Ellen Simpson - February 09, 2009
Montana Wood Products Association
Timber Supply
The 92nd annual Foresters’ Ball is now in the taillights having been held this past weekend. I sincerely hope it was a smashing success with lots of dollars raised for college scholarships. An article in the newspaper prior to the Ball, however, provided some very thought-provoking comments about the dilemma of wood shortage to build the customary Western town.
It appears the organizers of the Foresters’ Ball ran head on into the same problem we in the timber community face all the time, a lack of fiber supply at a reasonable stumpage rate, or in their case free fiber, and close to home so transportation costs do not become an issue. Hmmm, it would seem the student organizers got a real life lesson of what mills and manufacturers face.
In order to compete in a global market, the timber folks need to have a reliable, close to the facilities, supply of fiber in order to produce their value-added wood products. Over the years more and more of the available material has been cut off by those who file endless appeals and litigation on mostly Forest Service timber sales. While the sales sit in courtrooms, the resource deteriorates to a point of losing any value as a commodity and worse yet becomes a fire hazard for both critters and humans.
The conditions on national forest land have become so severe that a bill has been introduced in the Montana State Legislature that would give counties the ability to declare acres of ground a threat to public health and safety under the definition of community decay. It should be an embarrassment for the federal government to be declared such a bad neighbor that local governing officials would call public property decay in need of cleanup.
During the hearing in the House Local Government Committee on Senate Bill 34, there was attention focused on why national forest lands are in such terrible shape. The sponsor of the bill argued that it is because of endless litigation stopping proper land management including the harvesting of timber that would improve the landscape and remove the debris and decay. An opponent to the bill and a representative of the Forest Service both attempted to convince the Committee that litigation is not a problem and that all kinds of wonderful projects are happening because of collaboration among stakeholders.
While it is true that a number of projects are winding their way through lengthy collaboration efforts, and the timber industry is at the table as a stakeholder, there is as of January 30, 2009 just under 300 million board feet of timber tied up in court in Region One of the Forest Service with 233 million board feet of that in Montana. There are 45 legal actions in Montana with 18 on the Kootenai National Forest alone tying up 119 million board feet of timber. How could anyone make the statement that litigation is not a problem for the timber industry?
A couple of examples of just why litigation poses such a threat to the resource and the industry have shown up in the last few days. The Clancy Unionville project south of Helena was proposed in 2003 to do a commercial thinning and removal of small trees and vegetation on about 1,500 acres of Helena National Forest. The project was appealed and litigated. Last week, six years later, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals affirmed the agency’s actions for the sale. That’s the good news. The bad news is that 1,400 acres of the proposed 1,500-acre project has been hit by beetles and the trees are dead. The very proposed action that could have prevented the dead trees through removal of green trees was held up by six years of litigation.
The other ludicrous example I offer is the Jim Town Road project near Canyon Ferry. The work on this project was first proposed in 1999 and appealed and litigated. The area burned in the fires of 2000 and again in fires of 2003 all the while hung up in court. Ten years of litigation for management on 800 acres. Who can say litigation is not a problem?
Meanwhile the students working on the Foresters Ball were attempting to be proactive and build a few extra walls to save and reuse next year. The concern they have is that there will still be a shortage of logs and other fiber for them to use for construction of the rustic town as is the tradition for the Ball. Maybe Senate Bill 34 will have passed the State Legislature and county officials will be able to declare the national forests a threat to the public and in need of cleanup. That could provide the students and the mills with plenty of wood fiber close to home.
On behalf of the Montana Wood Products Association based in Helena, I am Ellen Simpson. Thanks for listening.
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