St. Louis County comes to aid of loggers
Echo editorial
Even though they knew there would be lost revenues, the St. Louis County board approved a plan to help loggers and wood products companies who are stuck with unprofitable timber contracts.
The reasoning is a good one, that the impact of the timber industry on northern Minnesota is much more than a couple of small logging operations.
St. Louis County Commissioner Mike Forsman said the way it stands right now the county will allow companies holding timber contracts to turn in their contract and only lose 15 percent of the base bid. The board also reduced the base bid amount for upcoming timber sales as another incentive.
Some may picture guys in flannel shirts bidding on these timber sales, but some of the largest contracts are held by mills such as Ainsworth, Potlatch and Boise. Why help the big companies out? Forsman's reasoning is without the mills, the timber industry will take a nose dive it cannot recover from.
A few months ago we pointed out how the current downturn in the wood products industry was not an unexpected occurance and was probably overdue. Forsman said the county board believes the condition of the industry is worse than expected. He admits, however, that there are a number of factors at play here, most out of the control of county boards.
The trade agreements between the U.S. and Canada may have the largest impact on this issue. The next time you're driving along Highway 53 between Virginia and International Falls, take a look at the train cars coming south out of Canada. Notice how many of them are filled with Canadian lumber being sent by rail to be sold in the U.S.
When the chipboard plant in Cook was closed, Ainsworth did not stop making the product. They have a much larger plant in Canada that by all accounts is running wide open. Will the Cook plant reopen? Hopefully, but it may take some political wrangling and even some financial incentives to make it happen.
The question then comes up again: Why subsidize the big companies? For one, it would be nice to live in a world where taxpayers did not have to foot the bill for a lagging sector of the economy, but truth be told, this is a regular practice and our local, regional and national economies are now built on those subsidies. Take them away and you've just pushed over the first domino in a string that may hit you and your community right in the nose.
Forsman sees the political minefield that goes with this issue and believes he made the right decision.
"We have to find a way to save the small loggers, which to me is an extremely important thing," said Forsman. "But we have to have the infrastructure for them which includes the mills. If that disappears the impact is all the way from the small logger and his equipment to the banks that hold the notes on that equipment to the local car dealer who sells more pickups to small loggers than anybody else.
"People see that as corporate welfare but the sad part is if the mills go away, a huge part of the infrastructure is lost and your small guy ends up getting hurt on this deal," said Forsman.
We'll agree with Forsman that the area needs to have the wood products industry along with mining and tourism. That doesn't mean politicians should hand out blank checks, but it does help us gain a better understanding of how our regional economy operates. St. Louis County made a prudent decision that should be part of an overall strategy involving other large public landowners.
St. Louis County manages 900,000 acres of land and has been one of the most efficient and effective agencies in managing that land on the public's behalf. The state of Minnesota also has a good track record, but there may need to be some adjustments made in St. Paul to help put the wood products industry back on its feet.
As for the U.S. Forest Service and the acreage it manages in the Superior and Chippewa National Forests, we believe this may be a case where it is almost a lost cause. By using the courts and the NEPA act to throw every roadblock imaginable into management of federal forests, we have lawyers, not professional land managers, determining public policy.
In the end, just as we have watched in the northwest, the logging industry's greatest problems will not come from Canada or overpriced contracts but from environmental groups manipulating the system to keep loggers from harvesting wood. Some actually call this progress - we call it management in absentia. Or just plain ridiculousness.
What will be interesting to see is if the politicians who are interested in helping the wood products industry now will step forward the next time the Forest Service is sued over harvesting trees.
St. Louis County's move may be a band-aid for now. The biggest battles will be fought in court rooms, not board rooms.
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