Mill Closing

[Bushler]

Heard a rumor from one of the log truck drivers that South Coast Mill is closing its doors at the end of the month. Not sure about the details, won't know until tomorow.

Last mill in the area, and my only log market.

I need a job. Anyone hiring? I can run anything with tracks and hydraulics.

 

[Billy_Bob]

I'm seeing the "finished product" wood being stacked up all over the place at some mills around here. They seem to be making it but not selling it...

 

[Gologit]

Heard a rumor from one of the log truck drivers that South Coast Mill is closing its doors at the end of the month. Not sure about the details, won't know until tomorow.

Last mill in the area, and my only log market.

I need a job. Anyone hiring? I can run anything with tracks and hydraulics.

You'll have a lot of competition for a job. The only thing we're logging over here is burn salvage. When that's done, we're done....at least for the near future. Some of the jobs are already shutting down and a lot of good Cat skinners, loaders, and fallers are trying to finish out a season that's ending 'way too soon....and not finding anything. You know how it goes, everybody takes care of the people closest to them and if there's any work available it gets snapped up quick. It's going to be a long winter for a lot of people and maybe no real prospects for next year either.

Two of our biggest mills are down for two weeks and maybe (probably) longer because of the depressed demand for lumber.

LOL...I think there's going to be a lot of deer poaching this winter.

 

[2dogs]

I drove by the only mill in the area a couple of hours ago and it looked like there were a lot of logs on the decks. I would guess they are not milling much as the lumber yard looks full. This mill mills primarily redwood so their market may be different than a standard mill.

 

[RatchetJaw]

hey how bout cooshead

Cooshead is lookin for drivers solid pay though like 140 a day doing flatbeds. home everynight weekends off. check it out through cardinal.

 

[slowp]

Logging ends here at the end of October for one or maybe two outfits. The other one is struggling along but has had half the mills he was delivering to cut him off.

On the other side, the local mill keeps advertising for workers.

I'm lucky, but feeling bad about how things are going. I'll be donating bigger than usual to the food bank. I'm not seeing any deer, except road kill.

 

[Spotted Owl]

It's bad all over. Orders dropped here and our mill just sent out a couple rail rollers for the east coast. They are having an all hands meeting tomorrow afternoon an meeting for each shift. Twice a year they have these state of the mill meetings. Their last one was a month and half ago, guys are not sitting easy around here right now with the news of this meeting comming down. Trucks have all but stopped for all mills other than the pulp mill and they seem to be going gang busters. We've been watching them pull equipment from the jobs that were going up on the ridges behind the house. Some of those aren't even half done, but empty lowboys go up and loaded rigs are comming down.

One thing still happening and seeming to pick up a bit of steam is the export market. I was talking with a guy I know and have worked for last week at the football game. He said that export is up to 850/1000. Seems high but if you get it, take it. Not much export ground being worked right now, nobody wants to pay the road building cost to get in, after roading, trucking, machinery, fuel and wages you would be hard pressed to break even, even if it is 850/1000.

Our food banks have been shutdown here for a couple months now due to no donations or resources, now things are starting to look bad. The county now sends two cars(officer safety after 1 was put in the hospital) out for foreclosure evictions, people are paying their rent but the lords aren't paying the mortage so now the renters are on the streets, homelessness is up. Crime is up, all of it and that will get worse. Poaching in the woods is up, shots all over at night around our house, pich forking on the rivers and salmon/steelhead water is common place right now, even came up on a couple guys blasting the deep holes yesterday morning. You can't hardly walk thru town with out someone tring to sell you something from their work saws to cars to furniture and dishes. For many this is the straw.

Hang on fellas, from what I am hearing and seeing the ride is just about to start not end.

This may well be the end of our town, we still haven't fully recovered from the little bird in the 90's.

All we can do now if it's your thing is pray all this is taken care of. I know our family does daily.


Owl

 

[Bushler]

Thanks for the tip on the export market. I decked 5 loads of fir yesterday, some of which might be export grade. Good ring count but some of the logs have sweep. Where can I find export specs?

Bummed, I sold my crab gear last year to make shovel payments. With the fishing industry on the skids I thought logging was a better option, (obviously I wouldn't make a good investment counselor).

There isn't any easy way out of this one. My carefully nurtured retirement acct. has lost 30%...and falling.

We'll be eating sticks and rocks soon.

 

[slowp]

I read somewhere, the PI? that Japan is buying logs now and that is what has made that market better. In our little world here, there is no market for hemlock. It is being decked, or left standing to be cut later. Normally, we wouldn't let folks do that, but it is different now. Wood from federal lands can't be exported without having had some manufacturing done.

If I were in charge of the world, I'd put folks to work fixing roads and trails and fireproofing in areas that need it. But I'm not.

 

[Bushler]

Talked to the log buyer today, he said they're not closing the plywood mill, just the lumber mill. They will resume buying logs when they run out some of their inventory, probably not later than Jan 1.

 

[hammerlogging]

Talked to the log buyer today, he said they're not closing the plywood mill, just the lumber mill. They will resume buying logs when they run out some of their inventory, probably not later than Jan 1.

Good.

 

[ak4195]

"Cept for lil upticks here n there I expect things things to stay grim(compared to the last bubble born 8-10 yrs) for some time.Plain and simple,no housing boom,no timber harvesting.
Id look for a way to suckle from the govt.Theres a whole lot of infrastructure thats gotta be upgraded,from utilities(including fiber optic,water,sewer) to larger interstate projects.
You can argue politics all you want,but the only thing thats gonna pull us out of this is govt spending,a WHOLE LOTTA spending.Place yourself right in front of that train if you can.
Time to tighten the belt and do more hunter/gathering activities.Should be just bout time for Chanterrelles isnt it?

good luck
ak

 

[PB]

Maybe some good news for some of you, the mills around here are going to be up and running again after being down for almost 2 years. They are paper mills, not sure if that relates to you guys or not (I know you are talking about lumber mills), but if they are opening up again maybe it is a sign that things will turn around.

 

[Humptulips]

Maybe some good news for some of you, the mills around here are going to be up and running again after being down for almost 2 years. They are paper mills, not sure if that relates to you guys or not (I know you are talking about lumber mills), but if they are opening up again maybe it is a sign that things will turn around.

The paper mill here is set to go down for 6 weeks because of low demand. Pulp wood is down to close to half the price of a year ago.
Don't look good to me.

 

[RandyMac]

South Coast had a recent tragedy in the plywood mill, a guy got Killed.
http://www.currypilot.com/news/story.cfm?story_no=18421

 

[Gologit]

Things are winding down fast. I finished a burn salvage job yesterday and that might be it for the year. There's still a lot of burned wood out there but with the depressed lumber market nobody wants it.

I've seen a lot of pine decked up in some of the burned areas that's already blue-stained. The mills quit taking logs from anything but their own ground some time ago.... I guess firewood will be cheap this year.

Our biggest mill is on an indefinite shutdown. Not a total closure but just a week by week thing while waiting to see what inventory and market amount turns out to be.

Might be kind of a skimpy Christmas for a lot of families this year.

 

[Bushler]

I'm glad to see the price of fuel dropping. I have a lot of scarifying to do before planting this winter/spring. Its hard to clear land when a days fuel expense is $300 and no return.

Probably plant 4K trees this year, mixed species.

No more spruce though, my spruce reprod has some kind of bug or worm that is killing the central leaders. I don't know what to do about it, the reprod is 10/15 years old and 20' tall. Bummer.

 

[myrtle]

Sounds like the Spruce Weevil... Did you plant the affected area with 100% spruce or a mix of species?

Not much you can do about it once they hit. They go after the biggest, heathliest leaders they can find until the stand reaches 30-35' feet tall. Of course that takes a while as they keep loosing the main leader and have to keep branching out.

 

[Bushler]

Myrtle, thanks for the info. I planted a mixed stand, but a couple places I used primarly spruce (as a wind buffer). The spruce tolerates the salt laden NW wind and the coastal fog better than doug fir or other conifers.

Are you implying that once the trees get over 35' they won't be affected?

 

[myrtle]

Yes, for some reason the weevil only target the leaders of trees until they reach that height. Since you are in the fog belt the only thing you can do to control weevil losses is to plant with a very tight spacing like ~550 trees per acre and not thin them out until they reach 40'.

Check out this ODF doc for more info:

http://www.oregon.gov/ODF/PRIVATE_FORESTS/docs/fh/WhitePineWeevil.pdf