VIDEO: Weather Impacts On The Wood Industry

MACON, Miss.(WCBI)—The recent, excessive amount of rain we’re experiencing is doing more than creating potential flooding problems for residents.

It’s also creating issues for the wood industry throughout the Golden Triangle.

“I’ve had loggers call this morning wondering already and wanting to know, “well what am I thinking and when do we feel like we will be able to go back to work,”said Timberland Supervisor Justin Moffett.

Over the last two weeks Macon has experienced torrential rainfall. C.A. Barge Timberlands Vice President Steve Prestridge says that is having an impact on their business.

” Going into the hot times of the year they don’t typically carry a lot of inventory at saw mills and plywood plants. So especially when we get a tropical system coming through like we’ve have that dumps a lot of rain when your inventories are typically lower anyway then that tends to make everybody a little more nervous,”said Prestridge.

Nobody more than Trevor Eaves who makes his living by the ton.

“These last two weeks have been tough. We don’t make money if we don’t get the wood to the mill. They got to have the wood too, you know. We got to kind of work together and work diligently while the sun is shining,”said truck driver Trevor Eaves.

Eaves says it also creates a chain reaction that stems way past the woods.

” We’ve got several places we haul; Barge is one of them and Weyerhaeuser and all the mills are suffering too when we’re suffering because we can’t get them the wood and they need it now because summer time is usually the time when you get the most production out of the woods and in the mills,”said Eaves.

Moffett says even though work is difficult with the rain pouring down.. it’s not impossible.

” It’s going to affect the loggers first and then the truckers. As long as we can move the loggers to the track that will work in wet times like we got now the truckers can follow suit and proceed hauling the material,”said Moffett.

According to our Chief Meteorologist Keith Gibson, Most of our area is under a flash flood watch until Friday. Prestridge says with that being the case it could keep them out of the flat lands for a while.

” At least four to five days before the soil moisture drops to the point to where you won’t have a negative impact by going in there with your logging equipment. So it’s a challenge that you have to be a little nimble when it comes to managing through weather changes,”said Prestridge.

The production of timber truly depends on the season, ground, and of course weather.

That’s according to Barge Forest Products Company Owner David Barge.

Under normal circumstances the company is able to produce 28 and a half million board feet a year.

Barge says when the unseasonable rain start pouring in they don’t have to panic immediately.

“Log Inventory of the size that we have can carry us a lot longer than most most mills in Mississippi who require a much larger production of logs everyday. We do have enough inventory that we are not giving out of logs at this point,” said Barge.

Barge Forest Product Company currently has three months inventory they are operating on until the ground dries up.