- JDSF Economic Potential -

Background - Equipment - Links - Cal Poly - Legacy - Ranch

Everyone has their own idea of the impacts of shuting down this working forest. I thought I would share my estimates of the economic impact to our area from losing this 50,000 acre working forest from our land base. The forest has been shut down for 4 years now as Brandon Gulch was the last timber sale from this forest in 2003. This spread sheet is a glimpse of what the forest would provide in one year to this community. It is very conservative and most likely the figures are low and obviously I could not include all the trickle down effects the forest has. I assumed harvesting 25 Mmbf/year which is less than half of what this forest grows per year. Many people use the term Sustainable, what could be more sustainable than harvesting less than half of your growth per year. Remember these are my estimates everyone has their own idea, but this is my web page and therefore I will post my thoughts.

The following is a spreadsheet starting off with the number of logging crews required if 25,000 mbf was harvested a year on JDSF. I am assuming a averaged production number and load average to come up with a volume per day number and then the number of crews required to move that volume which must be completed in a short window of around 120-150 days dependant on weather and permits from, CDF, National Marine Fisheries, US Fish and Wildlife Service, Fish & Game, California State Water Quality, ETC, ETC, ETC.......

The yield tax is based on the value of the timber and is assessed to what is harvested. The value of the timber minus the cost of harvesting, Timber Harvest Plan, JDSF Staffing, Infrastructure improvements, roads etc, goes to one of many state run forestry related programs, or at least it is supposed to go there. The list of potential logging jobs resulting from these sales allows me to come up with an estimated payroll that will go to the guys actually harvesting the timber. This is a gross number not taking into account employer taxes, retirement, health care, etc.

Then I estimated the other costs (jobs) directly related to harvesting timber on JDSF, including Foresters, Mill Employees, and other trained professionals to come up with a total of lost employment from these timber sales. Pretty staggering number for a rural part of California where we are located.