Timber is for the Taking

The forest products industry typically moves into an area of plentiful good quality timber and cuts and cuts until the forest is depleted  - then moves on to another area.  The attitude is “Timber is for the Taking” – and - “If We don’t take it today – someone else will!”

The forest products industry moved into the Great Lakes in the late 1800s and has been cutting ever since.  But after taking the good trees over and over, the resource has been devastated and the quality and size of harvested logs has declined rapidly.

The forest products industry now uses huge mechanical harvesting machines that need to process large volumes of wood, just to make the bank payments.  But the average size of our woodlots is shrinking and most forest owners have been discouraged from managing their timber.  Industry has been propped up by rising land values and skyrocketing property taxes that force landowners to liquidate their timber.

Now – competition from imported manufactured wood products is compounding these problems in our local forests.  China is now taking the timber from Russia, Burma, the Rainforests, and even our best logs from the U.S. - and flooding the markets with furniture and flooring. 

U.S. industry can’t compete with this invasion of highly manufactured wood products.  U.S. mills are closing and loggers are going out of business – and our forest owners have an even worse market for their timber than ever before.

Once China depletes the worlds remaining forest resources – within a few decades the experts say – the whole world forest product industry will be devastated.

In the U.S. – over a third of our land is forested.  Our traditional corporate/government  approach to managing it has failed us – but there is another alternative!  Our forests keep growing and still offer resources for our use, despite past repeated abuse.

Wood is Very Valuable!
Small businesses that use locally grown timber, and sell directly to customers in the community, can compete with foreign imports.   Shoppers will choose natural wood products from local growers - instead of manufactured wood imports - if given the choice!  By eliminating all the middlemen/brokers/shippers – good jobs can be maintained in small businesses.

We must stop big Corporations from Taking our timber values far away!
Encourage small businesses to Keep our timber value in the local community.

For Global Good – Use Local Wood!

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