Timber recovery is months away

The timber market downturn that led to last week's news that DeBriae Logging, the county's largest employer, would shut down operations for two or more months will have extended impact, timber industry officials said this week.

The timber markets are tied to the mortgage and financial markets, which have crashed nationally.

"The forest products industry is heading into a deep recession," said Mark Doumit, executive director of the Washington Forest Products Association. "I have members who have been in the industry for 35 years who say this is the worst they've ever seen.

"We've had cyclical recessions before, but this is different. This is going to take a restructuring of the mortgage and housing industries. It won't be as easy to get credit as is has been; people are going to need to have good equity."

Doumit said industry analysts last fall were looking for an upswing sometime in mid- to late-2009.

Then "everything crashed in September. Now we're expecting things to stay flat until sometime in 2010.

"We're optimistic for the future. The demand for housing will be there. The people are there; they'll need housing.

"We just have to work through this adjustment."

David Boyd, regional manager for Hancock Forest Management, the largest private landowner in the county, echoed Doumit's remarks.

"We need a change in the housing market," he said Monday. "The outlook is bleak. It's all reflective of the national economy."

There's almost no market for lumber, he said, and the pulp market is very soft because of the business slowdown. There is a good market for export logs, but Hancock timberlands don't have the right mix of timber to serve that market.

Boyd said Hancock contracts with six logging firms, including DeBriae, for its operations in the Wahkiakum County area.