115 



(1) Densely-populated counties. Defined as the 19 counties in the owl region in which 

 peculation density was equal to or greater than 100 persons per square mile at the 1990 

 census. 



(2) Wood products dominant counties. Defined as the 30 counties in which wood 

 products employment exceeds seven percent of total county employment The wood 

 products industries are reported to support many more jobs than are shown by direct 

 employment because of indirect employment multiplier effects. Seven percent was selected 

 as the cut-off point based on a recent analysis of the wood products industry in Washington 

 State in which a forest industry multiplier of 3.67 was reported. Based on this multiplier, 

 seven percent of direct employment in wood products in a county would indirectly support 

 over 25 percent of the county's total employment. None of the 30 counties that fell into this 

 category were densely populated, as defined above. Half of these counties were found to 

 rely heavily on federal timber (see below) and placed in a different category for analysis 

 purposes. 



(3) Federal wood-reliant counties. A subset of the wood products dominant counties 

 was created based upon the 1992 Mason, Bruce, and Girard survey of wood sources for 

 mills. The 15 wood products dominant counties whose mills souroed more than 25 percent 

 of their wood from federal lands were classified as federal wood-reliant counties. 



(4) Low population density counties. There were 23 counties in the owl region 

 whose population density was less than 99 persons per square mile in the 1990 census and 

 were neither forest products dominant oc reliant on federal timber. 



QUESTION 1 



How were wood products employment and earnings affected 



by the decline in the sale and harvesting of federal wood 



between 1988 and 1992? 



Table 1 (attached) summarizes results from an analysis by Wilbur Maki and 

 Associates showing changes in total employment (both full time and p>art-time for wage 

 earners and the self-employed) and earnings (including benefits) for the 72 counties in the 

 owl region from 1988 to 1992. There was a loss of almost 30 thousand wood products 

 jobs and $278.5 million in wood products earnings from wages, associated benefits, and 

 self-employment This represents a loss of 20 percent of total wood products employment 

 The 5.2 percent loss of wood products earnings during a period in which the cost of living 

 increased 18 percent translates into an effective total earnings loss of over 23 percent. 

 These declines in wood products employment and earnings contrast with a 12 percent gain 

 in total employment and a 32 percent gain in total employment earnings for the same five- 

 year period in the 72 county region. 



There is no convenient way of linking the decline in federal timber sales and 

 harvesting to employment and earnings. However, Table 1 shows that losses in wood 

 products employment and earnings were proportionally greatest in the 15 rural federal 

 wood-reliant counties, with a loss of 25.3 percent of wood products jobs and an effective 

 41 percent loss of wood products employment earnings. Moreover, along with wood 

 products dominant counties, rural federal wood-reliant counties exhibited the lowest rates 

 of growth in total employment and employment earnings during this period. 



