Wildfires Hamper Winter Log Inventories for Mills in U.S. Pacific Northwest

Sawmills and pulp mills in the U.S. Northwest have been struggling to build log inventories for the winter season because of the unusually long fire season this year, according to the North American Wood Fiber Review (NAWFR), Seattle, Wash., USA.

Overshadowed by British Columbia’s (Canada) unprecedented wildfire season, the U.S. states of Washington, Oregon, Idaho, and Montana also experienced a significant and disruptive wildfire year. 

By early September, almost 2 million acres of forest and rangeland had burned in the U.S. Northwest. Harvest operations across the four states have been hampered by restrictions on operating hours, disruptions in transportation, and loggers diverted to fighting wildfires. In Montana, several sawmills had to close operations intermittently in the 3Q/17 due to the proximity of wildfires. Full harvest operations resumed after late September rains, though whether there was sufficient time to replenish sawlog and pulp log inventories before winter conditions set in remains the key question for many log procurement managers this fall.

 

Unlike British Columbia and its large provincially-owned commercial timber base, the loss of burnt timber on U.S. federal forests has had little impact on the availability of timber with the exception being Montana, where regular timber sales from federal lands have proven crucial to selected sawmills. In general, however, the U.S. Forest Service timber sale program provides minimal sawlog or pulp log volumes to the forest industry in Western U.S. 

With lower harvest levels in the Northwest due to wildfire-risk constraints, local sawmills expanded their procurement into small-diameter chip-n-saw grades and higher quality pulp logs that typically would be used by the region’s pulp mills. This less valuable log source, resulting in lower lumber yields, has still been profitable for many sawmills thanks to the high prices for softwood lumber during 2017. 

The increased competition for small-diameter logs has resulted in a dwindling supply of traditional pulp logs normally available for pulp mills and independent chipping operators, with pulp log inventories in August reaching their lowest level since the 2Q/14. The low level of pulp logs in the region’s pulp industry this late in the season is a major concern among wood fiber managers in the U.S. Northwest as they seek to build adequate inventory levels of logs for the winter season when residual chip supply from the lumber industry typically declines. 

NAWFR has tracked wood fiber markets in the U.S. and Canada for more than 30 years and it is the only publication that includes prices for sawlogs, pulpwood, wood chips, and biomass in North America. The 36-page quarterly report includes wood market updates for 15 regions on the continent in addition to the latest export statistics for sawlogs, lumber, wood pellets, and wood chips.