Timber Harvest

In some places in the Sierra, current timber growth potential is lower than would be expected due to past harvesting and wildfire suppression efforts. In many stands, the practice of “high-grading,” or removing most of the valuable pines and larger trees, has led to reduced stand vigor. This, coupled with fire suppression efforts, has caused the composition of trees in many stands to shift to less economically valuable species, such as white fir and incense cedar.

Throughout the Sierra and other regions of California, net annual timber growth exceeds annual harvest on both public and private lands. On private land in the Sacramento Resource Area, which includes Butte, Colusa, El Dorado, Glenn, Lake, Napa, Nevada, Placer, Plumas, Sacramento, Sierra, Sutter, Tehama, Yolo, and Yuba counties, from 1984 to 1994, growth was approximately one and a half times as high as harvest. In the northern interior region, the growth rate jumped to almost double that of the harvest rate for the same time period.

Various explanations for this include the growing public concern over clear cutting and other practices that yield higher harvest rates than growth rates. In some areas, fire suppression has also played a role by leading to increased density in certain forest stands.

Various social and economic changes beginning in the 1970s have affected the timber industry. With increased concern over the impacts of timber harvesting and recognition of the need to maintain certain forestlands for other uses, overall timber harvest on public and private land has fluctuated substantially over the last 25 years.

Harvest volumes on California’s public timberlands, most of which are located in the Sierra or on the North Coast, have been on a steady decline since 1988. At the peak in 1988, 2 billion board feet of timber was harvested from public land; by 2002, the public timberland harvest had dropped to less than 200 million board feet. Private land harvest levels have been somewhat more stable, with a recent peak of approximately 2.8 billion board feet in 1990 down to about 1.5 billion board feet in 2002.

As harvest levels have decreased, a corresponding decrease of lumber mills in the state has occurred from nearly 100 in 1988 to fewer than 40 in 2002. Timber employment has also suffered as the remaining mills have reduced their operating hours and upgraded to equipment that requires fewer operators. Since the timber industry was once such a large contributor to their economies, the rural counties of the Sierra region have been especially hard-hit by this trend.

Across California the timber harvest value dropped from $1.1 billion in 1994 to $547 million in 2005, according to the California State Board of Equalization. The timber harvest value in all California SOSA counties decreased as well. Especially hard hit counties include Butte earning only 15.7 percent in 2005 of what it earned in 1994, Calaveras (15.7 percent), Modoc (23.9 percent), Mono (1.3 percent), and Tuolumne (21.5 percent). Many counties did not experience as drastic of a percentage cut, but lost significant amounts of revenue. For example, El Dorado County’s timber harvest value shrank from $57.3 million in 1994 to $16.8 million in 2005, and Lassen County timber harvest decreased from $43.5 million to $15.3 million. Contrasting the decreases seen throughout nearly the entire SOSA region, Amador County actually showed an increase in revenue ($12.4 to $14.8 million) from 1994 to 2005. The county had astronomical jumps in board feet, 1261 percent increase, and harvest value 829 percent because the Power Fire in Eldorado National Forest in October 2004 resulted in fire salvage operations in the county.

Download data for timber harvest 1994 to 2005

By calculating the average timber cut and value by county for the period from 1993 to 2003, trends in timbers sales can be recognized. Grouped into two-year periods, percentages are based on the value and amount of timber against the 11-year average. The following graphic shows a marked decrease in sales of timber sales in most counties. For example, Lassen County obtained from public lands 220% of the 11-year average cut of public lands timber during 1993 and 1994. However, the county only obtained 50% the 11-year average from 2002-2003. The trends show quite a decrease in public timber harvested.

Download data for Timber Trends 1993 to 2003

While California’s harvest levels have gone down, demand for wood products continues to rise. We now import much of our paper, pulp and so-called “structure wood products” from other states and even other countries. With a statewide lumber demand estimated by California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection to be greater than 10 billion board feet, California imported about 80% of its wood in 2002. As recently as 1990, the import rate was less than 50%.

Many watershed groups have studied forests, timber harvesting and other related activities for their impacts on sedimentation and water quality in nearby streams and rivers. Thanks to improvements in harvest techniques, sedimentation issues are related more to the road systems, with their stream crossings and drainage concerns, than to the actual harvesting of the timber.