snip
"When you look at actual individuals, you see that people were
affected," Helvoigt said. "When you look at the averages, you miss the
impacts on individuals."

COMMENT BY POSTER: At least some of those loggers have gone on to look
for mushrooms, which began booming as logging declined. In 1993 at the
height of the matsutake harvest, pickers were making up to $750/lb.
for a short time, and many made $400-500/lb during that particular
season. I have heard of individual pickers who stepped out of line to
sell their mushrooms, ducked behind a telephone pole next to the road,
and came back with enough another $2000 worth of matsus.

My brother must have been one of the lucky wood products workers,
since he went back to school and is now working for Intel as an
electrician at a considerably higher rate of pay.

In washington many of the timber workers who were retrained had to
leave. There just wasn't that good a market for 5000 new locksmiths.
I've known several old assocates who've been retrained mutltiple times
and finally got on disability. There still isn't adequate work for
middle aged and older males in the small timber towns. The new motels
and shops were all gotten by newcomers or those habitually close to the
feed trough.