Charles E. Keegan

Impact of the Great Recession and Housing Collapse on the Forest Products Industry in the Western United States

The first decade of the Twenty-first Century proved tumultuous for the Wests A strong economy, low interest rates, easy access to credit, and real estate speculation fostered more than two million U.S. housing starts in 2005 and record lumber consumption from 2003 to 2005. With the decline in U.S. housing beginning in 2006, the 2008 global financial crisis, an over 50-year record low 554,000 housing starts in 2009, wood product prices and production fell dramatically. In 2009 and 2010, virtually every major western mill suffered curtailments and 30 large mills closed permanently. Sales value of wood and paper products in the West dropped from

Montana's forest products industry and timber harvest, 2004

49 billion in 2005 to

Idaho's Forest Products Industry: A Descriptive Analysis

34 billion in 2009. Employment declined by 71,000 workers and lumber production fell by almost 50 percent from 2005 to 2009. Capacity utilization at sawmills and other timber-using facilities in the West fell from over 80 percent in 2005 to just over 50 percent in 2009 and 2010. With the exception of exports and some paper markets, U.S. wood ...

Trends in lumber processing in the western United States. Part II: Overrun and lumber recovery factors.

This report traces the flow of Montana’s 2009 timber harvest through the primary wood-using industries; provides a description of the structure, capacity, and condition of Montana’s primary forest products industry; and quantifies volumes and uses of wood fiber. Historical wood products industry changes are discussed, as well as changes in harvest, production, employment, and sales.

Trends in Lumber Processing in the Western United States. Part I: Board Foot Scribner Volume per Cubic Foot of Timber

____________________________________ Morgan, Todd A.; Keegan, Charles E., III; Spoelma, Timothy P.; Dillon, Thale; Hearst, A. Lorin; Wagner, Francis G.; DeBlander, Larry T. Idaho’s forest products industry: a descriptive analysis. Resour. Bull. RMRS-RB-XXX. Fort Collins, CO: U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service, Rocky Mountain Research Station. 31 p. This report provides a description of the structure, capacity, and condition of Idaho’s primary forest products industry; traces the flow of Idaho’s 2001 timber harvest through the primary sectors; and quantifies volumes and uses of wood fiber. The economic contribution of the forest products industry to the State and historical industry changes are discussed, as well as trends in timber harvest, production, and sales.

Utah's forest products industry : a descriptive analysis, 1992 /

This article describes trends in three measures of lumber recovery for sawmills in the western United States: lumber overrun (LO), lumber recovery factor (LRF), and cubic lumber recovery (CLR). All states and regions showed increased LO during the last three decades. Oregon and Montana had the highest LO at 107 and 100 percent, respectively. Alaska had the lowest LO at 31 percent, followed by the Four Corners Region (i.e., Arizona, Colorado, New Mexico, and Utah). Because sawmills in the western United States use the Scribner Log Rule (SLR) as the unit of log input, higher LO is not a clear indication that mills are using improved sawing technology and techniques. At best, LO is an imprecise measure of production efficiency. Better measures of lumber output per unit input include LRF and CLR. These measures are substantially better than LO because they are based on the cubic volume of solid wood fiber in a log, thus eliminating a number of the problems associated with the SLR. Oregon, followed by Washingt...

Idaho's forest products industry and timber harvest, 2011

This article describes trends in board foot Scribner volume per cubic foot of timber for logs processed by sawmills in the western United States. Board foot to cubic foot (BF/CF) ratios for the period from 2000 through 2006 ranged from 3.70 in Montana to 5.71 in the Four Corners Region (Arizona, Colorado, New Mexico, and Utah). Sawmills in the Four Corners Region, Alaska, and California had the highest ratios, with each states BF/CF ratio greater than 5.0. Among the states using the Eastside Scribner scale, the Four Corners Region had the highest BF/CF ratio (5.71), followed by California (5.03). Among states using primarily the Westside Scribner scale, Alaska had the highest ratio (5.29). All states or regions, with the exception of Alaska, have shown declines in BF/CF ratios over the last three decades. Montana has had the largest estimated decline (29%), followed by Oregon (23%). The increase in Alaska was the smallest change among states (<2%). Two major factors in the western United States appear to...

Trends in Lumber Processing in the Western United States. Part III: Residue Recovered versus Lumber Produced

Using the Forest Industries Data Collection System (FIDACS), the Utah primary forest products industry was censused for the year 1992. Detailed data, at the State and country levels, are presented in this paper for employment, production, volume of raw material, species use, finished product, residue utilization, and inventory.

A Strategic Assessment of Crown Fire Hazard in Montana: Potential Effectiveness and Costs of Hazard Reduction Treatments

This report traces the flow of Idaho’s 2011 timber harvest through the primary industries; provides a description of the structure, capacity, and condition of Idaho’s industry; and quantifies volumes and uses of wood fiber. Historical wood products industry trends are discussed, as well as changes in harvest, production, employment, and sales.

Harvest cost collection approaches and associated equations for restoration treatments on national forests

Abstract This article presents changes in proportions of wood fiber residue or by-products generated in lumber production in the western United States over the last 40 years. The results show the proportion of logs remaining as residue has dropped from 59 percent in the 1970s to 51 percent in the 2000s. Technology and its improved application have led to decreased proportions of wood fiber residue in lumber production even as log size has decreased. West wide the proportion of the log converted to both sawdust and planer shavings has decreased substantially over the last 40 years with no change in the proportion recovered in coarse residue. Coarse residue was 31 percent of log volume processed in the 1970s and 2000s. Sawdust generated was 15 percent of log volume in the 1970s and 11 percent in the 2000s, with planer shavings moving from 13 to 9 percent.