121 



In addition, a recent study by the author has shown that annual employment 

 stabiUty is greater in smaller wood products establishments than in large establishments 

 (Lee and Jennings-Eckert, 1995). This finding is important for identifying ways counties 

 can meet economic challenges, since large businesses are more likely to have larger and 

 less stable establishments. Figures I and 2 show annual employment stability by 

 establishment size (as measured by calculating the standard deviation as a percent of the 

 mean) for logging and sawmilling in Oregon and Washington from 1964 to 1991. Results 

 show that wood products employment for all establishment sizes is more stable than all 

 manufacturing taken together, suggesting that at least at the scale of the states, the wood 

 products industry is a relatively stable source of employment when compared with other 

 manufacturing industries. But most noteworthy for this report, wood products employment 

 in small establishments is over four times as stable as wood products employment in large 

 establishments. Moreover, wood products employment in large establishments is far less 

 stable than employment in all other manufacturing. 



Examination of the stability of establishments in addition to employment stability is 

 informative because it shows that there is less annual variation in small wood products 

 establishments than in large wood products establishments (See Figures 3 and 4). Hence, 

 the number of smaller places of work in the wood products industry is far less likely to 

 vary from year to year than the number of large places of work. Even more so than with 

 employment stability, total wood products establishments are far more stable than all 

 manufacturing establishments taken together. Relative stability of both employment and 

 establishments for small wood products establishments make them appear to be highly 

 attractive industries for communities facing the challenge of economic revitalization. 



It is important to note that employment and establishment stability was measured at 

 the scale of the states, and that these same patterns may not hold when establishments are 

 examined on a spatial scale as small as counties. Regardless of these limitations, results 

 imply that a more stable economic base for states or regions can be established by 

 encouraging the development of smaller establishments. 



SUMMARY AND CONCLUSIONS 



This study has shown that counties have been differentially affected by the 

 reduction in wood production on federal lands in the region providing habitat for the 

 northern spotted owl and associated species. Variation among counties makes it difficult to 

 generalize about the region as a whole, and necessitates examination of differential effects 

 among counties and communities within counties. By examining differences between 

 counties, this study has revealed that counties vary in the extent to which they are 

 challenged to revitalize local economies which have lost wood products employment and 

 employment earnings. 



The most important findings are: (1) counties most reliant on federal wood supplies 

 are generally the most challenged by the need for economic revitalization, (2) tounsm is 

 unlikely to be of much help to most of the counties facing economic challenges, (3) 

 secondary manufacturing may help some of these challenged counties, but will mainly be 

 concentrated near urban centers where transf)ortalion nodes and markets are accessible, 

 and (4) small wood products businesses engaged in primary manufacturing provide the 

 best opportunities for challenged counties to develop a stable and sustainable economic 

 base. 



