RED ALDER POTENTIAL IN ALASKABy Allen Brackley, DaveNicholls, Mike Hannan

Over the past several decades, redalder has established itself as acommercially important species

in the Pacific Northwest. Once considereda weed species, red alder now commandsrespect within many markets, includingfurniture, architectural millwork, andother secondary manufactured products,

Although red alder's natural range ex-tends to southeast Alaska, an industryhas not developed there to utilize the ma-terial. Red alder in southeast Alaska isoften found in abundance alongroadbeds, as well as areas harvested dur-ing the region's pulp mill era which last-ed from about 1955 to 1995. Many ofthese easily accessible stands are nowreaching commercial sawtimber size,Rising interest in red alder could poten-tially lead to a range of new opportuni-ties for entrepreneurs and Alaskan woodproducts firms, including export of logs,kiln-dried lumber, and/or secondarymanufactured products (such as furni-ture, kitchen cabinets and moldings),

Key questions must be answered be-fore entrepreneurs would consider start-up businesses sawing red alder (and/orexisting businesses would consideradding alder lumber to their product.lines). Among them are:

• What size tree is available and whatsize is economically feasible to harvest?

• What lumber recovery can be ex-pected from different diameter classes?

• How does overall grade recovery ofmaterial in southeast Alaska comparewith other regions?

• What is the sustainable volume ofmaterial available in a specific locationin southeast Alaska?

STUDY OBJECTIVESAU data for this study was collected in

accordance with the terms of a Joint Ven-ture Agreement between the USDA For-est Service, Pacific Northwest ResearchStation, Alaska Wood Utilization Re-search and Development Center in Sitka,Alaska. and the Ketchikan Wood Tech-

nology Center in Wards Cove, Alaska,The objective for this study was to evalu-ate the product recovery from red aldertrees harvested in southeast Alaska usinga thin-kerf portable bandrnill, and to de-termine the suitability of this resource foruse by regional wood products firms thattypically use small portable mills, Specifi-cally, we evaluated:

monly used in locations where it is notvisible, such as supporting structures ofupholstered furniture Table 1).

Superior grade lumber, the highestvalue lumber, represented less than 11%of total volume sawn. One dear trendwas that for smaller diameter logs (topscale diameter less than 10 in.), framegrade predominated whereas for largerdiameter stems there was a more evendistribution between Superior, Cabinet& Custom Shop, and Common Shopgrades. Another clear trend was that theyield of Superior grade was consider-ably greater for 12 in. and 13 in. scalingdiameters VS. smaller stems. In general,as the scaling diameter increased, so didthe percentage of recovery of CommonShop and better grades of lumber.

SIGNIFICANCEThe overall lumber value at the time

of the study (January 2007) was $822 perthousand board feet of tally. We foundthat the highest grade of lumber (Superi-or grade) accounted for more lumbervalue than any other grade (32% oftotal), despite representing only 10.8% ofthe total volume.

Low grade material can also be cutinto planks for use in cooking "plankedsalmon." The total market for such"novelty" products is poorly understood.but it represents niche marketing oppor-tunities that local producers can considerto increase the value from low grade ma-terial and residuals.

Many of the small sawmills in rurallocations have the ability to saw redalder, although lumber yields would like-ly be lower when using circularsaws(versus the band saw used in this study).Existing markets for red alder lumberwill accept either rough, green or driedlumber. Therefore individuals with an in-terest in red alder production should re-search an alternatives and plan to maxi-mize return, based upon the equipmentmix of breakdown saws. drying andplaning equipment they plan to use forproduction.

"jacket boards" from the best openingface. Logs were then turned 90 degreesand one or two additional boards weresawn, Logs were again turned 90 degreesand all remaining boards were live sawnfrom this position. All lumber was sawnto a nominal thickness of 3/4% in., and thenedged to a nominal. width of 4 or 6 in.The lumber was then trimmed to lengthsof 5,6,7,8,9, or 10ft. (with about 90%of the boards being trimmed to either 8ft. or 10 ft.).

DRY ENDAll lumber was dried in a commercial,

low-pressure steam dry kiln. The lumberwas dried at a dry bulb temperature of140o F throughout the drying cycle, andwas dried to a final target moisture COn-tent of 9% (oven-dry basis). A five daydrying cycle was used, with wet bulb de-pression ranging from 5 to 15o F. Lum-ber was planed to a final thickness of0.75 in., and stored in a dry location.

LUMBER GRADINGLumber grading was done by a trained

grader, and was adapted from industrystandard rules for red alder (NationalHardwood Lumber Assn. 2007), modi-fied to recognize grades commonly usedby the industry. Each board was identi-fied according to log and tree number,and then assigned one of the followinggrades:

• Superior• Cabinet & Custom Shop• Common Shop• Frame• Economy Frame• Pallet

DISCUSSIONHardwood lumber is graded not on the

size or distribution of defects, but ratherthe percentage of board area in clear cut-ting. Thus, even large, strategically lo-cated defects could be present in a boardwithout reducing its grade.

In our study, 44 trees produced atotal of 6,273 board feet of lumber. Atotal of 1,742 boards were sawn fromred alder logs. Based on count, 58% ofthe boards were nominal 4 in. and 43%were nominal 6 in. stock. When tallywas considered, 46% were nominal 4in. and 54% were nominal 6 in. stock.Forty-seven percent of the material wasin Common Shop or better grades oflumber. The bulk of the remaining pro-duction (almost 41 % of total) was inFrame grade material which is com-

1) lumber volume recovery of sawnred alder logs (by log diameter and scaleclass),

2) grade recovery of lumber sawnfrom red alder logs (by log diameter andscale class),

RAW MATERIAL"Forty-four red alder trees were select-

ed from a single. site located nearKetchikan, at an elevation of about 215ft. The stand age was approximately 46years. and the average diameter breastheight of 50 measured trees was 11 .32in. The standing tree height was mea-sured by eye, and averaged almost 69 ft.(with a range of 61 to 82 ft.).

Grading and scaling of full lengthstems and bucked logs were conductedby trained personnel from the USDAForest Service, Tongass National Forest,Ketchikan Ranger District. All logs werescaled according to cubic log scale rulesand also Scribner west side log scalerules. Outside bark diameter measure-ments were then taken at four foot inter-vals, with an extra measurement two feelfrom the large end.

SAWMILLINGPrimary log breakdown was done

using a commercial thin-kerf band saw mill. Primary breakdown of logs was done by first sawing either one or two

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