Atlantic Forestry November 2020

AFR: Your latest issue contains some interesting information following the Northern Pulp closing and its 2,000-cord-per-day equivalent appetite for wood. The high lumber prices have offset a lot of pain, as the good money has always been in the sawlog market.

Any published log prices indicate little or no increase in prices. I have to wonder what the province is being paid for publicly-owned wood, as it is competition for the woodlot owner. How can a government keep such a secret? I did notice in your magazine that Alberta has upped the stumpage rate drastically during this period of high lumber prices.

It appears that the clearcutting of good logs and a lot of low-value material is going to continue using high-production equipment with high hourly rates using expensive all-weather roads for those single interventions, so the wood can be hauled long distances using huge trucks to feed centralized mills, or for export elsewhere in raw form. There is very little left for the stumpage or the community in which the timber is cut.

Charles Jess
Yarmouth, N.S.