Montana's Owens & Hurst Winds Down

Owens & Hurst Lumber. Eureka. Mt., will permanently shutter its sawmill May 31, unless a sale to a hardwood importer and manufacturer based in the East goes through.

Planer operations are scheduled to halt at the end of August, when all mill equipment will be auctioned off (see Feb., p.22).

Jim Hurst, co-owner and mill manager, said the sale "would be good for the community." In discussions with the possible buyer, however, he has been "brutally honest about the nature of the wood products business in the state of Montana."

Even if a buyer is found, Hurst intends to close the plant so workers can qualify for federal training and relocation benefits. "I am going to terminate all employees so if indeed there is a buyout, some employees can go their own way with these programs. Most people I talk to want to stay here," he said. "I think some of them want to be retrained and start a business here."

Importing enough wood to keep the mill working would be crucial to the sale, said Hurst. "We're always exporting something from this state," he said. "Here, you would be importing a raw material and doing something with it to export it out of state. That would be pretty novel for Montana."

Although competition from other countries has harmed business, he blames environmentalists and the "dysfunctional and leaderless" U.S. Forest Service for inadequate timber sales at the nearby Kootenai National Forest. "It used to be a good thing to be surrounded by national forest," said Hurst. "But not anymore."

When Hurst and a partner bought the mill 25 years ago, annual timber sales from Kootenai totaled close to 200 million bd. ft. The volume in recent years has fallen below 60 million bd. ft. and is mostly lower-quality dead wood. But the main problem, Hurst said, is how unpredictable the timber supply has become.

"They are entirely right," agreed Bob Castaneda, supervisor at Kootenai National Forest. "The ideal situation is for us to be able to provide a steady amount of timber. We can do our part on that, but if timber sales are held up