GEORGIA …Timber growers across the U.S. South, where much of the nation’s logs are harvested, have gained nothing from the run-up in prices for finished lumber. It is the region’s saw mills, including many that have been bought up by Canadian firms, that are harvesting the profits. …The problem for timber growers is that so many trees have been planted between the Carolinas and Texas that mills are paying the lowest prices in decades for logs. The log-lumber divergence has been painful for thousands of Southerners who are counting on pine trees for income and as a way to hold on to family land. …West Fraser and Canfor had already begun buying Southern mills in the years leading up to the crash. …The lumber companies also have paid billions of dollars in duties on boards sold across the U.S. border… “So the logical solution was for them to jump the tariff wall and invest in the U.S.” [We respect the copyrights of the source publication – full access may require a subscription]