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TALKEETNA, ALASKA – Like many Alaskans in the Upper Susitna Basin, Gerald Shearer is concerned about the risk of wildfire on his forestland. Recent wildfires in the region such as the Bear Creek Fire (2025), Montana Creek Fire (2024), and the Sockeye Fire (2015) have threatened homes and infrastructure and destroyed forests. 

“Black spruce is highly flammable, all you have to do is strike a match to it,” Gerald said. “We had a substantial fire about two miles away [the Montana Creek Fire], and the only reason it didn’t hit us was because the wind came out of the north instead of south. The fire jumped the road and spread fast.”

As a model steward of the land, Gerald has been working on a fuel break on the north end of his property since he bought it in 2013. He found out about the USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) from his neighbor and has been working with NRCS since 2018 to reduce wildfire risk on his 430-acre property. 

The landscape is a mix of hardwood and conifer species including white spruce, black spruce, birch, and cottonwood. This timberland can be sustainably harvested with proper management considerations. 

Gerald is retired and runs a commercial lumber and firewood business. He heats his homestead entirely on firewood using a specialized boiler facility.

Gerald operates a sawmill on his property and produces high-grade birch lumber. The value of the lumber far exceeds the income he makes from selling firewood and the demand is high. In just a few days, he can produce 1,000 board feet of birch lumber.

He sells the lumber locally with little advertisement. He said that in Anchorage, high-grade Alaska birch lumber is selling for $8 to $10 per board foot. A recent customer trimmed out their entire house, built a bench, and are making two internal barn doors rather than conventional doors because of the beauty of the wood. 

Gerald is working with NRCS through the Environmental Quality Incentives Program (EQIP) and the Conservation Stewardship Program (CSP) to address wildfire hazards, improve forest productivity, and improve wildlife habitat. Through both of those programs, NRCS provides Gerald with technical assistance and financial incentives to help him accomplish the work and improve his bottom line. 

“NRCS gives me some direction to how I want to proceed,” Gerald said. “It’s nice to have someone to make suggestions and bounce ideas off. And it was a deal I couldn’t refuse. The price was right.” 

Gerald’s advice to landowners who are thinking about working with NRCS: “Do it. Working with NRCS will help you improve your property in the short term, increasing how much firewood you can cut off the property. And if you sell the property down the road and it has been thinned, you could have higher timber quality. It’s an asset to your property.”

Forestry Conservation Practices

Gerald is working with NRCS on a variety of forestry conservation practices including fuel breaks, forest stand improvement, woody residue treatment, and wildlife habitat brush piles. 

Fuel Breaks

Fuel breaks are strips of land in the forest where trees and vegetation are cut back to control or diminish the spread of a fire. The fuel break area acts as a buffer zone to slow or stop the progression of a wildfire.

“My goal is to clear out the dead spruce and get adequate spacing in the fuel break,” Gerald said. “NRCS helped flag the trees for removal. We want to make sure we leave species diversity.”

Forest Stand Improvement

Forest stand improvement can include thinning the forest to remove trees affected by spruce bark beetle, disease, or areas where tree productivity and health are limited due to stand density.  This results in a more productive forest stand that is also more resilient and resistant to wildfire. Many wildlife species also benefit from properly thinned and managed forest.

“When you give the canopy room to spread, you have more photosynthesis, and the bulk and girth of that tree would double in 10 years,” Gerald said. “That equates to a larger saw log and more profitability.”

Gerald does the work himself with a tractor loader, chain saw and a chipper. He said he gets about 10 cord per acre and leaves the healthiest trees to maximize their growth.

Woody Residue Treatment

Woody residue treatment, also called slash treatment, involves managing the vegetation that is removed in fuel breaks or thinning. Gerald cuts most of the removed trees into saw logs for his commercial firewood business. He uses a chipper to cut up the remaining vegetation and scatters the wood chips on the forest floor. 

Structures for Wildlife (Wildlife Habitat Brush Piles)

In some areas on the property, he used some of the slash material to build wildlife habitat brush piles. These brush piles provide shelter, cover, and even nesting and breeding habitat for small mammals and birds.

He sees many critters on the property including white-crowned sparrows, shrews, voles, rabbits, bear, moose, coyotes, wolverines and beavers.

A Forest-Focused Entrepreneur  

Gerald has done woodworking most of his life. He has a vision for a forestry industry in the Upper Susitna Valley and Talkeetna area. Two years after he moved to the property, he bought a sawmill and produces high quality birch lumber. He is amazed there is not more well-established, industrial forestry in the area.

“If this wood were any place else in the U.S., it would be a thriving industry,” he said.

Gerald is experimenting with species like Siberian larch, Siberian Swiss stone pine, Scotch pine and Lodgepole pine. He propagates his own tree seedlings for planting on his property and sells some to nursery businesses in the Matanuska Susitna Valley. 

He said there is a huge demand for tree seedlings and it is a profitable endeavor for the right entrepreneur. He cited some retailers in the Lower 48 who charge $70 per seedling, and he can sell them for a profit to local nursery outfitters such as Alaska Trees in Wasilla. 

“It’s a missed business opportunity to do nursery stock,” he said. “The retail is the biggest hurdle, as most people don’t want to deal with that side of it. But if you can grow something and sell it to a business, it’s easy to do.”

As Gerald continues his forestry work with NRCS, he enjoys the lessons learned along the journey.

“For me, it’s been fun. Forestry is a hobby. I’m a science and engineering nerd and this was a new challenge for me,” Gerald said.

Published August 2025 by NRCS Alaska. Story and photos by Tracy Robillard, Public Affairs Specialist.