Another mill closed. Philomath

[bionic knees]

My dad worked in mills his whole life, starting in Sisters in the mid fifties until it closed in 64. Then he drove LeTernou in Bend for a couple years until he landed a job in Warm Springs. He
finished his career out there when a dick in a suit from a consulting firm handed him a check and said his services would no longer be needed, and added that he expected the year end report on his desk the following monday. Haha dad went home and fed the year end report into the fireplace one sheet at a time. Lol should have gotten the report before kicking him to the curb. Dumb bubblegum!

 

[thorborg]

Paper mill in Oregon city shutting down, 200 plus employees. Fodder has become scantly available although I believe it to be due to much grief, over regulations and disparity placed on the entire wood products industry, ultimately geared towards closing it down, instigated by present and recently past pathetic goobiner top dogs (and their roadies) in control.
Sorry, no offence to real dogs.

 

[Jay Walk]

Rape the resources?

There is more trees in America right now than 1900

 

[SE Scrounger]

Typical liberal knee-jerk hysteria.

 

[Pepe-lepew]

Log prices are in the toilet if you can find a mill willing to take them. I planned on logging 10 loads off my place but lumber mills are not buying.

With the fire salvage done and public land cutting back on harvesting, hopefully prices and demand increases for logs next year.

 

[Certaindeaf]

This is why I kick every spotted owl I see right square in the nuts.

 

[ditchtiger]

This is very much the same in Dump trucking,. Construction dump trucking is one of the hardest types of driving to master as there are so many different skills involved. And in the last couple years we have only been able to hire a few guys that can even use a manual transmission. Not to mention jack knife a trailer to dump the truck without loosing a mud flap or spreading the material all over hell and gone.

I thought I was OK backing up. Really learned how with a fork lift and attachment for moving trailers.

 

[The Heretic]

The Philomath mill made dimensional lumber, like 2x4 and 2x6, plus some larger sizes. It took logs from 8" up to 30" diameter, which is kind of standard nowadays. Logs larger than that are getting rare, and there are still mills that will take them, but they will have to be trucked a long distance.

Yes - when I had my land logged this was standard - I had some trees larger than ~30", but most of those were cedar, which went to a different mill that dealt with and sold cedar anyway.

Some mills can handle larger logs, but they were too far to be profitable to truck to.

The logger also said that pole logs, for power poles/etc., were more profitable and in demand than dimensional lumber logs. I had a mix of most everything. The last time my land was logged was about the time I was born. The next time will certainly be well after I am gone, even if it is just for pole logs.

 

[The Heretic]

The mill isn't "state-of-the-art", but isn't obsolete. Right now the lumber price is very low because builders fear high interest rates will dampen demand for new housing. Without a base of company-owned timber, Interfor had to buy logs on the open market, which is priced very high right now. This pricing is due to limited supply of logs, partially because of the huge fires a few years ago, and also because landowners are trying to keep up with increased costs and increased regulations preventing or restricting harvesting.

Few people are buying any housing due to interest rates and prices. My neighbor is selling as he is retiring and has terminal cancer - he got an offer close to his asking price of $1.2M so he will probably sell.

Most of the logging around here happened in 2018 when the timber prices were high. Prices are higher now, but that was 6 years ago, so if you account for inflation prices are about the same or lower. There is not a lot of private land with mature timber left here that owners are willing to have logged. If I cut my remaining timber it wouldn't be but about 5 acres of already thinned timber and would only be worth $20-30K and would lower the sale value of the property a lot more than that as the trees are near the house and add a lot to the "street value", plus they serve as a wind break.

 

[The Heretic]

One of our drivers is always getting into trouble turning around. I tell him to turn around sooner and back in. Any backing over a hundred feet scares him. I routinely back over a half mile to get things done without getting stuck.

Rented a dozer some years ago. They brought it in on a flatbed rollback, so no problems with the twisty one lane private road. But when they picked it up they brought a semi with a low-boy and the driver backed it all the way (quarter mile) down the private road. I was surprised he even attempted it, but he did it with no problems. Mad skills/experience.

We've had more than one semi get stuck on the public road due to the tight corners, but the logging trucks have had few problems except when leaving the private road and trying to turn down the public road - they usually gave up and went up the mountain instead.

The silly delivery truck drivers are the ones who get stuck, and those are just 26' box trucks. They don't listen to home owners who tell them to not attempt certain paths and then get stuck in the ditches, especially in the winter.

 

[ditchtiger]

The silly delivery truck drivers are the ones who get stuck, and those are just 26' box trucks. They don't listen to home owners who tell them to not attempt certain paths and then get stuck in the ditches, especially in the winter.

I've watched more than a couple of those guys backup hanging out the door to see where they are going. never learned how to use the mirrors