NEWS BRIBFS

Orchard Supply Hardware expects to open a new 31,240 sq. ft. unit with 7,160 sq. ft. nursery in lVlanteca, Ca., next fall, one of 8 stores planned Builders Emporium openedits 109th store in Yucca Valley,Ca....

Home Depolplans 10to l2stores in the Puget Sound, Wa., area in the next four years with Seattle and Tacoma sites underway . Eagle Hardware & Garden opened a Tukwila, Wa., unit with Rainier Valley, Bellevue and Bremerton, Wa., stores next HomeClub anticipates openings in Bellingham, Lacey and Silverdale, Wa., in the spring of '93. .

Anderson Lumber locations in Pocatello, Blackfoot, Rupert, Ketchum and Rexburg, Id., completed remodels with Twin Falls and Idaho Falls, Id., rehabs due this year .

R. Gray's Bargain Yard opened inSouthBeach,Or. Colusa Lumber Co., Colusa, Ca., received a $t25,OOO state Community DevelopmentBlockGrant

Tenthstreet

Golden Rule Lumber Yard, Saint Maries, Id., wasnamedDealerof the Year by Jensen-Byrd Co., Spokane, Wa....

Yaeger & Kirk, Ukiah, Ca., reported $ 100,000 damage from a fire that destroyed a storage building, but spared the retail store and a lumberstorageshed HomeClub, Inc. awarded a $ l2 million broadcast advertising account to Larsen Colby, Los Angeles, Ca.

Rocky Mountain Forest Products C o rp., Laramie, Wy ., acquhed Westpac Moulding Co., Clifton, Tx., (see story p. 31).. Roseburg Forest Products, Roseburg, Or., is now producing sanded plywood . .

Shasta Cascade Forest Products is a new Redding, Ca., wholesaler opened by Walt Schneider TriRail Distribution Services, Mira Loma, Ca., is a new warehouse and distribution firm established by Lance Cansdale, general mgr., in association with Great Western Transportation, Inc., Riverside, Ca....

Louis ia na- P ac ific C o rp. expects to begin production at its new Nature Guard cellulose insulation plant in Mira Mesa (San Diego), Ci., in late Feb. or early March . . Tucker Housewares expanded its Kingman, f.2., mfg. facility by t57,OO0 sq. tt....

Leeco Mouldings and Lurnber of New Zealandhas a new distribution and inventory program in Ca., headed by Clint Bower, Corona Del Mar, Ca. .. Pacific Forest Products, Fresno, Ca., recently opened a Phoenix, Az., wholesale distribution yard, Duncan Hossack, mgr.

P r o gressive Wo od P roducls relocated to Cortez Industrial Park. Cortez, Co... .ACH Wholesale, Albuquerque, N.M., a div. of ,4. C. Houston Luntber, Wichita, Ks., was opened by Bob Moore.

Bohemia, Inc., Eugene, Or., closed Drain and Gardiner, 0r., mills . Mountain Fir LumberCo., Salem, Or., will iiquidate on May 31, closing the Maupin, Or., mill by the end of March, Independence, Or., mid May, The Dalles, Lewiston, Id., and Clarkston, Wa., May 31 becauseofthelackofloes Aetna Lumber Co., Van Nuys,ta., is liquidating under Chapter 7 bankruptcy.

MWP lrtc. is a new wholesale export hading co. started in Redmond, Wa., by Mark Peters . Ed Feduniw, H&M Wholesale Lumber, 1nc., Etiwanda, Ca., sold the co.'s property to Rancho Cucamonga Redevelopment Agency; the corp. is now intact but inactive.

T w o F le tc he r C ha lle n g e mills and associated timber rights (Hammo nd, Maple Ridg e,B.C., and Frase r Mill, Coquitlam, B.C.) were soldto Inter* for, Yancouver, B.C., for $76 million.

Weber Plywood,TusIin, Ca., had about $35,000 in damages when a fire started by a defective truck battery spread to plywood stored nearby.

Kitchen Cabinet Manufacturers Ass o c iationexpects a 49 million unit demand this year . Oregon Land Coalition groups rallied in Portland, Or., Jan. 8 for the God Squadhear ings, a landmark test of the Endangered Species Act

Anniversaries : Thunde rb o lt Wo o d Treating, Riverbank, Ca., l5th; Meyer Moulding & Millwork, Modesto, Ca., lst

Union Pacific Railroad and MidAme r ic a Inte rm o dal, Inc. have a new shipping flatbed service operation suitable for I umber that they say will be priced at rates below over-theroad truck service.

Federal courts upheld a threestate ban on logging in national forests inhabited by the northern spotted owl and ordered the US Forest Service to ptepare a forest management plan to preserve the bird

Timbe r P roducts C o.,Springfi eld, Or., and Sierra Pacific Industries, Redding, Ca., acquired Bohemia Inc.'s medium density fiberboard plant in Rocklin, Ca., renaming it SierraPineLtd....

The European Community extended its exemption of the ban on importation of green lumber from North America through the end of 1992, allowing U.S. green sofrwood shipments to continue wh ile pasteurization procedures are finalized

Housing sfarls in Nov. (latest figs.) were down 2.lVo ta an annually adjusted rate of 1.066 million, guaranteeing the 1991 total would be the lowest since World War II single family starts stalled at the Oct. level; multifamily fell I2.l%, building permits 2.9%

From Russia With Logs

Hopes of ending the Northem California log shortage by importing raw larch timber from Siberia were dashed when the U.S. Dept. of Agriculture announced the wood could harbor more than 100 organisms not native to the United States and a Forest Service review team counted 36 pests including various bark beetles, ambrosia beetles and wood borers.

Louisiana-Pacific and Schmidbauer Lumber Co. have been working for more than two years to clear regulatory hurdles on the importation. Reportedly, they are now studying solutions such as fumigation of the wood at facilities in Siberia or on the high seas.

Siberia has untapped forests that would cover the continental U.S., according to Bob Morris, L-P's former chief resource manager, who is working with a Soviet trade expert on the project. A test shipment two years ago showed that larch is comparable to high grade Douglas fir. Because of the cost, the wood probably will have to be turned into high grade wood products for the high-end market. Although independent mill owners are thought to be the ones who would benefit the most, Georgia-Pacific and Willamette Industries have also shown interest in tapping the Siberian source.

Siberian timber mills are unable to meet today's lumberstandards and have no money to modemize, but their long term goal is to log and mill their timber and sell finished products abroad, Morris reported.

Furniture Wood Trends Report

Late 1991 fumiture market studies found geographical differences less apparent and traditional themes more dominant.

Oaks, including white and red, were leaders. Cherry was the second most favored wood, followed by pine and mahogany. Close grain woods (alder, birch and maple) were more widely used in the west and midwest (Dallas) markets with walnut, pecan-hickory, burls and other woods predominant in the eastern market.

Tabulations were made by Northwest Hardwoods, Portland, Or., a division of Weyerhaeuser Co., and the Fine Hardwood Association. "After 15 years, we can rely on the comprehensive study which has detected past trends," Arnold B. Curtis, presidentof theWeyerhaeuser division, said.

Whatever happe edto...?

By Matt Moulder

Whatever happened to Doug David? A call to David's Portland, Or., office revealed he is retired from the lumber business, but it hardly sounds as though he is retired from business. Doug lives in Portland and has a second home in Eastern Oregon, just across the border from his extensive cattle operations in ldaho. David continues to be an investor in timber and real estate, but cattle raising and cattle breeding gets the bulk of his attention.

In 1936 Doug David left his Tennessee home on the day he graduated from high school and boarded a train bound for Portland, Or., with little more than pocket change to his name. Twelve years later, with five thousand dollars capital and an equal amount from his former employer, Herman Tenzler, North Pacific Lumber Co. was formed. ln 1977, David bought his partner out for $8,000,000.

A few years later North Pacific was rated by Oregon Business magazine as the largest privately held company in Oregon. North Pacific's sawmills in Washington and Mississippi were sold in 1982 and 1986 respectively. Then in 1987 the wholesale company was sold to a group of employees and operations are continuing under the North Pacific name.

Doug had a major physical setback through 1 989 and into 1 990 which resulted in the amputation of his leg among other debilitating factors. This has slowed him down somewhat, to be sure, but he still goes to the office every day to enjoy his "retirement."

Owl Droppings

Lumbermen aren't the only ones suffering from problems imposed by the endangered species act. Water distribution in California is under siege by environmentalists due to a tiny fish called the Delta Smelt. Land developers are running into problems keeping them from utilizing land that they have bought and paid for. In the case of developers it is not only animals that they have to contend with, but flowers as well. Recently a housing development was stalled in Santa Rosa, Ca., due to the discovery of three tiny wildflowers species on the property to be developed. The Sebastopol Meadowfoam, Sonoma Sunshine, and Burke's Coldfields are flowers that grow in vernal pools, shallow depressions that hold water in winter and spring but dry up in the summer, and these flowers are on the endangered species list. A spokesman for the Northern California Building Industry Association stated in connection with the problem: "lt makes me wonder who's the endangered species here, the plants or the first time homebuyer." Does this have a familiar ring to it?

As of July,'l 99 1, 1 1,325 Oregon sawmill workers and loggers had been put out of a job by the Endangered Species Act and court imposed restrictions on logging. Add to this job losses in the rest of the West and the figure has to be well over 20,000 people that have been put out ofwork because offederal timber not being made available. The projected figure for federal timber under contract in 1992 is less than one billion board feet, compared to 3.5 billion this year. In the face of this, believe it or not, the U.S. Senate and House approved the financing oI a $2.9 million study on finding "New Uses for Wood."

Manufacturers: Ponderosa & Sugar Pine Mouldings and Cutstock

By Oder ol Secured hrty