Weyerhaeuser Buying MacMillan Bloedel

Weyerhaeuser Co., Federal Way, Wa., has agreed to acquire fellow forest products giant MacMillan Bloedel Ltd., Vancouver, B.C., in a stock transaction worth approximately $2.45 billion.

Once the transaction is completed, Weyerhaeuser would boast annual sales of approximately $13.3 billion and a market capitalization of about $16.5 billion.

The deal would make Weyerhaeuser a leading packaging producer, in addition to its current standing as the world's largest producer of softwood lumber and market pulp and second largest maker of OSB.

The deal, expected to close this fall, was unanimously approved by both companies' boards, but awaits regulatory approvals in the U.S. and Canada, court approval in Canada, and a favorable vote by MB shareholders.

MB holds 6.9 million acres of timberlands, three containerboard mills, three OSB plants, three plywood plants, l0 sawmills, 3l distribution centers, and a 497o stake in Trus Joist MacMillan.

Weyerhaeuser estimates the merger will provide $150 million in annual benefits through savings in transportation and distribution, improving purchasing practices, increasing the balance in its manufacturing system, and streamlining operations.

Owl Defenders Call For Ban

Claiming the six-year-old Northwest Timber Plan is inadequately protecting the northern spotted owl, preservationist groups are calling for a moratorium on all logging on24.4 million acres in California, Oregon and Washington.

Following the release of a U.S. Forest Service report that estimates the owl population, now estimated at 8,000 pair, is declining 3.9Vo annually, the John Muir Project and the Native Forest Council have asked Seattle federal district court judge William Dwyer to issue a temporary injunction against logging until further research is done into the birds' disappearance.

They allege that the Clinton adminstration's timber plan is failing since the declines are quadruple the l%o rate predicted by the administration.

The Forest Service and the timber industry, though, argue that the figure-nearly half the rate of the early 1990s-shows that the plan is working and the species is on its way to recovery. "What we see now is that the rate of decline is dropping," said Forest Service spokesman Rex Holloway. "We cannot expect overnight results. This is a long-term plan, and to make a difference, it is going to take some time."

The plan has already put l0 million acres pennanently off limits to logging as spotted owl habitat and reduced timber harvests on the federallandto20Eo of their 1980 levels.

WWPA Taps New President

Western Wood Products Association has enlisted as its new president Michael R. O'Halloran, 26-year veteran of APA-The Engineered Wood Association.

He succeeds Walter M. Wirfs, who left WWPA to join Louisiana-Pacific. O'Halloran, who holds a doctorate in wood engineering and is a past president of the Forest Products Society, has served as APA s technical services division director since 1992.