SPEARFISH, S.D. – The recent layoff of 50 workers at the Spearfish Forest Products sawmill is directly tied to the U.S. Forest Services’ dramatic reduction of timber sales in the Black Hills National Forest, according to the mill’s owner.

“We have done everything possible to prevent this unfortunate outcome that will impact these employees, our community, and ultimately the health of the forest,” said Jim Neiman, president of Huelett, Wy.-based Neiman Enterprises, owner of Spearfish Forest Products. “We’ve weathered economic and market downturns over the decades. These layoffs, however, are a direct result of the reduction in the Forest Service timber sale program.”

Neiman also cited declining timber availability in 2021 when it closed its 53-year-old sawmill in Hill City, S.D. That closure eliminated 120 jobs.

This fiscal year, the U.S. Forest Service plans to sell 63,000 CCF (hundred cubic feet) of timber in the Black Hills National Forest. That amounts to about one third of the 181,000 CCF the federal agency can sell to authorized bidders under its forest plan. This year’s timber sales allotment is about two-thirds of the nearly 97,000 CCF sold last year.

South Dakota Searchlight reported on a meeting held last month in Spearfish that brought together representatives of the Forest Service and timber industry. Industry reps said they need 120,000 CCF to sustain their businesses. A Forest Service representative countered that due to budget limitations and 76 employee vacancies that the agency is offering the most timber for sale that it can this year. He added that the Forest Service would require $20 million of added funding to reach the 120,000 CCF threshold.

In addition to budgetary constraints, the Forest Service notes that severe wildfires and a pine beetle epidemic have drastically reduced the number of trees big enough for logging in the Black Hills.

Senator Mike Rounds (R-S.D.) recently introduced the Timber Harvesting Restoration Act, legislation that would require the Forest Service to increase timber sales numbers in the Black Hills National Forest.

Rounds said the Forest Service has been unable to justify the harvesting shortfalls in the Black Hills National Forest.

“A well-managed forest is a healthy forest,” Rounds said. “The reduction in timber production in the Black Hills not only harms our businesses, but our forest as well. I’m pleased to be introducing this legislation that takes steps toward getting our timber production back up to normal levels.”

In 1899, the Black Hills National Forest produced the Forest Service’s first federal timber sale. Throughout the first 60 years, timber harvest levels fluctuated between 30,000 to 50,000 CCF on the 1.2-million-acre forest. Beginning in the 1960s, timber harvest levels fluctuated between 100,000 to 250,000 CCF. Ponderosa pine is the predominant species.