"Minnesota mills may have pioneered the concept of using high-pressure and glue to turn scraps of wood into boards, but other parts of the country copied the idea and did it better" Why/how do they do it better?

The personal computer has changed everything - even as modern loggers use them to control complex harvesters, the overwhelming use of digital media has made paper much less necessary, thus cutting demand. It is no surprise that fewer lumberjacks are needed in an industry that has made harvesting more efficient while demand declines.

Tree jiggers are happy I suppose.

wa0tda hit the nail on the head regarding declining paper usage. I get my news online so no need for actual paper newspapers. At work, we use online documents and rarely does anything get printed.

Despite some accurate statements the article is not well-researched. In the first place, a loggers' cord of wood (referred to in days past as a "long cord" or "full cord") is 128 cubic feet of wood. Not 4' x 4' by 8' as the article presents but 4' 4" x 4' 4" x 100". Not a huge difference but one that should not have been accurately presented, had adequate research been done. Secondly, as the article points out, logging and timber use is indeed a regional proposal due to the expense of shipping timber, but one of the main reasons that the timber industry in Minnesota is languishing is not because other parts of the country "do it better" but because Canadian companies, to cut competition, have been buying up Minnesota enterprises and shutting them down. The OSB plant in Cook, MN is but one example, but there are others. Lastly, a lot of loggers' jobs have indeed been lost, but not so much because of cutbacks in the industry. Time was, a teenager with a chainsaw and pickeroon could obtain a contract for 100 cords of peeled pulpwood, cut, peel and stack for a summer, and have enough money for most of a year of college. Or he work for an established logger and make about the same amount of money sweating his butt off for 8+ hours a day. Today with the change in demand by the mills for the variety of products purchased (peeled pulpwood is no longer a need as the mills peeel the logs on site) and the $500,000 + pieces of machinery crashing through the woods harvesting trees like so many corn stalks, individual laborers are rarely needed. The forest products industry in Minnesota is highly misunderstood, and articles such as this do little to help further understanding.

One of the interesting impacts of the reduced tree harvest is that scientists have determined that it is a factor in the decline of the moose population in Minnesota. The moose need the new growth that is created in the recovering clear cut areas for food.

Being one of those 'jiggers' (foresters) and seeing the decimation of the forests due to the uncaring 'logging' 'companies' that base their 'logging' on the same reasoning that they base the 'repairs' of their 'mills' -- yes -- I am just ecstatic!!

Personal computers have created an explosion of paper use although mobile devices are cutting down on paper a bit. When I was young we didn't have all that much paper around the house. Nowdays almost everyone has a printer at home and nobody really thinks twice about hitting the print button.

Since the Democrats are in full control, they will be able to get mining going again in northern Minnesota and these loggers will then have the oppurtunity for high paying union mining jobs.

When was demand booming? 5-10-20 yrs ago? 50yrs ago? There will always be demand for paper. Workforce to produce will adjust up/down.