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Timber harvest keeps falling State's total drops to lowest level in 73 years A slump in timber markets and a continuing decline in logging on federal land drove Oregon timber harvests down to their lowest level of the past seven decades in 1998. In a 13 percent decline from 1997, Oregon's total harvest of 3.53 billion board feet from public and private lands in the state was the lowest since 1926, said Gary Lettman, a state Department of Forestry economist who compiles the statistics. That's more than a 50 percent drop from timber harvests of just a decade ago. Like the rest of the state, Jackson and Josephine counties have seen reductions. Jackson County harvests fell from 141 million board feet in 1997 to 131 million last year. The biggest cutbacks came on U.S. Forest Service lands, where harvests fell more than 16 million board feet. Harvests also fell on private land not owned by the forest industry, but harvests were up on forest industry lands. In Josephine County, 44 million board feet were harvested last year, down more than 6 million board feet from 1997. Harvests on private lands not owned by the forest industry and on Forest Service lands both fell more than 4 million board feet, offsetting increased harvest on Bureau of Land Management lands. The reduced harvest numbers came as no surprise to local timber industry officials. "It's a big concern," says Dick Rudisile, a regional manager based in Medford for Boise Cascade. "It continues to be one thing after another." The latest blow came in August when a federal judge blocked sales for more than 40 million board feet in the BLM's Medford district and the Rogue River National Forest. Rudisile says restrictions on Southern Oregon timberlands have forced his company to expand to the south and east to get timber. It also played a major role in the company's decision not to rebuilt the portion of its Medford mill that processed green logs. He says competition is strong for what little timber is available. "Everybody is pushing everybody for fiber," he says. Russ McKinley, Boise's timberlands manager, says there are plenty of trees on federal lands but getting access to them continues to be a concern. McKinley says timber companies also have reforested lands that will be ready for harvest the years to come. "We have a lot of volume in the pipeline," he says. Another large Rogue Valley wood products company, White City's Cascade Wood Products, has also had to look elsewhere for the wood it needs. "We're about 80 percent reliant on South American lumber now," says Gary Moore, the company's vice president. "If that weren't available, we wouldn't be able to operate. The domestic supply has vanished." The pace of logging has quickened this year as markets have strengthened, and year-end totals are expected to bump back up. If current harvest rules remain in place in the next century, it's unlikely that timber harvests would fall much below the 1998 levels, and they could climb, according to projections released Thursday at a symposium sponsored by the Oregon Board of Forestry and Oregon State University. The symposium was a showcase for an ambitious state, university and federal effort to assess conditions in Oregon forests based on a wide range of economic, social and biological indicators. The joint effort also aims to discern what the trends might be. Studies range from the prospects for development of old-growth forests in the Coast Range to estimates of the amount of carbon "fixed" by tree growth. The researchers are attempting to model their work on an international framework for sustainability approved during a 1995 United Nations Conference in Santiago, Chile. Private forests are now the primary source of the state's timber, accounting for more than 80 percent of annual production. But in 1998, as the Asian export market for logs slumped, private harvests fell from 3.1 billion board feet to 2.8 billion board feet, according to state forestry statistics. Meanwhile, harvests from U.S. Forest Service and Bureau of Land Management forests -- caught in ongoing battles about logging of old-growth trees -- continued a decadelong decline. Federal timber cutting dipped from 659 million board feet in 1997 to 455 million board feet in 1998. Timber harvests from state, other public lands and American Indian lands also contribute to the total. Mail Tribune Copyright � The Mail Tribune 1999, Medford, Oregon USA