Logging Industry Professionals Weighing Options Amid COVID-19 Related Setbacks

All this comes after paper manufacturing company, Verso, announced its indefinite shutd0own in Duluth by the end of June, having a domino effect on the industry.

GARND RAPIDS, Minn. – Logging industry professionals gathered to discuss COVID-19’s far-reaching and detrimental impacts on their industry on Thursday.

All this comes after paper manufacturing company, Verso, announced its indefinite shutdown in Duluth by the end of June, having a domino effect on the industry.

Loggers, truckers, plus county, state, and federal land management officials among other industry workers came together to start the conversation on what some are calling an “immediate emergency situation” within the local industry.

“There’s not going to be a single corner of the forest products industry and the timber industry that doesn’t feel the impacts of Verso’s shutdown,” said Scott Dane, the executive director for the Associated Contract Loggers and Truckers of Minnesota.

Verso’s paper mill is a primary consumer of spruce and balsam trees.

Typically a logger has to harvest all the species within a permit area and cannot pick and choose specific species.

Now, with Verso’s shutdown, it’s leaving loggers with thousands of cords of wood without a place to sell it.

“It’s going to impact our ability to harvest the other species to continue supporting the other mills in Minnesota that are looking for the Aspen and other species that come off of those sales so it’s going to have an impact on every aspect of the forest products industry in Minnesota unfortunately,” said Dane.

Loggers currently have permits with money sunk into payments for trees that are no longer marketable.

Because other mills are going to be impacted by Verso’s shutdown, everyone is going to feel the fallout.

“Just because you’re a logger that didn’t supply verso don’t pretend that this isn’t going to impact you because it’s going to,” says Dane.

“We understand it’s not the fault of the company it’s just a circumstance of the times and the COVID pandemic that we are in,” said Henry Schienebeck, the executive director of the Great Lakes Timber Professionals Association which covers Wisconsin and Michigan.

The United States Forest Service added during the meeting that logging is an important part of land management and that logging ensures forests can be strong for years to come.

“Now we’ve got a lot of forest products, trees, that are growing out in the woods and the forest won’t be managed so forest health becomes an issue and then really we’d like to find a home for those species so those species can be put to practical and good use for the betterment of our society,” said Mike Birkeland, the executive vice president of the Minnesota Timber Producers Association and the executive vice president of Minnesota Forest Industries.

Before knowing of Verso’s shutdown, loggers purchased permits for balsam and spruce.

Many now hope something can be done to get their permits changed or even gain their money back.

“Certainly there is going to be a process that will need to take place and again I think we’ve got folks who work for state agencies or county and federal whether it be county or federal legislators who would like to see some relief,” said Birkeland.

Some options people threw out for a possible solution would be for a company to buy Verso, or even retool it to manufacture a more marketable product in these times that spruce and balsam are not profitable.

“Everybody is going to have to work together with agencies, mills all that hopefully there’s a solution. For a mill to be profitable they’ve got to have a good market and if the mills have a good market so hopefully somebody can find something that’s a lucrative thing for the mill,” said Ben Lobb, the owner at Lobb Forest Enterprises.

As loggers are facing an ever uncertain future, some have other businesses like excavating the can sustain them for the short term.

Lobb says he’s also just trying to stay as positive as possible.

“I like to think I’m an upbeat guy and just don’t worry about a lot, but just staying busy got a lot of irons in the fire,” said Lobb.

Local counties are also being impacted by Verso’s shutdown.

Lake County said that they have received $200,000 in funds by different monetary impacts of Verso operating in their vicinity.