Ice Storm Had Ups, Downs For Logging While It Helped The Harvest, Prices, Quality Didn’T Follow

Loggers reaped a mixed harvest from the 1996 ice storm.

The storm topped trees throughout the region, creating more harvest opportunities on private lands.

But lower timber prices and lower-quality trees kept loggers from cashing in.

“There was a lot of demand for logging, but there was no money made,” said Skip White, executive secretary for the Association of Logging Contractors. “The ice storm was not a boon to us by any means.”

The Coeur d’Alene-based association represents 650 contract loggers in Idaho. Profits for most companies actually declined last year, White said.

Statewide, 879 million board feet of timber was cut from private lands last year - a 6.5 percent increase from the year before.

Most of the additional volume came from Kootenai County, where the ice storm took its heaviest toll. Harvest on private forest lands here jumped by 41 million board feet - enough timber to build nearly 3,000 three-bedroom homes. Landowners wanted the dead trees removed quickly to reduce the risk of fire and insect outbreaks.

“Everyone was looking to clean up their property, but it really wasn’t a boost to our industry,” White said.

While the extra work was welcome, salvage jobs require more labor and yield smaller logs and generally less profit, he said.

One bright spot for mill operators was the availability of ponderosa pine, said Reid Ahlf, forester at Idaho Forest Industries. The storm hit in the lower elevations, where pine is abundant. Once a staple of mills east of the Cascades, ponderosa pine is getting harder and harder to buy, he said.

But neither the logs nor the finished lumber products coincided with particularly good markets. Domestic prices for ponderosa pine logs actually dropped last summer, according to the Pacific Rim Wood Market report.

Locally, some loggers had a hard time finding buyers, White said. Idaho Forest Industries was overwhelmed with requests from loggers with timber to sell. By July 1, the mill stopped buying, said IFI forester Mike De Armond. It had logs from its own timber lands to process, and the log yard was full.

When the mills couldn’t take the logs, some were chipped and sold for hog fuel or brown paper, White said.

The market will dictate whether the surplus continues, he added. Many mills have a carry-over of logs, and landowners still have storm-damaged timber to harvest, White said.

TIMBER In Idaho, 879 million board feet of timber was cut from private lands last year - a 6.5 percent increase from the year before.