Ahlstrom recently announced it will be closing its Mosinee pulp mill later this year.
It’s another in a series of hits to the forestry industry over the last five years, and one that adds to the growing concerns of environmentalists and those in the forest products industry.
Retired Forestry Consultant and Chair of the Wisconsin Council on Forestry Tom Hittle says the impending closure of the Mosinee pulp mill is another instance in long line of mill closures.
“Probably the most impactful and recent was the 2020 closure of the mill in Wisconsin Rapids, which we're still feeling the impact from,” said Hittle. “We can expect to see that churn, I think, in our forest industry, moving forward. We may not be able to continue to expect that those markets are going to be there in the future, even the markets that appear to be sustainable and strong at this point.”
It's one of the reasons he and others in the forestry industry and conservation are calling for support for current forest products to diversify the industry.
The loss of mills is just one in a series of serious threats to Wisconsin forests.
Climate change, invasive species, and land use conversion all put the health of forests at risk.
These risks were explored in a Wisconsin Green Fire report released about a year and a half ago.
Those involved in the report, including Hittle, are trying to raise awareness on the issues and gather support to work towards solutions. He says the state can no longer afford to take a passive approach.
“We can no longer assume that that our forests are going to continue to predictably and consistently provide the wood and the recreational opportunities and all the countless other benefits and values that we have all enjoyed in the past, without engagement going forward,” said Hittle.
Ron Eckstein is a retire wildlife biologist and Wisconsin Green Fire volunteer.
He says it will take policymakers, industry leaders, landowners, and others to come together to ensure the state has healthy forests in the future.
“We're losing composition and structure in our forest for wildlife habitat. A driving important part of all that is to manage pests and pathogens, to improve wildlife habitat, to ensure biodiversity in our forest, we need people to go actually in the forest and do the work, to do the thinning and management,” said Eckstein. “A lot of that is a commercial product. You harvest trees, and in the end, you get a better forest, if it’s done properly, of course.”
Eckstein and Hittle are this month’s Science on Tap Minocqua speakers.
It’s this Thursday, March 5 at Rocky Reef Brewing Company at 6:30 p.m.
“Hopefully the people who come, come away from it saying, ‘Gee, we can't just drive by and say, Oh, there's forest. Looks good,’” said Eckstein. “It's very complex, and there are a lot of concerns, and that maybe they can be part of citizen action to make policymakers aware of their thoughts. That we need to take some of the actions that are important to conserve our forests.”
You can also stream Science on Tap Minocqua online.
