By Lauren Grand, OSU Forestry and Natural Resources Extension Agent – Lane County
For those of you who’ve been following the logs market for a while know that the last 2 years have been somewhat out of the ordinary. Log prices have mostly been on the rise since March 2016, but we all knew it couldn’t last forever. Summer is the time when most small landowners can access and sell their logs. This increase in supply also means somewhat lower prices than what you see in the winter and spring.
Fire season has been kind to the Willamette valley and surrounding forestlands (knock on wood). No active fires have shut down production and fire weather has stayed below extreme, which means that harvesting operations can still occur early in the morning. Increased supply in the form of sellers and log access has kept mill inventory up and that pushes prices down. While prices have started their decent, these are still GREAT prices. Continue reading