Millwork meet

Association

Las its annual

Custom Millwork - Patterns in Softwoods & Hardwoods - Custom Runs of Paint Grade

Poplar Mouldings a Specialty

Mouldings - Siding - Trim Pieces

Wholesale Lumber - Redwood - Uppers

Douelas Fir - Pine Hardwoods - Western Red Cedar

Boise Cascade Closes ldaho Mills

(Continued from page 19) and Idaho Falls, trucking operations, and RiverBend reman plant, and laminated beam plant in Emmett. The firm will also continue to manage the 196,000 acres of timberland it owns in southern Idaho.

With the closures, Boise Cascade's wood products operations in North America will consist of seven plywood plants, seven sawmills, three engineered wood plants, and an OSB plant. The company also owns and manages more than 2 million acres of timberland in the U.S.

Declining Timber Sales Suffocate ldaho Mills

According to Boise Cascade, the U.S. Forest Service manages 20.5 million acres in Idaho, which currently grow significantly more volume than is harvested. With more than 13.5 million of those acres. or 62Vo. in roadless and designated wilderness areas, public timberlands in southern Idaho require more intensive management to reduce the risk of wildfire and return them to health.

In the meantime, the federal government, which reportedly owns 66Vo of all land in ldaho, has been consistently and dramatically decreasing the volume of timber available for commercial harvest.

The Boise, Payette and Sawtooth National Forest management plans call for an annual sale of 172 million bd. ft. of timber; yet in 2000, only 16 million ft., or 9Vo of their plans, were offered for sale. Next year's projected volume available for sale in these national forests is 58 million ft. Using history as a guide, only a fraction of this estimated volume is expected to be put up for bid.

Of the 25.6 million bd. ft. proposed for sale in the Boise National Forest in 2001, 17.3'million ft. are under appeal by environmental groups. Of the 29.7 million bd. ft. proposed for sale in the Payette,5.l million ft. are