From the Fields - George Hollister

By George Hollister, Mendocino County forester

My harvest this year is small. I’m continuing to focus on removing Douglas fir from redwood stands. The lumber market is in the tank due to the state of the economy. With high interest rates, people can’t afford to buy new homes or even to remodel. The interest rates have everything to do with the lumber market and the housing industry. The trades are the first to get hit due to the high interest rates. It affects the log market, the mills and everything.

I’ve always managed to sell redwood during these times. Right now, I’m not going to be selling much redwood, but I have a commitment on fir logs. It’s not a great price. I get a big economic benefit from getting these trees out of the woods where my redwoods are growing, so that’s a good thing. The Douglas fir prices remain low. It is due to a combination of there not being enough mills and an oversupply of Douglas fir logs. In the Sierra, there’s an oversupply of pine and fir. My wife and I have a diversified income, so we’re going to do OK.

With the hot spell, I’m a little concerned about the fire weather that we could get. The tree mortality from a few years ago during the drought took care of the overstocking problem for us to some extent.

Mostly all the stands that I operate in, we didn’t end up with a severe situation with the drought. But we certainly had dry weather and dry vegetation. Couple that with low humidity and wind, it’s really a problem. I have good defensible space around my house, but I still need to do a little more work. Every single year it’s a major effort to make sure we’ve got a really good defensible space and we’re prepared for wildfire because we’re surrounded by grass. It is always a concern.