Coos County’s commissioners and forester are worried the fast-dropping timber market may mean the county will have less money come spring.

The county gets money from annual timber sales off its 15,000-acre forest. With mills closing or cutting jobs due to a declining housing market, county officials are increasingly nervous about the 2009 sale.

County Forester Bob Laport is watching prices closely, but remains optimistic things could improve before he works up sale appraisals in January. He is planning five sales for next spring. The county cuts an average of 240 acres of timber each year.

“I haven’t said there isn’t going to be a sale,” Laport said.

Nevertheless, his research has been not encouraging.

“I see the market going in the tank,” he added.

The money goes into the forest fund, which is one of the county’s three main sources of income that include property taxes and federal timber payments. With the federal payments renewed for only four years and the amount declining each year, the new uncertainty in the timber industry is a cause for concern. If too many local log buyers shut down operations, that could have a long-term negative effect on competition for bids and push down revenues in the forest fund, Laport said.

“Trying to fund the county government on a commodity is difficult,” he said.

Losing out on a spring timber sale would mean the county will have fewer options for spending the first year’s timber payment out of the four Congress reauthorized in October.

Commissioner Nikki Whitty said the board won’t make any final decisions until commissioner-elect Bob Main takes office in January. She said the board may schedule meetings with the public to help prioritize where the money should be spent — or if some of it should be saved.

On Thursday, Main declined to comment on where he would like to see some of that money go, but has said in the past that law enforcement would be a high priority for him.

Federal and state budgets are predicted to shrink, too, which means less money will come to the county from those sources for other programs, Commissioner Kevin Stufflebean said.

“We could end up worse off than we were a year ago,” he said.

There was some good news earlier this year, though, as the last county timber sale brought in more money than expected.

Last spring’s sale had bidders offering prices upwards of $300 per thousand board feet for spruce and $400 per thousand for Douglas fir. Six bids brought in almost $4 million on 12 million board feet of timber. Prices then were down about $100 from the year before.

Based on recent responses Laport has gotten from timber buyers, he said prices could easily fall another $100 this year.

Laport is considering options to make next year’s timber sales more attractive. County sales will come with a two-and-a-half year term and flexibility in payment schedules. Those options allow logging companies to wait until market conditions improve. Flexibility to the bidders also provides the county with more fund income stability.

Laport said he hopes companies are looking to the future and take the chance on buying the timber, so they will have a steady log supply when it is more economical to harvest.

The other option is that if a sale doesn’t happen, the county can offer twice as much timber the following year, he said.

To smooth the impact market ups and downs have on the county’s general fund, the county created a system of withdrawing from the timber fund based on a five-year rolling average. Before that, money from each year’s sale went directly to the general fund. Now with a balance built up, the county still will be able to transfer money out of the fund even if there is a no-sale year. The board also could consider not taking the entire forest fund transfer if a 2009 sale doesn’t work out.

If prospects don’t look good come January, Laport would meet with the commissioners to recommend the county offer no sale, but he isn’t sure it will get to that point. He hopes national-level measures to improve the economy will help.

“I hope the current and coming administration causes optimism to rise and the economy to improve and make people feel good about buying our timber,” Laport said.