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Letter to the Industry Page 2
The familiar line I am now hearing from timber buyers around here is "how much do you need for your timber", hoping I'll throw out a lower figure than they could actually pay (and still make a reasonable profit). I want to hear, "We can pay you $XXX for your trees," and be able to trust that this is the fair market value.
Prices for stumpage (especially cordwood) could be multiplied many times with only a small increase in the retail price of finished wood products. The 5-10% increase in retail prices being discussed now for certified wood, would be a major incentive to forest management if passed directly to the forest producer. A 5-10% increase in stumpage prices (in the same discussions on certification) itself would be insignificant in the big picture.
Low market prices for timber also force loggers to push for maximum daily production, often sacrificing our forest's future. The loggers doing the work in the woods need to a better job of protecting the next timber crop and leaving the forest owner feeling good about timber harvesting. Good loggers should be paid well for their work and should take the time to do things right on private land. Careful loggers are essential to sustainable forest management.
Forest Industry: you need to pay the forest owners and the loggers who cut the timber more money. Both good timber and good loggers are in short supply today - its because they are both not paid a fair price for their efforts. If we need to pass higher costs on to consumers, so be it. If you don't take care of those who supply your raw materials, you are cutting your own throats. You've got your trade associations organized, put your efforts where it will directly deal with the growing timber shortage.
Don't just tell forest owners what a good job you are doing, show them with direct face to face contact that treats all timber growers with respect and pays them well for supplying you with the raw materials that make you the profit in your business. Then you will start to see private owners getting more interested in growing trees for the future.
I realize this is the real world and the market will eventually be the determining factor.
Our efforts at Timbergreen Forestry will be directed at educating forest owners on how to deal effectively with professional timber buyers and loggers. The growing timber shortage today is bringing up prices through increased competition, and stumpage prices are already reaching the profitable range in many good quality forests. Market forces of supply and demand will eventually make forestry a profitable business on most forest land. How bad the timber shortage will actually get is yet to be seen, and still depends on what the industry does in the next few years.
We are working to produce the best timber from the forests that we manage. We will delay harvests of good timber for a time to build back up forest stocking levels to allow sustainable harvesting, work to get the best stumpage prices possible for the owner, and demand good logging practices (and we are willing to pay the logger well for good work). The end result will be more good quality timber for all our futures.
At this time, not one of the big sawmills in Southern Wisconsin who have industrial foresters as their timber buyers will cooperate with us in our Sustainable Forestry work (they are the ones that should know better). They have all said: "We need more big sawlogs, and we can't make enough money cutting that low grade wood to make it worth our time." They want to do things just the opposite of the way we have the forest marked for sustainable harvesting - they all want to cut just the big trees to supply their mill. This is why we are running out of good timber!!
Forest owners need good markets and good loggers, but the Industry needs good forest managers on private land even more, for the industry's survival. We really need to work together in a businesslike way, so we all make a fair income from our work.
Jim Birkemeier - Timbergreen Forestry
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