Are We REALLY Running Out Of Timber in Wisconsin???

A recent article in "The Country Today"titled Inventory finds forest land, production increase,  states that "More wood is grown in Wisconsin forests each year than is harvested...  In 1996, approximately 70% of Wisconsin's annual forest growth was harvested."    The story also quotes the Director of the the DNR Bureau of Forestry, Charlie Higgs: "The increase in forest area and volume shown by this survey puts Wisconsin in position as a forestry leader, not only in the Lake States, but the entire nation."

Readers of this agriculture newspaper probably got the impression that according to our DNR foresters, everything is going just fine in our Wisconsin forests.

        According to John Kotar, forest scientist at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, the above statistic can be very misleading.  "People who try to make a certain impression use this statistic to best advantage.  Sure we have more wood fiber growing today, there is no argument about that.  But, at least here in S. Wisconsin, we have fewer and fewer big high quality trees.  No body ever wants to say that. 
      These statistics can be easily explained.  Small, young trees grow so much faster than large, older trees.  Obviously if you have a lot of young trees, there is a lot of growth per year.  But what you don't see is that the big trees are disappearing and they are not about to reappear again if they are harvested as soon as they are merchantable.
      Take as an example an acre of 1,000 year old redwood and an acre of 20 year old redwood - there is no comparison - the 20 year old stands is outgrowing the old growth.  But if you cut the big trees, you will never see a 1,000 year old redwood ever again, no matter how much volume you  grow.  There is a cartoon of a logger cutting down a 1,000 year old redwood.  He is saying to a forest creature watching him "Relax, don't worry, I'm going to plant you another one."
      We have to ask, 'What kind of forests do we want', not just how much fiber will be grown.  And just sticking  more trees into the ground is not making a forest.  Planting trees for the sake of planting trees is not enough.
      Quality has so much to do with proper long term management."

The ongoing explosion in stumpage prices paid for timber in Wisconsin is another sure sign that the once vast supply of good quality trees has been depleted.  A one thousand percent increase in red oak stumpage prices in twenty years  speaks for itself.  Sawmill inventories are low, buyers now travel hundreds of miles to find logs, and competition is high for any available stumpage to cut.