Mining and forestry began at almost the same time in Timmins. In the early days, the demand for lumber to build homes and commercial buildings paralleled the demand for timbers to shore up the hundreds of miles of drifts and shafts being created underground in the mines. As a consequence, large lumber interests quickly began to cut the trees needed for the growing demands of towns and mines. Life in the early bush camps consisted of long hours and hard work. Most of the cutting was done in the winter when men were housed in camps for several months. Cut logs were carried by sleds pulled by horses to nearby frozen lakes where they were stacked in long columns waiting for the coming spring and the floods to wash them down the rivers to the mills which lined the banks of the Mattagami River at the Timmins Townsite. There are many stories about the spring log drives that ended the cutting season.

Today the horses are long gone. Even chain saws invented in the 1940s are rarely used now for harvesting. Most of it is done using large mechanized equipment – feller-bunchers, grapple-skidders and delimbers. A lot fewer men and women are needed now to harvest large quantities of wood fibre that feed the mills. Those people who work for lumber companies now work in safer, climate controlled equipment, mechanized mills or in offices using modern computer technology.

Lumber production contributes to a strong business infrastructure in Timmins. It is economically important to the residents of Timmins and also contributes strongly to Canada's trade surplus as most of the lumber cut here is exported to other countries, mainly the United States. Lumber companies make large contributions to hospitals, commuity organizations, and environmental initiatives in Timmins, and have expressed interest in working with ecotourism values identified in the community.

Silviculture and reforestation is a major focus in forest management today. In order to make the harvesting of trees sustainable into the future, millions of trees are grown as seedlings and planted every year in the forests surrounding Timmins. Interesting tours to take in the Timmins area include local saw mills such as Tembec Industries Inc, Grant Forest Products and Domtar-McChesney as well as Millson Forestry Service for their silviculture work and the Abitibi Model Forest.