The U.S. Forest Service is offering to renegotiate timber sale contracts in an effort to save sawmills in the Rocky Mountain region that have been hit hard by bark beetle infestations, the recession and financially unviable agreements. The agency announced on August 4 that a number of sawmills throughout the west could cancel their existing timber sale contracts.
Acting regional forester Jerome Thomas commented, “Sawmills are needed more than ever to help cope with a bark beetle infestation that has ravaged an estimated 41 million acres in the west.” The offer will help sawmills in Colorado, South Dakota, Wyoming and Nebraska.
The rice-sized beetles burrow under the bark and lay their eggs, turning green needles the color of rust as they bore through the tree’s vascular system and restrict its ability to draw water. Eventually the needles fall off, and the tree turns gray, making it a wildfire danger. Loggers have only been able to cut down about 60,000 acres of dead trees to protect local communities, watersheds, and campers and hikers from wildfires and falling trees.
“Sawmills are struggling because of the downturn in the housing market and lower demand for wood products. Contracts with the federal government before the recession don’t provide them with enough money to cover the costs of cutting trees and turning them into lumber and other wood products,” said U.S. Senator and Colorado native Mark Udall.
“By allowing the mutual cancellation of these contracts, the U.S. Forest Service is helping the local economy and promoting a healthy forest management industry. After they are free from these old contracts, the mills can take dead or hazardous timber that would otherwise go to waste and use it to create jobs.”