Development and Markets

The Tanana Basin has several regional and local sawmills in operation. Most settlements have a local, private company that saws dimensional lumber and two and three sided house logs and timbers. Often these are part-time operations that saw rough cut lumber which is air dried and sold "green". There are a few regional mills that produce graded dimensional lumber with the largest producing about 4.5 MMBF of white spruce lumber annually. About seventy-five percent is planed and graded 5.

Several portable band saw mills produce hardwood lumber, mainly birch, which is utilized in a number of secondary manufacturing processes. These companies are small in scope, yet important to the developing hardwood industry.