A Blandin Foundation Initiative

Survey of Minnesota Logging Operators in 2004

Executive Summary

This report presents the results of a survey of Minnesota logging operators to provide baseline information for measuring the impact of the Blandin Foundation’s Vital Forests / Vital Communities Initiative, and, to assist the Minnesota Logger Education Program with information for its programs including a new project funded by the Blandin Foundation. The survey generated basic information about logging operations and sought insights into industry issues and training needs. Where pertinent, results were compared to findings from two previous surveys of Minnesota’s logging industry.

Among the more noteworthy findings of the survey are:

• A major “settling out” and restructuring of the logging industry has been underway over the past 10-15 years. The image of the woods teeming with chainsaw toting loggers working as 1-4 person operations has given way to a reality of fewer but much larger operations with huge investments in up-to-date highly efficient equipment.


• The essential relationship between the numbers of loggers by size of operation to the amount of total wood harvested seen in 1996 was repeated in 2003. That is, small operations account for the greatest number of loggers but handle a small portion of the total volume while a relative handful of large operations account for a disproportionately large portion of the volume. Nearly one-third of the total volume was harvested by just 9% of the loggers (the largest operations) while just over half the loggers, all small operations, accounted for only 16% of the total volume.


• Moreover, the pattern noted above intensified between 1996 and 2003. The very small operations and small operations (<5,000 cords / year) lost market share of the total volume harvested (23% to 16%); mid-sized firms (5,001 –10,000 cords / year) grew in number but had a constant portion of total harvest volume; and the larger and largest firms grew in number and increased their share of the total volume harvested.


• Increasing mechanization and changing equipment are major trends: chainsaw usage declined dramatically in just over a decade, the use of mobile harvesters (feller-buncher and cut-to-length) increased, and use of cable skidders declined while the use of grapple skidders and forwarders increased.


• Business owners saw needs for training related to: application of new technologies such as GPS, and Geographic Information Systems; timber sale pricing and bidding; retirement planning; timber sale planning and layout, and, marketing of the resulting harvested wood; marketing the business to new clients, job costing, assessing whether to buy or lease equipment, and business taxes.


• Training needs for employees included: marketing the business to new clients, accounting, and assessing whether to buy or lease equipment; machinery maintenance and safety; machinery operation; and learning about site-level guidelines.


• It comes as no surprise that the greatest issue facing loggers is the high price for stumpage followed closely by the cost of doing business and the availability of timber.


• Although competition was farther down the priority rankings, an issue for one-third of the respondents, many of the written comments addressed this topic. The comments did not focus on general market place competition, but on specific areas where they perceive unfair practices tip the scales toward larger or otherwise favored firms, especially concerning prices paid for wood by mills.


• The relatively low levels of awareness and participation in Vital Forests / Vital Communities Initiative activities suggests the Blandin Foundation needs to more aggressively engage the logger community with the Initiative through information dissemination and activities specifically directed at them.

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