23 June 2016

Shutdown of Weyerhaeuser wood products mills at C. Falls no surprise

No one who contemplated Weyerhaeuser’s acquisition of Plum Creek for more than five seconds was surprised by yesterday’s announcement that the lumber and plywood mills at Columbia Falls are closing, with a net loss of at least 100 jobs that pay well. If the operation were still profitable and its economic future bright, Plum Creek’s owners would not have cashed out.

The medium density fiberboard plant, pictured below in a photograph from 1989, will continue operating — MDF is a modern, value added, product for which there’s a reasonably steady market — as long as wood fiber remains available. The lumber and plywood mills in Kalispell probably will continue operating as long as the MDF plant does, but were I a young man, I would not expect to work there until I became eligible for Social Security.

The huge volumes of standing timber that seemed limitless when D.C. Dunham moved his sawmill from northern Minnesota to Columbia Falls in 1946 are gone, as are the timber mining practices that fed hundreds of millions of board feet to northwestern Montana mills during the 30-year timber boom era that began in the 1950s. The accumulated growth of centuries that was stripped from the mountains has been replaced by second and third growth stands that contain much less volume.

Weyerhaeuser blamed its decision to shutdown the mills in Columbia Falls on a shortage of sawlogs, insinuating that the shortage is caused by mismanagement of our national forests. That’s what mill owners aways say when they decide to shutter their operations. But it’s not a shortage of logs that’s the problem. It’s a surplus of mill capacity. Weyerhaeuser is downsizing its mill capacity to bring it into equilibrium with Mother Nature’s capacity to grow trees.

There’s also a surplus of wooden-headed politicians from both political parties who are stumbling over each other as they try to blame the limitations of nature on the federal government.

At least Weyerhaeuser announced its closures on the first day of summer, not on the day after Christmas. Whether or not that kindness was intended, it helps those losing their jobs if they don’t face winter heating bills and cold, dark, days right away.