• Thank you for visiting HeavyEquipmentForums.com! Our objective is to provide industry professionals a place to gather to exchange questions, answers and ideas. We welcome you to register using the "Register" icon at the top of the page. We'd appreciate any help you can offer in spreading the word of our new site. The more members that join, the bigger resource for all to enjoy. Thank you!

Logging TNF- Tongass National Forest

John C.

Senior Member
Joined
Jun 11, 2007
Messages
12,865
Location
Northwest
Occupation
Machinery & Equipment Appraiser
At this point it is all talk. A reporter needed to hand in a story and this was easy.
 

donkey doctor

Senior Member
Joined
May 18, 2010
Messages
425
Location
Ladysmith bc canada
Occupation
retired
When I was up there many years ago to work on a Madill tower specialy built for there on a D8 carrier I went out to the machine on a FMC skidder. They wern't building roads then. They winched the tower up the creek beds and used the creek beds as skid roads and dragged the logs to the beach down them. Can't think of the harm that did to the salmon spawning beds. Times change I guess. d.d.
 

John C.

Senior Member
Joined
Jun 11, 2007
Messages
12,865
Location
Northwest
Occupation
Machinery & Equipment Appraiser
How many camps and logging companies can you name from that area? My first trip up there was to Silver Bay Logging when they are working out of Juneau. The place was Eight Fathom Byte. I think that was in 1981 but it might have been the year before. I'll have to go back to my note books to remember the others. Maybe some on here can bring back some of those names and places?
 

Hallback

Senior Member
Joined
Jun 1, 2011
Messages
2,306
Location
Aberdeen Wa.
Occupation
Gyppo tower logger
Shaan Seet
Phoenix
Gildersleeve
KP
Alaska Pacific
Klukwan
AFP
And many others I have forgotten
 

Former Wrench

Senior Member
Joined
Jan 3, 2014
Messages
470
Location
Montesano, WA
Occupation
Retired
I was at Coffman Cove in 1977. On a flight we stopped at camos at Whale Pass, Texacana SP? and Thorne Bay before returning to Ketchikan. Seems like there were camps every where and small floaters in coves and bays where ever you looked.
 

John C.

Senior Member
Joined
Jun 11, 2007
Messages
12,865
Location
Northwest
Occupation
Machinery & Equipment Appraiser
I did multiple trips up there for Phoenix, Gildersleeve and Klukwan. Some names that are creeping back to my conscious mind are Seely, LP, White Stone, Zeman and Chugach.
 

John C.

Senior Member
Joined
Jun 11, 2007
Messages
12,865
Location
Northwest
Occupation
Machinery & Equipment Appraiser
I was thinking Ben Thomas was White Stone Logging. I didn't know of Browning up there in my times. The funny thing about loggers in Alaska was that they were mostly from Washington and Oregon. Sent up on promises and a little money to start. Bled out for a few years and then bankrupted when the big boys pull the rug out or the markets go flat. The new article that was referenced above stated that the roadless rule killed the Tongass logging but there was a bigger issue than that. Basically the logging was subsidized by the government in order to encourage development up there. People in Washington DC decided they should get the same amount of money for the wood that they got in commercial markets down here, so they pulled the plug and used the roadless rule as the tool. There is some logging going on up there now on native land but I think it will be a long time before any more logging happens in the Tongass again.
 

hoechucker

Well-Known Member
Joined
Mar 31, 2011
Messages
249
Location
n.cal
Will this just end up with more equipment rusting in the Alaskan wilderness?

https://www.washingtonpost.com/clim...e47db8-ef77-11e9-8693-f487e46784aa_story.html
I was
Will this just end up with more equipment rusting in the Alaskan wilderness?

https://www.washingtonpost.com/clim...e47db8-ef77-11e9-8693-f487e46784aa_story.html
I was up there working for Alaska Pacific salvage logging in yakutat when that all got shut down in the courts.
 

hoechucker

Well-Known Member
Joined
Mar 31, 2011
Messages
249
Location
n.cal
I was thinking Ben Thomas was White Stone Logging. I didn't know of Browning up there in my times. The funny thing about loggers in Alaska was that they were mostly from Washington and Oregon. Sent up on promises and a little money to start. Bled out for a few years and then bankrupted when the big boys pull the rug out or the markets go flat. The new article that was referenced above stated that the roadless rule killed the Tongass logging but there was a bigger issue than that. Basically the logging was subsidized by the government in order to encourage development up there. People in Washington DC decided they should get the same amount of money for the wood that they got in commercial markets down here, so they pulled the plug and used the roadless rule as the tool. There is some logging going on up there now on native land but I think it will be a long time before any more logging happens in the Tongass again.
I don't think Ben Thomas and Whitestone were the same. I worked for Whitestone on afognak island and Whitestone had a camp on one end of the island a Thomas had a camp in a different cove. I think cliff Walker owned Whitestone while I was there but that was 12-13 years ago so I'm probably mistaken
 

John C.

Senior Member
Joined
Jun 11, 2007
Messages
12,865
Location
Northwest
Occupation
Machinery & Equipment Appraiser
There is a native corporation logging in Yakutat now. That is all native land and not part of the Tongass.

It was a long time ago and my memory is getting fuzzier all the time. I didn't get to a Whitestone camp but knew other mechanics that did, so probably have that wrong. I usually spent a day or two in a camp working on a machine. Longest time was a week and I don't remember the camp names much anymore.
 

hoechucker

Well-Known Member
Joined
Mar 31, 2011
Messages
249
Location
n.cal
I'm pretty sure but not positive that we were logging forest service timber in yakutat but I can't be positive. It was a pretty huge blow down sale, supposed to have been years of work. I was only there a short time when it was shut down.
 
Top