Red tape prompts sawmill closure
Tongass operator says last federal snag was too much for him

January 18, 2006
Anchorage Daily News (AK)
By Paula Dobbyn

Timber entrepreneur Steve Seley has closed his sawmill on Gravina Island near Ketchikan, one of the few mills left in the giant Southeast rainforest.

Seley said Tuesday he's fed up with dealing with the U.S. Forest Service, the federal agency that manages Alaska's 17 million-acre Tongass National Forest, the country's largest. The owner of Pacific Log & Lumber said he's beyond the point of frustration with trying to buy timber from the agency.

"The issue is: Can the federal government perform or not?" Seley said. "The industry is out of capital, out of logs and almost out of desire."

Forrest Cole, the Tongass supervisor, acknowledged that the Forest Service's timber program is flawed. But he said the agency has tried to get Seley the logs he needs.

"I think in the short term he has sufficient wood to keep the mill open," Cole said.

Seley's mill employed 23 people. It closed for two weeks over the holidays as usual and was due to start winter maintenance this week. But a crucial timber sale Seley was counting on to feed the mill hasn't come through, prompting him to close indefinitely.

If nothing changes by mid-February, Seley will barge his lumber equipment south to Lower 48 buyers, he said.

Cole said the timber Seley wants will be advertised for sale by mid-February. The sale is dubbed Buckdance-Madder and it involves about 16 million board feet of timber, enough to keep Seley's mill operating for several months.

The sale was a compromise with environmentalists who had threatened to sue to stop another timber sale Seley had bid on called Orion North, in a roadless area near Misty Fjords National Monument. In exchange for the Forest Service dropping Orion North, environmentalists, Seley and the agency agreed in April that Seley would get Buckdance-Madder without a court fight.

"We thought we worked out a deal that responded to Steve's needs. I can only say that we did the best we could. We share a problem: The Forest Service doesn't listen to us," said Buck Lindekugel of the Southeast Alaska Conservation Council.

The Forest Service has offered Seley timber that he chose not to bid on, Cole said. With the Buckdance sale about to be offered, he's not sure why Seley's closing.

The delay in releasing the Buckdance timber is part of a larger problem, Seley said. The lack of a reliable timber supply had made access to capital tough.

Tim Bristol, head of Trout Unlimited in Alaska, says that Seley trying to work with the Forest Service is "a clash of cultures."

"They have no creativity and no entrepreneurial instinct, and Steve is like the complete opposite. He's always looking for the next deal. The Forest Service has a giant book of rules they have to follow," Bristol said.

Seley said Gov. Frank Murkowski pledged his help when he met with logging representatives in Ketchikan last weekend. But most of the Panhandle is federally owned, so there's only so much the state can do, he said.

"Our box of Band-Aids is running low, and it's time to address the issue," Seley said.

Date: 1/18/2006