United States

Department of

Agriculture

Forest Service

Pacific Northwest

Research Station

General Technical

Report

PNW-GTR-465

October 1999

Timber Harvesting, Processing,

and Employment in the Northwest

Economic Adjustment Initiative

Region: Changes and Economic

Assistance

Terry L. Raettig and Harriet H. Christensen
TERRY L. RAETTIG is an economist, Pacific Northwest Research Station, stationed

at Olympic National Forest, 1835 Black Lake Blvd. SW, Olympia, WA 98512-5623;

and HARRIET H. CHRISTENSEN is a research sociologist, Forestry Sciences

Laboratory, 4043 Roosevelt Way, Seattle, WA 98105-6497.

Cover photos: Bob Curtis, Mike McClellen, and Forest Service staff

Authors
Raettig, Terry L.; Christensen, Harriet H. 1999. Timber harvesting, processing, and

employment in the Northwest Economic Adjustment Initiative region: changes and

economic assistance. Gen. Tech. Rep. PNW-GTR-465. Portland, OR: U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service, Pacific Northwest Research Station. 16 p.

The Northwest economic adjustment initiative (NWEAI) provides economic assistance

to a region including western Washington, western Oregon, and northern California.

Timber harvests have fallen markedly in this region since 1990. The forest products

industry is the largest manufacturing sector in the region, and employment has followed

the downward trend in timber harvest. There are important differences in the declines in

timber harvest, employment, and the importance of the forest products industry at the

county level. The NWEAI is a significant initiative designed to coordinate and manage

Federal economic assistance efforts in the region.

Keywords: Timber harvest, employment, economic assistance, Northwest Economic

Adjustment Initiative.

1 Introduction

1 The Region Defined

1 Timber Harvesting and Processing Trends

8 Employment in the Forest Products Industry

11 The NWEAI and Economic Assistance

14 Conclusions

14 Acknowledgments

15 References

Abstract

Contents
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1

The Northwest Forest Plan, released on July 1, 1993, was a response to continuing

problems in public land management in the Pacific Northwest (Christensen and others

1995). Court actions, policy changes, and controversy brought the timber sale programs of the USDA-Forest Service and the Bureau of Land Management, the two

largest Federal land management agencies in the region, to a standstill by 1991. The

Northwest Forest Plan addresses three primary issues: forest management, economic development, and agency coordination (Tuchmann and others 1996).

The Northwest economic adjustment initiative (NWEAI) is the economic development

component of the Northwest Forest Plan. The Northwest Forest Plan includes the

NWEAI because of the recognition that the natural resource policy changes in the Pacific Northwest have significant social and economic impacts (Clinton and Gore 1993).

The NWEAI was designed to provide for the immediate needs of workers and families

as a result of reduced timber harvest and to address longer term community development issues. An understanding of the changes in natural resource availability and the

impact on those industries dependent on processing the natural resources is a prerequisite for understanding the broader social and economic well-being trends in the

NWEAI region. The understanding of natural resource availability also aids in determining the effects of the efforts to mitigate the impacts and dislocations resulting from natural resource policy changes. When the potential policy changes were being considered, substantial controversy was generated over the magnitude, location, and timing

of potential timber harvest reductions and employment impacts in the forest products

industry (Raettig and McGinnis 1996). This analysis examines the impacts that have

actually occurred in the NWEAI region in the short term as the Northwest Forest Plan

has been implemented.

The Northwest Forest Plan addresses ecosystem management in a region that includes parts of California, Oregon, and Washington. The region is centered on the

range of the northern spotted owl (Strix occidentalis caurina) but includes adjacent

ecologically similar areas outside the range (Tuchmann and others 1996). The NWEAI

region is made up of counties determined by each state to be eligible for economic

assistance from the NWEAI (fig. 1). The 52 counties that define the NWEAI region

include most of the counties in the Northwest Forest Plan region but exclude a few

counties in the Puget Sound area and Portland metropolitan area and include a number of counties outside the range of the northern spotted owl where adverse economic

impacts from timber harvest reductions were expected.

Timber harvests in the Pacific Northwest and the United States have varied historically

in a pattern coincident with national business cycles. The patterns for harvesting have

been relatively low in recessionary periods and high in periods of economic expansion

in the national economy. Timber harvests for California, Oregon, and Washington since

1978 (fig. 2) clearly reflect the impact of the severe recession of the early 1980s. Also

evident is the economic downturn of the early 1990s, and it is in this period that the

harvest trends in the Pacific Northwest diverged from national trends.

Nationally, softwood timber harvests were at their lowest point for the 1990s in 1991

and then started increasing and were near prerecession levels by 1995. In sharp contrast, timber harvest in the Pacific Northwest continued to fall for 3 more years before

stabilizing in 1994 to 1996. This diverging trend in timber harvests is reflected in

changes in market share for the Pacific Northwest. In 1980, the Pacific Northwest west

Introduction

The Region Defined

Timber Harvesting

and Processing

Trends
2

Figure 1—The Northwest economic adjustment initiative region.
3

of the Cascade Range provided 25 percent of the total softwood harvest in the United

States; in 1989, the Pacific Northwest west side provided 26 percent of the national

softwood harvest, but by 1995 the region’s harvest had declined to only 17 percent of

the national total.

The reductions in timber harvest in the Pacific Northwest and the NWEAI region that

have occurred because of changing natural resource policies have had a profound

impact on the forest products industry and those economies dependent on the industry.

Although the timber harvest has decreased across the entire NWEAI region, there have

been differences in the magnitude and impact of the reductions by ownership and by

county (Christensen and Raettig 1997).

Harvests from both public lands1 and private lands have decreased in all three states

(table 1), but the decreases have been far more significant on public lands. For all

counties in the NWEAI, the percentage of decrease in timber harvest from public lands

between 1989 and 1994 is 80 percent. These years serve as useful comparison years

to determine the impact of the policy and management changes, because 1989 predates most of the policy changes and resulting harvest impacts, and by 1994 most of

the impacts from the changes and recovery from the national recession had occurred.

Preliminary harvest data for 1995 and 1996 indicate that the harvest in the NWEAI

region is no longer decreasing and may have stabilized.

The harvest from private lands is a contrast to the harvest from public lands in that the

decrease for private lands in the region between 1989 and 1994 is less than 25 percent

and was only 15 percent in Oregon. Decreases in harvests from private lands may reflect a number of factors, including inventory and age class constraints, and restrictions

on private harvests as a result of changing public policies. Oregon counties in the

NWEAI region have been particularly dependent on harvests from public lands, and the

Figure 2—Total timber harvest for California, Oregon, and Washington, 1978

through 1996.

1 Harvests from public lands include harvests from lands

owned by Federal, tribal, state, and local government

entities.
4

total impact of timber harvest changes on the forest products industry would have been

even greater without the relatively small decrease in private harvests. For the entire

NWEAI region, the decrease in timber harvest between 1989 and 1994 was just under

50 percent.

Most of the harvest from private lands in the region comes from second-growth stands.

By 1994, 91 percent of the timber harvest in western Washington was considered

young growth (Larsen 1996). This lack of old-growth inventory and dependence on

second-growth stands limit the ability of private owners to increase harvests to compensate for declining timber harvests from Federal lands. To the extent that private

owners increase harvest from immature stands in response to increasing prices, the

potential for future revenues also may be compromised.

When individual counties within the region are considered, there is large variation in the

decrease in total timber harvest (fig. 3).2 The decrease is over 75 percent in Hood River

County, Oregon, and Glenn County, California; 13 of the 52 counties in the region have

decreases in total harvest exceeding 60 percent for the period. The counties having the

largest percentage of decrease are clustered on the east side of the Cascade crest

near the Columbia Gorge and in southern Oregon and interior northern California.

These counties tend to have had a high proportion of their timber harvest originate on

Table 1—Timber harvest changes in the NWEAI region between 1989 and 1994

State and ownership 1989 harvest 1994 harvest Decrease

– – – – Thousand board feet – – – – Percent

California:

Private 1,739,725 1,240,907 -28.7

Public 738,002 93,866 -87.3

Total 2,477,727 1,334,773 -46.1

Oregon:

Private 3,329,772 2,834,066 -14.9

Public 3,862,062 648,673 -83.2

Total 7,191,834 3,482,739 -51.6

Washington:

Private 4,027,278 2,965,848 -26.4

Public 1,929,039 592,045 -69.3

Total 5,956,317 3,557,893 -40.3

NWEAI region:

Private 9,096,775 7,040,821 -22.6

Public 6,529,103 1,334,584 -79.6

Total 15,625,878 8,375,405 -46.4

2 Figures 3 to 5 were developed from data compiled for:

Christensen, Harriet H.; McGinnis, Wendy J.; Raettig,

Terry L.; Donoghue, Ellen. Atlas of human adaptation to

environmental change, challenges and opportunities:

northern California and western Oregon and Washington.

Manuscript in preparation.
5

Figure 3—Percentage of change in timber harvest in the NWEAI region between 1989 and 1994.
6

public lands and are relatively distant from urban centers in the region. At the other end

of the scale, Stevens County, Washington, had an increase in total timber harvest

between 1989 and 1994 because of the strong increase in the private harvest in that

county. Thirteen other counties in the region had less than a 30-percent decrease in

timber harvest for the period.

Those counties with the largest percentages of decrease in timber harvest usually are

those having the greatest proportionate loss of logging jobs, but not necessarily the

greatest loss of lumber and wood products manufacturing jobs. The nature and location of the forest products processing facilities and log flows ultimately help determine

the total impact of the harvest reductions on the local and regional economy. Mill surveys have traditionally provided the most comprehensive information on the forest

products industry and raw material flows in the Pacific Northwest (Howard and Ward

1991, Larsen 1992, Ward 1997). Mill survey data from 1988 and 1994 provide industry

information for the period when the most significant harvest reductions occurred in the

NWEAI region.

There are noticeable differences in the use of roundwood in the three states included in

the NWEAI region. Statewide data (table 2) indicate that most roundwood processed in

California is used by the sawmill industry with a much smaller amount used by the veneer and plywood industry. Other end uses of roundwood in California are insignificant.

In contrast, the sawmill industry in Oregon still accounts for the largest proportion of

roundwood used, but the veneer and plywood industry is also a major consumer,

and log exports are locally important. Washington presents yet another pattern of

roundwood use with sawmills accounting for less than one-half of the total roundwood

harvested in 1988. Log exports are much more significant in Washington than in the

other two states and account for almost as much roundwood consumption as the sawmill industry. The veneer and plywood industry is locally important in Washington, but

the total amount of timber processed by the industry in Washington is not large.

The pulp and paper industry across the region relies mainly on residue from roundwood

processing plants and, as such, is very important in the overall profitability of the sawmill and plywood sectors of the industry. The pulp and paper industry directly processes

less than 10 percent of the total roundwood harvest in each of the three states.

Patterns of use by industry are important because some industries such as the log export industry add less value to the raw material and have a smaller employment impact

on the local and regional economy. Other industries, such as the pulp industry and the

veneer and plywood industry, produce products with higher value added and provide

proportionately more jobs for the local economy. It is not possible to provide consistent

data on patterns of log use and the industry by county, because many counties have

only one or a few forest products processing firms and disclosure of industry statistics

for such counties would violate the confidentiality assurances that are part of the mill

surveys. Data for selected counties can be used, however, to show the changes in raw

material use in the region.

In northern California, the volume of logs processed fell from 2.5 billion board feet in

1988 to 1.2 billion board feet in 1994.3 But this reduction of more than 50 percent is not

shared equally across the northern California counties. Humboldt County, for instance,

3 The California, Oregon, and Washington counties

included approximate those included in the NWEAI

region but do not correspond exactly because some

county data are combined to avoid disclosure.
7

processed 891 million board feet of roundwood in 1988 and 692 million board feet

in 1994, and the number of operating sawmills fell only from 16 to 15. In contrast,

Mendocino County experienced a decrease in roundwood processed from 466 million

board feet in 1988 to 31 million board feet in 1994 and a decrease in the number of

operating sawmills from 10 to 7. For all the northern California counties in the NWEAI

region, the number of operating sawmills fell from 48 in 1988 to 31 in 1994.

The quantity of logs processed in the NWEAI region in Oregon fell more precipitously

from 7.9 billion board feet in 1988 to 3.2 billion board feet in 1994, a 60-percent drop.

Again, the reduction in volume processed differed from county to county. Two counties

severely impacted were Douglas County with a reduction in volume processed from

1.2 billion board feet in 1988 to 361 million board feet in 1994 and Jackson County with

a reduction from 723 million board feet in 1988 to 187 million board feet in 1994. In

contrast, the reduction in volume processed in Lane County was less than 50 percent,

and the volume processed in Tillamook County actually increased in the period. The

number of operating sawmills in the NWEAI counties in Oregon decreased from 135 in

1988 to 80 in 1994.

Data from the 1994 mill survey were collected in Washington but have not been summarized (and may not be summarized because of budget priorities), so changes in

roundwood processing that occurred during the period of timber harvest declines cannot be displayed. Other data suggest that the volume of log exports from Washington

Table 2—Pacific Northwest roundwood consumption for 1988 and 1994, by state

and industry

(volume in thousand board feet)

Washingtona Oregon California

Industry Volume Percent Volume Percent Volume Percent

Sawmills 3,014,835 43 5,447,497 62 3,830,709 93

Log export 2,847,389 41 673,592 8 56,892 1

Pulp 540,057 8 101,458 1 46,899 1

Veneer and plywood 457,339 7 2,529,588 29 195,756 5

Shake and shingle 61,792 1 15,724 – 1,386 –

Posts and poles 22,768 – 30,551 – 10,849 –

Total 6,944,180 100 8,798,410 100 4,142,491 100

Sawmills 2,631,591 68 2,228,336 93

Log export 219,027 6 2,700 –

Pulp 80,614 2 – –

Veneer and plywood 892,907 23 124,538 5

Shake and shingle 4,607 – 350 –

Posts and poles 26,992 1 41,489 2

Total 3,855,738 100 2,397,413 100

a Data for 1994 for Washington are not available.

Source: Data for Washington are from Larsen (1992). Data for Oregon and California are from Howard and

Ward (1991) and Ward (1997).

1988

1994
8

may be declining faster than the decline in harvests (Warren 1996). Between 1989 and

1994, the volume of log exports from the Seattle Customs District fell by 62 percent

compared with a timber harvest decrease of 40 percent in the same period.4 In the

absence of large new investments in veneer or pulp mills, this would increase the

proportion of the Washington timber harvest being processed in sawmills.

Changes in timber industry employment, the employment in Standard Industrial Classification (SIC) sector 24, reflect the impact of harvest reductions on both the harvesting (logging) and processing parts of the solid-wood forest products industry. Primary

pulp and paper manufacturing and secondary paper processing employment is in SIC

26. The SIC 24 employment changes examined in this section are reported by state

employment offices in the three states. These data represent the only comprehensive

employment information for SIC 24 available at the county level. It is a less inclusive

measure of employment than some other measures such as the U.S. Department of

Commerce, Bureau of Economic Analysis, employment data, because only “covered

employment” is reported and some classes of employees, such as proprietors, are

excluded. Only employees covered by unemployment insurance legislation are reported under “covered employment.”

Employment in the forest products industry (SIC 24) in the NWEAI region fell by just

under 14,000 jobs between 1990 and 1994 (table 3). This does not represent the total

decrease in forest products industry employment in the Pacific Northwest as a result of

timber harvest decreases, because counties in eastern Oregon and Washington,

northern California, and a number of metropolitan areas in the Pacific Northwest are

not included in the NWEAI region. Also, SIC 24 does not include employment in the

pulp and paper industry. Some of these counties excluded under NWEAI (King and

Thurston in Washington, Washington and Multnomah in Oregon) have forest products

harvesting and processing firms impacted by the harvest decreases. Conversely, the

SIC 24 sector includes industries that do not process locally harvested timber, and

employment changes in these industries are not related to local forest management

policy changes. For comparison, changes in forest products industry employment also

are shown for each entire state in the Pacific Northwest (table 3). Changes in forest

management policies have occurred outside the NWEAI region, and the decrease in

SIC 24 employment in California has been greater outside of the NWEAI region than

within the region. There is also the potential impact of broad-scale economic changes,

business cycles, and technological changes on SIC 24 employment. All these complex

interactions mean that the employment changes in the forest products industry are, at

best, an indication of impacts from harvest reduction, and losses are not due solely to

reduced timber harvest.

The decreases in forest products employment in the NWEAI region are much smaller

proportionally than the decreases in timber harvest. In part, this is because some of

the industries included in SIC 24 are not dependent on locally harvested timber. Wood

buildings and mobile homes (“manufactured housing”) are examples of industries

included in SIC 24 that do not depend exclusively on locally harvested timber. These

secondary industries tend to be located close to markets and are more responsive to

growth in the market area and changes in local economies rather than to raw material

Employment in the

Forest Products

Industry

4 A large share of the log exports from Washington

timberlands moves through the Seattle Customs District.

Additional timber from Washington is exported through the

Snake-Columbia Customs District, which experienced

similar decreases in exports for the period.
9

availability. In Oregon and Washington, there has been an upward trend for at least

20 years in the proportion of SIC 24 employment in secondary manufacturing industries, such as millwork, manufactured housing, and pallets, and a decrease in the

proportion of SIC 24 employment in the primary wood processing industries, such as

sawmills and veneer mills (Raettig and McGinnis 1996).

When the changes in the number of SIC 24 jobs are examined for individual counties

(fig. 4) and compared with the harvest decreases (fig. 3), it is evident that the counties

with the greatest proportionate decrease in harvest are not necessarily those with the

largest proportionate decreases in employment. Of the 12 counties with a SIC employment decrease of 25 percent or greater, only 5 had harvest deceases of 60 percent of

greater. Eight counties in the NWEAI region actually had increases in SIC 24 employment between 1990 and 1994, including two (Jefferson County, Oregon, and Trinity

County, California) with relatively large harvest declines. When the impact of harvest

decreases on employment in the forest products industry is considered, it is important

to examine flows of raw materials to processing centers and the potential offsetting

effect of employment in the secondary forest products industries.

Although changes in forest products employment provide one indicator of the impact of

changing timber harvest levels, other factors merit consideration. One such factor is

the importance of the forest products industry compared to other industries within the

local and regional economy. When the NWEAI region as a whole is considered, forest

products industry (SIC 24) employment accounted for 4.5 percent of total covered

employment in 1990. The forest products industry is the largest manufacturing sector

(at the two-digit SIC level) in northern California and western Oregon and one of the

largest in western Washington.

Table 3—Employment and change in SIC 24 between 1990 and 1994 in the

Pacific Northwest

State 1990 employment 1994 employment Decrease

– – – – – – – – Employees – – – – – – – – Percent

NWEAI counties only

California 12,981 10,939 -15.7

Oregon 55,387 46,648 -15.8

Washington 27,132 24,091 -11.2

Total, NWEAI region 95,500 81,678 -14.5

Entire state

California 66,200 49,700 -24.9

Oregon 64,371 54,892 -14.7

Washington 39,159 35,795 -8.6

Total, Pacific Northwest 169,730 140,387 -17.3

Source: State employment agencies.
10

Figure 4—Percentage of change in SIC 24 employment in the NWEAI region between 1990 and

1994. Employment data for Ferry, Pend Oreille, and Wahkiakum Counties in Washington are

omitted to avoid disclosing data for individual firms.
11

For many of the individual counties in the NWEAI region, the forest products industry is

a more significant factor in the local economy than it is in the regional economy (fig. 5).

In 1990, the forest products industry accounted for more than 10 percent of total employment in three Washington counties and four Oregon counties. That same year, the

industry accounted for between 5 and 10 percent of the total employment in an additional six counties in northern California, nine counties in western Oregon, and six

counties in western Washington.

Changing natural resource management policies, the declining timber harvests, and

subsequent loss of lumber and wood products employment became issues of national

importance by the early 1990s. In April 1993, President Clinton convened the forest

conference in Portland, Oregon, to address ecosystem management and related social

and economic issues in the Pacific Northwest (Clinton and Gore 1993). The forest conference was the catalyst for the completion of the Northwest Forest Plan. President

Clinton provided a set of principles to guide development of the Northwest Forest Plan,

and the first of these principles came in the form of direction to remember the social

and economic aspects of the issue and provide economic development opportunities

when necessary. The NWEAI is the economic assistance part of the Northwest Forest

Plan and was designed to deal directly with impacts resulting from the timber harvest

and employ-ment changes documented previously.

The NWEAI brings together the rural community and economic development programs

from five Federal departments and two independent agencies to provide a focused

ef-fort to mitigate the adverse impacts of the changing natural resource management

policies and provide for comprehensive development regionally. The NWEAI is managed to ensure cooperation of the Federal funding agencies and the active participation of the state, local, tribal, and nongovernment entities in the region (Tuchmann and

others 1996). Most of the Federal funding provided through the NWEAI has been in the

form of grants, loans, and loan guarantees. Projects have been divided into four major

categories of assistance: workers and families, business and industry, community and

infrastructure, and ecosystem restoration.

The NWEAI was to provide $1.2 billion in Federal funding for the region over 5 years

(Clinton and Gore 1993). Funding for the first 4 years of the NWEAI (table 4) shows

that actual NWEAI expenditures by the Federal funding agencies was $121,786,102

in 1994, the first year of the initiative, and has been above $200 million in each of the

three succeeding years. The total is almost $800 million for the first 4 years of the initiative. In addition to the money provided through the Federal funding agencies, the Small

Business Administration has provided more than $630 million in loan guarantees for the

region over the four fiscal years of funding. California has received 22.7 percent of the

total Federal funding, Oregon 48.2 percent, and Washington 29.1 percent over the first

4 years. The business and industry and communities and infrastructure categories

(table 5) have accounted for an increasing share of total NWEAI funding and, by fiscal

year 1997, together accounted for more than 80 percent of total funding.

The NWEAI and

Economic

Assistance
12

Figure 5—Forest products industry employment (SIC 24) as a percentage of the total 1990

employment (U.S. Department of Commerce, Bureau of Economic Analysis 1997).
13

The NWEAI created a regional community economic revitalization team (RCERT) to

provide regional coordination of implementation efforts and a state community economic revitalization team (SCERT) in each state to guide NWEAI efforts in the states.

NWEAI funding as reported by the three SCERTs is concentrated in heavily impacted

counties or those counties providing economic and community development services

to the surrounding impacted counties. Within California, 3 heavily impacted counties

(Lake, Siskiyou, and Trinity) out of the 10 counties included in the NWEAI region received 52 percent of the NWEAI county-level funding reported by the California

SCERT. Similarly, in Oregon, 4 counties (Douglas, Lane, Marion, and Polk) out of the

21 in the NWEAI region accounted for 40 percent of NWEAI funding for fiscal years

1994 through 1997. In Washington, Clallam and Grays Harbor Counties accounted for

one-third of the NWEAI funding allocated to 23 counties. U.S. Department of Agriculture agencies (Rural Development and the Forest Service) have provided about 70 percent of the total NWEAI funding in each fiscal year except for 1994 (the first year of

NWEAI).

Table 4—Total NWEAI expenditures by state, Small Business Administration, and

fiscal year

Fiscal year

State and agency 1994 1995 1996 1997 Total

Dollars

California 26,444,300 54,458,493 51,130,000 47,378,683 179,411,476

Oregon 58,695,650 94,499,404 103,750,000 122,035,786 378,980,840

Washington 36,646,152 68,886,247 60,950,000 62,460,343 228,942,742

Total 121,786,102 217,844,144 215,830,000 231,874,812 787,335,058

 SBAa 164,308,960 162,955,926 169,260,000 135,897,983 632,422,869

a Small Business Administration loan guarantees for the NWEAI region.

Sources: Tuchmann and others (1996) for fiscal years 1994-96. USDA Rural Development (1998) for fiscal

year 1997.

Table 5—NWEAI funding for fiscal years 1994 through 1997 by category

of assistance

Fiscal year

Category of assistance 1994 1995 1996 1997

Percent

Workers and families 7 9 6 6

Business and industry 31 23 29 28

Community and infrastructure 37 53 50 53

Ecosystem investment 25 15 15 13

Sources: Tuchmann and others (1996) for fiscal years 1994-96. USDA Rural Development (1998)

for fiscal year 1997.
14

Specific NWEAI projects are extremely diverse, which reflects both the variety of Federal funding programs included under the NWEAI umbrella and the innovative approaches to community and economic development generated by those involved with

the NWEAI. Several projects directly support developing community infrastructure,

such as sewer and drinking water systems, industrial parks, and buildings that provide

initial space for new, small businesses (business “incubator” buildings). Still other projects have provided loans from nonprofit entities to small and emerging businesses

(intermediary loans), technical assistance in preparing strategic plans, ecosystem restoration activities, and worker retraining. The information included here is designed to

provide only a brief overview of economic development efforts in the NWEAI region.

More comprehensive information is available in other publications (Raettig and others

1998, Tuchmann and others 1996), from the various Federal funding agencies, and in

SCERT reports.

Several conclusions can be drawn from this examination of timber harvesting and,

processing employment and from economic assistance data for the NWEAI region.

• Timber harvests in the NWEAI region decreased by almost 50 percent between

1989 and 1994. Decreases in harvest from Federal lands have been even greater,

with a decrease of 80 percent from 1989 levels. Total harvest in the NWEAI region

now seems to be stabilizing as the Northwest Forest Plan is implemented and

public timber sales are resumed at new, lower levels.

• Employment in the lumber and wood products sector in the NWEAI region declined

markedly as harvests were declining, with the loss of about 14,000 jobs in the

region. Employment losses were not as large proportionately as harvest declines

because of offsetting increases in secondary forest products manufacturing and

those parts of the lumber and wood products sector not dependent on local timber

harvests.

• There are important differences in the patterns of timber harvest decline and

employment losses within the region. Certain counties that were relatively more

dependent on public timber supplies have experienced the most severe impacts.

• The NWEAI was created to provide economic assistance to the region. Large

amounts of Federal community and economic development financial resources

have been directed to the impacted NWEAI region.

The Regional Community Economic Revitalization Team (RCERT) and State Community Economic Revitalization Team members and staff in the Pacific Northwest provided

support for this analysis. Acknowledgment is due the staff of the now closed USDA

Office of Forestry and Economic Assistance in Portland, Oregon. The USDA Rural

Development, Oregon State Office and Washington DC; USDA Forest Service, State

and Private Forestry, Pacific Northwest and Pacific Southwest Regions; U.S. Department of the Interior, Bureau of Land Management, Oregon State Office, all supported

this study. Judy Mikowski and Wendy McGinnis of the Pacific Northwest Research

Station, Social and Economic Values Program, provided able assistance in assembling

maps.

Conclusions

Acknowledgments
15

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14 p.

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Management. 50 p.

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Clarence B. 1996. The Northwest forest plan: a report to the President and

Congress. Portland, OR: U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service, Pacific

Northwest Research Station. 253 p.

References
16

U.S. Department of Agriculture, Rural Development. 1998. Unpublished data

summaries. On file with: USDA Rural Development, Oregon State Office, 101 SW

Main Street, Suite 1410, Portland, OR 97204-2333.

U.S. Department of Commerce, Bureau of Economic Analysis. 1997. Regional economic information system CD-ROM disk. [Machine readable data files and technical

documentation files prepared by the Regional Economic Measurement Division

(BEA-55), Bureau of Economic Analysis, Economics and Statistics Administration,

U. S. Department of Commerce].

Ward, Franklin R. 1997. California’s forest products industry: 1994. Resour. Bull.

PNW-RB-217. Portland, OR: U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service, Pacific

Northwest Research Station. 60 p.

Warren, Debra D. 1996. Production, prices, employment, and trade in Northwest forest

industries, fourth quarter 1995. Resour. Bull. PNW-RB-213. Portland, OR: U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service, Pacific Northwest Research Station. 130 p.
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Raettig, Terry L.; Christensen, Harriet H. 1999. Timber harvesting, processing, and employment in the Northwest Economic Adjustment Initiative region: changes and economic assistance. Gen. Tech. Rep. PNW-GTR-465. Portland, OR: U.S. Department of Agriculture,

Forest Service, Pacific Northwest Research Station. 16 p.

The Northwest economic adjustment initiative (NWEAI) provides economic assistance to a

region including western Washington, western Oregon, and northern California. Timber harvests have fallen markedly in this region since 1990. The forest products industry is the

largest manufacturing sector in the region, and employment has followed the downward

trend in timber harvest. There are important differences in the declines in timber harvest,

employment, and the importance of the forest products industry at the county level. The

NWEAI is a significant initiative designed to coordinate and manage Federal economic

assistance efforts in the region.

Keywords: Timber harvest, employment, economic assistance, Northwest Economic

Adjustment Initiative.

The Forest Service of the U.S. Department of Agriculture is

dedicated to the principle of multiple use management of the

Nation’s forest resources for sustained yields of wood, water, forage,

wildlife, and recreation. Through forestry research, cooperation with

the States and private forest owners, and management of the

National Forests and National Grasslands, it strives—as directed by

Congress—to provide increasingly greater service to a growing

Nation.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) prohibits discrimination

in all its programs and activities on the basis of race, color, national

origin, gender, religion, age, disability, political beliefs, sexual

orientation, or marital or family status. (Not all prohibited bases apply

to all programs.) Persons with disabilities who require alternative

means for communication of program information (Braille, large

print, audiotape, etc.) should contact USDA’s TARGET Center at

(202) 720-2600 (voice and TDD).

To file a complaint of discrimination, write USDA, Director, Office of

Civil Rights, Room 326-W, Whitten Building, 14th and Independence

Avenue, SW, Washington, DC 20250-9410 or call (202) 720-5964

(voice and TDD). USDA is an equal opportunity provider and

employer.

Pacific Northwest Research Station

333 S.W. First Avenue

P.O. Box 3890

Portland, Oregon 97208-3890
U.S. Department of Agriculture

Pacific Northwest Research Station

333 S.W. First Avenue

P.O. Box 3890

Portland, OR 97208

Official Business

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