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Abstract
California forest land managers seek current information about tree utilization and the volume of merchantable bole wood residue produced by commercial timber harvesting. To address this need, University of Montana, Bureau of Business and Economic Research analysts investigated timber harvest utilization at active logging sites in California from 2018 through 2022. This research characterized current tree utilization, logging operations, and woody biomass left onsite after harvest. Study results were used to compute state-level utilization factors, which indicated that in California, for every 1,000 cubic feet of log volume delivered to the mill, harvest removed 1,052 cubic feet from growing stock (the portion of a tree that was live [green] at the time of harvest), which resulted in 57 cubic feet of growing-stock logging residue. An additional 5 cubic feet of nongrowing-stock material (portions of green trees below the 1-foot stump or above the 4-inch-diameter outside-bark top) was also delivered to the mill. A separate and novel salvage tree investigation quantified residue factors of dead trees harvested after fire. For every 1,000 cubic feet of salvage tree volume delivered to the mill, harvesting removed 1,066 cubic feet of timber from the merchantable bole (as defined by the U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service, Forest Inventory and Analysis program), with 72 cubic feet of logging residue coming from this portion of the tree. Study results can inform land managers of residues available for bioenergy uses, provide data for woody biomass life cycle analyses and carbon accounting, and improve estimates of removals from growing stock during commercial timber harvest.
Citation
Simmons, Eric A.; Koch, Lucas P.; Morgan, Todd A.; Berg, Erik C.; Christensen, Glenn A. 2025. Logging utilization in California, 2018–2022. Resour. Bull. PNW-RB-273. Portland, OR: U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service, Pacific Northwest Research Station. 23 p. https://doi.org/10.2737/PNW-RB-273.
