PHOTO ESSAY: In rural Alaska, collecting driftwood saves time, money and brings jobs

Key Points

• By collecting driftwood, Galena residents create local jobs and obtain wood for heating and building without the high cost of barged or flown-in timber.
• The Louden Tribe’s sawmill, wood-chip heating system for a boarding school and a nearly-completed solar farm underscore Galena’s shift away from costly diesel fuel.
• Driftwood gathering sustains Indigenous traditions, fosters community engagement and provides high-quality material that lasts for decades.
• Experts warn that while driftwood removal prevents vegetation smothering and oxygen depletion in rivers, further research is needed to determine when it may harm aquatic ecosystems.

GALENA, Alaska (AP) — As ice breaks on the Yukon River, Jake Pogrebinsky looks at the water from shore, searching for a large log floating downstream.

When he spots one, he hops into his wooden motorboat and roars toward it, chainsawing any roots or branches that might still be attached, a hand-rolled cigarette never far from his lips. Then he drags the log with a rope toward shore, where eventually it will be used in the community here in central Alaska.

Pogrebinsky, 59, has been collecting driftwood in this remote, sprawling village of Galena for as long as he can remember. It's part of his job, but it also brings him great joy. “Doing this, it’s the greatest time,” he said.

Plucking logs from the river provides jobs and heating

Naturally felled and chopped trees and logs have long journeyed down rivers and oceans, transported by winds, waves, currents and ice, some eventually swooped up by people for building, heating, tools and more. Indigenous people have done the practice for millennia and it continues today. Rather than paying to barge or fly in wood, Galena residents say gathering floating logs not only saves money and energy, but also allows people to connect with their environment.

“It provides local jobs. We’re using local materials, we’re using local labor,” said Brooke Sanderson, tribal administrator for the local Louden Tribe.

Most of the collected driftwood becomes firewood for heating during bone-chilling winters, but it is also transformed into sidings for new energy efficient homes being built for members of the Louden Tribe.

Collecting large floating logs is just one of the village’s sustainable practices: For nearly a decade, locally harvested trees have been shredded into wood chips that heat a bustling boarding school. And soon, a nearly-completed solar farm will curb the town’s reliance on expensive, imported diesel.

In the summer of 2024, the tribe set up a sawmill — which Pogrebinsky operates — to process driftwood and trees into lumber. They had tried to harvest trees off the land but it was too time consuming and labor intensive, said Sanderson. Collecting driftwood, she said, was more worth people’s time.

Pogrebinsky can tell you all the reasons why. For one, the river carries a lot of good wood the village generally wouldn’t have. “The quality of material is very high. ... They can be permanent materials that would last decades."

And by the time he catches a driftwood, most of the logging and branch removal has been done, and the bark has washed away. “It’s amazing. It saves so much energy,” said Pogrebinsky. A good season brings in so much driftwood that you can hardly see the water, he added, and a boat is nearly impossible to use.

Pulling out driftwood also has environmental benefits

Enda Murphy, assistant professor of civil engineering at the University of British Columbia who has researched coastal driftwood, said too much can smother vegetation in sensitive ecosystems and consume oxygen that fish and other species need. But these floating logs can also transport seeds, plants and serve as perches for birds and hiding spots for fish. A big question researchers are still working to answer is: How much is too much? And when does it start having adverse impacts on the environment? “This is something that we don’t really fully understand,” said Murphy.

With Pogrebinsky’s help, the Louden Tribe is working to get more people to collect driftwood from the river and sell it to the sawmill, and in the process reap all the benefits of being in nature.

“A big part of the idea is to encourage people to go out and do this. To see the value of this. To experience all the marvelous things that I have experienced,” said Pogrebinsky.

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Pineda reported from Los Angeles.

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