Of course there is a correlation. Here is an excerpt from my recent testimony to the state Senate Committee on Natural Resources and Water:
According to the new 2007 California County Data Book, Siskiyou County is now dead last among all California Counties in family economic well-being, having the lowest median income at $30,356, compared to $112,155 for San Mateo County and $56,332 for California as a whole. 65% of households with children ages 0-17 are low income, compared with a California average of 43%. The report notes that 27% of Siskiyou County’s children live in official poverty, compared to 19% for the state. In January 2007, unemployment in the county was 10.8% overall, compared to a statewide level of 5.3%. Using July 2006 periodic figures, 4% of the population of Siskiyou County receive CalWORKs benefits, (formerly Aid to Dependent Children,) compared to 2.8% of the population on a statewide average
According to a 2005 Affordable Housing Study for Siskiyou County, in the area of the Klamath River corridor where logging commonly occurred, the median household income is $22,453, with 54.6% of the population living below the $25,000 mark. The Northwest Forest Plan Socioeconomic Monitoring Module: Klamath National Forest and Three Local Communities Case Study Review Draft - September 3, 2004, determined that in the year 2000, unemployment on the Klamath River corridor was 19.6%, impacted largely by the closure of the lumber mill in Happy Camp.
These indicators of increasing social and economic distress occurred in the aftermath of a series of regulatory events. The Klamath National Forest, the primary National Forest in my district, has a standing inventory of 13.5 billion board feet of timber and grows an additional 654 million board feet of timber each year. Following the implementation of the federal Northwest Forest Plan for northern spotted owl and salmon, the Klamath annual sales volume fell from a 1990-1994 yearly average of 66 million board feet to five million board feet in 2000. Similar restrictions on harvest on private lands have been imposed by the Board of Forestry.
As a result, the county has lost more than 80% of our logging jobs since 1989, (from 951 jobs in 1989, to 331 in 1995, to 186 in 2004.) We have seen the closure of several large sawmills mills such as High Ridge and, most recently, the Cal. Cedar Products mill. Our two remaining mills are plywood veneer using only small diameter trees....
You might also note that logging jobs are typically family wage and good paying for this neck of the woods.
Out in the timber country I left in Washington State, the only good paying jobs left were ones sucking off the government teat.
I don’t have any figures but I lived in So OR for fifteen years during the decline of the timber industry, it was devastating to many many families.
Excellent!!!