Nick Penzenstadler and Shereen Siewert

More hardwood was thinned from Wisconsin's 1.5 million acre national forest last year than in recent memory, but advocates say more could be done to manage the timber and help Wisconsin's struggling northern economy.

The Chequamegon-Nicolet National Forest had 63.2 million board feet of wood cut in 2013, worth about $5.1 million; that's up from 59.7 million board feet cut in 2012. Wisconsin's forest products industry feeds jobs in all corners of the state, from mills in Marshfield to paper producers in the Fox Valley and export shippers in the port of Green Bay.

Last year's uptick in timber harvesting has brought more business to the Forest Sawmill in Wabeno, where owner Edward Piontek said he now has enough work to keep his four employees busy. But the timber harvest increase hasn't been enough to allow Piontek to hire additional workers for the sawmill, which once employed more than 30 people.

In Laona, the effects of the lagging timber industry include a higher tax burden on local residents and a dramatic shift in student enrollment, said Laona School District Administrator Laurie Asher. She estimates her district is losing students at a rate of between five and 10 each year as more families are forced to relocate because of work. The high school's class of 2014 had 24 graduates; next year's incoming kindergarten class is expected to top out at around 12 students.

"There just aren't any jobs," Asher said. "And when timber isn't being harvested at the rate it should be, it's a double whammy for us, because that means less revenue for the school district and higher taxes for everyone."

Projected increases

Forestry officials in northern Wisconsin expect the uptick in timber harvests will continue this year. But they also point out that the harvesting of hardwood from the Chequamegon-Nicolet National Forest is often a three-year process.

"The amount of timber harvested each year is dependent on the timber sale contract awardees harvesting the timber that was sold to them," wrote Paul Strong, the forest's supervisor in Rhinelander in an email. "Timber sales typically sell in year one and are harvested in year two or three depending on when the contract awardee decides to harvest the timber."

Strong says more loggers are waiting the full three years to harvest the wood and that 159 million board feet are under contract waiting to be cut.

Strong expected the forest to cut more trees this year and said the forest is already taking advantage of a program known as stewardship contracting that gives local contractors and vendors preferential awards that keep money in the region.

The 2014 Farm Bill passed by Congress granted permanent authority for the program. This year, the forest will sell 14.7 million board feet of timber through stewardship, or about 19 percent of the total volume.

But not everyone is upbeat.

So far, the projected harvesting increases have failed to give Piontek, who grew up in a logging family, hope for the industry to bounce back in a meaningful way.

Piontek's father and uncle owned the Wabeno mill before Piontek took control of operations, a legacy that won't be passed on to his children. Piontek's two sons, ages 23 and 26, have chosen careers outside the logging industry and have both moved to different areas of the state.

"This is the end of the line for logging in our family," Piontek said. "There's no future in it anymore."

Push for state assistance

Another provision in the sweeping Farm Bill was a program called the "Good Neighbor Authority" that allows state resources to flow to the federal land management that's strapped for cash.

U.S. Forest officials are still drafting guidance on how they would use the program nationwide that has only been installed in Colorado and Utah.

Paul DeLong, chief state forester with the state Department of Natural Resources, said the provision could allow state workers to kick in help on road work, habitat restoration and stream rehabilitation.

"The challenge remains to see the Forest Service implement their management plan fully and do more work and that won't be going away until there are more resources," DeLong said. "The tone from Congress certainly suggests there's a bipartisan group trying to figure out ways to improve the situation."

DeLong said both the Good Neighbor Authority and stewardship contracts are steps in the right direction.

U.S. Rep. Sean Duffy, R-Wausau, introduced a bill in May that mandates that the Forest Service hit its annual allowable sale quantity or forfeit management resources to state agencies like the DNR.

"The state and counties have the resources and know-how to sustainably manage forest lands — management that is not currently taking place on federal forest lands," Duffy said at the bill's introduction. "States should be given the opportunity to assist where the U.S. Forest Service is coming up short."

Another bill, passed by the House last year pushed by U.S. Rep. Reid Ribble, R-Sherwood, also calls for a mandated harvest level.

Both measures by Duffy and Ribble face opposition from environmental lobbies concerned about too much harvest on the pristine lands.

Johnson calls for less regulation

This spring, Republican U.S. Sen. Ron Johnson hosted a forestry roundtable in Antigo to discuss the timber industry and the CNNF. He told Gannett Wisconsin Media that the harvesting process needs streamlining.

"A lot of the problems seem to connect to the (National Environmental Protection Act) process," Johnson said. "We have to see if we can't modify it and bring in more local and state control."

Wabeno's Piontek said the challenges in the Northwoods timber industry go far beyond legislation and regulation, as the cost of materials continues to rise and manufacturing struggles to regain footing in the state.

Ten years ago, Piontek's raw materials represented about 30 percent of his total cost; now, they eat up more than 70 percent.

"What's going to help? Bring manufaturing back to Wisconsin," Piontek said. "That's the bottom line."

— Nick Penzenstadler: 920-996-7226, or npenzenstadler@postcrescent.com; on Twitter @npenzenstadler

About Timber Trouble

In a special report last October, the Gannett Wisconsin Media Investigative Team documented problems facing the national forest in northern Wisconsin, the state's rich logging history and fallout from a debate between loggers and ecologists. Public records show the U.S. Forest Service could have sold and cut 1.3 billion board feet of wood in the past decade under its mandated forest management plan — representing roughly $110 million in revenue. In reality, loggers cut just 755 million board feet, or a little more than half the allowed quantity, producing half the value.

National forest officials say a lack of federal money has limited their ability to harvest more timber in the Northwoods.

Wildfire spending on Baldwin's list

Democratic U.S. Sen. Tammy Baldwin remains focused on the wildfire spending issue as it relates to timber management.

She backs the Wildfire Disaster Funding Act, which would end "fire borrowing" where funds used in Wisconsin's and other forests are shipped west to cover budget shortfalls fighting wildfires. President Barack Obama supports the idea and included it in his 2015 budget proposal.

In a June letter to Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid and Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, Baldwin called for an end to the "dysfunctional and destructive" practice of raiding restoration and prevention programs to pay for suppressing wildfires.

Since 2002, more than $3 billion has been cannibalized from federal recreation and management budgets to squelch the fires that demand expensive hand crews, airtankers and hundreds of firefighters.

The change would treat wildfires as natural disasters, like tornadoes or floods, allowing for a new revenue stream. That approach faces opposition from House Budget Committee Chairman and Wisconsin Republican Rep. Paul Ryan.

Ryan told Gannett Wisconsin Media in March that President Obama should budget more for fighting wildfires instead of trying to sidestep discretionary spending caps.