TIMBER PRICES SOAR
Monday, May 23rd, 2005 -- 8:43 AM
Clark County could get some help with their tight budget from an unexpected source: the county forest. Forestry and Parks director Mark Heil says, while the volume of the county?s timber sales continues to decrease, the price for the wood is soaring. In 1994, the county received about $7.48 per cord compared to the $29 per cord they received in 2003. Heil projects the county will receive around $43.70 per cord this year.
"That's a dramatic increase", Heil says, adding they expect about $950,000 in timber revenues this year.
Just like other products, the price of timber is driven by ?supply and demand?.
"When the economy was soft, many of our mills tried to keep their investories quite low," Heil explains. "Now, many of the mills - all at once - are pretty much out of timber."
This price increase is coming at a good time as the county?s harvest-volume and quality is low as they ?clean up? over-mature aspen stands.
In this time of tight budgets, Heil says timber revenues have been ? and will be ? applied to pay down the tax levy. In the last two-years, the Forestry and Parks Department has applied over $1-million to pay down the levy.
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