The timber industry in Wisconsin 2011

There are two major sectors of the timber industry – sawing and veneering large high quality logs, and using wood fiber for paper or fuel in small and low value logs.

The sawmill/veneer mills mine the good timber in old growth forests.  When the good trees are gone, they move on to other regions.  Trees grow too slowly to sustain a huge mill.

The timber industry peaked in Wisconsin in the late 1980s.  Over the past 30 years, a half million jobs have been lost to mechanization, corporate downsizing, and globalization.  Timber prices and demand for trees & logs are now half of their level a few years ago.  Very little is know about the current timber industry and wood values.

Today, our best walnut, cherry, white oak, and sugar maple logs are being high graded from our degraded forests and being exported to China.  Most of the wood products we buy in the big stores was illegally logged in the Rainforest or Siberia and then manufactured in China. 

There is nearly a complete disconnect between our local forests and the local economy.  This is a result of big industry totally dominating the University and government forestry programs.  Now that industry has largely fallen apart and moved on, new opportunities exist to revitalize forest management by promoting the use of locally grown and manufactured forest products.

A family farm near Spring Green Wisconsin is leading a global movement encouraging  the timber grower to again harvest, process, and sell forest products direct to customers.  They make and install hardwood flooring and furniture from just the annual growth of their forest.  By eliminating all the middlemen, brokers, and shippers, they can sell hand made solid wood products at competitive prices to the imports.