iqtion news

Western Building Material Association is holding a sales and marketing conference March 20 at the DoubleTree Suites Southcenter, Tukwila, Wa.

The day-long session will cover installation techniques and product knowledge for doors, moulding, trim/siding, decking, cedar products, insulation/housewrap, finish hardware, finishes, engineered products, and landscape/concrete products.

Lumber Association of California & Nevada is hosting its annual Legislative Day April 29 at the Hyatt Regency, Sacramento, Ca.

The program includes a lesson in legislative visits and will focus on some key issues pending such as the increasing cost of workers' comp, product liability, and lumber user fees.

Speakers include Senator Dennis Hollingsworth, Assemblyman Doug

LaMalfa, LACN lobbyists Denise Duncan and Deborah Mattos, Mattos & Associates, and Juli Broyles, California Chamber of Commerce. After lunch, members will storm the Capitol to visit with legislators.

Mountain States Lumber & Building Material Dealers Association is sponsoring golf tournaments June 5 at the Eagle/Isleta Golf Course, Albuquerque, N.M.; June 2l in Riverton, Wy., and Iily 2l ar rhe Ranch Golf Course, Westminster, Co.

Western Hardwood Association is staging its 48th annual meeting June 21-24 at the Sunriver Resort, Sunriver, Or.

The itinerary features business meetings, golf and other recreational activities, and speakers on trends, imports, exports, grading, and certification.

The D-l-Y Guide To Love

According to a new survey, slightly more than half of all couples (54Vo) who perform home improvement projects together. find the experience to be a positive one.

Taylor Nelson Sofres Intersearch polled 571 adults who were married or lived with a significant other.

Among those that enjoyed the d-i-y couple experience, 36Vo cited bonding as the main reason, while 28Vo of respondents were pleased because they worked well as a team.

As for complaints, 4l%o had nothing bad to say, whereas 22Vo of those dissatisfied with the experience, said their partner was "too bossy."

When it came to the hardware, men felt that they were the ones safely in control, with 777o claiming they are better at wielding a hammer, screwdriver (68Vo) and saw (847a). Only l4Vo of female d-i-yers felt that they were better than men with a hammer or a screwdriver.

Couples ranked lawn and garden projects as their preferred couple task (Sl%o). Painting and wallpapering was next (34Vo), followed by general fixups and repairs (3l%o), woodworking (177o), and upgrading flooring (lsEa).

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L-P Sells Plant To Roseburg

Louisiana-Pacific Corp., Portland, Or., has completed the sale of its Missoula, Mt., particleboard plant to Roseburg Forest Products, Roseburg, Or., for approximately $20 million.

"This sale puts this mill in the hands of a company focused on the particleboard business, allowing us to fully focus our attention and resources on our ongoing businesses," said L-P chairman and c.e.o. Mark A. Suwyn.

The proceeds from the sale will go towards reducing the company's debt.

The two companies have been working on the transaction since last year, when L-P put 13 mills up for sale. Due to depressed prices, the company pulled eight of the mills off the market in October and recently decided to keep its Tacoma, Wa., mill. L-P also is in "continued talks" with potential buyers of its facility in Saratoga, Wy., and just agreed to sell sawmills in Marianna and West Bay, Fl., to Grayson Lumber Corp., Grayson, AI.

Keith Brown Consolidates

Keith Brown Building Materials, Salem, Or., has closed its Woodlake, Ca.. vard and consolidated it into its

Dinuba, Ca., yard.

The new combined Dinuba location will be expanded to create a regional contractor center.

The move is modeled on the company's regional contractor center in Lindsay, Ca., which opened up last October and, according to comPany officials has been "an overwhelming success."

The Dinuba yard will have an expanded product line that will target both the professional contractor and the d-i-yer.

Former Woodlake mgr. Jeff Holmes will head the new Dinuba contractor center, with Kevin Sapien acting as assistant mgr.

New Pricing Not Random

Random Lengths will begin in April to report the prices of western spruce, pine and fir to reflect the mill price plus the lowest published rail freight rate to Chicago from Prince George, British Columbia.

The new policy will result in increases of $25 to $26 per thousand bd. ft. in the reported prices of lumber.

Random Lengths' Jon Anderson said the changes will better represent lumber market conditions.

"Chicago is the reference point, not only because the 'Merc' (Chicago Mercantile Exchange) is there, but also a lot of western Canadian lumber is consumed in or moves through the Midwest," said Anderson.

Montana Loses Another Mill

Trout Creek Lumber Co., ThomPson Falls. Mt.. closed at the end of February, putting 34 PeoPle out of work. At its peak in 1991, the mill employed 118.

According to Dick Vinson, who started the business in 1914 as Vinson Timber Products, the mill faced two problems. "One is the imports," he said. "And the other is there isn't enough timber for the head-rig capacity we have. We have everybody beating each other up for the same logs."

Last spring, Vinson invested about $400,000 in more efficient equipment, yet the mill still lost money. "We decided we had to restrict the bleeding and cut it off," he said.

For now, he'll retain the machinery. "We're not going to dismantle," Vinson said. "Millions of dollars have been spent putting together what's there. It's going to sit there intact, and we'll hope that things will change."

Kiwi Future For Redwood

A California timber company is now growing genetically engineered redwood seedlings to be planted and eventually cut for lumber.

Increasingly discouraged by regulation in California, Soper-Wheeler Co., Strawberry Valley, Ca., has decided the future of redwood limber is now in Oceania.

The company grows seedlings at a Humboldt County nursery and then ships the young trees to its 100,000acre tree farm on New Zealand's South Island.

The plantings will continue over the next 35 years, with the first trees cut and shipped to U.S. mills at the end of the cycle.

Because of genetically improved strains, it is expected that the New Zealand redwoods will be larger than California redwoods of the same age.

"Even if North Coast redwood productivity maintains the status quo, consumer demand over the next 40 years will outstrip available supply," said UC Berkeley professor William Libby. "New Zealand redwood could fill the gap."

Joining Soper-Wheeler in this new direction is Mendocino Redwood Co., Ukiah, Ca.

The two firms have joined forces to log and mill a 4-acre site in New Zealand that was planted with redwoods in a largely failed effort 70 years ago.

The New Zealand timber will be logged into rough boards and shipped to Mendocino's Ukiah mill for testing and processing this summer.

Chapter 11 For Silver Bay

The largest logging firm in southeast Alaska has filed for Chaoter I I bankruptcy.

Silver Bay Logging, Wrangell, cited depressed lumber prices and the high cost of obtaining logs from federal land for its troubles.

By filing, the company can reorganize without the threat of creditor lawsuits.

President Dick Buhler said the company will continue to run its Wrangell sawmill.

As part of efforts to pay off debt, the company has been selling off real estate holdings and equipment during the last l8 months.

Buhler said the company has enough assets to pay its debts, but the nation's sputtering economy has made liquidation a slow process.

DOMESTIC SALES:

Jerry Long, Michael Parrella, Bruce Keith, Janet Pimentel, Pete Ulloa, George Parden, Vince Galloway, Steve Batick.

INTERNATIONAL SALES: Nestor Pimentel. Oscar Portillo.

HOMETIME VOICE: Dean Johnson, host of the cable television home improvement show Hometime. is the new sookesoerson for Wolmanized oressure-treated wood oroducts. Johnson's photographs and comments will be incorporated into Wolmanized advertisements, literature and point-of-purchase materials.

Fatal Accident At Collins

A worker was killed Feb. 16 in an accident at Collins Pine Co.'s Chester. Ca.. sawmill.

Equipment operator Raymond Carl Leonard, 44, became entangled in the conveyor belt and was pronounced dead at the scene according to local police officials.

The Occupational Safety and Health Administration is investigating the accident.

New Alaska Timber Co-op

A new non-profit timber co-operative has been formed in Alaska to push for more access to federal timber lands.

Kenai Peninsula Timber Inc., Kenai, was formed in January, and has already elected officers and made the harvesting of beetle-killed spruce trees as one of its primary goals.

The co-op hopes to mill the dead trees into railroad ties and wood siding.

"We've got a lot of product that is going to waste that we can utilize," said president Tim O'Brien, a Nikiski, Ak., mill owner. "All the lumberyards will take anything we can offer."

The group also plans to encourage both state and federal officials to promote timber industry friendly policies.

In addition to harvesting beetle damaged trees, the group wants to create value-added products and streamline government agency contracts.

Members hope the co-op will be more successful than the one that folded in the region 12 years ago.

"We are trying to get all the old members and get new members as well," added O'Brien.

Heirs Settle With IRS

The estate of the founder of Pacific Coast Building Supply, Sacramento, Ca., has prevailed in a tax dispute with the Internal Revenue Service.

The estate of Pacific Coast founder Frederick E. Anderson, who died in 1991, wlll now pay the IRS $98,099 in additional taxes instead of the $907,500 the IRS had originally sought.

The agreement ended a 16-month dispute over the methodology used in appraising Anderson's share of company stock.