Subject: Tree Tips--Low Harvest Levels
(6/28)
Printed in the Mendocino County
Observer, dates provided below.
Harvesting Levels at Record Low
June 28, 2002
Harvesting levels in California are at
their lowest levels since the year when harvest volume data was first collected
-- 1977. This data comes from the State Board of Equalization, which collects
timber yield taxes that are based on the volume harvested.
Of the many reasons for the low harvest
levels, three come to mind. First, the cost of regulation is simply too high
for many landowners, both large and small, to be able to afford a permit to
harvest. And some landowners who can afford the $20,000 for a harvesting permit
know that in order to recoup costs they would have to cut their land much more
heavily than they want to. So they do nothing.
Second, log prices are very low. We are
importing a lot of wood from overseas, logs that come from plantations in areas
that don't have the strict environmental laws and high regulatory costs that we
have in California. For example, our laws say for almost all forest land the
minimum rotation ages must be 60 or 80 years. This is far longer than rotations
used elsewhere, which can be as short as 20 years.
Third, for a number of reasons the
Forest Service for a number of reasons has dramatically cut its level of
harvest. Consider that in 1988 the Forest Service harvested 2 billion board
feet in California. Last year the number was 0.1 billion. Even conducting
salvage logging to reduce fire risk faces opposition and lawsuits. A sad case
in point was the Megram Fire on the Six Rivers National Forest. After scheduled salvage logging was
effectively stopped by lawsuits and appeals, within a few years a lethal fire
swept through the area.
It's impossible to tell what the future
holds. But living in a state that has some of the most productive and resilient
forest land in the entire world, and knowing that wood is a very
environmentally-friendly, renewable building material, I can only hope that we
won't have record low harvest levels next year.
Clare Nunamaker is a Registered
Professional Forester and member of NorCal SAF, CLFA, and the Forest Stewards
Guild.