Senators decry timber sale reductions

SUNDANCE — Wyoming’s two senators are criticizing the U.S. Forest Service for its “chokehold” on the timber industry in the wake of the recent layoff announcement from Neiman Enterprises.

U.S. Senators John Barrasso and Cynthis Lummis joined their South Dakota counterparts, John Thune and Mike Rounds, in calling for USFS to outline what it plans to do to protect the remaining forest products industry in the Black Hills.

Neiman Enterprises announced layoffs and product reductions at its last remaining South Dakota facility, Spearfish Forest Products, in April.

“This announcement came roughly three years after Neiman Enterprises was forced to close their sawmill in Hill City, South Dakota, upending the lives of another 120 hard-working individuals,” states the letter from the senators.

It also came a year after the company announced shift reductions in Hulett and reduced hours in Spearfish. All moves were attributed to a reduction in timber harvests.

In April, Shawn Cochran, Black Hills National Forest Supervisor, explained that the need for a reduction in timber harvests was caused largely by the mountain pine beetle epidemic, during which the Forest exceeded its allowable sale quantity to address the issue, and a number of large, catastrophic fires that changed vast areas of the Forest.

The USFS is currently undertaking an in-depth assessment of the timber situation, using real-time data from a lidar study that is being analyzed at Colorado State University with an eye to seeing results this summer.

Cochran said that the USFS will also continue its program to bring in timber from further-flung forests in California and southern Oregon.

“Over the last two years, the USFS has invested $3 million in the timber transit pilot program…From what I gather, over 200 rail cars have moved nearly three million boardfeet of timber to be processed at Neiman mills,” he said.

But the four senators want firm answers.

“Unfortunately, dwindling sawmill capacity near our nation’s national forest is not unique to the Black Hills. Since 2020, more than 20 mills near national forests have been forced to curtail production or close altogether,” states their letter. “While the timber industry faces its own unique market pressures, the recent layoffs are a direct result of reductions to the U.S. Forest Service’s timber sale program. Inconsistent log supplies from our national forests undermine our local sawmills and it is unacceptable.”

The letter continues to state that, without a dependable and affordable supply of timber from the national forests, these businesses will not survive.

It points out that the timber harvest target for the BHNF sits at just over half the amount that the forest was able to cut and sell in 2023.

“The layoffs at Spearfish Forest Products are a direct result of these drastic reductions in the timber sale program and reflect the tragic and all-too-real consequences of the Biden Administration’s misguided and harmful policies,” states the letter. “Across Wyoming and South Dakota, we are experiencing the impacts from this administration’s extreme climate obsession, resulting in efforts to lock up public lands and restrict multiple use mandates, regardless of the local economy.”

If the few remaining mills in the Black Hills are forced to close, the senators say, it will reverse years of progress. Forest health will suffer, wildfire risk will grow and damage from insects and diseases will become more likely, while the ripple effects will harm the economy, devalue forest grazing leases and jeopardize recreation opportunities.

“The forest products industry is hanging on by a thread and continued reductions to the timber sale program cannot continue,” states the letter.

The senators claim that USFS has “not expressed interest” in finding solutions and instead encouraged the timber industry to invest in new equipment and retrofits that could process small diameter trees and other forest residuals. These materials, they say, have little commercial value.

“You also suggested that the industry should consider moving away from producing lumber and transition to other by-products that could be used for construction,” states the letter. “Aside from the timber transport pilot program, which brought logs by rail from California to the Black Hills, we have seen no efforts to increase timber harvest levels or help the industry.”

The senators have demanded answers to five questions, beginning with what is USFS doing to increase timber harvest levels on the BHNF?

In addition, their letter asks for an explanation of the main drivers of the timber target shortfalls since 2018, what resources USFS needs to increase timber harvest levels – including specifics of any additional funding and how many years it will take to ramp up harvest levels to the collaboratively identified target.

Finally, the senators ask, “Will the agency commit to preventing further economic harm to the forest products industry by providing a consistent supply of timber?”

The USFS has been asked to provide written responses to these questions before June 28.

This story was published on June 6, 2024.