Boise Cascade closes its last 2 Idaho mills
Emmett, Cascade sites will close doors in mid-June
Copyright 2001 Idaho Statesman
February 14, 2001
By John Tucker
Company blames shutdowns on Clinton's forest policies
Boise Cascade Corp. announced Tuesday it is closing its sawmill in Cascade and its plywood and lumber operations in Emmett permanently, with company officials blaming the timber policies of the Clinton administration and lawsuits by environmental groups.
The Cascade sawmill is the last remaining large sawmill owned by Boise Cascade still operating in Idaho. The mill closure will mark the end of an era for the company on the Payette River -- an area where the company once operated mills in McCall, Cascade, Horseshoe Bend and Emmett.
The Emmett and Cascade operations won't close until mid-June, when the log inventory in the yards has been used up. All told, the closures will put approximately 375 people out of work, many of whom were raised and lived their entire lives in communities whose existence depended on the sawmills.
The closures will have major impacts on both towns, neither of which has other major industries to replace the lost jobs. Workers in Emmett, which is within commuting distance of Boise, may be able to find work locally. But Cascade is too far away, and most jobs in town are directly tied to the sawmill.
The 375 lost jobs will also include about 20 forestry and administrative positions.
Loss of the lumber operations is another sign the timber industry is disappearing in Idaho. The number of people employed in the industry has dropped from a peak of 15,596 in 1994 to an estimated 12,374 in 2000.
Jack Blackwell, Intermountain Regional Forester for the U.S. Forest Service said that without the two mills to process timber cut on public lands, the job of restoring the forests will be harder.
He said the mills are an essential part of the Forest Service's efforts to restore ponderosa pine forests in Idaho and to reduce the threat of stand-replacing fires.
"The absence of a strong timber industry in Idaho will make reaching this goal harder and more expensive," Blackwell said.
Boise Cascade chief executive officer George Harad said the company will still have a major presence in Idaho, with corrugated container plants in Nampa and Burley, an office-products distribution center, trucking operations and the firm's corporate headquarters in Boise.
News of the mill closures disturbed Idaho government officials, with Gov. Dirk Kempthorne and Idaho Department of Commerce director Gary Mahn vowing to do what they can to help the workers and their families in the two communities.
"Those of us here in the Capitol who have seen the benefit of Idaho's substantial economic growth need to remind ourselves of the extreme anxiety that these workers and their families are going through today," Kempthorne said. "We're going to do everything we can to help these workers and these communities deal with these difficult times, and we+re committed to making sure our rural economies can survive and grow."
Idaho's Congressional delegation is urging the company to delay the closures, hoping the Bush administration can overturn some of the restrictions placed on logging in the national forests.
The state's two senators and two congressmen said the roadless policy is not only devastating the timber industry, but taking away tools needed by the U.S. Forest Service to manage wildfires and insect infestations in the forests.
"I have to believe there is a timber supply out there, and we ought to try and save that economic base in our state," said Idaho Senator Larry Craig. "There really is no excuse for Cascade to go down except for the fact its men and women have been locked out of the woods of Idaho."
But Harad said any discussion about changing the policies is too late. It normally takes three years before timber actually gets to the mill after the timber sale process has been initiated.
Another company spokesman, Doug Bartels, said, "The decision is final."
Boise Cascade officials laid the blame directly on federal policies limiting the amount of timber available for harvest in the national forests and on environmental groups which have challenged timber sales in federal court.
"The cause of these closures is very clear; it's the decline of available timber from federal lands," said Harad.
Because of the policies of the Clinton administration, the amount of federal timber available to the company has been cut by 90 percent in the past five years, he said.
Harad also said litigation by environmental groups to stop timber sales that had already been awarded to the company hindered production at the mills.
Environmental groups in Idaho said they wouldn't apologize for using the court system to block the company from overcutting timber on the national forests.
"Boise Cascade went on a logging binge in the 1990s, and now they are paying for it," said John McCarthy of the Idaho Conservation League. "The generations of individuals and organizations who worked to protect clean water and wildlife in our forests were working for the public good."
In 1993, 1995 and 1996, Boise Cascade cut more timber in the Boise, Payette and Sawtooth national forests than the quantity allowed by the U.S. Forest Service's own policies, utilizing salvage riders pushed through Congress, according to the company's own records.
A timber industry consultant said he wasn't surprised to hear news of the closures.
"With every new rule, regulation and curtailment (of federal timber sales), the screws are being tightened one more notch," said Paul Ehinger, of Paul Ehinger & Associates in Eugene, Ore., who tracks mill closures.
Since 1989, he said, approximately 33 sawmills in Idaho have shut down, putting 1,711 people out of work.
"Almost 75 to 80 percent of those closures have had to do with timber availability," he said.
A Wall Street analyst said the closures might even help Boise Cascade's profits.
"Lumber prices are so low -- to not produce might actually be good for the bottom line, " said Steve Chercover of D.A. Davidson & Co. in Portland.
Lumber prices are at 10-year lows, prompting some environmental groups to say Boise Cascade was shutting down the mills for economic reasons and not because there's no timber available. These groups said cheap lumber from Canada has made it less profitable to harvest timber in Idaho.
"It wasn't the old-growth forests we were protecting that shut these mills down; it was NAFTA (the North American Free Trade Agreement opening up trade with Canada and Mexico)," said Tom Woodbury, attorney representing the Sporting Congress. "Sen. Craig should be joining us and calling for a repeal of NAFTA."
But Harad said the closures are not related to low timber prices.
"The real issue is the long-term availability of supply ... and we don't believe the situation will change any time soon," Harad said.
Contact John at 377-6428 or jtucker@boise.gannett.com
Statesman reporters Rocky Barker and Ken Miller contributed to this story.