A retrospective: Montana's forest products industry

At the end of the month, the Montana Wood Products Association will hold their annual convention and celebration of 40 years representing the forest products industry in Montana. What has changed or maybe not changed in the past 40 years?

In the early 1970s, we were just finishing the harvest of massive spruce stands that had been killed by the spruce bark beetle. We were also beginning to harvest lodgepole pine stands that had been killed by the mountain pine beetle. Back then, the industry was comprised of sawmills, stud mills, plywood plants and a pulp mill.

In 1981, there were 142 total mills, 114 small mills, 23 medium-sized mills and five large mills — the peak year for the industry. Today, there are less than 40 small mills and only eight medium to large mills.

In the early days, mills used state-of-the-art technology. However, that technology was horse and buggy by today’s standards. Today’s larger mills are very high-tech, using miles of wire, hundreds of computers, cameras, monitoring hardware, thin-kerf saws and many other high-tech machines. Many small mills are also using new technologies.

Because of these advancements, the amount of lumber and by-products recovered from each sawn log has increased 70 percent, compared to the 1970s, when some of every tree was burned in a tepee burner. Today, the entire log is made into boards, sawdust, chips, bark and shavings. This material all becomes products that we use in our daily lives.

The harvesting of trees has also changed. During the 1970s, most trees were felled with a chainsaw and brought to the landing via a cat, rubber-tired skidder or cable cranes and loaded on trucks powered by 275 horsepower Cummins engines and delivered to the mills.

Today, very few trees are cut with a chainsaw. Instead, feller-bunchers (capable of working on steep ground) gather several trees and place them in large piles. They are taken to the landing with grapple-skidders or cats, mechanically de-limbed at the landing, processed into specific lengths and loaded onto trucks with hydraulic loaders. Many trucks have two trailers and all are powered by 400-plus horsepower engines.

Methods of harvesting have also changed. In the 1970s, most harvest units were clearcuts, many large in size. Today, most units are selective harvest, leaving certain species and/or large and small trees. Special care is taken to avoid sensitive areas such as streams, wetlands and meadows. Logging is suspended during wet periods, and roads are designed and maintained to prevent sedimentation from occurring.

Harvesting is also restricted to certain times of the year to protect habitat and species of interest or concern, such as the grizzly bear, wolf, lynx, osprey, bald eagles and bull trout. All of these precautions are taken to protect the environment, while still regenerating our forests for the future.

Another major change is in the volume of timber removed from our forests. In the early 1970s, about 225,000 truckloads of logs were removed from federal, state and private forests in Montana. In 2010, there were 113,000 truckloads of logs removed. Only 24 percent came from federal lands, and over half came from private lands. Forty years ago, 50 percent of the volume came from federal lands.

Here we are, 40 years later, and what has and what has not changed? Our forests are harvested in a more environmentally sensitive way. Trees that are removed are being cut and processed with high-tech equipment and transported on high-tech trucks to sawmills, where the logs are being made into lumber and by-products with highly technical equipment. Both the volume harvested and the number of processing plants has significantly decreased.

The biggest change has occurred in the management of forestlands. Private, state and tree farm lands are being more professionally managed for multiple objectives. However, national forestlands are managed for social values that are deeply imbedded in our national politics, resulting in ever increasing areas of insect-killed trees, wildfire and ghost forests, where tree mortality far exceeds annual growth.

Only in America can we afford to overlook the benefits of a well-managed forest. Eventually we will realize management provides economic vitality, social equity and environmental sustainability. Our forest products industry is vital to the health of our communities and our forests.

What has not changed in 40 years is the fact that forests are a dynamic ecosystem that must be managed — or the beetles and wildfire will manage them for us.

Ronald Buentemeier and Rem Kohrt are former managers of F.H. Stoltze Land & Lumber Company.