Beetle kill in Colorado pines

windthrown

Tree removal in jeopardy - Wyoming Tribune Eagle Online

By Bill McCarthy

CHEYENNE -- Although Saratoga is in the middle of 3.6 million acres of beetle-killed pines, a key obstacle to reopening a sawmill there is the lack of finances to access these wood supplies.

Wyoming could at least get timber jobs out of the disaster that the beetles are inflicting on its forests, says Nancy Fishering of Intermountain Resources, the company that owns the sawmill.

But market conditions and bankers' reluctance to lend mean timber companies have no money to address the urgent need to remove dead trees.

And while this is going on, there have been cuts in federal timber management dollars, Fishering said.

Leaving dead trees in the forest will worsen the consequences of what is already an environmental catastrophe, said Rick Cables, regional forester for the U.S. Forest Service.

"We don't have a lot of time," he added.

Fishering and Cables testified before the U.S. Agriculture Committee at Laramie County Community College on Tuesday.

The panel held a hearing in Cheyenne as it prepares to put together the 2012 federal Farm Bill.

Committee member U.S. Rep. Cynthia Lummis, R-Wyo., hosted the hearing.

She has introduced H.R. 5192, the Forest Ecosystem Recovery and Protection Act, to address the beetle infestation.

According to a release from Lummis' office, the bill would provide the Forest Service with the tools and flexibility to handle large, long-term projects that will help damaged forests to recover and to protect them from future epidemics.

Among other things it would set up 25 demonstration projects in the West to focus on prevention of outbreaks as well as recovery of infested forests.

Fishering said Intermountain Resources continues to operate a sawmill in Montrose, Colo. The company hoped to open a mothballed facility in Saratoga, about 130 miles west of Cheyenne, as well.

Opening the Saratoga mill would create 90 jobs in town and more than 150 for loggers and truckers.

There are opportunities such as job creation in the wake of the disaster, she said.

But Fishering added that the collapse of the housing markets and the Wall Street crisis of 2007 crushed demand and slashed prices for wood. It has wiped out timber industry companies across the country.

Right when there is an urgent need to remove the dead wood from the forests, "you have the decline in the market to 1960s prices," Fishering said.

Regarding the opening of the Saratoga mill, she said, "Our banks don't particularly like us right now; we haven't been making money for a year."

She added that the banks "are risk averse" because of the volatility in wood prices as well.

She asked the committee to increase funding to address the problem in the 2012 Farm Bill despite the tight budgets.

She also recommended that the federal government allow for longer stewardship contracts for timber companies to give banks more certainty over the terms of loans.

If Congress makes more federal economic stimulus money available, she recommended more of it be directed toward the timber industry.

"They helped the auto industry. We could use help too," Fishering said.

Yep. They bailed out the banks, the auto industry, the housing market, and themselves... but the timber industry? Its DOA.

arborjockey

Here on the big island in Hawaii the sugar cane industry dried up 30 years ago so they planted eucalyptus. For the level 32 arborist no i dont know what type. I gunna say 30-40,000 acres of prime 100' lodge pole. planted in perfect rows. It was going to be used for pulp but the processing is to much. They did stuctural test to use it for lumber but i ddont think the results were so hot. So they just keep gowing. What do you aussies do with your euc's