Alaska, Forest Service sign 20-year shared stewardship timber deal

The Alaska Division of Forestry signed a 20-year shared stewardship agreement with the U.S. Forest Service that officials said will support cross-boundary timber management and restoration work, building on more than a decade of Good Neighbor Authority timber sales.

The agreement extends the state's existing authority to manage timber on National Forest lands with a 20-year timeline. Good Neighbor Authority sales have allowed the state to increase the pace of restoration work; the shared stewardship framework makes that authority permanent and scalable.

"We're really excited that we have a shared stewardship agreement with a 20-year timeframe that we have signed with the Forest Service, and this agreement builds on over a decade of work at this point," a division representative said during a Wednesday forestry conference panel. The agreement "allows the state to manage timber on National Forest lands and increase the pace and scale of restoration on those lands as well."

The goal is to increase overall timber supply and create cross-boundary efficiencies between state and federal lands. One immediate opportunity is investment in young growth management in Southeast Alaska. The division is working with the Forest Service to develop a long-term contract and reliable timber source for an entity willing to invest in harvesting and processing young growth material in Southeast Alaska, the division representative said.

A forestry industry representative estimated that young growth or second growth forests in Alaska could yield 400 to 500 million board feet of timber annually, enough to attract a state-of-the-art sawmill. Alaska currently harvests about 100 to 120 million board feet annually, down from nearly a billion board feet at its peak three decades ago.

The division is revising state forest management plans to incorporate both timber harvest and carbon offset projects under a multiple-use framework. A revised plan for the Tanana Valley State Forest near Fairbanks is complete, and the Hayden State Forest Resource Management Area Plan is in public review.