Closure of Spearditch sawmill simply a matter of when

Jim Zornes became acting Black Hills National Forest Supervisor after Craig Bobzien retired in 2016 when the volume of shit hitting the fan and "timber mining" just became too overwhelming. Zornes believes Republican micromanagement ruined the BHNF and recently told an interested party that 70,000 hundred cubic feet (CCF) should be the allowable sale quantity (ASQ) for an extended period to to sustain the industry on the Forest. One cubic foot of lumber is six board feet.

So, in 2018 after the Trump Organization gutted the National Environmental Policy Act then was thrown from the White House Hulett, Wyoming-based Neiman Enterprises closed their Hill City, South Dakota sawmill and is threatening to shutter another in Spearditch announcing layoffs and production cutbacks while blaming the US Forest Service. Neiman bought an Oregon mill in 2020 but lumber prices are depressed as wildfire salvage floods mills. 

Dave Mertz is a retired natural resource officer for the BHNF who attended a roundtable discussion in Spearditch hosted by South Dakota's lone US Representative Dusty Johnson when he sicced two fellow Republican congress members on Regional Forester Frank Beum and BHNF Supervisor Shawn Cochran. Cochrane was the sixth different leader in 2023 alone and 11th in the past seven years. Mertz just told an interested party that the ASQ on the BHNF should be about 40,000 CCF and that the mill in Spearditch will also close.

I know a lot of people think that the Black Hills NF is a one-off, a place where there was more industry capacity than there was timber supply. The truth is that almost every National Forest with a timber industry highly dependent upon them for volume, is just one large fire and/or bug infestation away from being in the Black Hills’ shoes. Things are going along well and then in a short period of time, you have a timber industry crying for wood and blaming the FS, with the politicians jumping on and senior FS leadership that doesn’t have your back. [Mertz, blog comment]

A fifth Oregon mill also in a Republican County has announced its closure so far this year citing:

Lack of a willing and drug-free workforce.

Lack of housing to recruit workers from outside the area.

Unfavorable market conditions for lumber in recent years.

High manufacturing costs due to inflation.

Low and inconsistent production due to workforce issues.

Continued layering of government regulations on small business in Oregon.