Branded Blog

Growing the Timber Industry

By Representative Dusty Johnson (SD-AL) 

All eyes were on Southern California at the beginning of this year as the most costly wildfire in modern history decimated forests and neighborhoods. It was a tragic scene – one that could have been mitigated by proper forest management. Unfortunately, some conservation policies make forests more vulnerable to rapidly spreading fires and diseases.
 
My state of South Dakota is no stranger to the risks of forest fires and disease. In fact, forestry is a big part of the local economy in the Black Hills. But over the past few years, the Black Hills National Forest has failed to hit its harvest targets, causing timber production and harvest to decline. This has plagued the industry with uncertainty and forced several of South Dakota’s mills to close. Good local jobs are at risk, and so are our forests. When timber harvest drops below proper forest management levels, forests are more prone to bug and disease outbreaks, as well as catastrophic fires.
 
Of course, no one wants to over-harvest America’s forests. But for a number of years, timber production has been below levels that the data indicates is sustainable. That’s why I’ve been calling for increased timber production in the Black Hills. Last year, I hosted a roundtable in Spearfish, South Dakota for other members of Congress to hear from South Dakota’s forest industry leaders about how these policies are impacting their livelihoods and our forests. The roundtable highlighted the need to protect forest management infrastructure and the certainty of hitting timber targets.
 
Thankfully, there is good news – the Trump Administration is taking action to increase the timber harvest in the United States. Earlier this month, President Trump signed an executive order to expand timber production and improve forest management practices. Not long before this executive order, I spoke with the new Forest Service Chief, Tom Schultz, who echoed this sentiment. I’m encouraged that the policy of the United States is to increase domestic production of our resources – protecting American jobs and making our forests healthy again.