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Forest Service announces relief for timber sales
Posted: Aug 4, 2011 12:53 PM by AP Posted by James H Egbert
DENVER (AP) - The U.S. Forest Service is offering to renegotiate timber sale contracts in an effort to save sawmills in the Rocky Mountain region that have been hit hard by the recession and stuck with financially nonviable agreements.
Acting regional forester Jerome Thomas says the offer will help sawmills in Colorado, South Dakota, Wyoming and Nebraska.
U.S. Sen. Mark Udall says Colorado's three sawmills - in Montrose, Saguache and Delta - are struggling because
of the downturn in the housing market and lower demand for wood products.
Udall says contracts worked out with the federal government before the recession began don't provide them enough money to cover the costs of cutting down trees and turning them into lumber and other wood products.
(Copyright 2011 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)
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