Some of the Players

Don Konkol has been in the lumber business since he was a child. His father built the mill on the outskirts of Orofino, in what is called Konkolville. It's one of a half dozen mills in the Clearwater region, employing seventy workers. Konkol says two issues are making life difficult for his industry: "The Forest Service is not managing the land and Canadians are dumping timber."

"The Forest Service owns 67% of the timber land in Idaho; so they have most of the trees, obviously, but they're not selling them. So the competition for what little is available is extremely high... The Forest Service gets criticized, and rightfully so, but their direction comes from Washington, D.C. Prior to the current Administration, it really crippled us bad. There were rules and regulations almost prohibiting the sale or harvest of timber, and we're feeling the effects of that now..."

"They just need to manage the forest, and not for a single use... The mortality rate of forest lands in the Clearwater is 170 million board feet a year. I don't think they've sold two million."

"We used to boast of having the largest elk herds in the U.S., and I think that was true. But that's not the case anymore. The Forest Service is not following the forest plan; they are not creating habitat. To create habitat you have to remove trees. To remove trees you've got to sell them first, then cut em, then burn what's left and you can create the habitat."