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Decline of the Timber Industry
      
Logging truck. Photo by Ross Hall, courtesy of Dann Hall.

    Large timber companies cut mostly on private lands in the early 20th century.  After the big trees were gone, the industry looked to the national forests to supply logs.  The pressure increased with the nationwide housing boom following World War II.  The timber harvest from Region One, which included northern Idaho, more than doubled from the early 1950s to the early 1960s. Technological changes contributed to this accelerated harvest.  

    Citizens throughout the United States became aware of environmental issues during this period and began to pressure Congress to change logging practices on the national forests.  Late in 1971, the U.S. Forest Service announced that timber harvests on parts of the national forests in northern Idaho and western Montana could be reduced by as much as 50 percent.  The drop in supply drove prices up to record levels.

    Alternately, the size of logs decreased, a result of having overcut old growth trees.  Sawmills were forced to retool their equipment to handle smaller logs.  In 1963, Pack River Lumber Co. remodeled its Colburn mill to run efficiently with logs averaging only 12 inches in diameter.  Some mills now can take logs small enough to make a single 2x4 stud.