AN EXAMINATION OF WEST-VIRGINIA LOGGING INDUSTRY

Since 1990, demand for logger services in West Virginia has increased dramatically. This increase is partly the result of the construction o f two oriented strandboard plants, two parallel-strand lumber mills, a nd two rotary-cut hardwood plywood mills within or proximate to the st ate. To gain a better understanding of how the logging industry has an d will react to these changes, the Appalachian Hardwood Center conduct ed a survey of registered West Virginia loggers. The survey focused on barriers to increasing production, the most limiting factor(s) of pro duction, and the intention of loggers to increase production. Then wer e considerable variations in the size of logger firms that corresponde d to whether firms operated on a full-or part-time basis and the numbe r of years in business. Several institutional factors were cited by in dustry as barriers to increasing production with workers' compensation the most commonly indicated barrier. The most frequently cited limiti ng factors in log production were trucking and skidding for smaller pr oducers and felling and skidding for larger firms. That skidding capac ity is considered a limiting factor, whatever the scale of operation, indicates that research is needed on how to increase the efficiency of skidders. The desire to increase log production is affected by firm s ize, years in business, type of roundwood products handled, and region of operation. Firms that showed the greatest interest in increasing p roduction tended to be in business fewer years than firms that did not want to expand. Firms that expressed the most interest in expanding l ogging capacity are large operations in the southern and northwestern part of West Virginia that produce both sawlogs and other roundwood ma terial.