Struggling Timber Industry Puts Rural Idaho At Crossroads
David Bartlett stopped frequently to chat with friends as he made inquiries with employers at a recent Idaho Department of Labor job fair in Orofino. The nonchalance of the former Tri-Pro Forest Products employee and father of five children disguised very real stress. “My last paycheck is coming up,” said Bartlett, of Kooskia. “After that, I don’t know what I’m going to do. I hope I find something.”
Without something, Bartlett’s family will be forced to make ends meet with the part-time paycheck his wife earns at Kamiah’s senior center. Bartlett isn’t alone. Close to 60 people lost their jobs when Tri-Pro shuttered its mill near Orofino in October as it struggled to find enough logs to feed the mill.
An unknown number of them have already landed other positions. Some of those who haven’t are exploring their options. They join others looking for a career to replace whatever haphazard income they have been cobbling together in a county battered by a declining timber industry. The two groups are large enough that the midweek job fair drew a crowd at a time when the economy is strong enough that many employers are struggling to find quality applicants.
Success for Bartlett could mean a lengthy commute. Clearwater County has the highest unemployment rate in Idaho, even though neighboring Nez Perce County has one of the stronger manufacturing bases in the nation. Overall, north central Idaho’s unemployment rate was 3.8 percent in September. Increasingly, however, the jobs are concentrated in Lewiston at large employers such as Vista Outdoor, Clearwater Paper and Howell Munitions and Technology.
Clearwater County’s unemployment rate was 7.4 percent in September, the most recent month for which numbers are available. That figure doesn’t fully describe how tough Clearwater County’s job market is. It doesn’t account for the jobs lost at Tri-Pro, which continued a trend that started in 2000 when Potlatch closed its Pierce plywood mill.
From The Washington Times: washingtontimes.com.
Latest News
Weinig Gains CLT Project
The Weinig Group reports it has received an order as a complete supplier for a CLT project at HolzBauWerk Schwarzwald GmbH, including all automation components, planers, crosscut saws, fingerjointing lines, edge-gluing machines for longitudinal and cross-layers, plus the…
New Sawmill Is Planned For Near Forks
He’s back. Phil Johnson, who was one of the principals and helped to build sawmill operations called Lewis County Forest Products in Winlock, Wash. and Mason County Forest Products in Shelton, Wash., is in the sawmill development business again with Spencer Forest Products and its proposed softwood sawmill in…
New Year Brings In Housing Starts Dip
U.S. housing starts dropped 4.1% in January 2022 from December 2021 to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 1.638 million, according to the U.S. Census Bureau and U.S. Dept. of Housing and Urban Development monthly new residential construction report. Single-family starts in January were…
Schooler Is Leaving Big Shoes To Fill
Article by Rich Donnell, Editor-in-Chief, Timber Processing January/February 2022 – We’ve always considered our 34th Person of the Year, Eric Schooler, as one of the good guys. One reason, rather selfishly on our part, is because during his tenures at Hampton Lumber and Collins Companies, when we called up and…
Find Us On Social
Newsletter
The monthly Timber Processing Industry Newsletter reaches over 4,000 mill owners and supervisors.
Subscribe/Renew
Timber Processing is delivered 10 times per year to subscribers who represent sawmill ownership, management and supervisory personnel and corporate executives. Subscriptions are FREE to qualified individuals.
Advertise
Complete the online form so we can direct you to the appropriate Sales Representative.