Forest Service Investigates Plum Creek Harvest

U.S. Forest Service officials are investigating allegations that Plum Creek Timber Co., Seattle, Wa., cut public trees in ldaho.

The allegations involve public land adjacent to Plum Creek's property in the Lolo Pass area of the Clearwater National Forest.

Government surveyors last fall discovered areas where it appeared that Plum Creek logging operations had moved onto federal land.

Forest Service special agent Roger Seewald said the extent of the alleged trespass will remain unknown until the snow melts.

"We have a minimum of a halfdozen sites where there appeared to be incursions onto National Forest land and timber (was) removed," said Seewald. "We could be talking 10 feet (over the property line) or we could be talking 100 feet."

Plum Creek's Denny Sigars said that incursions sometimes happen because of the difficult nature of locating property lines in mountainous areas. He emphasized, however, that Plum Creek has a policy of reporting itself if an illegal cut occurs.

Clearwater National Forest supervi- sor Larry Dawson said Plum Creek reported one trespass in the Lolo Pass region, when it built a short portion of a road on federal land.

Plum Creek owns 40,000 acres of forest land in ldaho, 215,000 acres in Washington, and 1.4 million acres in Montana.

Much of Plum Creek's land is interspersed with federal land in a checkerboard pattern that was created by the western land grants of 1864.

The law gave every other section of land to private railroads. Plum Creek traces much of its holdins to this former railroad property.

Eagle Creek Sale Canceled

After three years of bitter confrontation among environmentalists and timber companies, the United States Forest Service and Vanport Manufacturing, Boring, Or., have agreed to cancel the Eagle Creek Timber Sale in Oregon's Mount Hood National Forest.

The cancellation of the once-28million-bd. ft. contract was based on what U.S. Undersecretary of Agriculture Mark Rey called "scientific knowledse" that a cut would harm the environment.

Eagle Creek encompasses a region known as "Sunset Grove," where environmentalists have been sitting in I 50-ft. trees for the past three years.

Both the Forest Service and Vanport Manufacturing dismissed suggestions that environmental activism resulted in the cancellation ofthe sale.

Vanport president Adolf Hertrich said the decision was based on an independent review indicating a cut would harm the watershed that provides drinking water for Portland, Or.

"The cancellation is in the best interests of the Forest Service to do that," said Hertrich. "It's in the best interest of the forest."

Some industry observers speculated that Vanport's decision to go along with the cancellation may have more to do with slumping timber markets than environmental concern.

The Forest Service has offered to refund nearly $1.3 million in deposits, interest and other expenses that Vanport incurred as part of the timber contract.

Prior to the Eagle Creek cancellation, Vanport had already logged nearly 4OVo of the timber from the original contract.

Blue Lake Closes Sawmill

Blue Lake Forest Products. Arcata. Ca., permanently closed down its sawmill last month and put the company up for sale.

According to president and c.e.o. Bruce Taylor, the planer shut down April l3 and all remaining lumber was shipped out to customers toward the end of the month.

Taylor said the primary reason for the closure was the lack of log availability, stressing "there has been a virtual shutdown of the National Forests."

He added that the federal government has not delivered on the 1994 Northwest Forest Plan that thenPresident Clinton brokered between loggers and environmentalists, promising logging quotas for the industry.

"We also got hit bad when the Happy Thin Timber Sale fell through two years ago," noted Taylor.

Taylor said he is uncertain of Blue Lake's future as a company, but hopes an eventual buyer will restart the mill.

"We were one of the finest cutting mills in the Pacific Northwest and I know there is still a demand for what we did," said Taylor.

Distributors Buy CraftMaster

T.M Cobb Companies, Riverside, Ca., and Woodgrain Millwork, Fruitland, Id., have acquired CraftMaster Manufacturing Inc. and its assets.

CraftMaster manufactures CraftMaster door designs and MiraTec exterior composite trim from its

Pennsylvania facility.

"CraftMaster represents tremendous value and integrity in the building products market," said T.M. Cobb's Jeff Cobb, adding that the newly acquired company's well known brands will anchor it as a stand-alone company with its head- quarters remaining in Chicago, Il.

T.M. Cobb manufactures and distributes doors, windows and millwork products.

Woodgrain Millwork manufactures and distributes doors, vinyl and wood windows, finished and raw mouldings and millwork.

DOMESTIC SALES:

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

INTERNATIONAL SALES:

Nestor Pimentel, Oscar Portillo.