Nebraska Forest Service and U.S. Forest Service Partnering to Survey Nebraska Sawmills

May 4, 2015

Lincoln, Neb. — The Nebraska Forest Service (NFS) and the U.S. Forest Service (USFS) are partnering to conduct a Timber Products Output survey to better understand the volume of forest products being produced in the state and to quantify the economic impacts of the industry as a whole.

“These operations produce a significant amount of products each year using wood material from the state’s forests and communities,” said Adam Smith, NFS forest products utilization team leader. “Not only do these businesses produce quality products, they also provide jobs to hundreds of people and have a significant economic impact in both urban and rural areas of the state.”

Nebraska’s forest products industry produces a variety of products including shipping pallets, fence posts, wood shavings for animal bedding, wood pellets for heating homes and specialty dimensional lumber. An estimated 70 sawmills dispersed across the state use a variety of material to produce their products, including mature cottonwood trees from along the Platte River, towering ponderosa pines from the Pine Ridge in the northwest and community waste wood from Lincoln and Omaha.

Information from the Timber Products Output survey will be used to provide information on the products, tree species, locations of harvests, and harvest and mill residues generated in the state. Results from this effort aids policymakers, forest managers and the forest industry in making informed decisions about the state’s forest resources.

 “In Nebraska and nationwide, monitoring timber products outputs is vital to understanding the effects of the primary wood use and manufacturing sector on the economy as well as on forests,” said Michael T. Rains, director of the Northern Research Station and the Forest Products Laboratory.

Surveys were mailed to the state’s primary processing sawmills April 24, and will be received by NFS June 1. The survey is designed to determine the:

• Location, size and composition of primary wood-using mills
• Volume of logs harvested by product, tree species and geographic location
• Volume and disposition of wood residues generated during the sawmilling process

All reported information is kept confidential and used only for statewide reporting. With sawmill permission information may be used to update the state’s forest industry directories.

For more information about the Timber Products Output survey or the forest products industry in Nebraska, contact Adam Smith, Nebraska Forest Service:  402-472-1276 or http://nfs.unl.edu/program-markets.asp