Today, U.S. Senator Tammy Baldwin applauded the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) announcement that $9.3 million in total will be disbursed in relief for Wisconsin’s timber harvesting and hauling businesses that have experienced losses due to COVID-19, through the USDA’s Pandemic Assistance for Timber Harvesters and Haulers program (PATHH). Senator Baldwin helped secure the critical assistance for the logging industry in last year’s bipartisan government funding legislation.
“Wisconsin’s timber industry provides good-paying jobs, supports our rural communities’ economies, and provides recreational opportunities that make the Wisconsin way of life a treasure of the nation,” said Senator Baldwin. “While COVID-19 continues to force lay-offs and slow business for our timber industry, I am proud to have helped get assistance out to our loggers and haulers, who are an essential workforce we will need to restore economic opportunities where they have been disrupted.”
Program Details
The PATHH program is administered by Farm Service Agency (FSA) in partnership with the U.S. Forest Service. Timber harvesting and hauling businesses that experienced a gross revenue loss of at least 10% during the period of Jan. 1 and Dec. 1, 2020, compared to the period of Jan. 1 and Dec. 1, 2019, were eligible to apply during the application period, which ran from July 22 – October 15, 2021. The Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2021 authorized up to $200 million for PATHH. FSA issued initial payments up to $2,000 as applications were approved. Now that signup has ended and FSA has evaluated the remaining funds, FSA has started to issue final payments to those applicants whose calculated payment amount was over $2,000. Payments are based on the applicant’s gross revenue received from Jan. 1, 2019, through Dec. 1, 2019, minus gross revenue received from Jan. 1, 2020, through Dec. 1, 2020, multiplied by 80%.
To be eligible for payments, individuals or legal entities must be a timber harvesting or timber hauling business where 50% or more of its gross revenue is derived from one or more of the following
· Cutting timber.
· Transporting timber.
· Processing of wood on-site on the forest land (chipping, grinding, converting to biochar, cutting to smaller lengths, etc.).
