongass that have a valid Alaska business license to manufacture wood products, then worked with Tongass forest management staff for the final selection. It was a team effort,” said Daniels.

Among other findings, the inclusion of these small mills allowed for a more in-depth accounting of their contribution to regional sawmill employment, which increased from 50 full-time employees in 2019 to 80 in 2021, including owners, operators and other employees. Although the increase is partly due to adding eight sawmills, the survey revealed that employment in the original survey pool had increased from 10 full-time employees in 2019 to 60 in 2021. The eight sawmills added in 2021 had 19.5 full-time employees. These jobs are an important source of income and contribute to the economic well being of small rural communities across the region.

In addition, the survey instrument itself was expanded to collect more data relevant to current planning efforts, which are guided by the 2016 Forest Plan goal to transition away from old-growth to young-growth timber harvest and the Southeast Alaska Sustainability Strategy. There is considerable interest in quantifying the extent that young-growth timber is being used by sawmills in the region.

This year, mill operators were asked to estimate how much young-growth timber they milled. Survey data collected will help staff gauge industry adoption and demand for young-growth timber, which is critical for the transition to succeed. Although industry utilization was modest, the team expects to see more production from young growth next year because several operators have young-growth timber sales under contract. Read the full Sawmill Capacity and Production Report for more information.