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Some in the Arkansas timber industry say they see demand for forest products slowly increasing but fear that a workforce decimated by recession won’t be able to meet that demand.

The timber industry in the state has been down so long — Arkansas Business’ headlines began growing gloomy in 2006 — that predicting an upturn seems downright foolhardy. But some in the sector are forecasting a slow-motion recovery.

It’s a confidence in industry improvement bolstered by AB’s own list of biggest players in the state, a list that saw 10 of the 21 largest forest products companies in Arkansas adding workers in 2013, with six maintaining their numbers and only five losing employees. And total employment in these companies has risen as well, to 10,495 compared with 10,260 in 2012. That, however, remains far below the 15,476 workers reported by the biggest companies in the palmy days of 2005.

Demand for timber products has not yet rebounded to prerecession levels, said Rick Holley, chief executive officer of Plum Creek Timber Co. of Seattle, which owns 720,000 acres of timberland in 22 Arkansas counties. Blame the continuing weakness in the housing industry for that. Forty percent of construction-grade lumber is used in homebuilding, he said.

“At the depth of the recession, new home construction dropped to approximately 500,000 starts, a level never seen in my lifetime,” Holley told Arkansas Business. “Since that time the recovery has been slow. In 2013 we expect housing starts to reach about 950,000 starts, and 2014 starts, by most forecasts, may approach 1.2 million. So the recovery is on the way, but timber products still have a way to go to full recovery to prerecession levels.”

From Arkansas Business: https://www.arkansasbusiness.com/article/95801/turning-point-for-timber-as-demand-rises-workforce-numbers-fall