Timber Industry Waiting For Business To Rebound

"Logging is kind of the lifeblood of Northeastern Minnesota and Northcentral Minnesota," said Wayne Brandt, Executive Vice President of the Minnesota Timber Producers Association.

It's the fourth biggest manufacturing industry in the state, employing nearly 40,000 workers. But lately, logging businesses have been hit hard by the struggling housing industry.

"Nationwide, we were constructing two to two and a half million housing units on an annual basis," said Brandt. "That now has fallen down to about five hundred fifty thousand. So we're down about 25 percent."

The amount of timber being harvested is also down twenty five percent.

Much of Minnesota's timber is harvested here in the Northland. When the housing market bottomed out, some local logging companies and saw mills had to downsize or go out of business.

"There's been a few companies that have been forced to shut their operations down and a lot more that have changed their operations," said Scott Pittack, CEO of Pittack Logging.

"When you look at the mill jobs, they're all good jobs, high paying jobs that have a significant impact throughout all their communities," Brandt said.

Another challenge is customers are becoming more selective. For example, the demand for products made from renewable resources has increased dramatically.

"That's good, but we also need the market for higher value round wood products," said Pittack. "Just to get the most out of the forest and utilize those products the way they should be used."

There are still some obstacles ahead for the timber industry, but many loggers are confident business will start to pick up eventually.

"We kind of feel like we're at the bottom, both on the wood side and the paper side," said Brandt. "As the economy strengthens, we will begin to see it."

"People use a lot of wood products," said Pittack. "It's gonna come around again, but we need that housing market to start booming back. We'll see the light at the end of the tunnel then."