June 03 2021
Nick Smith of Sherwood is executive director of the nonprofit Healthy Forests, Healthy Communities, which advocates for active forest management in the Pacific Northwest, Rocky Mountains and Great Lakes states.
If you are a do-it-yourselfer, you already know the cost of wood products has increased to historic levels during the pandemic. While there are many explanations and theories on the internet, the reason comes down to basic economics: there is too much demand and not enough supply. And demand is expected to remain strong.
The only way to decrease lumber prices is to increase supply. Like any commodity producer, sawmills need raw material to meet demand for new housing and home improvement projects. Yet the Pacific Northwest has lost most of its wood manufacturing capacity since federal timber harvests declined 30 years ago.