Borderland loggers credited Koochiching County officials Tuesday for moving forward with a November timber auction that will offer for sale timber damaged in a July windstorm.

But they said the quality of the wood and logging conditions would have been better if the wood have been auctioned earlier.

County Land Commissioner Dennis Hummitzsch agreed, but explained that getting photos from a state flyover of the damaged timber and getting foresters in the field to appraise it delayed the auction.

Hummitzsch said lessons were learned about the blowdown, which he said has never been experienced in this magnitude before. He said the county should have hired its own flight for the photos.

Ken Olson, Boise Inc. forester, and about a dozen local loggers, met with the board Tuesday about the wind-damaged timber.

“I applaud Dennis and his staff for their efforts to get at the blowdown,” Olson said, adding that changing weather patterns will likely cause similar situations in the future.

“But the sooner we get at it the better,” he said. He said the quality of the wood would be better preserved before snow covers it and it would be more easily found and accessed prior to the winter season.

Hummitzsch told the board that foresters have located and the department would offer for sale at the Nov. 14 auction 26 tracts of damaged timber. Included in those tracts are seven of sold timber which have been turned back to the county under a recently implemented policy. The 26 tracts consist of about 25,000 cords of timber. Damage per tract varies from 25 percent to 75 percent. He said there would be an additional 12,000 cords of undamaged timber offered.

Olson encouraged local loggers to take advantage of the blowdown timber auction and said Boise is a market for aspen.

“I hope we have the ability to purchase Nov. 14 and log Nov. 15 if possible and conditions permit,” he said. “But 30,000 cords of blowdown is hard to pick up overnight.”

Had the timber been able to be logged earlier, he said it would have sold better and at a higher price.

Mike Reiger of Reiger Logging, Northome, said the wood should have been harvested two weeks after the blowdown and he said the state and other counties moved more quickly than Koochiching.

He encouraged the county to consider negotiating with loggers in future situations. Had loggers received a reduction in stumpage rates, (the value of the timber) for the blowdown timber, few would have turned them back to the county, he said.

Hummitzsch and commissioners said they wished loggers had called to talk to them about the issue.

Brad Lovedahl of Lovedahl & Sons Logging, Effie, said a turnback was not feasible for his company. “If we could have negotiated, it would have been cut,” he said.

He urged the board in the future to negotiate with loggers in similar situations. “It’s better for everyone and we could have got in there cutting,” he said.

Commissioners agreed that discussion is needed for future situations.

“What happened happened,” said Olson. “Now we need to try to get as much (wood) utilized and move forward. When it happens again, we need to jump on it quicker. The logging community needs incentives to get to the wood quicker. This (kind of harvest) takes a lot of time, so there has to be a break on stumpage .”