Driven by exports from private forests, timber harvest in Oregon up for third year in a row

Oregon's timber harvest reached 3.75 billion board feet in 2012, continuing a recovery from the crash of the housing market and the depths of the recession. In 2009, loggers cut 2.75 billion board feet, but the harvest has increased each year since.
The increased harvest has been driven by a strong export market and a slight improvement in housing starts, according to a report by the Oregon Department of Forestry. Timber from state and federal forests cannot be exported, but tribal and other privately-held timber can be shipped overseas.

source:  http://www.oregonlive.com/business/index.ssf/2013/07/timber_harvest_in_oregon_fores.html

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Timber Harvest on the Rise in Oregon   
7/9/2013
By Jes BurnsOregon's timber harvest is up 36% in three years.  New data from the Oregon Department of Forestry show much of that increase is attributed to private woodland owners deciding to cut their trees after holding out for higher prices.

ODF economist Brandon Kaetzel speculates a pick-up in the US housing market has been a boom for Oregon's timber industry.  More new homes means more demand for Oregon wood.  Small woodland owners increased cuts by more than 14% over the past year, and harvest on Tribal lands increased by 21%.  

Lane, which produces the most timber of any county in the state, saw a significant rise in harvest between 2011 and 2012.  The 11.3% increase was pushed largely by an uptick on private industry and Forest Service lands.

"Lane County made up a third of the total harvest that the Forest Service had for 2012."

But this increase in harvest doesn't necessarily mean the industry is adding jobs, says Kaetzel.  Domestic mills are becoming more efficient, needing fewer warm bodies to operate - and fewer still…

"It takes less [sic] men to work as longshoremen on a port to export logs than it does to operate a mill.  So even though harvests are stable or increasing, if those logs are mostly being exported, which I can't speak to, then that employs less people."  

The new Department of Forestry data only covers harvest rates, not where the wood goes once it's cut. Overall, Oregon forests produced nearly 1 billion board feet more in 2012 than it did in the depths of the recession in 2009.
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