Home 
News Local News Boise manager says LG sawmill at risk
Boise manager says LG sawmill at risk
|
 Rep. Greg Walden During a meeting in La Grande, Tom Insko related how a lack of federal timber sales is compounding trouble caused by poor market conditions. He said Union County mills are having to go as far away as Idaho to procure timber. “I’ve talked before about a train wreck caused by a lack of timber availability,” Insko said. “When we don’t get a sale off the Iron Triangle (Northeast Oregon) in 25 months and we’re dealing with five-dollar-a-gallon diesel prices, it doesn’t work.” In early August, Boise announced it was curtailing a shift at its La Grande sawmill, and laying off 30 workers at the Island City particleboard plant. In all, nearly 100 workers are affected by the most recent round of cutbacks. Insko told Walden, R-Ore., the trend may continue for Boise, which operates mills in La Grande, Island City and Elgin and is Union County’s largest private employer. “There’s no question the La Grande sawmill is at risk, and as soon as that happens, the particleboard plant goes,” he said. “I don’t want to create a panic. We do have a future, but it’s getting more and more difficult.” Walden was in La Grande as part of a four-day trek through the 2nd Congressional District. He met with the Union County Board of Commissioners and others Monday in the county offices on K Avenue. A main purpose of the visit is to drum up support for his Security and Energy for America Act (SEA Act), a bill that calls for new offshore domestic energy production. Royalties would be used to fund five years of federal county payments and Payments in Lieu of Taxes, federal government programs that rural counties depend on. At the same time, the bill would provide a long-term funding stream for renewable energy production and so called “green collar” jobs, Walden said. “Money would be invested in production of renewable energy so we can transition into the use of renewable energy sources,” he said. Closer to the problem of decreased timber sales on federal lands, Walden said he and co-sponsors have introduced a second version of the Healthy Forest Restoration Act. The original HFRA, passed in 2003, aimed at lowering wildfire danger by allowing thinning and harvest of dead or dying trees. Walden said the original bill applied mostly to areas at the urban-wildland interface. The new bill calls for thinning operations deeper in the forests. “It just says use the authority that has worked so well around the communities,” he said. Walden said there is disagreement over some of the principles of the new bill, especially among members of the House Natural Resources Committee. He said he expects opposition to be stiff. “I don’t want to mislead anybody, it’s going to be tough,” he said. Also present at Monday’s talk was John Warness, regional manager for Forest Capital Partners, a timber management company with extensive holdings in Northeast Oregon. Warness said it is vital that local mills remain healthy. If not, Forest Capital becomes less a timber management company and more a real estate firm. “Mill infrastructure is one of our biggest concerns,” he said. “If we lose that, we’re down to parcels and land sales.” County Commissioner Colleen MacLeod said she thought it might be a good idea to “go back to the days when we were managing for timber. Then we wouldn’t need their money.” Insko said he wished those who oppose thinning and harvest would take into account the impact on the local economy. “I wish they could be there when we have to tell another hundred people to go home,” he said. |
