COOS BAY, Ore. (AP) — Coos County raised $2.5 million for its general fund with a timber sale last week, its first in two years.
Officials said the county was unable to hit the peak of a brief spike in the market this spring, but timber prices were close to the level at the last sale in 2008.
Coos County commissioners said in January they were prepared to go another year without a sale if timber prices did not improve. But prices shot up in April, because of the earthquake in Chile and a shortage of white woods used for making plywood, such as spruce.
Commissioner Bob Main said waiting a year allowed the county to nearly double the revenue it might have gotten if it had sold the timber earlier.
