January 14 2015 Forest Products Introduction1
Forest Products Industry Introduction
Historically, the largest industry in the Northwest economy.
It is multifaceted, ranging from growing trees, to processing them, to support sectors that make equipment or help ship output to other regions.
Key components:
Forestry
Logging
Log Export
Sawmills
Veneer
Plywood
Millwork
Furniture
Pulp
Paper
Paperboard
Hardboard/particle board
"Secondary" forest products
prefabricated buildings.
Also, chemicals manufacturing,
Machinery manufacturing
Transportation Services
And today many organizations related to the concerns of citizens, tribes, and the industry, all lobbying to shape the way in which the forests of the region are managed.
Elements of most of these are discussed in Bryant (See reference list , although log exports are not considered- and very dated reference).
Employment in forest products regionally has been declining for decades, but has declined precipitously recently in relative terms. In 1951, the industry employed 183.9 thousand, falling to 157.6 thousand in 1962. In 1980 the industry employed 160 thousand regionally, which fell to 140 thousand in 1982 at the height of the recession the early 1980’s. By 1988 it had recovered to 158 thousand, but in 1995 employment had fallen to 125 thousand In 1999 employment in forest products was 122.7 thousand in the 3 Northwest states, while by 2002 it had fallen to 111.5 thousand. In 2011 employment was 61.6 thousand, falling sharply after 2007 due to the downturn in construction related to the Great Recession.
While employment has been falling, levels of timber harvest have had a different history. Peaking in the 1920's, they fell in Wn., rose in Oregon, then after WW II have moved with national business cycles as the PNW has become the largest national source of lumber production (actually we have been since ca. 1920). Output in the 1970's and 1980's was at historically high levels, but there were dire warnings that in the future this region could not sustain the volume of output in the 1980's. In fact, the sales of timber from Federal timber lands have essentially stopped since the early 1990’s, and it is not at all clear what long-run levels of harvest will be due to continuing controversies surrounding the management of federal and state lands.
Many communities where f.p. is a key sector are not diversified....so fates of individual mills can mean the difference between prosperity and stagnation at the community level.
Issues abound in forest land management:
How will public lands be managed?
What controls do governments have over private lands?
What relationships exist that can or should be modified to make both lands types more productive, but at the same time also guarantee environmental protection that is demanded by the populace.
We will discuss:
An initial overview of characteristics of the land
Location of processing facilities
Flow of wood fiber
Log Exports
Policy Issues, including the recent issues surrounding the management directions for federal lands, and community impacts stemming from initiatives such as President Clinton's Northwest Forest Plan. Recently we saw the Bush administration developing strategies to increase timber production on the National Forests, backing away from the Clinton administration initiatives. The Obama administration has quashed these efforts.
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