The first Forest Products Caucus meeting of 2010 was held on February 23rd where we were introduced to the Missouri Department of Conservation's new Deputy Director Tom Draper.

Discussion at this meeting quickly centered on the subject of downed timber from the storm on May 8th of last year. Discussion soon gave way to concerns about what procedures could be implemented to produce a cost effective and productive harvest of this resource. Several points were made with what I believe to be viable and beneficial solutions to those concerned.

Harvesting this resource was of utmost concern to the group with the knowledge that financial and time frames were important factors. After this summer there will be no opportunity to harvest any grade lumber from this downed timber and the time frame for fuel wood would be 5-7 years. The discussion then moved to what could be done with thousands of acres of timber degrading further causing greater threat of wildfires. Also, the concern of harvesting so much downed timber gave concern for the prospect of flooding local markets and hurting local timber prices. Downed timber does have value in the production of charcoal, chipboard, paper, fuel and pallets, but only if it can be cost effectively harvested and dispersed to those respective markets.

One solution would be to find some entrepreneurs who could afford to stockpile and deliver this downed wood to a variety of markets without affecting local lumber prices. Developing additional markets locally and regionally would also help minimize the negative affect on our local lumber prices.

Suggestions that required further study included: providing wood at an affordable price to charcoal facilities throughout Missouri who are struggling to get sufficient amounts of slabs from sawmills plus creating a firewood business to sell shrink-wrapped bundles of firewood to ship to the cities of Missouri.

The Forest Caucus members offered to help facilitate the process of establishing one or more of these markets to help salvage timber from the thousands of acres of downed and damaged forestland across south central Missouri. Members also agreed that the need to salvage this resource should be done in an environmentally and economically responsible way.

In attendance for this first meeting of 2010 were Deputy Director Tom Draper, State Forester Lisa Allen and Aaron Jeffries, Legislative Liaison from the Missouri Department of Conservation, Director Steve Jarvis from the Missouri Forest Products Association and their lobbyist, Shannon Cooper and Tony Harbison from Iron County representing Farm Bureau's timber interest. I thank all those in attendance for their participation at this meeting.

The timber industry remains vital for our district and I continue to search for new avenues of sale and productivity solutions.

If I can be of help please call the office at 573-751-2112 or e-mail me at jc.kuessner@house.mo.gov