Weyerhaeuser Devotes All Logging Resources to Wildfire Salvage Operations in Oregon

Weyerhaeuser continues to concentrate all of its logging resources into fire salvage. As an example, the Weyerhaeuser Santiam Lumber Mill is busily producing lumber from logs salvaged from the wildfires last summer — the Holiday Farm Fire that burned along the McKenzie River and into the Mohawk and upper Calapooia areas, and the Santiam Canyon fires, which damaged timber in the Snow Peak area. George Virtue, of Sweet Home, operations manager for the mill, formerly known as the Bauman Mill, noted that “For our mill alone, we’re harvesting about 95 percent fire salvage right now.” “Our plan is to salvage as much as possible this year,” Virtue said. “We’re still able to harvest a tree as long as the fire did not get through the bark, if there isn’t a scar on the tree or the fire got through into the white wood, which is what we call it.” Weyerhaeuser continues to experiment with burned logs, “trying to figure out how to best maximize it,” Virtue said, noting that the mill’s equipment doesn’t do well with char on certain logs. Virtue went onto say, “For us, we increased production about 20 percent. We were very fortunate that we had another customer come on board. And the lumber market is really-really good right now. “Every mill I know of has maxed out production. The timing — trees that needed to be harvested and the market, it’s a win-win.”