Assessing the volume of wood products used to build and maintain recreational structures on the Tongass National Forest: potential opportunities for Alaska wood products substitution.

Abstract

Cantrell, Randall A. 2004. Assessing the volume of wood products used to build and maintain recreational structures on the Tongass National Forest: potential opportunities for Alaska wood products substitution. Gen. Tech. Rep. PNWGTR-621. Portland, OR: U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service, Pacific Northwest Research Station. 20 p. Although the Tongass National Forest (TNF) possesses abundant stands of redcedar (Thuja plicata Donn), yellow-cedar (Chamaecyparis nootkatensis (D. Don) Spach), Sitka spruce (Picea sitchensis (Bong.) Carr.), and western hemlock (Tsuga heterophylla (Raf.) Sarg), most of its buildings, bridges, and trails are constructed from imported materials. The costs incurred in importing lumber building materials to the TNF seemingly could be offset by manufacturing a slightly more costly product from within the region. To better understand the potential opportunities foregone by southeast Alaska’s lumber manufacturers, this study explores the market volume of wood products required to build and maintain the recreational structures (buildings, bridges, and trails) on the TNF. Findings suggest that after accounting for the estimated 23 percent of native materials used in trail construction, the wood products market potential arising from an additional 77-percent Alaska wood species substitution could be, on average, approximately 1.1 million board feet annually. This volume represents 1.3 percent of the regional output for 2000 and increases overall demand in southeast Alaska by 13.9 percent for this same period. These same figures for 2002 are more dramatic with the TNF potential consumption representing 2.8 percent of the region’s output and increasing its overall demand by 57 percent.