3 Scaled-Back Salvage Sales Of Burned Timber Draw Bids
Three companies offered nearly $350,000 more than the minimum bids on Thursday to secure three of four scaled-back salvage sales of timber burned last year in the Boise National Forest.
But the fourth - and smallest - of the sales failed to attract any bidders for the second time.
Still, even with the premium, the three sales brought barely half the amount the Forest Service had originally expected they would raise. And environmentalists, who have questioned the value of the salvage sale program, claimed the latest auction only increased the taxpayer subsidies the timber sale campaign requires.
Sales from what was the largest salvage timber program in the nation this year were originally expected to generate about $65 million, which Boise National Forest officials said would produce a multimillion-dollar profit over costs associated with putting the timber on the block.
But officials now estimate the scaled-back sales will gross only about $35 million, substantially below the multimillion-dollar cost of all the salvage sales. The Alliance for the Wild Rockies claims the subsidy is $20 million more than that - a charge the Forest Service denies.
“People feel they’re being cheated because it’s $35 million, not $68 million,” Boise National Forest spokesman Frank Carroll said. “Last time I looked, $35 million was still a lot of money.”
The four sales offered Thursday originally totaled nearly 34.3 million board feet for a combined minimum bidding price of $5.5 million. After they failed to attract any bidders earlier this year, the Forest Service scaled them back to 18 million board feet with a minimum bidding price of just over $2.2 million.
The three sales that sold totaled 15 million board feet at bids totaling nearly $2.3 million. Boise-Cascade, Croman Inc. and Producers Lumber Co. were the successful bidders.
Only one sale - 7 million board feet for a minimum price of $503,000 - drew more than one bid. Croman offered $528,400, nearly $23,000 more than Boise-Cascade.
The sale that failed to attract any bids totaled 3 million board feet for a minimum bid of $290,000.
The reduction in the timber offered for sale meant some roadless areas that environmentalists have fought to preserve will not be logged. Most of the reduction came in areas planned for helicopter logging.
“The idea of flying in there and logging never made sense, for ecological reasons,” said John McCarthy of the Idaho Conservation League. “Now it turns out that it doesn’t make sense for economic reasons either.”
Environmentalists say the lack of interest in recent salvage sales throughout the Northwest is evidence that the timber shortage cited by the industry is not real.
But the timber industry contends legal delays in salvage operations have kept trees standing so long that their value has begun to decline. It also blames the low bids on the expense of helicopter logging, which the Forest Service is requiring in many areas to prevent environmental damage from road construction.