California Logging Has Dropped 60 Percent

Logging in California has dropped 60 percent over the last 15 years — even as the fast-growing state consumes more imported timber.

The California Board of Equalization timber tax records show logging since 1988 dropped more than 90 percent on public land and 40 percent on private land.

The California Forest Products Commission — an industry advocacy group — says the state now gets a record 70 percent to 80 percent of its wood from other states and overseas. That´s a virtual reversal from the roughly 75 percent of in-state lumber production the commission estimated for 1988.

The report comes as the U.S. Forest Service advances a plan to triple logging in the Sierra Nevada, and amid the debate over the loss of American jobs overseas.