Evening Republican, Volume 18, Number 228, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 26 September 1914 — FORESTS IN ALASKA [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

FORESTS IN ALASKA

Types Differ in Different Parts of Country. Trees Grow to Large Size on the Southeastern Coast the Interior Have a Much Smaller Development Washington. The difference between forest types in different parts of Alaska are as sharp aB those between the topographic and clinlatic, and, of course, depend upon them. The coast forests of southern Alaska are the northernmost extension of the coast type of Washington and British Columbia. The interior forests are an extension of the interior Canadian forests. On the coast of southeastern Alaska trees grow to large size; in*'the Interior the timber is much smaller. The higher mountain areas are completely above timber line. CiHnatic conditions in the region adjacent to Bering sea and on the Arctic slope make forest growth altogether impossible, so there are great stretches of tundra whose vegetation Consists chiefly of moss, sedges, and a few shrubs. Moss may be said to be the garment of Alaska, and layeriof it 12 to 18 inches thick are not at all uncommon either on the coast or in the interior. , Making reductions for tome barren areas, it is estimated that the total forest and woodland area of Alaska is approximately 100,000,000 acres, or about 27 per cent of the land surface of the territory. Of these, about 20,000,000 acres may possibly bear

timber of sufficient size and density to be considered forest in the sense that much of it can be used for saw timber, while the balance or 80,000,000 acres, is woodland, which bears some saw timber, but on which the forest is or a smaller and more scattered character and valuable chiefly for fuel. There is not sufficient information upon which to base any satisfactory estimate of the total stand of timber in Alaska. It Jus been estimated for instance, that the coasl forests contain 75,000,000,000 feet of merchantable timber, but this estimate might we think, be much-ex-ceeded were both spruce and hemlock closely utilized. Much of the

Raft of spruce logs'on beach near Wrangel, Alaska. Average diameter at the butt, 37 Inches; st the top, 21 Inches; average length, 7Sf feet; content of rest approximately ItttOOO board feet blecf spruce is too small for commercial purposes, so that it is impossible to give s satisfactory estimate of the total stand.