Oregon Public Broadcasting

Oregon's timber harvests have reached historic lows, according to new state numbers released Friday.

2.8 billion board feet of timber might sound like a lot – but 2009's cut is a fraction of the nine billion board feet cut in the mid-1980s.

It's even a far cry from the four billion or so cut in the mid '90s, following the Northwest Forest Plan.

Forest economist, Gary Lettman says the downturn in the national housing market is to blame. Lettman says few folks would remember an Oregon harvest this low.

Gary Lettman: "You'd have to be born before 1935, because this is the lowest since 1934, which was two-point-six billion. That was in the middle of the Great Depression."

Lettman says the low harvest destabilizes local economies, especially in eastern Oregon.

Logging actually increased on Bureau of Land Management and tribal areas – but those lands account for less than one-tenth of Oregon's timber harvest.

Most of it comes from private forests.