The Real Impact of Federal Timber Policy on Communities

Following the Second World War and continuing until the early 1990’s the forests in Oregon, Washington and Northern California were roaded and timber was harvested for the benefit of developing the states and providing significant revenue to counties and the federal government.

The decades of the 1970’s and 1980’s saw $300 million returned to Oregon counties annually designated for roads and schools.

Oregon enjoyed some of the best roads and highest performing schools in the United States as a result of receipts from timber harvests.

That all changed with the adoption of the Northwest Forest Plan in 1993 which slashed harvests 80%. In actuality the government reduced sale offerings over 90% and 130 timber dependent rural communities in Oregon and Washington were economically decimated. Once thriving small towns saw home values collapse, unemployment rise, and food banks and crisis centers appear. The Pacific Northwest rural social fabric was ripped apart and 30 years later it hasn’t recovered.

The NW Forest Plan reduced harvests in Oregon by approximately 5 billion board feet annually for the past 32 years resulting in over 1 billion tons of tree growth in Oregon. (Also known as fuel) Oregon didn’t have fires until timber harvests were discontinued. Between 2000 and 2019, 15 of 16 mega fires in Oregon started on Federal Land making them spread to private and state lands where they were put out because of better road access and better fuel management by timber harvest.

In 2020, Oregon saw 17 large fires. Most of them and the most destructive began on Federal land burning 3/4 of the acres destroyed.

US Forest Service lands are burning at twice the rate of Bureau of Land Management lands and nearly five times the rate of private and state lands that are managed by timber harvests.

7.4 million acres have burned from wildland fires this past decade and over one half of Oregon’s forests have burned since the adoption of the NW Forest Plan.

Climate change is a small contributing factor but clearly nonmanagement and failure to harvest timber on federal lands is the overwhelming reason for the destruction of Oregon’s forests and the economic devastation of mill towns.

The Biden Administration ordered the Bureau of Land Management to reduce timber sales by 25% and the Forest Service has reduced timber sales also resulting in seven Oregon mills closing in the past 18 months.

The Trump Administration wants to treat our overgrown forests and prevent fires and promote rural economic vitality by increasing timber harvest. For every one million board feet harvested thirteen jobs are created and maintained so, over time, Oregon can enter a renaissance of environmental and economic prosperity if President Trump’s federal timber policy priorities are implemented.

Freres Engineered Wood is anxious to enter into 20-year contracts with the Forest Service to provide community stability in the North Santiam Canyon for years to come and protect those towns from forest fires.

The company has been here for over a century. We have invested consistently in technology and in our community. We are government contractors with the experience, motivation and ingenuity to get the job done. All we need is for the federal government to provide the opportunity.