While harvesting of wood in California declined slightly in 2007, the value of the harvested wood dropped by more than 10 percent from 2006, the California Forest Products Commission said Thursday in its annual state of the industry report. About 1.625 billion board feet of wood was harvested in California, down from 1.631 billion board feet harvested in 2006. The value of the harvested wood declined from $534 million in 2006 to $474 million in 2007.

Total harvested wood was the at the lowest level since 2001 and was the second-lowest harvest amount in the last 30 years. The total harvested in 2007 was 60 percent less than what was harvested in 1990. On privately owned land, California wood products companies harvested 1.440 billion board feet, up from 1.431 billion board feet in 2006, according to statistics compiled by the California Board of Equalization.

On public land, 187 million board feet was harvested, down slightly from 200 million board feet in 2006 and just a fraction of the 1.3 billion board feet harvested on public land, mostly federally owned, in 1990.

“Our federal forestlands remain overcrowded and at significant risk of catastrophic fire,” CFPC President Donn Zea said. “While the industry has been able to partner with local and federal governments in some areas to reduce fire risk through harvesting, unfortunately these are the exception.”

For more information about the California Forest Products Commission, visit www.calforests.org