Hoopa Forest Industries on Schedule

Tony Risling moves a Douglas fir log Saturday morning while Hoopa Forest Industries loggers hauled out the last of the 2010 Timber sale logs. / Photo by Allie Hostler, Two Rivers Tribune.

Still Waiting to Start Cutting 2011 Timber Sale

By Allie Hostler, Two Rivers Tribune

The Hoopa Tribe’s logging company pulled its last log of the season, on time and just before the season’s first storm.

All the logs remaining on the mountain on Friday—about 20 truck loads—were transported to the logging yard near Big Hill Road. Those logs will be transported to the mill over the next week.

Now that the rainy season has begun and the hard work is done, only three out of 14 loggers will remain working. The others will be laid off.

Although Hoopa Forest Industries (HFI) finished on their planned schedule, that schedule was a year late—not their fault.

When the economy began to crash back in 2009, timber was dirt cheap, leaving the Hoopa Tribe with no choice but to hold on to its only cash crop resource until the economy recovers. Opting out of timber sales left the Tribe’s timber harvest plan in remission for a year.

The 2011 timber sale of about 8.3 million board feet was cruised and is ready to go, but a Council Approved Revised Forest Management Plan (FMP) still stands in the way.
“We could have logged the 2011 sale this year too,” Interim Chief Executive Officer of HFI, Oscar Billings said. “But once it starts raining we are limited to mostly yarder logging, which is more expensive.”
Yarder logging is less damaging than tractor logging to the mountain roads.

It’s not just the expense of yarder logging holding HFI back. It’s the FMP that nobody seems to agree on enough to approve that keeps the 2011 sale from moving ahead.
“We’ve been more productive this year than ever before,” Billings said. “In this case, the news is all positive. We finished what we set out to finish this season.”

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