A stack of logs sits at Mike Allen Jr.'s sawmill on March 14. Allen operates the mill with his sons and describes the borough's recent push for more logging in the area as a "win-win."
It was always going to be tough for City Hall to follow up a fiscal year that brought in over $50 million in federal and state funding, but 2025 hasn't exactly gotten off to a rip-roaring financial start.
Congress' failure to reauthorize funding for the Secure Rural Schools program means that the borough is beginning to build next year's budget in a $800,000 hole after losing the federal aid; the pending launch of Sitka's new haul-out boatyard could take business away from Wrangell's economy; and the failure by Congress to pass a full budget bill means that Wrangell's capital project requests for federal money will have to wait another year.
Despite the setbacks, borough officials are not giving up on economic development projects.
On March 4, players in the Wrangell timber industry met to discuss a single goal: bringing more logging sales and timber operations back to Wrangell. The list of attendees was long and encompassed officials from City Hall, the U.S. Forest Service, the state forestry division and local mill operators Mike and Brian Allen.
The Trust Land Office - which manages the Alaska Mental Health Authority's approximately 1 million acres of Alaska land to generate revenue - was also in attendance.
The trust owns about 4,000 acres on Wrangell Island. The properties are on the uphill side of Zimovia Highway from near City Park out past Shoemaker Bay and some as far south as Pats Creek; on Ishiyama Drive; and several parcels on the island's east side, facing the Back Channel.
The meeting comes in the wake of City Hall and the Trust Land Office signing a five-year collaboration agreement with the long-term goal of expanding not just Wrangell's timber industry, but the borough's tax base.
Borough officials hope that President Donald Trump's support for resource development will open more market opportunities for Alaska timber.
And while Borough Manager Mason Villarma hopes to bring back large-scale timber operations to town, he has continued to reiterate that local logging is crucial to expansion of the timber industry.
Mike Allen Jr. has worked in the timber business for 22 years. He owns and operates his logging operation and small sawmill out the road. Allen described the borough's new effort (the Wrangell Timber Initiative) as a "win-win for everybody," though he admitted that these things "take time."
Allen's sawmill is family owned and operated and able to process about 500,000 board feet of timber every year. And while the borough hopes to expand its timber operations to include larger operations, Allen pointed out that would help his business - rather than hurt it.
He said big logging companies are often the ones that build the roads, giving outfits like his the ability to access timber he otherwise would not be able to reach. Additionally, a larger outfit wouldn't take any business away from him. Motioning to the trees around him, he said there is enough timber available for him that will last a lifetime.
Currently, he has a timber sales contract with the Forest Service. And up next, he is lined up to purchase a parcel of borough land at 5.5-Mile. It was the site of a recent major blowdown, and the borough hopes to sell that land to Allen while those fallen trees still have value as marketable timber.
After that, the borough is hoping to involve Allen in a harvest of Anita Bay, an inlet located just across Zimovia Strait from his mill site. Allen said there is about 1 million board feet of timber at Anita Bay, and the project would keep him busy for at least a couple years as he logs and mills the predominantly red cedar and spruce trees in the area.
On the borough's side of things, Villarma sees the timber industry as not just a catalyst for Wrangell's economy, but also as a method of increasing the borough's tax base. If areas can be harvested for timber and subdivisions can be drawn up so that homes can be built on those properties, that's more money heading into the public treasury.
While Villarma said the initiative is designed with an eye toward the future, the short-term next steps have already been identified. He will continue to pursue smaller sales of borough land to local outfits like Allen's, but he also wants to lay some of the groundwork for larger-scale operations. Examples of this include clearing some environmental hurdles early and negotiating land swaps with the Trust Land Office to make more acreage available for logging.
Eventually, the borough wants to start logging at Earl West, halfway down the island on the Back Channel. This is an area that both Allen and Villarma see as incredibly valuable, with Villarma estimating a market value of $20 million to $25 million in timber sales.
The state forestry division also is looking at a sale in the same area, possibly in 2026 or 2027 at 3 million board feet spread over 160 acres of old-growth timber.
The state acreage is in the Department of Natural Resources' five-year timber sale plan but is not certain and will depend on budget and other considerations. The area is accessible from existing Forest Service roads but would require about a mile of new road and a half mile of road reconstruction.
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