Some 50,000 Sitka spruce seedlings planted throughout November at Cape Chiniak are taking root.

Peter Olsen of Quayanna Development Corp., contracted for the reforestation project by land owner Leisnoi Native Corp., said the young trees are “plug plus one” seedlings that got a head start in a nursery. Private Land and Resource Consulting (PLaRC) is the forestry and resource consulting part of QDC.

A crew from Washington state planted 45,000 seedlings on 200 acres in a week. A local crew planted an additional 5,000 young trees. Olsen said that within the next four to five years some 600,000 seedlings will be planted on roughly 2,400 acres.

Leisnoi cut its forests in Chiniak beginning in the early 1990s.

Typically two-thirds of a forested area comes back naturally, but the Chiniak land is an anomaly for a number of reasons, Olsen said. Critters such as field mice, voles and snowshoe hares feed on new trees. Because of poor seed years, there was little recruitment to replace cut trees.

“These factors collided at the same time,” Olsen said.

This winter, Olsen was asked by Claire Doig, a consultant forester with Leisnoi, to help the reforestation, mandated by the corporation’s Stewardship Plan and the Alaska Forest Practices Act.

Finding a nursery with enough trees on hand posed a challenge.

“I couldn’t just go to Wal-Mart and ask for 50,000 plants,” Olsen said.

But he managed to track down the trees for the project at a nursery in Roy, Wash.

The project was funded through Natural Resource Conservation Services (NRCS), Leisnoi and the Global Re-Leaf project of the American Forests organization.

NRCS, which addresses resource problems on private lands, determined that Leisnoi’s property at Chiniak fit that category. Global ReLeaf offers grants yearly.

“It was really exciting to get enough resources to make this (reforestation) happen in a timely manner. A forester learns to think in decades, but this came together quickly. This doesn’t happen very often,” Olsen said.

Before the planting crew stuck the Sitka spruce sprouts into the ground, Olsen’s son Aaron Olsen and nephew Jimmy Dawson cleared underbrush using mulching machines that resemble gigantic lawnmowers. The machines move around on caterpillar-like crawlers and have mulching heads that grind up underbrush, grass and shrubs which compete for the oxygen, water and nutrients and provide ideal nesting grounds and food for another menace to young trees — rodents.

Snowshoe hares clip the branches. Sometimes the animals chew on the main stem.

“The site clearing keeps them away from many of the trees, since they tend to not venture out away from cover,” Olsen said.

In the mid 1980s to early ’90s, Korea, Japan, China and other countries purchased Afognak timber. Since then, demands for American logs diminished significantly.

But Olsen said there are potential markets for trees.

“You can convert the gases created by clean-burning wood into gas that could help run a generator,” Olsen said.

Wood is more environmentally friendly than other fuels.

“Burning wood is carbon neutral. You’re not adding (carbon dioxide) to the atmosphere,” Olsen said.

Global warming is not the most urgent reason for developing alternative fuel sources such as wood, Olsen said.

“This is more of a national security issue. The U.S. dependence on petroleum (especially in hostile countries) has been the Achilles heel of this country.”

For some Alaska villages, wood energy might be a key to their survival. Wood is not only a less expensive source of energy, but it can be marketed to other communities.

“Interior Alaska has the highest energy costs in North America. If they don’t find some alternative, those villages will die,” Olsen said.

Through PLaRC, Olsen is a contractor with Alaska Village Initiatives, conducting biomass energy projects in Fort Yukon. Olsen hopes to offer his program to other villages.

“We tell (those in rural communities) that ‘We’re not going to do this to you, or for you, but we’ll do it with you.’”

Created in 1968, the nonprofit AVI promotes the economic well being of rural Alaskans by assisting in economic development, networking, advocacy and education. The agency was formerly known as the Community Enterprise Development Corp. of Alaska.

A Kodiak Island Native, Olsen sees a similarity between the island’s traditional livelihood of fishing and forestry.

It boils down to supply and demand.

“Before you go fishing, you study the fish, the equipment, tides and other criteria. You base your plans and investments on what you see. It’s the same (with) looking at the wood-growing potential,” he said.

The bottom line is: What is it going to cost?

One must consider the biological, economical and social criteria of the venture, Olsen said.

Logging and reforestation are similar to farming, rather than mining, Olsen said. He said reforestation can occur within a relatively short time. Seedlings planted on Afognak in 1983 are now 10 inches in diameter at the base.

“What turns my crank are the opportunities for wood as fuel,” Olsen said. “I’m going to get a wood boiler for my house. A wood boiler burns just as clean as an oil boiler.”