Steinway to stop production of pianos thanks to Government

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Steinway pianos have a particular sound. “When one plays a Steinway, there is a warmth and nobility in the sound that is unequalled by any other instrument,” says Ukrainian-born classical pianist Emanuel Ax. The secret to the sound isn’t merely Steinway’s skilled craftsmen—who’ve been using the same methods since 1853—but the specialized wood they use for the soundboards. It comes from the Tongass National Forest in Alaska, and it gives Steinway pianos the highest quality of tone, pitch, clarity and consistency. Unfortunately, a broken promise from the federal government will soon stop the music.

In 1994, my dad, uncles, their lifelong friend and my grandfather took a gamble on a bankrupt sawmill on Prince of Wales Island in Southeast Alaska. My dad moved our family to rural Alaska, sight unseen, 31 years ago. Along with a crew that included my 16-year-old brother, they rebuilt the mill in six months and found their American dream. Today, our wood goes into instruments from Martin and Gibson Guitars as well as Kawai, Boston, Essex, Yamaha and Steinway & Sons pianos. Our company, Viking Lumber, is the last remaining mill in the U.S. able to provide the wood needed for a Steinway piano.

You depend on our wood even if you don’t play an instrument. Our Sitka spruce is used in National Aeronautics and Space Administration wind tunnels, in boat and airplane construction, to make the blades of helicopters that fight fires and deliver supplies to troops, and in the nose cones of U.S. military missiles.

... Viking Lumber is now fighting a government obstacle that threatens all the planes, helicopters, boats, guitars and Steinways that rely on our wood.

In our part of Alaska, the federal government owns approximately 94% of the land and controls access to timber resources. In 2016 the U.S. Department of Agriculture created a management plan that promised the availability of old-growth timber from the Tongass annually on a fixed schedule. The government hasn’t exactly stuck to that schedule. Not only has the Forest Service never met the timber-sale goals outlined in their management plan, in the past four years it offered less than 10% of the annual needs for the industry.

Our entire Alaskan industry—and the products and activities around the world that rely on us—depend on the sale of that timber. An executive order from President Trump, a memo from Forest Service Acting Associate Chief Chris French, and a lawsuit we filed against the USDA earlier this year haven’t been enough to get the Forest Service to stop starving the industry.

Lumber companies aren’t trying to raze the forest. The Tongass spans more than 16 million acres, and 95% of it is off-limits to timber harvesting. To understand how little of the forest is harvested, visualize a football field, 360 by 160 feet. The proportion of that field available to harvest for the industry annually under the current forest plan is a square a little over 7 feet on each side. That’s about 0.09% of the Tongass.

Industry experts like my dad built their businesses around sustainability, ensuring that future generations will be able to continue the small-scale harvesting and that the forests can continue to be used for recreation, subsistence lifestyle, tourism and cultural traditions. People are worth protecting, too. Our employees include Alaska Natives, parents, and those trying to build their own American dreams....

When our company—Alaska’s last production sawmill—finishes our currently contracted harvest in September, we will have exhausted all the timber the Forest Service has offered. Our 31-year operation won’t be able to go on. The families who depend on us here will be forced to move. Our sawmill, the leading supplier to musical manufacturing companies in the world, will die.

Then, we are left to wonder, how will the music play?

Ms. Lehnert is a public relations consultant for the timber industry.

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