Forest Industry Operating During Pandemic; Forestry Leader Urges Caution On Planting Trillion Trees

It’s too soon to know what kind of impact the COVID-19 pandemic will have on U.S. timber markets, but the forestry sector has been designated as an essential industry and is therefore allowed to operate during the crisis, the head of one of the nation’s largest forest management firms writes in his company’s quarterly newsletter.

“Pulp mills for the most part are still operating with some forgoing planned downtime to continue production.  There have been some production curtailments at sawmills in the South due to the virus, while hardwood sawmills in the North are responding favorably to tariff relief on hardwood lumber,” reports Marshall Thomas, president of F&W Forestry Services, Inc.

Despite the coronavirus disruption, the first quarter of the year was a busy one for forestry, with significant attention focused on the global trillion trees tree-planting scheme and the introduction of the Trillion Trees Act in Congress.

Thomas lauded provisions of the federal legislation, particularly those that aim to improve timber markets and incentivize innovative building practices that utilize wood, which would result in increased carbon storage.  But he cautioned legislators against subsidizing commercial tree planting without restricting future harvest.

“The private sector can handle reforestation—what we need are markets,” Thomas writes.  “Let’s hope that planting incentives come with strings that prevent subsidized trees from being dumped into and ruining our Southern pine markets like the Conservation Reserve Program (CRP) did for pulpwood-sized trees in the early 2000’s and is currently doing to sawtimber-sized trees today.”

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