(The Center Square) — Maine’s congressional delegation is pushing to create a disaster fund for the nation’s forestry products industry to help offset financial losses from increasingly violent storms and other natural disasters.
The bipartisan Loggers Economic Assistance and Relief Act, which is co-sponsored by Republican Sen. Susan Collins and Democratic Rep. Jared Golden, would establish a new program within the U.S. Department of Agriculture to support loggers who have lost income as a result of fires, flooding and other natural disasters.
“Maine’s forest products industry has long supported good‑paying jobs and helped grow local economies across our state,” Collins said in a statement. “Loggers are at the heart of that industry, but devastating storms in recent years have severely impacted the ability of logging businesses to operate at full capacity.”
Under the legislation, approval of a disaster declaration by the president or governor would unlock federal assistance for logging businesses that sustained at least a 10% loss in revenue or volume compared to the prior year. Covered damages would include high winds, fire, flooding, insect infestation and drought, according to lawmakers.
Golden said the forest products industry has provided for generations of Mainers and continues to be the “economic bedrock” of many rural communities, but it doesn’t get the same kind of support from the federal government as commercial fisherman and farmers when there is a natural disaster.
“You can’t write the story of Maine without loggers,” Golden said. “There must be a safety net to ensure one particularly bad season cannot uproot logging families and communities.”
Other members of Maine’s congressional delegation, including Independent Sen. Angus King and Democratic Rep. Chellie Pingree, also signed onto the bill.
“Generations of loggers have spent their lifetimes powering our state’s economy while providing for their families, which is why it is so important to protect and sustain this historic industry,” King said in a statement.
In December 2023, Maine’s logging industry lost an estimated $2.6 million after just one severe storm, with more than 90 percent of the industry’s businesses impacted. Overall, Maine’s economy lost $5.5 million due to the loss in logging revenue and productivity that winter, according to the lawmakers.
Dana Doran, executive director of the Professional Logging Contractors of the Northeast, said extreme weather events in recent years have “idled harvest operations for long periods, destroyed logging and timber hauling infrastructure, and driven up costs at a time when the logging industry is already grappling with unprecedented challenges and can least afford it.”
“For too long, logging and forest trucking contractors in the Northeast have been left out of federal relief efforts in the wake of natural disasters, despite suffering losses as severe as those in other industries like fishing and farming that have received aid,” he said.
