The slump in the US’s housing market has been blamed for Oregon’s timber harvest dropping by 9% last year, to 2001 levels.
A total of 3.4 billion board feet was harvested in 2008, the lowest since 2001 and less than half the amount in the late 1980s when logging was at its peak.
Gary Lettman of the Oregon Department of Forestry said private forestland owners were responsible for much of the decrease as they were waiting for higher log prices.
Industrial timberlands harvests, which account for 76% of logs, fell by 9%, and non-industrial lands – 5% of logs – dropped by 35%.
Adjusted for inflation, log prices have been declining since 1994, the year the Northwest Forest Plan cut federal timber harvests by more than 80% to protect wildlife habitat, and are down to levels similar to 1985.
