As North Coast residents and state officials closely watch the unfolding events in the Texas courtroom to resolve the Pacific Lumber Co. bankruptcy, timber-related jobs is taking center stage in the Second District Supervisor race.

Candidate Estelle Fennell issued a statement this week alleging that Supervisor Roger Rodoni has watched a job loss “epidemic” during his time in office.

Fennell released census information she says clearly shows working families have been poorly served by Rodoni, which the incumbent supervisor defended as Fennell’s complete lack of understanding of basic timber industry economics.

Timber-related businesses dropped by 47 percent from 110 to 57 between 1996 and 2006, and jobs dropped from 658 to 385 during the same period when Rodoni was in office, according to the quarterly Census of Employment & Wages that Fennell cited in her news release.

“These numbers reveal what I have learned walking the neighborhoods of the Second District and as a news director,” Fennell stated. “I know how critical the need for good paying jobs is.”

Fennell stated that it is clear to her that the Second District has suffered more than others when it comes to overall timber job losses, which she said she would change if elected.

In an e-mail response to Fennell’s statement, Rodoni acknowledged the decline in timber harvest production and timber-related jobs — not just in Humboldt County — but throughout California and the Pacific Northwest.

“This decline is symptomatic of the difficulty that timber companies and private landowners, especially in California, experience getting timber harvest approval,” Rodoni said. “The money spent on mandated watershed and environmental impact reports and the time required to achieve project approval is unreasonable.”

Rodoni points to the loss of timber jobs to the automation of saw mills and the federal listing of endangered species that resulted in the declines of harvesting on federally owned lands from the annual harvest of 1.142 billion board feet in 1992 to less than 200 million board feet harvested today.

He said it was those declines in timber available to mills dependent on Forest Service logs and market conditions that resulted in the complete closure of mills throughout the state, as well as the Second District-area Eel River Sawmill in Alton, Eel River Sawmill in Rio Dell, Englewood Forest Products in Redcrest and the Carlotta Lumber Co. mill.

But Fennell contends the Second District was hit harder and she stated that after PALCO parent-company MAXXAM took over the timber company, it monopolized the timber economy, which caused small, independent businesses to fold under the competitive pressure.

“For Roger Rodoni, the boom days were a heyday, but things have changed now and the task of preparing the district for a future less dependent on resource jobs will have to be taken up by a supervisor who’s ready, willing and able to represent all the residents of the second district, not just a special few,” Fennell said.

“Ms. Fennell’s accusations betray a gross lack of understanding of basic economic conditions affecting the world we live in,” Rodoni said.

Rodoni cited a report published by The Buckeye Conservancy Forest Project analyzing the regulatory climate on non-industrial timberlands, which he said shows timber harvest plan costs were between $500 and $1,000 and only a few pages of paperwork 20 years ago.

Because of the complexity of the information now required, Rodoni cites the study that shows a landowner has little incentive to harvest timber in a depressed market because they can expect to pay $20,000 or more to develop a plan.

Rodoni said the areas forest industry continues to remain a vital component of the Second District’s economy.

“I would expect more from a viable challenger,” Rodoni responded. “As a Humboldt County Supervisor, I know good paying jobs are essential to our economic well-being.”

Fennell said that, if elected, she would work hard to ensure that timber and other resource based jobs continue by focusing on stabilizing that economy and making it more sustainable.

“In order to increase jobs we must diversify our economy and I will work actively to find ways to utilize Headwaters Funds for economic development in the second district,” Fennell stated. “Those funds were set aside to help communities affected by the loss of (Pacific Lumber Co.) related timber jobs and yet the Second District, which suffered the most, has lost out on several funding cycles.”

While she said much of that money has gone north, Fennell indicated she will move to reverse that trend by creating technology jobs and infusing capital into the local economy by encouraging entrepreneurs to put down roots locally, ensuring a cutting edge technology infrastructure and providing incentives to businesses that sell their products outside of Humboldt County.

Second District Supervisor Challenger Clif Clendenen also weighed in on the matter.

“The economic health of the Second District and the county must be improved by creating a business environment that will both attract and support living wage jobs.

“A balance must be struck between light industry and new businesses in and around our existing communities as will as resource based jobs in sustainable numbers,” Clendenen said. “New thinking is necessary as we enter a new economic era in Humboldt County.”