Jun 07, 2005. /Lesprom Network/. Oregon's timber harvest jumped 11% in 2004, propelled by the red-hot U.S. housing market. Loggers cut 4.45 billion board feet of timber, up from 4 billion board feet in 2003 and the most since 5.29 billion was cut in 1993, according to an annual report by the Oregon Department of Forestry. Small woodland owners in Western Oregon were responsible for a big chunk of the surge, cutting 478 million board feet in 2004, compared with 298 million the year before. "The log market was the best since the Japanese economy tumbled several years ago,'' said Dan Green, a consulting forester with Woodland Management in Lake Oswego. Green said sawmills paid $650 to $700 per thousand board feet for second-growth Douglas fir last year, the most in six or seven years. Among Oregon counties, Lane County led the way with 569 million board feet harvested, up 19% from 2003, according to the state report. Douglas County was second among Oregon counties with 496 million board feet. Most of the timber harvest came from private lands, but the percentage increase was higher in national forests managed by the U.S. Forest Service. The federal lands yielded 337 million board feet, up 66% from 203 million in 2003. Rex Holloway, Forest Service spokesman, said part of the increase was from timber freed by the resolution of lawsuits. The Forest Service has also emphasized thinning to reduce fire risk, and there was more fire-damaged timber to salvage east of the Cascades, Holloway said. Weyerhaeuser, Longview Fibre and other industrial tree farmers recorded only a slight increase in logging last year. They cut 3.03 billion board feet, a jump of less than 3% from 2003. The wood from industrial land was 68% of Oregon's harvest. Oregon's national forests, once a major source of timber, now contribute only 8% to the state's timber harvest.