Oregon timber harvest jumps 13 percent, but still way below historic levels

Oregon timber harvest jumps 13 percent, but still way below historic levels

Published: Monday, July 09, 2012, 5:16 PM     Updated: Monday, July 09, 2012, 5:31 PM

 By Eric Mortenson, The Oregonian 
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View full sizeThomas Boyd/The OregonianLog exports from private land have resulted in more timber cut on federal and state land, such as this section of the Clatsop State Forest in 2011.

Oregon's annual timber harvest jumped 13 percent in 2011, reaching 3.65 billion board feet. Large private forest owners, taking advantage of a continued hot export market to China and elsewhere, accounted for two-thirds of the harvest despite having only 19 percent of the state's timberland. 

Timber harvest on federal land managed by the U.S. Forest Service and Bureau of Land Management increased 47 and 24 percent, respectively, as mill owners sought logs to replace what was being shipped overseas, said Brandon Kaetzel, economist with the Oregon Department of Forestry. By law, logs cut on federal land cannot be exported. 

Despite the increases, Oregon's timber harvest remains a splinter of what it was in the past. The total harvest on federal land, 539 million board feet, compares to the nearly 5 billion board feet cut on Forest Service and BLM land in 1988. 

The total harvest from all forests -- federal, state, large and small private land, tribal -- was less than half the 25 year high of about 8 billion board feet, Kaetzel said. A board foot measurement is a piece of lumber one-foot long, one-foot wide, and one-inch thick. 

Kaetzel said log exports, although strong, appear to be tapering off, while lumber exports are increasing. "That's a good thing," he said. "We'd rather export a finished product than a raw product." 

Oregon's logging companies and mills are heavily dependent of the U.S. housing market, which collapsed in 2008 and resulted in a 2009 harvest below 3 billion board feet.

--Eric Mortenson