The amount of timber harvested for sale last year was down a bit from the prior year, but Chequamegon-Nicolet National Forest officials think they had a substantial amount lumber produced.
Forest spokesperson Casey Jardine gives us the numbers...
"The 2019 fiscal year, from October 2018 to the end of September 2019 the (forest) sold 123.7 million board feet(MMBF) of timber. It's a little down from the 2018 numbers but we do expect higher numbers to be sold in fiscal year 2020..."
In addition to the Forest’s regular timber sale program which sold 108 million board feet this year, 15.7 million was sold through the Good Neighbor Authority agreement with the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources.
In 2014 the Farm Bill permanently authorized Good Neighbor Authority (GNA) as well as stewardship contracting...
"...we're building really good relationships with(DNR) and they're helping us get a lot of the marketable timber off of the forest to create a more healthy, resilient forest..."
In 2018, the Forest sold 128 million board feet of timber for an estimated value of $10 million. Contractors also harvested 90 million board feet of timber valued at $7 million.
Jardine says the increase next year is likely to come from the national forest lands damaged by last summer's blowdown in Langlade and Oconto counties. The 2019 totals, she says, reflects little of that wood, but more will be in the 2020 sales.
Of the more than 860,000 acres of land suitable for commercial timber harvest on the National Forest, almost 12,000 acres were harvested in 2019.
Officials say the remaining portion of the 1.5 million acres of the Forest is considered unsuitable because of wetlands, steep slopes, wilderness or recreation designations or ecological research areas.
