The U.S. Forest Service announced Monday it was shutting down logging operations on 150 national forests across the country due to the partial shutdown of the federal government, according to the Mohave Daily News. The agency will suspend timber sales and stewardship contracts with 450 timber purchasers starting early next week. The Forest Service is contacting logging companies in writing to advise them on how to shut down.
In general, loggers will have until Sunday to finish cutting and hauling logs where they are already working. Typically, loggers would have one more month of work before winter weather makes conditions tougher.
"I would have hoped they would have considered timber sale contract officers being essential personnel, but apparently at this point they are not," Tom Partin, president of the timber industry group America Forest Resource Council, told Mohave Daily. "If it goes on for a period of time, it could start impacting sawmills and really start putting people out of work."
