Forest services (management, nurseries, and specialty forest product harvesting, among others) are an expanding industry, growing with the need to more actively mange our forests, such as to reduce fuel loads to prevent forest fire.A Large Fire, as defined by the National Wildland Coordinating Group, is any wildland fire in timber 100 acres or greater and 300 acres or greater in grasslands/rangelands or has an Incident Management Team assigned to it. Latino immigrant workers are increasingly finding employment as laborers in Pacific Northwest forests in logging and represent the majority of forest service workers. The Northwest Fire Location map displays active fire incidents within Oregon and Washington.Other states and countries show similar trends. Data in Oregon, Washington, and Idaho show that loggers who are least 45 years old represent around 50% of the workforce, a percentage that is growing.

For example, injuries among Oregon loggers increased 77% after the 1980-1981 recession as companies quickly rebuilt their workforces. Injury and death rates in logging and related industries have often been cyclical.Research rates logging among the most exertive work. Pacific Northwest Forests Receive Resources to Address Natural Disasters The USDA Forest Service in the Pacific Northwest has been allocated 291.2 million in disaster relief supplemental funding to address damage caused by the wildfires, floods, and extreme weather events the region experienced in 2019, 20.Logging fatality rates exceed the national average by 30 times.As the technology and workforce changes, safety and health efforts must change with it. A reliable Hispanic workforce is becoming more common in both forest restoration and logging, presenting new challenges with communications (critical to safety) and subcontractor management. Experienced loggers are aging and the new workforce has a high turnover rate. And the workforce today does not reflect the logging workforce even a generation ago. Technology has made mechanized logging the norm, except on the steepest slopes, such as many in the Northwest. The iconic Northwest image of a lumberjack swinging his axe amid towering conifers has not reflected reality for over a century.

Pacific northwest forest