Closing time for two mills

150 lose jobs at Evergreen, Pablo

Plum Creek Timber Co. stopped the Pablo sawmill blades for the last time Friday and shuttered the Evergreen mill and remanufacturing plant indefinitely.

Eighty-seven people were laid off in Pablo, 63 in Evergreen and 23 at the Columbia Falls mill, which will remain open.

Plum Creek reported $44 million in losses in 2008, and in the first quarter of 2009, the company had a $22 million loss.

"We try to keep these mills running as long as we can," said Kathy Budinick, director of communications for Plum Creek, "But with those kinds of losses we really needed to take action. We sure hope that markets improve, but we don't know when that will be. It's all tied to the economy and housing."

The Pablo plant was the last major timber-processing operation in Lake County.

It is only the latest in two decades of Montana lumber mill closures. At least 23 mills have been closed since 1990, resulting in the loss of more than 2,000 people.

"The closure relates to the overall lumber market," said Tom Ray, Plum Creek's vice president of Montana operations. "Housing is 25 percent of what it was. We don't expect any large rebound until at least next year."

Plum Creek is providing its employees assistance with job searches, relocation, health-care tax credits and training benefits as part of the federal Trade Adjustment Assistance program.

"Many employees we've talked to are going back to school," Ray said.

Albert Knutson worked at the Pablo sawmill for 23 years, following his father, who started work there when the mill opened in 1958. Knutson's own son worked there for a time.

"We had three generations work at that mill. I started as a laborer," Knutson said. "I did quite a few jobs throughout the mill through the years."

Knutson was the shift lead utility and his duties included giving breaks, keeping the flow of equipment steady and helping operators. He enjoyed his job and the challenges of keeping productivity high while ensuring no one got hurt.

"You feel like at the end of the day you've earned your wages," he said.

When Knutson began working at the plant, Plum Creek was one of the best employers in the area, he said, and working there was ideal: He and his wife could raise a family in the area in which they themselves grew up. Knutson has chosen to look at the lost job as an opportunity to embrace a new career at age 53.

"I'm going to pursue Trade Adjustment Assistance training," he said. He hopes to find a job in computer technology.

For he and his family, the plant closure means adjustments, but they're welcome.

"It's an opportunity. I relish the idea of making a change," Knutson said. "This has given me the ability to move onto something new. I just look at it as a new challenge."

Knutson said that sensed that the mill would be closing. Consequently, Knutson and his wife, Amy, have been paying off debts, preparing for the day when Amy would support their household with her job as a registered nurse.

"I saw the writing on the wall, that Plum Creek was becoming just a land manager, that was my general feeling. Plum Creek is taking advantage of conditions existing nationwide to get out of the manufacturing business," he said.

Knutson said that he's worried about the impacts of the closure on Pablo, particularly on the school district that no longer will be supported by the taxes Plum Creek paid.

Additionally, the jobs that he's seen available in the area pay far less than what he made at the mill.

"Most jobs are about eight, nine dollars an hour. That's about half of what employees at Pablo were making," Knutson said. "There was a number of people that will just retire. There was a number that don't know what they'll do."

The wood-products industry is an integrated one, and as the housing market shrivels, mills are pressed out of business, which in turn jeopardizes logging contractors and the truck drivers who transport the logs.

Keith Olson, executive director of the Montana Logging Association, said that each component of the logging industry affects every other component.

"Every time a mill closes that means they need fewer logs from the forest," Olson said. "If the mills aren't operating there will be less work. There will be increased competition … too many contractors chasing too few contracts. [Logging] is down substantially. Not only the number of contracts, but the value of the contracts."

Dave Cheff, president of the Montana Logging Association and a partner at his family's business Ureco Inc. in Columbia Falls, which logs and does roadwork, said that he used to employ three logging sides, or crews made up of about six to 10 men.

"I'm down to one side," Cheff said. "Road work is getting harder, too. I go farther and farther to get work."

Cheff recalled a five-acre clearing job recently in the Swan Range that attracted 31 bidders.

"I grew up in the industry," Cheff said. "My grandpa started F, K & L mill by Martin City. We're hoping and praying that no more facilities get shut down. If they shut down and lose the infrastructure, they can't reopen."

Budinick said that the Evergreen facilities will not be sold.

"If the market rebounds there's a possibility we could restart them," Budinick said. "If there's a buyer interested we would consider a sale [of the Pablo sawmill]. We're not actively marketing it, nor are there immediate plans to dismantle it."

There has been speculation that the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes may purchase the Pablo mill.

"Rumors are rampant that we've purchased the old Plum Creek," said Robert McDonald, communications director for the Salish-Kootenai tribes. "I don't know where this perception comes from. It's a slowing industry in a bad market downturn. I wonder if anyone would be interested in pursuing a purchase."

McDonald added that he's heard restaurant managers voice their concerns about losing the lunch crowd from the mill. The grocery store expects a slowdown. The effects of the mill shutdown are far-reaching.

Jim Durglo, forestry department head for the tribes, said Plum Creek has been a major purchaser of tribal wood products for a long time, but that the tribes rely on at least a dozen other mills for processing timber. The tribes' land produces about 18 million board feet per year. Some 3,000 acres a year are logged and 7,000 acres get biomass removal to prevent hazardous fuel buildup.

Durglo said that he was most concerned about maintaining milling infrastructure in the area to continue good forest management. Every mill that shuts down represents less demand for tribal wood.

"If you don't have a market, you don't have a means of supporting that stewardship."

Reporter K.J. Hascall may be reached at 758-4439 or by e-mail at kjhascall@dailyinterlake.com