Oregon operator resurrects mothbal led mills

fEFF Garver is a man with a misJ sion: to bring old mills back to life and to build new mills that will process what is often seen as waste.

"Our plan is to create small-scale mills where there is a need for ecological restoration of forests," said Garver, president and c.e.o. of Savannah Pacific Corp., Corvallis, Or. Three new and proposed projects in Oregon and Arizona illustrate the company's concept.

The first Oregon operation is in Molalla, on part of a 1l0-acre complex owned for 60 years by Avison Lumber Co. and sold to Floragon Forest Products in 1998. When Savannah Pacific arrived, two old sawmills on the site had been torn down and the beam plant was unused.

"We sold Savannah our slulam equipment and they leased the building for three years," said Howard Page, a Floragon partner and sales manager. Floragon had produced laminated stock for export to Japan, but closed the plant when business fell after Sept. I l, 2001.

The new operation's focus is 60ft.,4" x l2" laminated beams primarily used for garage door headers and roof supports. Glulam stock is the sort of value-added product, Garver said, that takes advantage of trees thinned from forests to protect them from fire, drought, and insects.

Ten employees opened the plant in Molalla, but the total should reach 25 when a swing shift is added this summer. "It could go up from there," predicted Garver, fueled by the highest level of housing construction in 2l years.

"Molalla is the first step in proving our concept can work at mothballed mills," Garver said. It also illustrates Savannah's philosophy of operating appropriately sized mills that are "scalable," he said, meaning they can "run efficiently and profitably in a single shift, but more shifts can be added as needed." APA-The Engineered Wood Association has certified the Molalla facility, which gets its raw materials from area sawmills.

A second mill, formerly owned by Kinzua Corp., will open this summer in Heppner, Or. The facility will use small-diameter ponderosa pine thinned from the surrounding area to make glue-laminated products. "Ecological restoration of overly dense forest is our goal," said Garver. "Thinning will make the forest more vigorous, and more drought and fire resistant."

In Arizona, Savannah hopes to open a new sawmill in Bellemont, just six miles from Flagstaff. Construction was expected to begin this summer, but has been pushed back at least a year.

Here, the focus will be using small-diameter trees thinned from public forests to reduce the risk of wildfires. The trees will be used to produce 2x4s, beams, and mulch.

"We've been working very hard at the sawmill configuration to make sure everything gets used," said Garver.

"We've had a lot of conversations with the Forest Service and everyone wants to get to the same place," said Garver, who formerly worked for the Forest Service in the Pacific Northwest. Public-private partnerships such as this will probably become even more common, he said, as the Forest Service looks for profitable uses for thinned trees and forest waste.

"This is part of the evolution of how to deal with the biomass issue," he said. Garver studied this problem when he was a member of the forestry faculty at Oregon State University, Corvallis. "One third of what's taken out of the woods won't be sawlogs," he told an Arizona group last year. "It will be biomass."

At completion, the new mill is expected to add up to 100 new jobs to lN department, beams the local economy and will indirectly create an additional 75 jobs through subcontracting work, according to Jeremy Christopher, director of business development with the Greater Flagstaff Economic Council. "We really hope it comes to fruition," he said.

The project has the support of U.S. Rep. Rick Renzi (R-Flagstaff), who sees the plant as an economic benefit to complying with the Healthy Forest Restoration Act. This landmark initiative, he said, empowers local experts to actively maintain national forests to reduce the risk of wildfires.

"These private projects in our forests mean more jobs," he said, "so we must encourage participation from the private sector." Renzi said his goal is to re-introduce a "sustainable and ecologically sensible timber industry" to rural Arizona.

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Califurnia Do-it Center opened its l1th store in March at a former Kmart in Moorpark,Ca. ...

Hardware Hawaii has acquired 7.3 acres in Kapolei, Hi., to build a new $12 million lumber DC and sales facility to replace its Kailua, Hi., operations ...

Deer Creek Lumber Co.. Rocklin, Ca., is winding down operations with the retirement of owners Pete and Gene Gieck ...

Cascade Home Center relocated its Creswell. Or.. location to a larger, 20,000-sq. ft. store with lumberyard; Gene Gilett, contractor sales mgr. ...

Supply Hardware, North Highlands and West Sacramento. Ca.. owner Tom Carpenter is opening 17,274-sq. ft. Rocklin Ace Hardware in September on 1.84 acres in Rocklin, Ca.

Ace Hardwcre owners Brent and Jody McKeever are seeking rezoning approval to build a larger replacement store in Wickenburg, 42....

Orchard Supply Hardware is seeking planning commission approval to build a 55,000-sq. ft. store in Vacaville, Ca.

Ace Hardware has been opened in Salt Lake City, Ut., by Hurst Co., St. George, Ut., which also owns stores in Cedar City and Heber City, Ut.

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84 Lumber Co. will open a 91,000-sq. ft. truss manufacturing and retail yard this summer on 20 acres in Post Falls, Id. ...

Grainger relocated its Glendale, Ca., branch to a larger facility in nearby Burbank, Ca. (Nicole Poe, branch mgr.), and opened a Grainger Express in the Wilshire district of Los Angeles

Rncor,t has opened building material re-use locations next to the Eagle County and Wolcott landfills in Wolcott, Co. ...

Lowe's opens new stores in the fall in Pocatello, Id., and Simi Valley, Ca. the chain is expanding installed sales services to include decking, water filtration, landscape lighting, siding and moulding...

Lowe 's has purchased 12.5 acres in Salt Lake City, Ut.; has applied to anchor a new retail center planned for Ontario, Ca.; expressed interest in a 135,000-sq. ft. building in Turlock, Ca., and won city council approval to build a 163,851-sq. ft. store on 14 acres in Redding, Ca. ...

Home Depot has begun construction on a former Big Kmart site in Seaside, Ca.; is seeking approval to build a 115,000-sq. ft. store in West Sacramento. Ca.. to open in January, and is reportedly considering a former Kmart building in Crescent City, Ca.

Home Depot is negotiating to build a store in Phoenix, Or.; is facing local opposition to its plan to open at a former Kmart in Sunland, Ca., and by 2007 wants to open a second store in Concord, Ca., on 14 acres next to an Orchard Supply Hardware

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Neiman Reed Lumber Co. completed a new 17,000-sq. ft. plywood warehouse and 28,000 sq. ft.

of new storage sheds at its Panorama City, Ca., yard ...

Adams Lumber opened a new 20,000-sq. ft. mill in Centralis, Wa., doubling capacity to a combined 55 million bd. ft.

J.E. Higgins Lumber Co., Livermore, Ca., is negotiating to lease 66,744 sq. ft. of industrial space in Santa Fe Springs, Ca., for a Golden State Flooring facility...

Yaknma Forest Products, White Swan. Wa.. added a new shift and five new dry kilns ...

TriStar Transload PNIV has begun construction on a new 12acre site at the Port of Vancouver, Wa., to replace its current 6-aqe facility; move-in will be early this summer, with phase two to include addition of a 15,000-sq. ft. storage building

Taylor Lumber's defunct sawmill in Sheridan, Or., caught fire March 19; equipment and everything else of value had been removed since Taylor went out of business in 2000 and sold property across the street to Pacific Wood Preserving, Bakersfield, Ca.

Fields Co., Tacoma, Wa., has agreed to be acquiredby GardnerGibson,Tampa, Fl.

Skeena Cellulose sold its mill in Terrace. B.C.. to Mo Takhar and John Ryan, contingent upon approval by the B.C. Supreme Court; the mill will be renamed Terrace Lumber Co....

Housing starts inFebruary (latest figures) rose 0.5Vo to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 2.2 million regionally, starts climbed 0.7Vo in the West

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