State Timber Harvests - Sustainability vs Jobs?

I recently got into a conversation with a friend who was bemoaning the loss of jobs caused by spotted owl rulings and other environmental restrictions.  "It's a darn shame."  Gosh, I haven't had this debate for years.  What then are the facts about timber harvest levels in Washington State?  Though the data is available, it took a little work to pull it together to see historical trends dating all the way back to the mid 1960's.  Using data provided by the state Department of Natural Resources, the following chart shows timber harvest levels year by year by timberlands ownership for the period 1965 through 2016.

Data for harvest levels on tribal land are not available for the years 2003 - 2012.  For reference, Judge William Dwyer's spotted owl decision occurred on May 29, 1991. 

As we can see, by far the biggest volume declines in harvest levels have occurred on private lands with steep declines beginning in 1989.  Why?  Though environmental restrictions have contributed (streamside setbacks for example), it was long known in the industry that high old growth harvest levels during the 1960's through 1980's were not sustainable.  A decline and shift to second growth timber was inevitable.  The 1990 - 1991 U.S. recession simply accelerated this process.  In preparation for these inevitable changes, the industry and Weyerhaeuser Co. specifically (who I happened to work for during this period), undertook several strategic initiatives during the late 1970's and throughout the 1980's.

1. Conversion to Small Log Sawmills - Second growth timber meant the need for highly efficient mills and totally retooling of the milling process.  No more large logs.  By the time of the Dwyer decision, many of these changes had already been made and mill employment levels had already decreased significantly.
2. The End of Unions - The industry took a hard line with unions during the 1980's.  This was true both in the woods and in the mills.  Logging was shifted from company/union crews to contract loggers paying substantially less.  With new technology, mill employment was substantially restructured.  As a result, wages paid declined substantially during this period and were no longer the "premium pay job" they once were.
3. Shift from Export to Domestic Markets - A combination of factors, including limited export demand for U.S. sourced small logs and plenty of export log availability in B.C., meant that harvest levels from domestic timber owners were destined primarily for use in U.S. mills - mitigating to some extent reduced domestic harvest levels.
4. Investment Diversification - In this, Weyerhaeuser definitely lead the way but in the end, it produced more of a distraction than results and back to core businesses they have all returned.

The Dwyer decision also had limited impact on private timber owners since there was very little old growth remaining by this time.  Old growth is home to the spotted owl, not second growth forests.  Bottom line - declines in harvest levels shown above and jobs at private timbers owners post 1991 has far less to do with spotted owls than with other industry realities.

A look at state and federal harvest levels and employment impacts in future posts.