Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SATURDAY, March 20, 1993 TAG: 9303220375
SECTION: EDITORIAL PAGE: A-11 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE:
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
BEHIND THE RISING PRICE OF LUMBER
REGARDING the Feb. 27 news story, "Lumber costs fret builders - Price of your new home is at stake":It described "soaring lumber prices," but failed to adequately explain the major factor driving lumber prices upward and threatening to slow the nation's economic recovery.
The reason is supply and demand. The demand for lumber has increased because of low mortgage rates and the massive rebuilding in Florida following Hurricane Andrew.
Meanwhile, the supply of logs (raw material for lumber) has decreased because of widespread restrictions on timber harvesting.
We are paying the price (no pun intended) for a decade of overzealous forest "preservationism" that saw millions of acres of highly productive forest land containing some of the nation's best timber put off-limits to any logging or forest management. We have 95 million acres of certified "wilderness areas" alone, and another 7.7 million acres set aside just for the spotted owl.
In addition, certain environmental protection laws like the federal Endangered Species Act and the "wetlands" portion of the Clean Water Act, as well as complex `'forest practice acts" in several states, have dramatically restricted logging on both public and private forest lands.
And when a timber sale is occasionally offered on public forest land, organized "environmental" lobbying groups "appeal" it to death.
As a result, logging activity has been substantially reduced or curtailed in many areas of the country, and more than 140 large lumber mills have gone out of business in the past two years alone.
All this is occurring at a time when our forests are healthy, productive, well-managed and growing more wood than at any time since the turn of the century.
It is obvious that when you decrease the available supply of a commodity by more than one-third and increase the demand at the same time, the price is going to go up. ROBERT SHAFFER RINER