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Oregon: Look At The Mess You’ve Created
I just got a press released telling of another Oregon Lumber Mill going out of business.
What I find most distressing and the most telling is the top reasons for closing.
It’s not the lack of demand for the product, Oregon and other places around the country have an affordable housing crisis.
So, they need the lumber.
Here’s the top sentence:
JOHN DAY – Malheur Lumber Company, the last remaining commercial sawmill in John Day, has announced it will close down its operations. In their closing letter, the company cited the “lack of a willful/drug free workforce, lack of housing to allow to recruit from outside the area, market conditions of lumber over the last couple of years, cost of manufacturing (due to inflation) and low/inconsistent production (due to lack of employees) and continuing layering of governmental regulations upon small business in Oregon” as being primary factors for the closure.
Did you see that?
“Lack of a willful/drug free workforce and a lack of affordable housing to recruit people from outside the area.
Oregon…WTF?
We legalized drugs with measure 110 and now here’s a company paying the price. What we fail to see is the entire state is paying the price.
How we vote matters and what you vote for, even if it sounds so compassionate, can be a ruse.
We allow our state leaders to lock up timber with the HCP and log prices soar. (habitat conservation plan)
Your political leaders cry for more affordable housing.
But they support rules and regulations that make it more difficult to get logs. are voting with your feelings and virtue and ignoring the facts.
We claim to want sustainability but put your local mills out of business and buy our timber from China…How the hell is that sustainable.
What happened to grow local, shop local, buy close to home?
Oh, it only counts when it’s “farm to table” or “Wine and Dine?”
This is so hypocritical.
Your rural communities are dying but apparently it doesn’t matter because most of you live in the metropolitan areas.
Some of you will respond to me “well if they don’t like it they can leave.”
You talk out of both sides of your face and it’s catching up to you.
I think this is the fourth of fifth mill in the state to go under this year.
Allowing this to happen will also catch up to you.
The Truth About Timber is you need it.
Once you figure out houses are built with wood products, you know, connect the dots, maybe you’ll change your tune.
Problem is the mills will be gone and you’ll be stuck buying overseas with higher prices….who will you blame.
I know, some right wing, MAGA, election denying, racist, transphobe.
Oh, and wait until the dots connect and you see nearly everything you buy uses wood products…your tooth paste and yes, even that stuff you use to wipe.
For some reason that one makes me smile.
Maybe when you have no toilet paper your eyes will open.
First off: tying a lumber mill closing to the passage of Measure 110 is a huge stretch, especially if the company is including marijuana as a reason to not hire a good worker.
Articles like these are why people say all you do is bash Oregon. Montana just announced two large mill closures, part of a decades long trend, but you don't seem to have much to say about that, even though many of the reasons are identical: a movement away from rural communities, housing prices driving people away, Federal regulations on lumber.
The funny thing is, some of us liberal folks agree that Federal regulations should help our logging operations in a sustainable manner. There are discussions to be…