10-04-2025
Tongass timber provides good jobs, as well as products of the best quality
Viking Lumber operates in Klawock. (Photo provided by Sarah Dahlstrom-Lehnert)
As a daughter and niece of sawmill owners raised in Southeast Alaska, I disagree with Hunter McIntoch's March 20 article, 'The Tongass National Forest is a national treasure worth more than timber.'
Trees from the Tongass provide the music of the world. Viking Lumber in Klawock, Alaska, is the sole supplier of soundboards for the world's finest pianos: Steinway & Sons. Steinway pianos are played on stages all over the world by performers such as Lady Gaga and Billy Joel. Steinway is the preferred piano of concert pianists, with 98% choosing a Steinway.
According to Ben Steiner, CEO and president of Steinway & Sons, the company uses methods that have been handed down from generation to generation since 1853, Steinway builds their pianos one at a time. To achieve such a high level of musicality, Steinway requires a soundboard made of the very best Sitka spruce, lumber supplied exclusively by Viking Lumber, the only US sawmill capable of supplying this lumber.
In addition to Steinway, Viking also supplies the lumber for the soundboards for Boston and Kawai pianos, Martin and Gibson guitars, wind tunnels for NASA, blades for firefighting helicopters, U.S. national security, interior and exterior doors, garage doors, fences, window trim, staircases, decking, siding and gazebos. Wood chips and sawdust, the byproducts, are used to heat local schools, the public swimming pool and homes throughout Southeast Alaska.
The multigenerational, family-owned small business has been operating for over 30 years in Klawock and is the last remaining mid-sized sawmill in Southeast Alaska. Viking Lumber employs 46 year-round Alaskans living in rural communities. Their employees receive family wages, health care, dental, vision, life insurance and a retirement plan. Viking's operations also support 90 employees of contractors in Alaska.
Indirectly, the sawmill supports the 200 union workers at Steinway's Astoria, New York, factory, the 19 Steinway & Sons stores, and a network of over 60 dealer storefront locations with hundreds of employees across the United States. This is the impact that Viking makes on just one of the companies they supply. Viking has a nation of customers and their employees that depend on a continuous supply of lumber.
It's nearly impossible to find a state that doesn't have a product that originated from Viking Lumber and the Tongass National Forest. Whether it's your front door, the gazebo your family gathers under on Sunday afternoon or the instrument your child learns to play, Viking provides the lumber that brings people together. These long-life treasures are made possible by the Tongass National Forest.
The Tongass National Forest is the largest national forest in the country and Viking harvests only 0.0016% of the forest annually. However, the U.S. Forest Service has offered less than a quarter of Viking's historic needs over the past four years. The sawmill has survived on the Alaska Mental Health Trust lands timber sale since 2016, which will be completed this year.
Who is really at risk? An out-of-state seasonal company or the year-round Southeast Alaskan families working in the timber industry.
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