Oregon Mill Closures Emblematic of US Timber Industry Decline

The Swanson Bros. Lumber Co., which has operated in Noti, Ore., since 1937, on Aug. 5, 2024. (Scottie Barnes/The Epoch Times)

Oregon’s once-dominant timber industry is struggling to stay on its feet, after being battered by the fight over protecting the Northern spotted owl in the early 1990s, and now facing increasingly devastating wildfires along with restrictions on harvesting timber on federal land.

Oregon’s timber industry was once the primary engine of the state’s economy, but it has taken a beating for nearly 50 years. In the downward spiral, the United States has become an importer of lumber, which has had far-reaching effects on the state’s economy and wrought unintended consequences on the natural landscape.

In 2024, seven Oregon lumber mills succumbed, taking nearly 700 jobs with them.

“Unfortunately, we’re not finished,” Nick Smith, of the American Forest Resource Council, a timber trade group, told The Epoch Times.

More closures and job losses are likely before the end of the year, he said.

Industry Trajectory

In the 1980s, Oregon’s timber industry employed 80,000 people, according to the secretary of state’s office. That accounted for roughly one in every 10 private-sector jobs, 12 percent of Oregon’s gross domestic product, and 13 percent of private-sector wages.

Today, harvests on private forest land are down by 20 percent from pre-1990s levels, the secretary of state’s office says. On federal lands, harvests have fallen by 90 percent, to about 200 million board feet by 2015 from 2 billion board feet in 1990.

The industry now employs nearly 32,000 people, working in wood products manufacturing, forestry, and logging. It contributes about $2.2 billion to the state’s economy, and accounts for roughly one in 50 private-sector jobs, according to a 2023 report by the American Wood Council.

The dismantling of the timber industry isn’t unique to Oregon. The American Loggers Council (ALC) documented nearly 50 closures or reductions nationwide in the 15 months that ended in March.

As U.S. mills and other facilities close, the United States has become the world’s leading global importer of softwood lumber, the ALC says.

The United States imported nearly $40 billion in wood products from Canada, China, and Brazil in 2021, according to the U.S. International Trade Commission.

Industry operators commonly cite government policy and regulations, federal timber supply constraints, and incessant litigation as contributing to the decline of the U.S. timber and forest products industry, according to Smith.

The hardest-hit are skilled workers and rural communities.

Oregon Mill Closures

Until it closed on July 31, Western Cascade Industries employed 50 workers at its 25-year-old stud mill in Toledo, a town of 3,500 near the Oregon coast. The mill was the town’s second-largest employer, City Manager Doug Wiggins said.

Although it’s too early to calculate the cost to the community, Wiggins is concerned.

“The loss of these jobs will impact our general fund and may force us to delay planned projects,” he told the Epoch Times. “And if people decide to pick up and move, it will affect our housing and property taxes as well.”

Malheur Lumber Co. announced it will close its facility in John Day as soon as it finishes processing and shipping its remaining log inventory. The mill is Grant County’s last remaining sawmill. It has been in operation for 41 years and employs 76 full-time and part-time workers.

In a statement to local media, company officials cited the “lack of a willing and drug-free workforce,” coupled with a lack of housing to recruit workers, unfavorable market conditions for lumber, government regulation, and rising production costs as contributors.

Locals expect the closure to ripple through the town of 1,700, affecting small businesses, schools, and public services.

The family-owned C&D Lumber Co., closed on May 2, eliminating 78 positions. That business, near the town of Roseburg, had operated since 1890.

Other shuttered facilities include the Rosboro Co. stud mill in Springfield, the Hampton Lumber-owned mill in Banks, and the Interfor-owned sawmill in Philomath.

Timber Supply

Timber companies and mills universally point to the inability to get the timber required to keep the business going as their greatest challenge.

“Multiple factors are impacting the sector, but the common thread is timber supply,” Smith said.

The federal government owns and controls 61 percent of Oregon’s forests and is placing ever-stricter limits on logging on federal lands, he said.

In addition to the economic damage, the closure of rural timber mills causes a variety of related issues, Smith said.

“Loggers provide the boots on the ground to help public land managers reach their conservation goals, and that includes reducing wildfire risks,” he said. “County governments rely on revenue from timber sales to provide essential services. It’s a complex and interrelated network.”

Litigation and obstruction hamstring the sector, Smith said.

That includes lawsuits that have prevented the industry from salvaging millions of board feet of burned timber from fires or from clearing downed trees that were blocking forest roads.

“It just laid there to rot,” Smith said.

Hundreds of miles of forest access roads in the state will probably never reopen. Those roads provide critical access to address wildfires, he said.

“We’ve got more than a million acres burning in Oregon right now,” Smith said. “A working timber industry would thin overgrown forests and reduce the risk of fires before they turn into catastrophic events that cost billions to contain.”