Evening Star Newspaper, January 5, 1930, Page 84

THE \ VNDAY STAR, WASHINGTON, = e, Establishment of American Pulp Plants Through Government Lease in Northern Province, to Compete With Canadian Mills, Will Be of Vast Importance to Newspaper Industry of the United States. BY HUDSON GRUNEW ALD. HE development in Southeastern Alaska of an important new source of news- print supply, through the recent awards by the United States Govern- ment of two contracts, aggregating more than $10,000,000, for 10,000,000,000 board feet of pulpwood to two American groups who will establish the first great newsprint mills in the region in the near future, bears a marked economic significance not only to the territory jtself but to the entire newspaper industry of Morth America, Coming at a time when American newspaper publishers are protesting against the announce- ment of a $5-a-ton increase in the price of newsprint by the mills of Eastern Canada, which furnish by far the greatest bulk of the news paper used in this country, the prospect of a new source of supply in a permanent paper producing region on native American soll is encouraging. With the possibility of a potential output of more than one-fourth of the present yearly con- sumption of mewsprint in the United States available, pulp mills in Southeastern Alaska will operate in direct competition with the mills of Canada. THE two groups represented in the contracts, : won through competitive bidding, are a combination including the San Francisco Chronicle and the Los Angeles Times, which will erect & mill at Juneau, and the Zellerbach interests, the largest newsprint manufacturers on the Pacific Coast, which will locate at Ketch- ikan, each plant producing a daily output of 50 tons of news paper. Five thousand persons will be directly employed in these mills, ac- cording to the United States Forest Service, effecting, it is estimated, an increase of not less than 10,000 in the population of the two cities. Alaska will benefit through the rise of a new industry stimulating commerce and trade and providing a substantial addition in the year-round pay roll. Owing to the close relationship in paper- making projects between water-power develop- ment and the use of timber resources, the Fed- eral Power Commission and the Forest Serv- ice co-ordinate their actions on applications for such projects in Southeastern Alaska and the contracts awarded these two groups are contingent upon their meeting certain water- power requirements. The companies have un- til next June to meet these conditions to fulfill the terms of the contract and their engineers are at present engaged in completing the neces- sary surveys upon which depend the issuance of operating licenses or permits which give them an exclusive right to the allotted territory for a period of 50 years, The harmony between these two bureaus, the one concerned with timber resources and the other with water power, is, in the opinion of R. Y. Stuart, chief of the United States Forest Service, an outstanding example of co-operation between the Government units in Alaska. “The Forest Service has not operated blindly in awarding these contracts,” he says, pointing out that the pulp timber allotments are com- plementary to definite available water-power sites suitable for use in the manufacture of pulp and that each allotment includes sufficient timberland to supply a sustained annual yiéld of timber equal to the mill capacity obtainable through a full economic development of the ac- companying water-power site or sites, SOU'I'K!ASTIRN ALASEA has long been re- garded as an outstanding location for es- tablishing newsprint puip mills and for the past five years promoters have tried in vain to obtain water-power and timber rights from the Gov- ernment. But not until Col. W. B. Greeley, former chief of the Forest Service, formulated & definite sales plan for the pulp-wood concession of these valuable Government lands and sent B. F. Heintzelman, assistant district forester in Alaska, to the States on a selling campaign, were the bids finally opened. The fact that this section of Alaska has ex- tensive forests of pulp wood that are managed by the Federal Government for a sustained pro- duction of timber, excellent water-power re- sources for industrial use, tidewater transporta- tion both from the woods to the mills and from the mills to the markets, and an equable climate that permits of plant operation and unhindered shipping throughout the year, as Mr. Heintzel- man peinted out, was sufficiently interesting to cause five large newsprint corporations to send their engineers and timber experts to the region for first-hand information. With American consumption now placed at 4,000,000 tons a year, studies by the Forest Service indicate that the forests of Southeast- ern Alaska can produce not less than 1,500,000 cords annually in perpetuity of newsprint pulp. Converted into newsprint this represents a pro- duction of 1,000,000 tons, or more than one- fourth of the present yearly consumpticn in the United States. This amount of timber can be logged yearly D. €, JANUARY & ¥ One of many sources of water power in the Tongass National Forest. and will be fully renewed under the policy of the Forest Service which limits the development of wood-using plants dependent upon national forest timber to the total capacity that can be supplied indefinitely through tree growth. Also, through this policy the stumpage alone is offered for sale, the land being retained by the Government for the production of succeed- ing forest crops. Most of the standing timber of Southeastern Alaska is in the Tongass National Forest, com- prising in round numbers 3,000,000 acres of na- tional forest reserve, This land earries timber of commercial value with an average stand of 26,000 board feet per acre subdivided as fole lows: Western hemlock, 74 per cent; Sitka spruce, 20 per cent; Alaskan red cedar and Western red cedar, 3 per cent each. The ma- jority of the merchantable trees are from 2 to 4 feet in dlameter and from 90 to 140 feet in height. « Juneau, Alaska, where the San Francisco Chronicle and the Los Angeles Times group will erect a newsprint mill. Phete by U. 8. Porest Service. Photo by U. 8. Forest Seivice. Sitka spruce, which is generally conceded te be the best pulping wood on the Pacific Coast, compares very favorably with white spruce, the standard pulpwood of Eastern North America. The average of pulp per cord of 100 cubic feet of solid wood, as determined by the Forest Prod- ucts Laboratory, is 2,100 pounds, bone-dry, by the mechanical process, and 1,800 pounds, bone- dry, by the sulphite process. The Sitka spruce of the Tongass Forest oce curs from tidewater to an elevation of 1,500 feet. The average mature tree is about 5 feet in diameter and 160 feet in height, but trees with a diameter of 7 feet and a height of 200 feet are common. Estimating the total stand of virgin timber at 80,000,000 board feet, and allowing 90 years as the rotation period during which this timber will be entirely cut, approximately 1,500,000 cords of wocd of 600 board feet each can be removed from the forest yearly in this period. As the new crop of timber in which cutting will begin after 90 years will have at least twice the volume per acre of the virgin stand, ac- cording to conservation studies of the Forest Service, a plan of forest management based on the sustained yield of 1,500,000 cords of pulp- wood is considered conservative, This policy of the Forest Service preventing the overdevelopment and subsequent collapse through timber exhaustion that has character- ized timber industries in many sections of the United States, is an impcrtant factor in the investment by the paper companies of heavy capital that can be justified only through the assurance of long operating life. ‘Where pulpwood was formerly cut and loge rafted to be floated downstream and ocean- towed to American mills, the mills now will operate at the source of supply. The value of paper leaving the Alaskan mill is estimated at six times the value of the logs that supply it, including all labor and handling charges, MPORTANT among the factors influencing the establishment of paper mills in the Alase kan territory is the ready source of water-power, Over 450,000 horsepower had been covered by reconnaissance surveys up to December, 1928, and since then further power explorations, ine cluding the recent Alaska aero-survey expedie tion of the Navy Department, has led to the hitherto unexpected lakes among the high peaks of the Pacific Coast Range. These mountains 5,000 to 6,000 feet in height, with an occasional peak reaching 7,000 to 9,000 feet, are extremely rugged and presented great difficulty in ex- ploration. The discovery of one of these lakes comsti- tuting an ideal water-power site within 35 miles of Ketchikan was a deciding factor to the Zele lerbach interests in choosing a plant location near that city. Surveys revealed that power from three other lakes in the same locality could be economically concentrated at this one point and the four will produce 60,000 horse- power at the Ketchikan plant. Another instance of this concentration of power is found near Juneau, where the interests representing the San Francisco Chronicle and the Los Angeles Times are planning to locate. At this point 50,000 horsepower can be developed in one power house from two sites adjacent to the head of Speel River, of two additional sites