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.