The timber discussions in Eastern Oregon coincide with a tough time for the national economy, and particularly for the wood products industry.

Ray Wilkeson, legislative director for the Oregon Forest Industries Council, said last week that while the timber industry has seen hard times in recent decades, this economic downturn could be worse for timber-related businesses than the recession in the early 1980s.

“It’s about as bad as it’s ever been,” he told the Daily Astorian, responding to a local mill closure in Clatsop County. “Demand for dimension lumber is way down. Beyond a certain point, you can’t sell it at any price. There’s only limited demand for the product at a very reduced price.”

Businesses had to toughen up to survive previous recessions and the reductions in logging in the 1990s after the spotted owl was listed as an endangered species, said Wilkeson, but so far there’s no end in sight to the current market meltdown.

“The worst thing is we don’t really know when we’re coming out of it,” he said. “Things could get worse before they get better. There are more foreclosures predicted.”

Wilkeson said timber-related businesses are going to have to wait out the withering markets.

“It’s cyclical,” he said. “Until the housing market stabilizes and the oversupply of housing is absorbed, we’ll see new construction stay pretty bleak. I don’t know how long it’ll take.”

In the meantime, mills will have to shut down or cut back production until they get their inventories down, he said.

“They’ll do the best they can to keep minimal production going for the customers who still have a need.”