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Timber News EDITORIAL |
Timber News, Winter 1996 Clearcut Referendum Misleading The anti-clearcut group has gathered enough signatures to bring the so-called clearcut ban to a referendum vote. This is a bad bill. It has been sold as an anti-clearcut bill and emotionally that sells well, as people do not like the look of clearcuts. But this bill does far more than ban clearcuts. Some of its more obvious effects: it almost mandates that all forest be managed by a selection form of silviculture. This makes it difficult, at best and maybe impossible, to reproduce some species which are not tolerant of growing in the shade. White birch, Norway pine, and the aspens will be very difficult to regenerate. It will also be more difficult to regenerate white pine, red oak, white ash and other species, which are intermediate in their tolerance to shade. Long term these species will be a greatly reduced component of our forests. It only allows one third of the volume in trees over 4.5' in DBH to be harvested in any 15-year period. A slow growing forest will increase its volume 50% in 15 years, a forest with moderate growth will double in volume in 15 years. This bill does not even allow landowners to harvest the volume, which grows in fifteen years. With this type of management all stands growing on reasonably good soils will eventually become overstocked and much timber will be lost to mortality from natural causes. It requires that stands be maintained "to the maximum extent possible" with the same species and size classes that exist prior to cutting. To a forester that means: no weedings and improvement cuts, no releasing of younger understory trees, no harvest cuts of short lived species growing mixed with long lived species and certainly no conversions of one species to another. If a landowner has a low quality stand and another species is better adapted to that site, it cannot be converted. On another tack the bill applies only to the northern two thirds of Maine, an area with a lot of forest but few people. The proponents of this ban would like Maine's voters to participate in a tyranny of the majority over a minority. It does not require much knowledge of history to know that this road has led to some of history's greatest disasters. The designers of our government worried about this a great deal and wrote into our constitution safeguards to minimize such tyranny. My opinion is that this bill is based on bad science, wishful thinking and perhaps outright falsehoods; it will make poor forest management the law of the state; and is an attack on some of our basic freedoms. I ask you to study this issue carefully and if you decide I am right, join me in voting against this very very bad bill. (RDN) |
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Outlook In General The past year has been kind of a strange year. Last winter was mild, spring short and summer and fall dry. This winter started with lots of snow, but then a January thaw settled it greatly. Recently conditions for logging have been near ideal. Most mills have a good inventory of logs. The exception being those mills using high quality hardwood logs. There have been several windstorms through this past fall and winter. We have had to arrange for a couple of small salvage harvests. We have checked quite a few of lots that we thought might be at risk. But if you know or suspect there may have been Some wind damage on your lot, let us know and we will check it out and arrange salvage if possible. On a positive note there have not been any major outbreaks of insect or disease problems. 'Me bugs are still out there but Mother nature is giving us and the trees a break. Of future concern is the effect of last summer's drought, particularly on those areas, which were just recovering from Gypsy moth defoliation. Like a bad penny this subject never seems to go away. The legislature finally did get things somewhat straight. As it stands now if you have a lot which was put under tree growth classification through the personal use of wood method, you have until this April I to re-file under commercial use, open space or withdraw with reduced penalty. Everyone else who has land classified as forestland under the Tree Growth Law has until April 1, 1999 to have a forest management plan prepared by a licensed forester. You also need to re-file with the town assessor stating you have had a plan prepared and your land is being managed as recommended in that forest management plan. It is now getting obvious that all foresters are going to be very busy the spring of 1999 getting these plans ready. We had been recommending waiting to see if the legislature was going to change any requirements. At this time it looks like they are staying the course on this and we are changing our recommendation. If you have land under tree growth you should schedule the preparation of a forest management plan now. Selling stumpage as always is interesting. Combine continuing good logging conditions and a weakening market for construction grades of lumber and we get the usual results - quotas on delivery of logs to some local mills. This has affected mostly white pine and hemlock. High quality white pine logs are still moving well, but lower grades are either not being accepted or accepted at reduced prices. The hemlock sawlog market is in a serious slump, but pulpwood prices are way up and in some cases higher than sawlog prices. Good grade hardwood logs have held well. Prices offered for veneer grade logs have actually increased for some products. Paper markets are down slightly from the best they have been in years and this has kept the demand for pulpwood at least steady- What does all this mean for stumpage markets in the near future? The crystal ball is somewhat murky. Hemlock sawlogs will likely stay down until construction picks up. White pine prices being quoted by the mills have not changed much and most mills are honoring existing commitments. However, on new sales they are not accepting the poorer and smaller logs. This is in effect a decrease in price. We do not expect this to change until mud season. Hardwood log prices have held up, as have prices for pulpwood. As this is written, winter is far from over and could still bring difficult logging conditions. Spring will bring mud season and log supplies will tighten and mill inventories, hopefully, will return to normal levels. We think this will result in stumpage prices being stable for hardwood logs, spruce/fir logs and pulpwood quality products. As of mid-February we are recommending that now is a good time to be selling hardwood, spruce/fir and pulpwood quality timber. It is not a good time to be selling white pine unless you can be sure you are getting full value for your trees. Hemlock pulpwood prices are competitive with sawlog prices. However, something just seems wrong with using good potential sawlogs for pulpwood. So, even though the money is the same we recommend good hemlock be held for a better market. |