Producers celebrate siMer anniversary

AS IT has been 25 years since the Fl amalgamation of the Western Wood Products Association from two predecessor groups, the producers held their spring convention under a silver anniversary banner.

Instead of the usual mid-March dates, this year's gathering was held early, Feb. 21-24, which caused considerable industry comment and, some said, greatly reduced total lobby traffic. WWPA insisted that attendance was down only 60 from last year, to ll41 total registrations including spouses and WWPA staff. The higher number of spouses present was said to account for the vacant spaces in the usually jammed lobby where so much of the convention takes place.

The early dates were due to IBM inducing the St. Francis Hotel to move the lumbermen forward on the calendar to accommodate the computer makers. WWPA spokesmen said the change included "some financial considerations" including better hotel room rates and even a complimentary bottle of wine for hotel guests. Next spring's convention meeting dates are early again: Feb. 27-Mar.2,1990. The fall meeting will be held at the Westin La Paloma in Tucson, Az., Sept. 9-12.

The shortage of logs to supply members' lumber mills was a frequent topic of conversation as lumbermen went through their annual ritual of pulse checking. Some felt prices would remain fairly good this year as slackening demand was being offset by a constrained supply of lumber. While mills in the past have sometimes been accused by their customers of crying wolf on log shortages, the widely held consensus this year was that the log shortage was all too real.

A luncheon held Thursday, Feb. 23, was briefly marred by a demonstration by three women and a man from Earth First!, the radical environmentalist organization. One of the women, dressed as a tree and wearing a gas mask, kept saying, "think what you're doing!" WWPA staffers quickly shooed out the protestors. Many at the luncheon were unaware of the hubbub.

Eleven of-WWPA's l6 past chairmen were at the big head table during the anniversary luncheon. These included L. L. "Stub" Stewart, Roy Utke, John Hampton, Bob Higgins, Vern Gurnsey, Bob DeArmond, Mickey Whiting, John Casey, Bill Whelan, Ira Liberman and Dick Parrish. Bill Swindells, unable to attend the luncheon, did participate later in other activities.

Story at a Glance

Held early, WWPA spring meeting attendance was otf only slightly. log shortages domF nate talk. lumber consumption is forecast to be down, as are single family housing starts repair & remodeling will be off 3.5"/".

In his annual forecast, H. A. "Bob" Roberts, WWPA president, said lumber consumption should exceed 45 billion board feet, down from the last two years. Nevertheless, he described it as a "good" demand level.

He warned that 1987 and 1988 lumber statistics represent "a premonition for the future, or at least 1989."

Noting that 1987 was a record high year for U.S. lumber consumption, he said the 1988 decrease of almost 60lo was not equally shared among the several North American producing regions serving the U.S. market.

"Especially hard hit were the coastal areas of Oregon and Washington, where shipments in 1988 declined l2o/o from 1987almost twice the amount of the national falloffin consumption and during a period of good export demand," Roberts said.

The Inland West, he said, was off but 4o/o in 1988 compared to the 5.90lo drop in national consumption. Canadian shipments into the U.S. were down by 4.60/o, but shipments from Southern U.S. mills ended the year actually 1.50/o higher, "making up for a large amount of the fall-off that occurred in the coastal region."

"lf it were not for pressures on log supplies, we would expect the Coast to produce 9.5 billion board feet in 1989, instead of the 8.7 billion feet we project. Combined, (in 1989) we expect the Coast and Inland areas to be down l3olo from shipment levels of 1987."

Roberts said 1989's total U.S. consumption level is based upon a housing start prediction of 1.4 million units, that should use a total of 15.6 billion board feet - 35% of domestic consumption. He pointed out that though multi-family housing units are expected to increase slightly, single family starts should decline slightly in 1989.

The repair/remodel market, the fastest-growing of the nation's lumber-using markets, is also forecast to decline in 1989 by 3.5%. However, he said, this segment still is expected to take about 3l% of the market.

"Lumber exports should remain high throughout 1989," he said, "probably reaching a total of three billion board feet again."

The spring meeting in San Francisco. Ca.. has been a tradition with WWPA and its predecessor groups since the early 1920s.

(ll Gene & Virginia Walters. l2l Dick Jackson, Mike Edgar. [3] The Acevedo lamily: Victor, Bicardo, Manuel,0scar, Jr. and 0scar, Sr. lll Roy Liles. lSf Mike Lewis, Ted Gilbert, Pete Kepon. 16l Fran Snelling, Tom Malarkey, Linda Kemppe. l7l Tod Holmes, Jim Lewman. l8l Rosemary & John Pein. l9l Thomas Rice, Wilma & Ken Lott, Emil Romero. (l0l Jim

Murray, Milan Stoyanov. ll ll Sharleen & Dick Scheuble. ll2l Fred Turkheimer, Tim Tanner. llSl Bernie Tomasko, Earl Moore. ll4l Jeff Fantozzi, Tom Malarkey. llSl Nick Kent, Harry Lyons. ll6l Mike 0'Bryan, Joe Greene. Il7l Cam & Jeff Barnes. llSl Jim Stuckey, Miriam Herden, Jim Epperson, Les & Marianne LeGaux. ll91 Oan Keoon, Dave

Winkle, Del Cole. 120l Ricardo Acevedo, Manuel Acevedo. 12ll James Scott. (221 Barry Schneider, Shirley & Mike Young. (231 Barry Wadlow, Don Porter. 124l' Sherry Gaylor, Duncan Hossack, Steve Killgore. (251 Keith Kersell. Len Viale. Karl Drexel. (l'leasc turn to page 70)