Koochiching County’s timber harvest has met 2011 goals.
Dennis Hummitzsch, county land commissioner, said his department has had a very good year, though it has been a challenge to implement a harvest plan of a 34-percent increase in sale area over the 2009 level.
“This is the second year of a our new plan and the plan was to harvest more than last year, which we’ve done,” said Hummitzsch this week. “We’ve accomplished our targeted goals.”
The department will contribute $1.9 million to the county’s budget, as was forecast for the county’s budget needs.
“As of today, we hit that target,” said Hummitzsch Wednesday.
In addition, the timber sold by the county will apportion a total of $700,000 to school districts in the county.
Hummitzsch explained that 40 percent of the timber sales in the county are divided among the school districts, relative to where the sale occurred. He said the Northome-Indus district is the “big winner” this year.
Hummitzsch reported 106,00 cords were sold on appraisal in 2011. Timber sold, but not harvested in 2011, was reported at 151,722 cords for a value of $3.1 million.
“We exceeded some cover types in our target and didn’t quite hit some others, but we averaged out really good,” he said.
The increased harvest goals came as a result of a committee review for more than one year in 2009 and 2010 of the existing county management plan.
“This was the first time we specifically voted on a harvest level,” he said. “There were a lot of alternatives looked at and a lot of disagreement. The end result was a compromise number, which the county board approved.”
Meeting the new goals without additional staff was a challenge, he said. The challenge was met by having larger sales, 5,000 acres instead of 3,500 acres, for example, he said. Smaller sized sales take more manpower, he explained.
As a part of the new plan, the department is liquidating the oldest wood over a very short period of time, said Hummitzsch. Harvesting the old wood before it loses value is part of the plan.
“Then we will get into a more even flow of wood, which is lower volume than what we’re selling now,” he said.
Meanwhile, the Nov. 16 timber auction sold 27,797 cords of wood and 38,000 pieces for a total sale value of $756,400.
The aspen price during the auction ranged from $15.25 per cord to $39.52 per cord. The average aspen price was $33.49 per cord, with the average sale of all species at $26.86 per cord.
Warm winter start
And despite the warm start to the winter season, Hummitzsch said no warm weather issues exist for loggers — so far.
“We had enough cold to settle in the frost for operation,” he said. “Some snow would smooth out the roads; the logging roads are really rough now.”
And he said a number of mills in northern Minnesota appear to have enough wood stored at this time because of the ability to harvest during the dry summer and fall.
“So there will be a slight curtailment of wood going to the mills, but that should change Jan. 1,” he said. “Snow and cooler weather would help, and so would the markets to continue.”
