Hurricane Rita downed or damaged 1.6 billion board feet of timber, according to the Louisiana Department of Agriculture and Forestry.

"In the matter of a few hours, Hurricane Rita uprooted, twisted (and) laid on the ground the same amount of timber that we harvest in Louisiana in a year," C.A. "Buck" Vandersteen said.

While there was heavy damage to the southwest part of the state, Central Louisiana escaped serious damage, for the most part, said Vandersteen, executive director of the Louisiana Forestry Association which is based in Alexandria.

He said the big losers will be the landowners whose trees were damaged by Rita.

"We will salvage as much as we can, but much of it will remain on the ground," he said, estimating the storm-damaged timber lost half its value.

"The hardest thing that a forester will see is their timber on Sept. 23 was worth $400 per 1,000 board feet; on Sept. 25, the same trees were worth half that," he said.

In addition to monetary losses, he said, the trees left on the ground will become havens for insects and hazards for possible wildfires.

"It will be a dangerous forest," he said.

Most of the timber that was heavily damaged was in southwestern Louisiana where Rita hit the hardest.

Vandersteen said wood-products companies that depend on that area will have problems getting supplies five years from now.

"The good news is there is a coordinated effort under way to salvage as much as we can. We've asked local mills, if they can, to convince farmers to hold up harvest of live green trees as much as they can and use as much salvage as they can," he said.

The advice is good for tree farmers because timber prices are down now, he said, and saving live trees for later harvest offers a possibility of higher prices later.

Area wood-products plants were able to resume business shortly after the storm passed.

"It didn't cause any raw materials inventory slowdown at any of the plants," said Mickey Rachal, vice president in charge of forestry for Roy O. Martin Lumber Co.

However, "plants did have to shut down due to lack of power," Rachal said.

Martco operates a plywood plant in Chopin, a pole-treatment plant in Pineville and an oriented strand board plant in St. Landry Parish.

The pole-treatment plant has "probably been our biggest affected plant, not so much due to the weather but the huge demand is so great," he said.

The demand comes from the power companies needing replacements for utility poles that were snapped in pieces by hurricane winds, he said.

For the first time, the company is seeking to purchase timber from state and federal forests, he said.

"If we had adequate materials, we could have put on another shift," he said.

The Pineville plant has been running two shifts and has inventory for three days, he said.

Neill O'Quinn, plant manager for the Boise Cascade Engineered Wood Products plant at Boyce, said, "We were just down for Saturday and Sunday" (Sept. 24 and 25) because of Rita.

The two-day closure was to protect employees and to allow them to take care of their affairs, O'Quinn said, adding, "We were back at full production on Monday."

He said the plant had stockpiled materials in anticipation of the normal slowdown that occurs about this time of year.

Raw wood materials for making laminated veneer lumber come from other Boise plants, he said.

"We got with our glue manufacturers and our fuel suppliers" to increase deliveries, he said.

Brad Anthony, owner of S&B Sawmill in Hineston, said he noticed a slowdown in wood deliveries, but nothing serious.

"It (Rita) kind of slowed my sales down for a couple of weeks," Anthony said. "The company where I sell my lumber is in Texas."

The sawmill turns out 40,000 board feet of lumber daily, he said, adding sales consist of cross ties for railroads and lumber for a pallet maker in Texas.

A spokesman for International Paper said the plant is experiencing no problems, and operations are normal.

International Paper produces liner board from which corrugated cardboard boxes are made.

Paper is just one of the various wood products made in Central Louisiana, according to the Forestry Association.

Janet Tompkins, spokeswoman for the Louisiana Forestry Association, said timber is used is this area to make paper, lumber, oriented strand board, liner board, newsprint, plywood and engineered wood products.

Lumber is "going to be the first thing" made from salvaged downed timber because it has the highest value, Tompkins said.