North Country's Forest Products Industry Adapts to a Changing Market

Forest products companies operating in and around Berlin say the industry that once defined the North Country's economy has undergone a quiet but significant transformation over the past decade, shifting away from traditional paper production toward biomass energy, engineered wood products, and specialty pulp used in packaging rather than newsprint.

Mill operators describe the transition as necessary rather than chosen, driven by a long-term decline in demand for the paper products that once anchored the regional economy. The companies that have survived, they say, are largely the ones that diversified their product lines early rather than waiting for market conditions to force the change.

Loggers and truckers who supply raw material to the mills say the shift has been felt throughout the regional supply chain, with contracts increasingly tied to biomass facilities rather than traditional pulp mills. Regional economic development officials describe the forest products sector as stabilizing after years of contraction, though it now supports meaningfully fewer jobs than it did at its historical peak.