Federal Logging Sales Go Unsold, Adding Wildfire Fuel — SkimNews
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- U.S. Forest Service opened 947 acres in western Colorado to commercial logging in July, but zero companies bid on the sale — and none had a year earlier — because surging fuel costs and plummeting Ponderosa pine prices made harvesting unprofitable.
- Timber sales are an important tool for preventing catastrophic wildfires by thinning dense underbrush and vegetation that builds up over decades on federal land.
- President Trump has promoted the American timber industry by increasing logging access to federal lands and deploying executive orders and tariffs to boost competitiveness.
- Despite Trump's promotion, loggers are passing up federal timber sales because of an accelerating downturn, with demand cratering especially for pulpwood used to make paper.
- Scott Dane, executive director of the American Loggers Council, said 'it doesn't matter what wood is available for sale if we don't have a viable economic market... without markets, there is no forest management.'
Why it matters: Loggers lose access to federal contracts they need to stay viable, while communities near federal forests face heightened wildfire risk as decades of un-thinned vegetation accumulate. The 947-acre Colorado tract that drew no bidders shows that tariff and executive-order support can't overcome plunging Ponderosa pine demand for pulpwood and paper products.
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