Western woods first.hand

Industry facts fight the enviros

E|OR DECADES, the markering of l' forest products has included tours of lumber mills and trips to the woods to view logging operations. Both the companies and the tree tourists benefit from the effort. The understanding and appreciation of the products produced and the required techniques of production help both parties.

In today's environmentally conscious wodd, these tours have taken on added importance as industry strives to tell its storv to as manv as possible.

A recent tour sponsored by the Western Wood Products Association is a good example. As part of its Western Wood Works environmental program, six editors from across the U.S., representing both trade and consumer magazines, recently received an intensive four-day crash course in forestry and lumber manufacturing.

After converging on Portland, Or., the editors, including one of our staffers, received an overview, the first of a series of inputs from experts in fields as diverse as forestry, biology and hydrology, plus equipment operators, saw filers, marketers, managers, professors, fire experts and others. All the people behind that miracle known as a 2x4.

By the tour's end, the consensus among the journalists was that the information had been pfesented in a calm, measured, thoughtful man- ner. The forest products indushy was indeed a responsible steward of its lands. Unlike the environmenhlists with their shrill rhetoric and casual disdain for facts, industry had backed up its assertions with careful science. Indeed, industry had effectively made its case of the need to manage the forests by science, not politics.

Leaving Portland, the group proceeded north to Shelton, Wa., to study the Simpson Timber Co. lands and mill operations. As was the case throughout the trip, experts from goverrrment, associations and area universities were present to verify industry claims and expand on mill and forestry topics, adding their considerable expertise.

At the end of a long frst day in the field, the editors heard after-dinner speakers Dr. Jim Agee and Dr. Chad Oliver, both professors, talk on the role of fue in forest management and various forest management options available to preserve, extend and utilize forests.

The following day was spent in the Gifford Pinchot National Forest in Randall, Wa. Named after the first head of the U.S. Forest Service. the lands have produced hundreds of millions of board feet of lumber over decades. Now, due to political pressures, the area is slated to harvest less than tjvo of the historic allowable cut, testimony to the effectiveness of the environmental lobby and Pres. Clinton' s forest management plans.

After a flight from the moistureladen woods of Western Washington to drier Eastern Washington, the group visited Vaagen Brothers Lum-

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A complete product line from one of the South's most modern mills

We pnoduce over 110 million board feet of pressrrre treat. ed products annually plus an additional 170 million board feet of untreated.

In all, hundreds of wood products...

INCLI.IDING:

Radius edge decking, treated plywood, dog eared fencing, lattice, mail box kits, deco-posts and hand rail, balusters, picnic tables, Gothic top fence posts, stair stringers, patio squares, bench supports for decks, French Gothic and C.othic 1x4 fencing in 4'and 6', landscape timbers.

PLUS: a complete line of Southern Pine dimension lumber in all three grades.

PLUS: enthusiastic service to back up our extensive line of quality products.

PLUS: a company fleet of 165 trucks for quick deliveries coastto-coast.