Second-growth Sitka spruce from Mitkof Island, milled at Alaska Timber and Truss in Petersburg and shipped by state ferry, now forms the timber-frame structure of an outdoor learning shelter at Pacific High School in Sitka.

The impressive posts and beams showcase what Southeast Alaska’s 50- to 60-year-old second-growth trees can produce. The structure will serve as an open-air learning pavilion, 24 feet by 30 feet, for the alternative high school’s garden-based education program.

Andrew Thoms, executive director of the Sitka Conservation Society, contacted Brett Martin, co-owner of Alaska Timber and Truss, to get the collaboration started.

“He reached out to me and actually came here to Petersburg just to see the young-growth timber here ... and was looking for an opportunity to potentially build a structure,” Martin said.

The two organizations worked together on the pavilion design, with Mike Duman of Alaska Timber and Truss providing structural calculations and helping with permitting. The Sitka Conservation Society, which led the project, paid for the lumber and design work with grant funds.

The timber came from the U.S. Forest Service micro sale program on Mitkof Island, which allows harvests under 50,000 board feet.

“We went out, selected our trees, and then the Forest Service personnel, they go out, they take a look,” Martin said. “If they have no habitat concerns, then they go ahead and number the trees and put a yellow tag on them.”

Martin’s crew logged the trees, brought them back to the mill and let the spruce air dry for a year before it went into the kiln to dehydrate for about six more days. The kiln dried the wood to about 6% moisture content.

He also used the company’s tongue-and-groove machine for the first time.

The first truckload from Petersburg to Sitka traveled aboard the Alaska Marine Highway System last June, the second in January, and a third load is expected this month.

“The fact that we can source lumber from a neighboring community, ship it on the ferry to be used to do a construction project of a community asset here in Sitka — I mean, just exemplifies why the marine highway is important, and relationships between communities here in Southeast Alaska,” Martin said.

He sees the project as a valuable showcase for the young-growth timber industry in Southeast.

“There’s momentum in the industry whenever there’s opportunities like that, that can showcase the types of things that can be built,” he said. “People may or may not know that they can get lumber from something other than a box store.”

“I would bet 90% of the people who live in Southeast Alaska still do not know that their local mills could provide them with certified lumber,” he said. “People could build their houses. They can be financed through banks.”

Thoms said it is a priority for Sitka Conservation Society to help get the word out about the availability of locally produced timber.

“The timber harvest on the Tongass, up until just recently ... focused on old-growth timber harvest,” he said. “We want to … figure out a way to showcase how we can use young-growth Sitka spruce from the Tongass to build this massive timber beam pavilion,” Thoms said.

“Sitka spruce is a wood that’s renowned for its strength-to-weight ratio, and (the posts and beams) behaved really well,” Thoms said, adding that the tongue-and-groove roof decking, installed during a recent dry spell, “came together really nice, and it looks great.”

Martin sees significant market potential for Southeast Alaska mills. “With the average house taking 10,000 to 15,000 board feet of lumber, it will be decades and decades before the mills could even try to catch up with the shortfall we currently have,” he said. “There’s no shortage of houses that could be built right now. It’s just a matter of encouraging people to buy from their local mill.”

Martin emphasized the advantages of sourcing locally rather than shipping lumber from the Lower 48.

“All of that helps our local economy,” he said. “The more people see stuff like this, the more it’s going to grow our timber industry and our milling capacity here in Southeast Alaska. ... You don’t use barging to get lumber from the Lower 48 up to Alaska when we literally have it in our backdoors.”

“We’re at the point where the trees from the first clear-cuts that happened on the Tongass are at a commercial and merchantable size, and we can shift over to utilization of that resource,” Thoms said. “But we need to figure out ... how’s the best way to harvest it? How do we want it utilized?”

Beyond the Pacific High School project, Alaska Timber and Truss is working on homebuilding packages for Western Alaska communities — currently developing Sitka spruce interior paneling and flooring from hemlock.