Forest Community Economics
Case Study: Tuolumne County
The following chart details personal income over the past 30 years in Tuolumne County, home of the Stanislaus National Forest and two Sierra Pacific Industries sawmills. Manufacturing, including forest products from those mills, has been about as steady as one might expect from the cyclical logging industry.
Meanwhile, two other categories of income, have grown so much that if they were in a clearly identifiable industry like lemonade the county would be posting signs and making t-shirts that said “Tuolemonade” and “lemonade capital of the world” and “sour is us” and “here’s squinting at ya!” Those categories are services and professional income which have tripled; and non-labor income from investments and retirement which are up five-fold. Combined, they are worth $1 billion to the county. Forest products are 5 percent of that.
Other information about Tuolumne County indicate that the population is growing faster than the state and nation, unemployment is down, and the county acquired more than 16,000 new jobs that have been created in the past 30 years in other sectors.