fl I- ItOf

brand

Big Harvest For Fencing Maker

R- Sun Bernardino, Ca., manufacturer of plastic-coated wooden fencing, decking and play sets has found a silver lining after the wildfires that hit the region late last year.

Woodguard, which traditionally procured its lumber from the sawmills in the Northwest, in mid-May set up a "micro-mill" to process bark beetle-decimated trees harvested from the San Bernardino Mountains.

The cost was $800,000 to $900,000 in the mill-and retraining most of its 58 employees, but now 807o of its wood comes from the acres of dead trees salvaged to lessen the threat of fire to mountain towns.

Woodguard's new milling division, San Bernardino Reclamation Co., processes about 50 trees a day and is bringing on line a new mill in Lake Arrowhead to process 250 trees a day. It will also be able to square off round logs in one pass through a machine.

Production should increase from 20,000 bd. ft. to 100,000 bd. ft. a day-still a fraction of that produced by larger facilities to the north. "We get the highest utilization for the value of the lumber," said president Don Kain.

In addition, Woodguard's plastic coating process covers any unsightly blue stain the dead trees had from the onset of decay.

Hoff Acquires Door Distributors

Hoff Cos., Inc., Meridian, Id., has purchased certain assets of Door Distributors of Oregon.

Operating as Door Supply, Boise, Id.' Door Distributors wholesales interior and exterior doors to dealers in the Boise and sunounding market.

Products will be distributed to existing dealers that will pre-hang the doors to sell to residential contractors' Hoff's existing distribution division, Trimco Millwork' wholesales from mouldings, cabinets, decking. exterior doors and other specialty products, and facilities in Boise, Salt Lake City, Ut., and Denver, Co. Hoff's Western Windows manufactures vinyl windows in Nampa, Id.

Alaska Raises Timber Quota

The Alaska Division of Forestry, acting on a push from Gov. Frank Murkowski, plans to offer approximately l6 million bd. ft. of timber from state land this year, doubling the amount harvested last Year.

The timber is set to be processed by Alaska's three largest sawmills: Pacific Log & Lumber, Ketchikan; Silver Bay Logging, Wrangell, and Viking Lumber, Klawock. in addition, the Division of Forestry is asking timber owner the Alaska Mental Health Trust Authority to support local mills. "The state will do what it takes to help keep this industry alive," Murkowski said.

While many timber operators are happy Murkowski is utilizing Pacific Log & Lumber, Silver Bay, and Viking' some smaller operators want to be included as well' Logger Ernie Eads said he can't get enough timber to run a iiwmill he bought a few years ago, and it will only get harder with the new timber sales being geared toward his competitors.

Many mill owners and Alaska politicians, including Murkowski, believe environmental lawsuits have hampered the Forest Service's ability to offer old-growth timber for logging from Southeast's 17-million-acre Tongass National Forest. The federal agency has acknowledged that delays caused bv litieation have stalled a reliable timber supply'

Cascade Buys Glulam Plant

Simson Lumber Co., Portland, Or., has sold its laminated beam plant in Chehalis, Wa., to newly formed Cascade Structural Laminators.

Cascade owners Andy Storment and Steve Killgore of McKenzie Forest Products, Springfield, Or., bought the glulam plant for an undisclosed amount.

"We are excited about the prospects of this venture," said Killgore. "The crew and facility have a great reputation for quality and we hope to build on that from the sales and marketing perspective."

McKenzie will house the sales and administrative functions, with Jim Weber as sales manager.

Jim Sloan will serve as general manager.

Potlatch Selling OSB Mills

Ainsworth Lumber Co.. Vancouver, B.C., will soon gain three more OSB plants. The company agreed to purchase the facilities and a I 2megawatt congeneration plant from Potlatch Corp., Spokane, Wa., for $457.5 million.

The acquisition would bring

Ainsworth's annual OSB capacity to 3.3 billion sq. ft.

The plants, located in Grand Rapids, Bemidji and Cook, Mn., and associated assets are book valued at $180 million.

"This acquisition will significantly enhance our geographic balance, flexibility and product diversity," said Ainsworth chairman and c.e.o. Brian Ainsworth. "The proximity of the Potlatch mills to each other and to our facility in Barwick, Ontario, will enable us to access new markets, optimize our overall efficiency and provide excellent service and flexibility to our customers."

He continued, "As with our purchase of Voyageur Panel earlier this year, this acquisition offers significant cost savings versus the alternative of new, greenfield construction and enables us to benefit from the current price environment."

Potlatch had not considered selling the plants until Ainsworth's offer. Ainsworth's large and geographically diverse market, and ability to grow made the offer attractive to Potlatch. The Bemidji mill will continue to be owned and operated under Potlatch.

"Our oriented strand board busi- ness has been very profitable in the last l8 months and contributed greatly to Porlarch's profitability during that period," said L. Pendleton Siegel, chairman and c.e.o. of Potlatch.

Although Potlatch sold its paPer mills in Brainerd and Cloquet, Mn., two years ago, and has sold some tracts of forestland, the company still plans on remaining in Minnesota.

The transaction is exPected to close this month.

Depot To Get Fewer Kmarts

Kmart has decided to reduce the number of stores it's selling to Home Depot. Depot originally agreed to purchase 24 stores for $365 million. Now it will acquire I 8 stores for $271 million.

According to Kmart, the change came about because "certain closing conditions were not satisfied."

Kmart has already sold four stores to Depot for $59 million, and was to complete the sale of another nine stores in August.

Among the acquired Kmarts are stores in Huntington Beach, Orange, Seaside and Thousand Oaks, Ca., and Temoe. Az.