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Sawmill Dismantled In ldaho

Crown Pacific, Portland Or., auctioned off equipment as part of the dismantling process at its Coeur d'Alene, Id., sawmill.

The auction at the 80-year-old mill drew close to 1,000 people who bid on chain saws, forklifts, grinders, hoists and other equipment during the twoday event.

The mill. which closed down on Oct. I l, was part of a Crown Pacific pull out of North Idaho that included the selling of its Bonners Ferry mill to Louisiana-Pacifi c this past summer.

"In a depressed economy, mills are under a lot of pressure to be profitable," said Crown Pacific spokesman John Mangan.

The 100-acre property on the banks of the Spokane River is listed at $6.5 million. Stimson Lumber Co., Portland, Or., has looked at the property, but is unlikely to buy, according to Stimson officials. It is expected that most of the land will end up as residential property.

Quolity Western Cedor Products

The mill was built in 1922 by the Ohio Match Co. and acquired by Crown Pacific in 1993.

Olympic Plywood Reductions

Simpson Timber Co., Shelton, Wa., eliminated 75 positions at Olympic Plywood, Shelton, last month due to poor market conditions.

According to v.p. and general mgr. John Walker, the Nov. 26 reduction was a result of "the economic downturn in our key building and industrial markets, which has accelerated significantly in the past two months."

These cutbacks comes on the heels of the recent closures of Simpson Timber's Sawmill #5 in Dayton, Wa., and Sawmill #3 in Shelton (see Nov., p. 28).

New Roles For NW Loggers

Unemployed Northwest loggers have been taking advantage of a program that gets them back in the mills and woods, albeit in a more "green" capacity, according to a local nonprofit group.

Portland, Or.-based Sustainable Northwest points to the March reopening of Joseph Timber Co.'s Joseph, Or., sawmill as one successful example of this new federally funded program.

The mill, which had been idle for six months, was refitted with new machinery to cut the thin, clustered trees that Forest Service officials often see as potential fire hazards. The timber from these new-growth trees has then been sold to a Bend. Or.. home developer under the label Healthy Forests, Healthy Communities. The mill now employs 47 people.

Unemployed woodsmen like 5l- year-old Del Stanley have also gone back to work-he now enforces the Endangered Species Act of 1973 by counting lynxes in the Oregon's Wallowa-Whitman National Forest.

The group admits, however, that "eco-friendly" jobs are not as well paying or as numerous as the timber

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Teaming For Grcen Honres

Lumbermen's Building CenGr, Bend, 0r.l.Joseph Timber Co., Enterprise., Or., and Built-e, Seattle, Wa., have begun collaboration on a program to devClop sustai*able home communi$edrrir-r il Oregon.

The first homes, to be built in Bend, Or., will utilize eco-friendly framing lumber and building materials.

fn" ftu*ing lumber will come jobs that were lost. from small :d-iarneter trees, which are haryeted.to.reduce f,re danger during forqsc,: ie$tqfdon,pojafi$1'.,,',, Access te..this kirdr of' ;tiirits$:f:.:ril,.rl allowed Jrxeph ?inrber Ca;,':tiii:lriii,,. 0pensix, s ago and hi$,brck laid-off wor.kers.

The logging economy of Wallowa County has never rebounded from legislation in 1993 that limited logging to protect the Chinook salmon. After the measure passed, three county mills shut down and unemployment rose to a high of l1%o-the highest in the state.

Oregmr Solutims is a collaborative pro-iect involving buisnesses, government, agaencies. :and nonprofit organizations:that:t$Fh$r!, qeqmmiS.developmenf, a*d:riiidt,,';,,' rcnnpntal protection.

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