Rambler, Ryan and MNMike, these are all great comments.  I wish you all could have been quoted in the article.
The fact is, thanks to the 1972 Oregon Forest Practice Act, timber companies were forced to start carrying out adequate reforestation, which occurred massively in the 1970s and 80s.  resulting in all those 40ish year-old trees in "tree farms" covering the hills, and all those log trucks carrying 30 or so "P poles"  per load. 
So as you all note, the  workforce problems-- while severe-  now are mostly from automation, increased logging technology, log exports, depressed markets and Canadian imports.
Sure, we could lift a lot of environmental restrictions and for a short time have a bump in jobs and profits, but then when our last precious old-growth forests-- and some of our best fish runs-- are gone, we'd be back to normal......except all that  40ish year-old repro will be even bigger, further reducing  chances of any future log shortage.