Logging operations scaled back

With its log yards full and a lower demand for products, Plum Creek Timber Co. is telling logging contractors to stop work in the woods.

"We are not shutting down completely but we are cutting back on the contractors that we need," said Tom Ray, vice president of Montana operations. "We are ahead of pace for putting logs into the mills' inventories right now and we simply need to slow down on log deliveries."

Ray could not estimate how many people might be effected by the temporary shutdown on logging operations, because there are numerous contractors who have fluctuating numbers of employees and subcontractors.

"I would say over 50 percent of the contracting work force will be impacted temporarily," Ray said.

Keith Olson, executive director of the Montana Logging Association, also could not estimate the number of people who will likely be out of logging work until after the spring runoff season.

Plum Creek has been negotiating with contractors differently, depending on the varying terms of their contracts. Some have been told to stop work entirely, some have been asked to take pay reductions for remaining log loads to be delivered, some will keep operating.

The scaled-back logging operations have filtered down to subcontractors such as Joe Keller, who had five logging trucks and five employees in operation until this week.

"I've got one [truck] going through the end of this week, and then I'm done until whenever," said Keller, who added that many logging contractors and truckers 'saw the writing on the wall" for a work slowdown.

"Right now the mill yards are pretty much full," he said. "They've got a lot of inventory both in logs and lumber."

Ray said the business environment for wood products is "challenging," largely because of significant slowdowns in construction activity that are expected to continue this year.

"Certainly we've seen a downturn," he said. "I think '09 is going to be a challenging year for us. We are hoping that as the building season comes around we will see some uptick in the marketplace."

Keller is also looking to construction as an alternative use for his trucks.

"I have some construction possibilities to put trucks to work," he said, adding that in 2008 he did only about 25 percent of the construction-related work that he did the year before.

Reporter Jim Mann may be reached at 758-4407 or by e-mail at jmann@dailyinterlake.com