Oregon’s timber industry hasn’t exactly been robust. You can see the charts showing a steady decline, read environmentalists’ 2015 plans to increase state authority over the industry or listen to conventional wisdom that says people just don’t need as much lumber as they used to.
But let’s not write a eulogy so soon – there’s reason to believe the industry is far from dead, and I’m not just talking about last year’s report that found Oregon’s timber harvest had reached its highest level in seven years. Oregon’s timber industry might live on longer than expected, in part thanks to events like the Astoria Timber Festival.
On its face, the free festival – returning Saturday, Feb. 7 – doesn’t necessarily look like a solid indicator of the health of the industry. How do log rolling, pole climbing and axe throwing competitions tell us more than the overwhelming influence of political power and market demand? The answer is a big issue the industry faces that doesn’t get as much attention – a problem shared by skilled trade occupations of all kinds as our society continues headfirst into the 21st century: hiring young workers.
Cyndi Mudge, a spokesperson for the festival, said as older loggers prepare to end their careers, it’s increasingly difficult to fill their shoes with young replacements. “They’re having a hard time finding skilled labor to do this,” she said. “More guys are retiring (and) they don’t have anybody who knows how to do logging tasks.”
When organizers set up the festival four years ago, in an effort to promote the local loggers around Astoria, they decided to offer a potential solution to that problem. Among the participants in their logging competitions, they decided, would be high school students from around the state.
From Oregon Live: https://www.oregonlive.com/entertainment/index.ssf/2015/01/oregon_timber_industry_stays_a.html