Sierra Pacific Breaks Ground In Eugene

Sierra Pacific Industries broke ground on its new state-of-the-art sawmill in Eugene, Ore. in early November. SPI’s Oregon crews joined in celebrating the placement of the first column—the start of what will soon be a nearly five-acre facility. While construction has begun, the existing mill on site will continue producing lumber.

“We couldn’t take on a project of this scale or plan for its success well into the future without such a skilled, hardworking, and dedicated group of people,” the company states.

SPI plans to build a sawmill complex with two new sawmills located adjacent to each other on the east side of its existing site, eventually operating under one roof and replacing the existing sawmilling facilities.

The new operation will include three sawmill lines—a dual stud mill line patterned after SPI’s mill in Shelton, Wash. and consuming logs 5-16 in. diameter, and a cutting mill (large log mill) that will process logs 16 in. and larger.

The log mix will be similar to the current mix; however, the cutting mill is designed to extract greater value from each log, including dimension lumber, rough and surfaced timbers, shop, VG, and clears, designed similarly to SPI’s four cutting mills in California.

The location allows SPI to complete the construction off-line while continuing to run its three existing facilities and maintain full employment of more than 300, before moving into the new facilities as they are completed.

The new sawmill complex will become one of the largest single site lumber producers in the U.S with an annual production capacity of 650MMBF, compared with the existing capacity at Eugene of more than 350MMBF.

SPI acquired the Eugene site (formerly Seneca Lumber) in 2021.