Hawaii timber industry ready to saw

Hawai'i has thousands of acres of land chock full of ready-to-harvest hardwood trees that were planted over several decades. The trees, which contain enough wood to build and panel thousands of homes, are ready for businesses willing and able to turn them into veneer, lumber, flooring and other high-value products.

Efforts to jump-start a timber industry were boosted last month when the Board of Land and Natural Resources agreed to allow a startup sawmill operation to harvest 1,100 acres of non-native timber on government land near Hilo. The five-year agreement with Hawaii Island Hardwoods LLC is just the second license allowing large scale harvests of state-owned timber. Another company, Tradewinds Forest Products, already owns rights to harvest 8,000 acres of eucalyptus and maple in the state's Waiakea Timber Management Area, which is comprised of three Big Island forest reserves.

If successful, a local timber industry could diversify Hawai'i's economy, create jobs, relieve the need to import lumber and provide a source for renewable energy. If all goes well, the Hawaii Island Hardwoods and Tradewinds licenses alone could generate $5 million in revenues for the state within 10 years, which can be used for reforestation and other conservation efforts.

"If we can develop this industry, we can create a lot of jobs and replace some of the lost sugar cane jobs," said Kent Untermann, a principal with Hawaii Island Hardwoods, which plans to build a $10 million to $15 million sawmill in Hilo that would employ about 30 people.