Oregon Timber Production Dropped Eight Percent Last Year

Oregon timber production fell eight percent last year, according to a new report out on Monday that pointed to a variety of reasons including an active fire season.

The report from the Oregon Department of Forestry said that after two years of production above four billion board feet, the 2015 finally tally was 3.79 billion board feet harvested.

One board foot of lumber is one foot wide, one foot long, and one inch thick. To build an 1,800 square foot house, about 10,000 board feet.

The forestry department points to several reasons for the drop including an active fire season, which created issues for logging and hauling, an increase in Canadian imports cutting demand for Oregon timber, and a slowdown in exports to Asia.

The news wasn't all bad.

Several locations on the state's east side - particularly in Malheur and Harney Counties where stewardship contracting agreements were in place in the Malheur National Forest - saw increases.

Unfortunately, they were offset by decreases on the state's West Side.