It is unfortunate that the Louisiana-Pacific OSB plant in Baileyville is being closed because of a lack of wood supply. Demand and price for their product is sky high at this time; not the time to be closed down.
This situation should serve as a lesson to L-P and all the other forest product producers in this state. It is a good idea, if you use wood, to own some wood. Any resource that has to be bought on the open market will be in short supply at some time.
A generation ago, this was understood. All the paper companies and sawmills owned extensive forest acreage and had crews to cut on it back then. I don’t recall a mill ever running out of wood in those days. Since then, many of the mills and their lands have been separated. How much wood will be supplied by some of the new owners, such as Roxanne Quimby? This separation has to be one of the most foolish moves ever made by an industry as a whole.
Also, L-P didn’t seem to make much of an effort to procure the wood they needed. If I had been contacted personally, and asked for a load of wood as a favor, I would have provided one, and dozens of other people with skidders would have done the same. But this didn’t happen, so 99 people are being laid off for the winter.
Ray Merrill
Orland
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