Alaskan Logging Equipment, Left to Rust

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When I moved to Alaska in March of 92', the oil industry was simply "running on fumes"... There were 6 rigs running in the state, 5 of them on the North Slope, 1 in the Cook Inlet... Upon applying for a roughnecking job with the 6 contractors doing business in Alaska, I was mortified to find out the "turn over rate" for roughnecks in Alaska, was so low that you literally had to wait for someone to die before a open position would became available...

So upon my arrival to Alaska I was immediately put into a panic... I was just 28 and already a single parent with 2 kids under the age of 4 while receiving only welfare assistance for food and a place for us to live... So I began by writing letters to court the logging industry... After all I was a certified welder, could run any size chain saw, and had a class 5 chauffer's license that said I drive anything with wheels on it...

But within a month of my arrival, the shutdown of the Tongass would begin...

The patch on my ball cap said "Cambel's SPOTTED OWL SOUP" as I expressed my displeasure with the "tree hugger's" openly and often... I found little jobs to carry us through the summer... But I had to have steady WORK before winter!! With so much news about "environmental" issues, it was only natural I guess that the idea would hit me about doing environmental work... The Valdez cleanup was still underway somewhat in Prince Williams sound... So off I went, "I can wipe oil of rocks too..."

But when I got to Valdez, there was so many people trying to get on... that they were camping along side the road in the ditches going into town...

Returning to Kenai, broke and with less than a 1/2 tank of gas left... I decided to start my OWN business... I offered to dispose of any used oil or get rid of garbage drums and industrial trash from in around all of the oilfield service's businesses in the area... And as I did, I showed that I was a hard worker, honest, and helpful to business owner's... And I've been in the oilfield service business ever since. A person just doesn't know, when or how opportunity will present itself. So I've learned to be ready for it when it does.

Contract Logger said:

Old growth timber is just like all that equipment- the older it gets the less it is worth. Even in the logging heyday here, the old growth cutting yeilded darn little good saw or board material-it stands there rotten or dying, it is mushy low-value pulp wood. Great for paper, but little value otherwise. The areas that were logged over the years are now producing some of the finest stands of hemlock and spruce you have ever seen- all natural regen as no replanting was ever done up here. Our earth and its resources are amazing, the problem is human nature, stewardship, and laziness. Sureley we are inteligent enough to manage this resource better than we have been. I am very pro-logging. And I am very pro-environment. I am not anti-government, but they cnnot effectivley manage anything well it seems. Not even my post office or DMV, LOL. Anyway, I wasnt blaming Government or even Bill Clinton, it just gets frustrating when I have so much faith in people and common sense-- that we can manage without destruction. Our predecessors just couldnt/wouldnt figure out how, and we pay for it today with no timber jobs on the Tongass. They were either too greedy, to lazy, or both. Enough politics, back to the equipment pictures! Thanks for listening.

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AND here we are now, some 11 years later... The equipment still sits idle, at least that what remains of it that hasn't been sold for scrap or parted out... And what of those families whos lives and livelihood's were all so disrupted by the complete ignorance of those "ruler's of the empire"?? As Contract Logger said, "Old growth timber is just like all that equipment- the older it gets the less it is worth." So the wood continued to rot, the beetle infestations continued to grow, and the industry itself we see would be simply be consumed by the forest... Like green leaves and mushrooms on the 1st night of the fall frost, so did an entire industry... And what can be said for humanity and our combined intelligence? What can be said of our "stewardship of the land, if we can not sustain an industry, without destroying that what drives the same? I think like Contract Logger, and I truly believe we can. But, not as long as complete ignorance of the ruling class in this country, controls the narrative...

I looked around and see no sign of Contract Logger here since 2012, and little activity after 2015 on his site. I have really enjoyed this read and want to thank the keepers of this site for preserving this history.
I was in the area only a couple of times, back when the logging was still going on. My friendś brother was a tug captain out of Wrangell and he had a tow of logs to make when we visited him, I want to say it was ´92. I will check my logbooks to confirm it.

skyking1 said:

I looked around and see no sign of Contract Logger here since 2012, and little activity after 2015 on his site. I have really enjoyed this read and want to thank the keepers of this site for preserving this history.
I was in the area only a couple of times, back when the logging was still going on. My friendś brother was a tug captain out of Wrangell and he had a tow of logs to make when we visited him, I want to say it was ´92. I will check my logbooks to confirm it.

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Hello Skyking, Contract Logger changed his account at some point and became Rusty Grapple, he has continued posting in threads here from time to time and has an amazing website going which has same title i think "RustyGrapple.com" or something near to that.

Tobin & Riedesel has gotten the boot also as SeAlaska has shutdown all logging operations. I was speaking with Steve Tobin on Monday and he said he was able to get some of his equipment to the mainland but a lot of it is still stuck on the island out by Keat inlet. I don't know what is going to happen with at all but most likely it will add to the rest of the equipment in this thread.

Wf_d,

Interesting. Wonder what’s going on.?

Ahh,.. I see, after a quick DuckDuckGo search revealed that export log prices are in the toilet and not expected to increase for much of 21. China and Japan are not buying wood from the PNW, at the moment.

Sure has been a lot of drama at Keete Inlet over the last couple years. Drug raids, murder, and a OSHA fatalgram last fall.

SEAlaska has sold the rights to their timber for Carbon storage to the oil & gas companies. They got more out of it than logging & don't have any of the headaches from it.
That fatality was at the T&R camp last year. The Murder was at Phoenix's camp

Sorry to hear about T&R. Southeast is a hard place for any logging company.

All the loggers get lured there by the big money contracts but unless they have logged there before they have no idea just how expensive it is.
They all learn that all that gear left to rust isn't because they made so much money that they could afford to abandon it, it's because they went broke & couldn't afford to take it!

Sure. the Mob from Wa/Oregon is brutal, and then you get started and need some part. you hope it is small enough to fit in a floatplane, and then pay through the nose for that. Bigger than that and you either make it, fix it, or wait on a barge trip.
You on the other hand, you might have to send a guy in a truck to Portland or Seattle.

The MO in Southeast is to show a ton of money to a contractor with an easy to fill order for the first and second year. Then the money guys throw a lot more blue sky at you and demand that you improve and increase your equipment fleet and payroll. Next year they shut everything down and you are stuck. If there is anything left that can be found, the banks and finance companies will come looking and gladly pay the barge fees to get the stuff back down here. It will then sit at some yard next to a port until it is completely written off.

California Cap & Trade carbon sequestration. Interesting. I had no idea that was a thing. 370 million sold in Alaska since 2015. Alaska Biz has an article about it that explains it.

https://digital.akbizmag.com/issue/september-2019/harvesting-carbon-credits/

Sounds like an accountant's dream vacation home in Hawaii. You lock up your trees for so many years for so much money and if there is a fire or insect damage, you don't have to pay the money back? I'm wondering if the land that is locked up and paid for can be used by other states for their cap and trade as well? Could a company in California who paid for credits also count those credits in Washington or Oregon. Could a native corporation in Alaska sell the same rights on a stand of timber more than once? Who is in charge of governing all this? It doesn't sound like it's under federal control.

I wondered the same thing. SEAlaska said they weren't getting the returns on their timber they wanted.

Steve is coming to work for me on Monday to run processor.

Hallback said:

Steve is coming to work for me on Monday to run processor.

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Steve? Sorry, I don't know all the real names here.

He was a partner/owner of Tobin & Riedesel who was logging for SEAlaska.

He always seems to land on his feet somewhere.

Yes he does. He is a good man & Unfortunately let himself get tangled up with that partner of his in a money losing venture.