Special Forest Product Markets in the Pacific Northwest with Global Implications
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Chapter 3 Special forest product markets in the Pacific Northwest with global implications Keith A. Blatner Associate Professor Department of Natural Resource Sciences Washington State University Pullman, WA 99164-6410 would like to first give credit to my colleague who has worked with me I on many of these projects. Bill Schlosser was my former graduate student at the University of Idaho. He is now at Michigan State University and shortly will be a USAID employee in Khabarovsk in the Russian Far East. He and I researched special forest products together for about 6 or 7 years. In the course of today’s presentation, I’m going to focus primarily on products from the Pacific Northwest—major products, their markets, and economic contribution. However, I’m going to digress at various times to show the international flavor of this market. There is a growing industry on the eastside of the Cascades, where I work. In fact, many of the products that are harvested on the eastside currently are marketed and processed through westside processors, a phenomenon that is slowly changing. There are large international markets for a variety of products. The special forest products industry consists of several specialized industries. The floral greens industry uses wild-harvested evergreen plant materials in floral arrangements. Typically, these plants are flexible and have long-lasting properties so they can be used in fresh or dried arrangements, often as background material. Moss is used as covering for the base of arrangements, or in pots or baskets. Christmas ornamentals are bough products, primarily cones, that are used in Christmas wreaths, swags, and door charms. During the rest of the year, some are used in the form of casket drapes and other decorative pieces. Another specialty is edibles. Wild edible mushrooms are probably the most commercially important edible product. Unlike other species we produce horticulturally or agriculturally, we do not have the ability to propagate these species, so they must be harvested from the wild. Familiar mushrooms include morels (Morchella spp.), matsutake (Tricholoma magnivelare), and boletes (Boletus spp.). Another type of edible product is huckleberries. Herbal and medicinal plant products make up yet another important specialized industry. I will talk about these later. FLORAL GREENS First I will refer to the table we compiled for 1989 westside harvest values (Table 1). Bill and I are currently in the throes of finishing a re-survey of the industry for the 1994 business year. We haven’t compiled all the data yet, so I’m going to use the 1989 data, and toward the end of the talk I will discuss how much I think the industry has grown. 42 Keith Blatner Chapter 3 This example will give you an idea of the importance of plants in one application, floral use. In 1989, the amount paid to harvesters for beargrass (Xerophyllum tenax) was $11.5 million. Today purchasers are buying beargrass coming out of northern Idaho and northeast Washington as well. Baby’s breath (Gypsophila paniculata) was an industry worth about $5 million in 1989. When we did this survey, we did not survey any eastside firms. So these figures are only for baby’s breath that moved through westside processors. Baby’s breath is a plant of Eurasian origin, from around the Caspian Sea, which was planted by settlers as an adornment to cemeteries and similar places. It went wild and became a fertile plant. It’s classed as a noxious weed, but it has developed a substantial market in the floral industry. Moss has recently attracted quite a bit of research interest and environmental concern. It is used heavily in the production of moss baskets, and is widely exported to European floral markets. Evergreen huckleberry (Vaccinium ovatum) had a value of $1.7 million for its Hand of beargrass; use in floral arrangements. This does not include the value of any fruit Elk City, ID products that are derived from the berries themselves. Mountain boxwood (Pachistima myrsinites) may be used as a substitute for huckleberry in floral arrangements. East of the mountains, we have already highlighted baby’s breath. Sword fern (Polystichum munitum) had a value of about $1.5 million. Sword fern does occur east of the Cascades, and there is a relatively untapped supply of it. Dwarf oregongrape (Berberis nervosa) is another product used for floral greens. Two oregongrape species occurring in Idaho, with slightly different characteristics, would make logical substitutes for their westside cousin. CHRISTMAS ORNAMENTALS AND EVERGREEN BOUGHS Christmas ornamentals (Table 1) consist of a variety of species and subjects: cedar and noble fir boughs, cones, holly, and so on. Christmas greens represent substantial economic value, with noble fir (Abies procera) at $6.7 million and western redcedar (Thuja plicata) at $1.1 million in 1989. Subalpine fir (Abies lasiocarpa), western white pine (Pinus monticola), and Douglas-fir (Pseudotsuga menziesii) are Christmas ornamental products of lesser commercial value. The northern Rockies do not have noble fir. There is some subalpine fir readily available, which makes a good substitute for noble. There is also western redcedar, which actually has fewer disease problems in the inland west than it does on the westside. One disease is a red fungus that grows on the underside of the needles, making these products unmarketable. The drier climate on the eastside makes this less of a problem. Markets in the Pacific Northwest with global implications 43 Chapter 3 Table 1. Special forest product plant species and related harvest numbers for 1989. (Adapted from Schlosser, et al. 1991.) Common name Scientific Name Volume Unit Value/ Total Value Unit Floral greens Beargrass Xerophyllum tenax 12,781,823 Bunch $0.90 $11,503,641 Salal Gaultheria shallon 8,490,100 Bunch $0.90 $7,641,090 Salal Tips Gaultheria shallon 10,878,589 Bunch $0.50 $5,439,294 Baby’s Breath Gypsophila paniculata 3,358,154 Bunch $1.50 $5,037,230 Moss Many species 158,510 Sack* $13.00 $2,060,628 Evergreen Huckleberry Vaccinium ovatum 2,741,667 Bunch $0.62 $1,701,017 Sword Fern Polystichum munitum 2,463,092 Bunch $0.62 $1,527,117 Scotch Broom Cytisus scoparius 345,698 Bunch $0.40 $138,279 Dwarf oregongrape Berberis nervosa 99,141 Bunch $0.60 $59,485 Total $35,107,781 Christmas and Evergreen Boughs Noble Fir Abies procera 9,310 Tons $720.00 $6,703,116 Western Redcedar Thuja plicata 2,375 Tons $460.00 $1,092,385 Subalpine Fir Abies lasiocarpa 900 Tons $640.00 $575,840 Western White Pine Pinus monticola 995 Tons $460.00 $457,503 Douglas-fir Pseudotsuga menziesii 1,317 Tons $200.00 $263,393 Western Juniper Juniperus scopulorum 283 Tons $500.00 $141,705 Incense Cedar Libocedrus decurrens 176 Tons $760.00 $133,719 Lodgepole Pine Pinus contorta 272 Tons $360.00 $97,856 Cones Many species7,230,871 Number $0.04 $253,081 Holly Ilex spp. 1,908,861 Pounds $1.40 $2,672,405 Other Boughs N/A** N/A N/A N/A $59,242 Other Products N/A** N/A N/A N/A $113,301 Total $12,563,546 Total Value of Product Purchases $47,671,328 * One sack of moss weighs approximatesly 50 pounds ** Due to confidentiality, many products which have only a few producers have been grouped into Other Boughs and Other Products. 44 Keith Blatner Chapter 3 Douglas-fir, western white pine, lodgepole pine (Pinus contorta), and western juniper (Juniperus scopulorum) work well in this market. One might argue, “It’s a long way from the eastside to the coast where most of the established industry is. Why would anybody bother to look for products on the eastside?” Well, we have one little advantage many might not appreciate—it gets cold in the northern Rockies. For these products to be salable, the needles need a prolonged period of frost so they will not drop off shortly after harvest. On average, the northern Rockies tend to freeze earlier or for longer periods than even the higher elevations in the Cascades. Certainly in terms of accessible areas, they have an advantage. In northern Idaho and northeast Washington we can start harvesting subalpine fir, western redcedar, and western white pine ahead of our westside competitors. Some eastside production facilities are starting in this area, but right now most of it is trans-shipment; we harvest it and move it to the westside for processing. We can put it in a refrigeration truck, run it across the basin, and have it available to the processing sheds on the westside ahead of the westside competition. That allows us to prepare for the market and use our existing production facilities longer. Pine cones are another part of the Christmas ornamentals market. Most of the cones come from the eastside. Western white pine is one source, with ponderosa pine (Pinus ponderosa) cones being the most prominent ones used in floral arrangements. Holly is another familiar plant; in 1989 it was worth about $2.7 million. Looking at overall markets for the floral and Christmas greens industries together, we find that the United States is by far the dominant market at 52 percent. However, Europe is a very large market at nearly 25 percent. We are looking primarily at floral products moving into the European market, not Christmas ornamentals. On the florals, we have some unique products. There are also limited amounts going to the Pacific Rim and other areas. Christmas ornamentals are a big factor in Europe, but they already have an ample supply of their own. If we look at the data we collected in 1989, we see about $128,500,000 in product sales, 10,000 people employed part- or full-time, and about 675,000 acres in production west of the Cascades.