2020 Labor Day Fires - Future Impacts

The large volume of timber that was burned on private forestlands in 2020 will not be available for harvest over the next 40 years, causing a ripple effect to Oregon’s forest sector, according to an Oregon Forest Resources Institute study examining the economic impacts of the 2020 Labor Day fires on the sector. The study showed that the impact of the 2020 fire season will be small in the near term, but Oregon’s long-term annual timber harvest is expected to decrease between 100 and 250 million board feet per year from 2026 to 2065, due to loss of future growth on trees killed by wildfires in 2020. The cumulative timber harvest shortfall over the next 40 years is more than 7 billion board feet.