Excerpt from Montana's Post and Pole Industry: An Economic Analysis of Production and Markets

An economic history of Montana's wood-using industry would show two distinct trends in the supply of raw mate rials. Over time, an increasing number of native tree species have become commercially significant. Second, corresponding to the expansion of the species utilized, there has been a decrease in the size of trees logged.

In the 1930's, the two species of greatest commercial importance were western white pine (pinus monticola) and ponderosa pine (pinus ponderosa). During that same time, published reports indicate that timber had to be greater than 24 inches in diameter at breast height in order to be logged profitably (baker Ai though no parallel estimate of the marginal tree exists for current markets, unpublished data about timber logged in the Northern Rockies are indicative. Figures available from the Northern Region of the Forest Service, us. Department of Agriculture, show that the average tree logged on land under its jurisdiction in western Montana and northern Idaho was 17 inches d.b.h. In 1970. By 1984 the average tree size was less than 12 inches d.b.b. For the same geographic area.

Currently, 41 percent of all softwood trees greater than 1 inch d.b.b. On commercial forest land in Montana is lodgepole pine (pinus contorta) and 30 percent is lodge pole 5 inches d.b.b. Or less (green and others Many land management problems stem from a lack of options for dense, growth-stagnant stands of small-diameter lodgepole pine.

Clearly, the days of a wood products economy based on large-diameter logs are gone. The profitable manufacture of wood products today must entail the use of exceedingly small-diameter timber in order to keep raw materials costs low. In Montana, lodgepole pine is the prevalent small-diameter species available for utilization.

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