TimberWest Forest Corp. entered into a definitive agreement under which two leading Canadian pension funds, British Columbia Investment Management Corporation and the Public Sector Pension Investment Board, have agreed to acquire TimberWest for $1.03 billion in cash. TimberWest is Western Canada’s largest private timber and land management company.

While most softwood lumber sawmills were still reducing production, operating hours and the like to survive 2009’s dismal markets, Jordan Forest Products LLC took a different tact. It brought the second shift back the week after Thanksgiving that year. “It was an extremely risky move,” asserts Plant Manager Kevin Carpenter, who assumed the helm just before the economy nosedived in 2008.

Hildebrand was the original and is still known as the market leader of timber drying kiln manufacturers. Over the past four decades, many thousands of Hildebrand kilns have been installed across the world. Hildebrand’s quality and longevity is legendary everywhere. Many of these early kilns are still pumping out quality dried timber, some re-invented into new developments because they were so good and so up to date.

Like it or not, the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA) is currently the law of the land. And while it is sure to change between now and 2014, it is extremely unlikely that it will be repealed in its entirety, and it is even more unlikely that it will ultimately be found unconstitutional. Employers therefore need to assume that the PPACA is here to stay and get busy best positioning themselves for whatever form it eventually takes.

Joe Wiser, long-time participant in the forest products industry, died April 7 at his home in Taft, Tenn. He was 69. Wiser began logging with his father in the 1950s, and in 1972 he established Wiser Sawmill with a portable mill in the woods that cut crossties. Two years later he moved the mill to its permanent location in Fayetteville. Wiser Sawmill evolved into Wiser Lumber Co., LLC, Wiser Trucking, LLC, Elk Valley Hardwoods, LLC, and B&E Trucking, LLC.

Simatec ag of Switzerland is a successful manufacturer of automatic lubricators. Driven by a gas producing dry cell, its simalube is unrivaled in its wide range of applications and quality. Using simalube pays off in many ways. The manual lubrication of mechanical systems is no longer required. As a result of the time saved, costs are considerably reduced and manpower and resources are freed up for other tasks and further investment.