Mat-Su to nalize timber contract

The Matanuska-Susitna Borough is finalizing a timber harvesting agreement with Denali Timber Management, a Washington state company, to harvest trees on a 24,000-acre tract of spruce and birch forest on borough land about 30 miles northwest of Willow. The borough assembly approved the plan. Denali Timber would harvest the timber and transport it by truck to Port MacKenzie, the borough’s commodity port, where a partner, TPT Forest Products, Ltd., a New Zealand company, would coordinate onward shipping to customers in Asia. About 20 to 30 trucks a day could be required to move logs. The borough sold timber in the area once before, in 1998, but terminated the contract when the logger, who was local, couldn’t comply with contract terms. Mat-Su officials believe log shipments could result in $900,000 a year in revenues to its port.

Mat-Su officials and others want to get the harvesting underway to get value from spruce wood in the area before a new outbreak of spruce bark beetle infestation lowers the value.