Timber professionals are beginning to receive pandemic assistance from the U.S. Department of Agriculture, but industry leaders question whether the $200 million in aid will be enough.
When the pandemic hit Northern Wisconsin, mills that process timber slowed down production or shut down entirely in response to shifting consumer demand.
The move directly impacted hundreds of mill workers, but it also affected the people who cut and transport wood.
“When you’re logging, if you can’t deliver your product, of course you don’t get paid,” Henry Schienebeck, the executive director of the Great Lakes Timber Professionals Association, says. “If you don’t get paid, it’s hard to pick that volume back up once it’s lost.”
With fewer places to process their timber, Schienebeck says loggers and truckers have taken a big hit since the pandemic began, despite heavy demand for wood products.
Losses have been so great that many have been forced to leave the industry altogether.
“It’s not just Wisconsin, but a lot of people in different parts of the country too have gone into other lines of work,” he says. “They’ve gone into construction. They’ve just transitioned into other types of occupations.”
In response, the U.S. Department of Agriculture is providing $200 million in pandemic relief to timber harvesters and haulers.
The USDA’s Farm Service Agency is administering that money to those who qualify now, but Schienebeck says there are so many applicants that the pool of money will be thinly divided.
“It’ll help, but it’s not going to come anywhere close to helping them overcome the losses that they’ve seen because of the mill closures,” he says.
Schienebeck says this is the first time the FSA has financially supported the timber industry, but with the way things are going, he’s not sure it will be the last.
“This is really a good first step, or a first test actually, to see if there should be more recognition for the forest industry to be considered more like agriculture,” he says.
