Alaska’s last timber families stand against Forest Service’s unlawful industry purge

Alaska’s last timber families stand against Forest Service’s unlawful industry purge

PLF fights illegal rulemaking to protect natural resource access and the rule of law

Imagine the vast Tongass National Forest—covering nearly 17 million acres of southeast Alaska—as a 100-yard football field. Federally owned and controlled, timber operators can harvest just one inch of the field each year.

That inch represents more than timber. It’s American livelihoods and communities, thriving symbiotically with nature. Yet D.C. bureaucrats 3,000 miles away are breaking promises and laws to finish what they started 30 years ago: killing off Alaska’s timber industry.

“Why should small businesses have to fight so hard for an inch?” asks Sarah Lehnert. Her father, Kirk Dahlstrom, has battled government overreach his entire career to protect the family business.

Kirk’s Alaska journey began amid the 1990’s environmental movement when spotted owl protections imperiled his small timber operation in Washington State. He moved his family to Prince of Wales Island in the heart of the Tongass where he and two partners rescued a bankrupt sawmill and transformed it into Viking Lumber.

Over in Ketchikan, Eric Nichols gathered investors and formed Alcan Timber after his employer, a large international forest company, abandoned Alaska in 1990 over “public image” worries.

Kirk and Eric built their businesses from scratch, created jobs where none existed, and kept southeast Alaska’s economy alive against tremendous odds—Alaska’s timber industry once supported 4,000 direct jobs. Barely 300 jobs remain today, with 80 provided by Viking and Alcan to produce premium, globally prized wood used in everything from homebuilding to Steinway pianos.

“When we started, our people came to work in rusted-out, beat-up pickups, which is pretty standard in Alaska. Today, our parking lot is full of very nice, mostly new, fancy pickups,” Kirk beams. “It’s one of the things I’m very proud of—raising our employees’ standard of living beyond what was possible before.”

Every success comes despite extraordinary obstacles. Congress passed the Tongass Timber Reform Act (TTRA) in 1990 to balance environmental concerns and economic viability by ensuring continued timber sales that meet market demand while protecting habitats. This means even one timber sale can be a five-year wait for environmental studies and cataloging every plant, bug, and animal within the sale area. And before cutting a single tree, Kirk and Eric must invest millions in bonds, roads, and government fees—all at tremendous personal risk.

“I might borrow $15 million for one sale,” Kirk explains. “Every time, I personally guarantee every dollar with everything I own, from my house to my car. Our risks are that deep, every day.”

The timber landscape changed in 2016, when the U.S. Forest Service finalized a Tongass Management Plan to shift harvests from old-growth to younger trees. Orchestrated by then-Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack, the plan promised operators a ten-year grace period to harvest both, followed by a gradual reduction of old-growth as younger trees matured.

That promise was empty from the get-go. The agency has held exactly zero old-growth sales since 2016 and failed to deliver the pledged young-growth sales. Vilsack returned to the USDA in 2021 and simply replaced the Management Plan with his “Southeast Alaska Sustainability Strategy” guidance memo to end old-growth harvests altogether.

This isn’t just mismanagement, but a systematic assault on the very industry and timber resources Congress aimed to protect.

“When folks like Kirk and Eric go away, no one with industry knowledge will be left,” warns the Alaska Forest Association’s Tessa Axelson. “It’s not just a loss to them and their multi-generational families. It’s a loss to the communities, the future workforce, and the forest itself.”

The agency is also breaking laws: willfully disregarding the TTRA, the Management Plan, and the Administrative Procedure Act which requires actual rulemaking to change policy, not informal guidance memos.

“It’s outrageous that the Forest Service is intentionally working to eliminate what’s left of Alaska’s once-flourishing timber industry and communities depending on it,” says PLF attorney Frank Garrison. “But when agencies ignore Congress with impunity, constitutional protections for all Americans break down.”

Kirk, Eric, and the Alaska Forest Association are fighting back. With free representation from Pacific Legal Foundation, they’re challenging illegal agency actions to preserve what Congress intended: responsible access to the timber that’s long fueled their livelihoods, industry, and economy.

“I watched my dad fight my entire life. He’s seen everyone get pushed out,” says Sarah, who now works alongside her dad in his ultimate fight. “He’s told me, ‘If I don’t make it to see the end, you have to keep fighting for me.’”

“We’re not going to let the government bullies win,” vows Kirk. “When people have been with you, depend on you, and are loyal to you, it’s hard to think about shutting down your business. But we won’t give up. I’ll fight until I’m dead.”