The forest products industry and loggers in particular are facing tough times in New Hampshire.The pulp and paper mills in Berlin and Gorham have closed?at least for now. And the future of the states wood fired power plants is less than certain. But the loss of these markets could also spell trouble for the overall health of the state's forests.
Correspondent Rebecca Brown reports from Littleton.
Low-value, or low-grade trees don?t have much commercial value. They?re used for making paper, for fuel, firewood. They might be stunted, diseased or defective. Low-grade also includes small trees that are cut to improve the forest by giving other trees more space and sunlight for growing into valuable sawtimber.
While low-grade wood isn?t worth a lot by itself, not having markets for it could affect forest themselves. Some observers say it will be much harder to practice good forestry, and it could have ramifications for wildlife and for the pace of subdivision and sprawl.
Richard Boulanger is a consulting forester in Littleton. Like a growing number of foresters and landowners, he won?t harvest timber this winter because of the poor low- value market.
DICK BOULANGER Most of our clients are concerned about long term management and improving their forest as well as obtaining income. And with the roundwood pulp market and what we assume will be a glut on the fuel chip market we simply can?t do good silviculture, so we?re going to delay everything for at least one winter season.
OF course, landowners can wait and see if the markets improve, and perhaps harvest next year. But if they do, they?ll miss an important part of the growth cycle in the forests. This is an outstanding year for acorns, and logging can actually help grow new ones. Geoff Jones, land manager for the Society for the Protection of New Hampshire Forests explains.
GEOFF JONES 1 To regenerate white pine and red oak you have to scarify the ground, which means mix up the leaf litter and get down to mineral soil. These pine cones and acorns will take root in these conditions. It?s been ideal summer to do this, but without the pulpwood market and our inability to move this wood we've been unable to get operations get in there and achieve this.
Timber harvesting also changes what biologists call forest structure. Leighland Prout is a biologist for the White Mountain National Forest. She says that a goal in managing the national forest is increasing the diversity of vegetation and its structure by removing low-grade wood. Without the markets, this type of harvesting is difficult to achieve.
LEIGHLAND PROUT 1 We?re looking for a different height of vegetation, different densities, and that?s caused by when you cut a stand, you can get this big regrowth of a lot of different types of vegetation, shrubs and trees and grass, and all of that can support a much larger diversity of wildlife, which in the end is what we?re looking for.
Biologists estimate that 90 percent of the vertebrate species in the national forest depend on early successional habitat. Prout explains.
LEIGHLAND PROUT 2 A lot of the popular game species in New Hampshire like deer, moose, grouse, all rely heavily on openings or regenerating stands, mostly for foraging, but also for cover especially some of the songbirds look to that shrubby regrowth because it?s very dense and thick it provides good cover.
The lack of a market for low-value wood can affect wildlife that likes young forest, but it also influence species that use older, mature trees. Some observers are concerned that landowners will resort to high grading, or taking the best trees and leaving the rest. David Publicover is a forest ecologist with the Appalachian Mountain Club.
PUBLICOVER 1 If there?s no market for this low grade, small diameter wood, then if people want to get an economic return off their land then they?re much more likely to cut the higher value, larger diameter material, because that?s the only material there?s a market for. That going to have very serious impact on wildlife habitat.
Bears, raccoons, fishers, hawks, owls, and eagles are among the species that den or nest in big trees. And lots of animals use these big trees when they die and fall over. Salamanders, insects, and small mammals lives in or under the dead, rotting logs, and they provide an important link in the food chain.
Publicover and others are concerned that forest habitat could be lost permanently if the markets remain poor. That?s because timberland owners could see subdivision and selling as more financially attractive.
PUBLICOVER 2 I think there?s lot of people who want to be managing their forests for timber production. They understand the value of open space, but it?s also an investment. They?re not willing to do it if they essentially have to subsidize those public values. A lot of people want to hold these lands but if they?re losing money at it they may have no choice but to sell. The loss of the low-grade market may push a lot of landowners from one side of that equation to the other.
The loss of the markets doesn't necessarily mean the economic demise of the forest. Many observers think sawlogs will continue to grow in value. At the same time, the presence of strong low-grade markets has not necessarily meant that forests have been improved. As the Grafton County Extension Forester, Northam Parr has watched logging operations for nearly two decades. He says that removing low-grade wood is a crucial tool for good silviculture, but that simply having the markets isn't enough.
PARR 1 In forestry any harvest should improve the forest. That?s hard to do unless you can remove profitably the low material grade trees that chokes a lot of our forests, particularly in hardwood stands. However, these markets have been around for a long, long time. And yet the general condition of NH?s forests is not demonstrably improved, at least in my opinion.
In fact, the low grade markets may have contributed to one of the more noticeable examples of poor harvesting, liquidation cuts. That?s where nearly every tree is removed without regard to habitat, aesthetics, or clean water. These were prevalent in the 1980s in the southern part of the state and in the 90s in the north. Parr explains.
PARR 2
Low grade markets in a way contributed to the liquidation of those areas, some of them very large stands because those markets were strong and available, and people just pushed the stuff in there. So markets are good, but there always two sides to them. Rather than take advantage of them and do good work, some people take advantage of them and sell everything they can.
If the low-grade markets stay poor, the economic value of forests as timberland will certainly be affected. But Dave Publicover of AMC makes a distinction between timber health, and forest health.
PUBIC OVER 3 Even though harvesting can have some benefits for wildlife species and promoting different type of habitats, forests do fine on their own. We?re not doctors and the unmanaged forest isn't something that needs to be cured. The idea that if we few lose these markets and can?t harvest timber that these forests will somehow fall apart is not true. The forest will endure.
Reporting from Littleton, I?m Rebecca Brown for NHPR News.
