How much is lost after a forest fire?

Of forest properties burned in the 2020 Holiday Farm Fire, estimates are approximately 144,000 of that amount were on U.S. Forest Service land, 8,000 acres within Bureau of Land Management boundaries, and around 20,000 acres of private forest land.

More than 1 million acres were impacted around Oregon in that year - close to 3% of the state’s forestland. Almost all of it was on the west side, where the industry is centered. Of private owners, Weyerhaeuser was the hardest hit - reporting third-quarter losses of $80 million for timber it wasn’t able to salvage. In a November 22, 2020, Oregonian article, Casey Roscoe, a senior vice president at Seneca Sawmill, said 640 acres of company timber burned in the Holiday Farm fire and 10,000 acres in the Archie Creek fire. She estimated their losses amounted to tens of millions of dollars.

Typically a 100,000-acre mature Douglas-fir forest yields about 1.5 billion board feet of lumber. If 30% of the timber could still be salvaged and sold at a reduced price of $150 per MBF, the salvage value would be 1.5 billion board feet × 0.30 × $150/MBF, totaling $67.5 million.