Timber sales on the Chequamegon-Nicolet National Forest have increased for the sixth year in a row.
The most recent report from the fiscal year ending September 30, the forest sold 128 million board feet of timber through competitive bids.
Forest Supervisor Paul Strong says they haven't sold this many board feet for at least 30 years. The 2014 Farm Bill permanently authorized Good Neighbor Authority and Stewardship contracting, meaning the state also help in managing the federal woodlands. Strong says the new arrangement will continue into the forseeable future...
"We are still operating within the confines of our comprehensive forest plan. We have many acres of land that still need silvacultural treatment. We're happy to have a robust timber industry that can buy this wood and put it to good use. So we're getting multiple outcomes that are good outcomes, socially, economically and ecologically...."
Strong says the sales are spread across the forest...
"We have national forest land in 11 counties. I think we had timber sales in each one of those counties. We have just a little bit of land in Oneida and Langlade counties, but we have those timber sales distributed geographically. We offer a mix of products. That's important to our timber industry partners. We have a variety of timber processing plants. We're selling aspen for pulp, we're selling hardwood saw logs, we're selling red pine for saw logs in building materials and a few other products in smaller amounts..."
In 2017, the Forest sold just over 120 million board feet. About 860,000 acres of land is suitable for commercial timber harvest, with just under 14,000 acres harvested in 2018. The rest of the 1.5 million acres is considered unsuitable for timber harvest because of terrain or designations as wilderness as one example.
