LETTER: Mill closure a great travesty

The unexpected closure of Weyerhaeuser late last week is one of the greatest travesties that could hit Columbia Falls. Another noble icon of our community is going to disappear and it is unacceptable that it had to come to this.

Weyerhaeuser stated that the reason for the closure was due to lack of available timber supply. This is the classical narrative we hear from the wood products industry thanks to the harmful regulations of the federal government and their radical green allies.

These policies must be stopped.

There was never an attempt by Weyerhaeuser to get local input from local community leaders on trying to find alternatives to closures. They also effectively lied to us when last November they assured our community that existing manufacturing facilities “will remain in Montana and the jobs associated with manufacturing will remain” and then pull this on us.

Weyerhaeuser has demonstrated that its top interest is simply the achieving the bottom line, rather than working to find the best solution for the workers and the community at-large.

This event is not only a major economic crisis, but also an expression of the harmful underlying policies of our federal government that takes into greater account the opinions of radical environmentalists rather than the workers who properly manage our forest and fund the services of the state.

If elected by the people of House District 3, I will stand as an ardent advocate for the timber and wood products industry and fight on behalf of all workers to not only protect their current employment, but also attempt to reinvigorate lost or declining industries such as lumber and manufacturing.

The state of Montana needs to not only provide the incentives for manufacturing to be created and thrive, but also refuse to sit idly by as the federal government locks our loggers out of the woods and thereby making it nearly impossible to make a profit and properly manage our forests.

—Taylor Rose, Columbia Falls