Will tariffs give New Mexico logging industry more teeth?

“We utilize everything,” he said.

Barrone runs one of around two dozen sawmills in the state, operations concentrated near federally owned land in the Gila, Lincoln and Carson national forests. They make up what Miles Conway, executive officer of the Santa Fe Area Home Builders Association, calls New Mexico’s “vibrant but small” timber industry.

It might not be the heyday for timber in the state, but a wholesale federal push to increase domestic logging and timber processing could be a boon for New Mexico’s sawmills.

Still, there are challenges to increasing capacity in the state — from species protections to an aging workforce — and some people are uncertain such an effort could, or should, be pursued.

Mescalero Apache Tribe President Thora Walsh Padilla, a former timber sale forester for the Bureau of Indian Affairs’ Forestry Division, told state lawmakers during an interim committee meeting the industry lacks regional demand and has a narrow profit margin.

‘Playing chicken diplomacy’

The federal government has pledged to issue new guidelines and speed up approvals for forestry projects on public land managed by the Forest Service and other agencies. President Donald Trump on March 1 signed two executive orders — one intended to increase logging and timber processing and another to evaluate if lumber imports are a national security risk.

The executive order blamed “heavy-handed Federal policies” for limiting domestic timber production and directed the secretary of the interior and the secretary of agriculture to set targets for annual timber sales on Forest Service and Bureau of Land Management lands.

“Our inability to fully exploit our domestic timber supply has impeded the creation of jobs and prosperity, contributed to wildfire disasters, degraded fish and wildlife habitats, increased the cost of construction and energy, and threatened our economic security,” the executive order stated.

A few days later, Trump announced 25% tariffs on Canadian lumber products that are set to take effect Wednesday, compounded by blanket tariffs on Canadian products.

The National Association of Home Builders says on its website it supports efforts to increase domestic timber supplies — but building up capacity will take time, and the proposed tariffs on Canadian timber could harm the housing market in the short term.

The U.S. in 2023 imported $8.5 billion worth of sawmill and wood products, about 70% of which came from Canada, according to the organization. Softwood lumber, important for housing, is largely imported from the nation’s northern neighbor.

“While it is a worthy goal to increase domestic production, the reality is that U.S. sawmills do not currently have the capacity to meet domestic demand, so NAHB believes that any move in the short term to add tariffs or hinder the flow of lumber from Canada will only harm housing affordability,” the association’s post says.

Conway, of the local homebuilders association, said even before the new tariffs take effect, uncertainty has shaken up the industry.

“This is called ‘playing chicken diplomacy,’ ” -Conway said. “We are charging towards an absolute disaster in the construction costs arena.”

The instability in the market “is having a huge impact already,” he added.

Small market for local timber

The capacity to produce timber in New Mexico and other Four Corners states was more than halved between 1986 and 2003, according to data presented by the University of Montana’s Bureau of Business and Economic Research. The region, especially dependent on national forest lands for timber harvest, was affected by the 1993 listing of the Mexican spotted owl as a threatened species under the Endangered Species Act.

The owl lives in forest and canyon landscapes throughout the Southwest, nesting in areas with a mix of older and younger trees or on cliff ledges.

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service held the timber industry responsible for shrinking the historic range of the owl, which remains threatened by wildfire and habitat loss.

Although the business has changed, forestry projects and timber processing continue in the region. Small sawmills like Olguin’s continue to process logs into firewood and vigas.

The sawmill has been around for three generations. Luciano Olguin, the grandfather of Barrone’s wife, founded the mill; Barrone has worked there for around 35 years.

Barrone can count his employees on one hand. They primarily work on custom home orders but also sell firewood and other products.

There’s been increased opportunity for forestry projects following major wildfires in the state, he said.

Earlier this month at the sawmill, he pointed to timber that had been collected in forest cleanup projects. Some of the logs were charred from the Hermits Peak/Calf Canyon Fire. Their interiors hadn’t yet succumbed to insects or other damage. Other logs had been knocked down by a powerful windstorm in Taos County.

The area devastated by the South Fork and Salt fires also could see an increase in logging after the New Mexico Legislature included $3 million in its budget bill for fiscal year 2026 for a sawmill in Mescalero. Some local officials said after the fire insufficient thinning had allowed the flames to balloon out of control and advocated for the restoration of the area’s logging industry.

Forest restoration and thinning projects offer opportunities, Barrone said. But he noted a market has to be found for the wood.

“We’re putting millions and millions of dollars in forest restoration and fire prevention right now, and nowhere to really go with the product instead of firewood,” he said. “And a lot of our product is better than firewood and chips.”

He sees a market for that in affordable housing, especially if tariffs are looming.

“Why not, in the great state of New Mexico, be able to use our own material in our own houses?” Barrone said.

There are several mom-and-pop mills in New Mexico with a handful of employees that could grow, he said, as long as the demand grows.

‘We need young blood’

Ty Mares, owner of Legacy Forest Management, a Colorado-based forestry consulting business that does work in New Mexico and Colorado, pointed to the lack of training programs in the state to draw new workers into the industry as others age out.

“We need young blood in this industry,” he said. “Because of the technical nature of forestry, there’s a need for training and a need for that kind of thing, and it’s just not happening on the pace and scale to feed it.”

The forestry bug bit Mares early. Raised in Silver City, he said he always wanted to be a forester.

“But being down there in Silver City, it just wasn’t as accessible,” he said. “I had to make a lot of moves and jump through a lot of hoops to make it happen.”

He spent six years working with the U.S. Forest Service before starting his own business.

Increasing capacity in the industry will require a commitment to invest in forestry and timber processing infrastructure, Mares said.

He was encouraged by a recent agreement in recent months between the Association of Consulting Foresters and the Forest Service to provide technical forest management services, including preparation for timber sales and assistance with the National Environmental Policy Act. “I think the verdict is still out, but I think there’s a lot of promise,” he said.

New Mexico lawmakers unanimously approved legislation this year to address another problem for producers: a shortage of lumber graders who can approve timber for homebuilding. The measure would create a training and certification program for lumber graders through a partnership with a college or university.

Conway sees potential in the proposal. Currently, he said, New Mexico foresters and sawmills often have to bring in lumber graders from neighboring states to get their lumber approved for construction purposes.

The proposed certification program would not just have an economic impact but could also benefit forest management and reduce emissions from lumber transport, he said.

“Are we thinning our forests to make wildfire less intense? Are we supporting a local forestry economy in New Mexico? And number three, are we doing a little something around climate responsibility?” Conway said. “Because when you harvest a tree from nearby, and it doesn’t have to be on a truck or a boat for thousands of nautical miles, then you have lessened the carbon footprint of that house.”

Rachel Wood, a professional forester and program manager for Source Verified Good Wood, said bringing an out-of-state lumber grader can be costly for producers, who might have to pay an annual fee, travel costs and a volume-based fee. That eats into profits or can prohibit timber products from being used for structural purposes, she said, like vigas and latillas.

Conway acknowledged the certification program wouldn’t lead to a significant increase in the state’s production of structural timber.

“We’re not foolish,” he said. “We know that the lion’s share of lumber for big house building comes from Canada, or even further away. There’s not a ton of really massive lumber that comes from New Mexico.”

Doubts about a logging rebound

Not everyone thinks logging is bound to rebound in New Mexico.

The state has made “genuine progress” in the decades since the state’s logging boom ended, said Bryan Bird, director of Defenders of Wildlife’s Southwest Program.

“We have to sort of merge or marry our ecological needs for forests in New Mexico with the economics of an industry,” Bird said. “That’s the nuance; that’s the challenge right there is trying to get those two things sort of scaled.”

Bird is concerned about the erosion of federal environmental protections on public lands. But he’s skeptical large-scale mills or commercial logging operations would be enticed by New Mexico’s forests — and he questions putting additional resources into revitalizing the state’s timber industry.

The state’s largest, most valuable trees have been cut, Bird said, noting the timber industry is now built on smaller trees.

“No way we can compete with Canada,” Bird said. “That’s where the commercial lumber is. You know, tinkering with tariffs, subsidizing transportation, subsidizing new technology, it’s all for naught.”

Like Bird, Taylor McKinnon, Southwest director of the Center for Biological Diversity, isn’t convinced moves on the federal level will make a significant impact on the region’s timber industry. He pointed to cuts to Forest Service operations; the U.S. Department of Agriculture confirmed in February it had terminated about 2,000 probationary employees.

“There’s a real conflict between the goal of trying to ramp up logging while cutting agency funding and staffing,” McKinnon said. “We’ve been working on southwestern forest restoration for decades, and people have been trying to create small diameter industry for these forests, and it’s been, at best, a slow go. So I’m pretty skeptical that they’re going to be able to change anything.”

Barrone shares concerns about recent cuts to Forest Service staff nationwide. Before 2022, he said the agency was starting to rev up timber sales. That only accelerated after the Hermits Peak/Calf Canyon Fire.

But the agency was understaffed even then, Barrone said, and struggled to find enough staff to mark trees for sale.

He wondered: “What does it mean? Are they going to continue to put forest timber sales up, or are they going to start cutting back? Are they going to have anybody to manage them?”