Rosboro timber company temporarily closes Springfield mill and lays off 25
Story updated to reflect that 25 people were laid off, not the 40 that was originally reported.
Rosboro Co. is temporarily closing its commodity stud lumber mill in Springfield and laying off 25 workers, the company confirmed Friday.
The company plans to eventually reopen the facility and rehire workers in about two years after changing the mill to focus on producing glue-laminated timber, instead of timber studs for home framing, said Rosboro senior vice president Brian Wells.
The two year hiatus at the mill wasn't planned but came as a result of it becoming increasingly expensive to harvest timber in Oregon due to new regulations, Wells said.
"We didn't plan two shut the mill down for two years," Well said. "The reason we're closing it for now is that we can't afford to buy logs.
"Recently implemented regulations restricting timber harvest in Oregon have caused material harm to the competitiveness of much of our state’s wood products manufacturing segment, and 25 of our employees and their families will unfortunately suffer for it,” Wells said.
In the interim, Rosboro will continue to employ 295 Springfield employees and maintain operations at its lamstock mill, two planer mills, dry kilns, and three glulam manufacturing plants.
The Oregonian first reported the closure.
Second mill in Oregon to close over lack of logs
Rosboro is the second timber company in Oregon to close a mill citing new regulations on timber harvest.
In early January, Hampton Lumber closed its sawmill in Banks and laid off 58 employees, citing “log supply restrictions.” Hampton singled out a policy known as the Habitat Conservation Plan, which seeks to protect wildlife habitat on Oregon state forests but would lead to a decline in timber harvest.
Wells said the HCP did play a role in Rosboro’s decision by reducing available logs and increasing prices, especially for smaller producers. But he also targeted the recently adopted Private Forest Accord, which passed the state legislature in 2021 and overhauled private and state forest policy.
The accord was an agreement between environmental groups and timber companies meant to provide regulatory certainty about what could and couldn’t be logged and protect habitat.
But Wells said the accord mostly benefits “large industrial” timber companies that own vast swaths of private timberland but harms smaller producers.
“The accord reduced the annual volume of timber harvest in Oregon,” he said. “That directly increases the value of the corporate owned timber resources without increasing their internal cost of utilization. That increased value is passed along to smaller producers through increased log prices. Because the smaller companies do not own their own timberland, this makes them much less competitive.”
Rosboro plans to reopen mill eventually in different capacity
Wells said Rosboro would focus on their core business of glue-laminated timber and is in the process of investing $100 million into facilities that support that business. Glue-laminated beams and columns are primarily used in residential and mass timber construction.
Wells said the company planned to eventually reopen the stud mill to support that purpose, while moving away from commodity timber production.
“The project will increase Rosboro’s vertically integrated glulam manufacturing capacity by 50%, and the stud mill will be a key piece to that puzzle,” Wells said.
If Oregon timber prices eventually come down, the company would “be prepared to jump back in” to commodity lumber production, which mainly includes studs for framing homes.
Zach Urness has been an outdoors reporter in Oregon for 15 years and is host of the Explore Oregon Podcast. Urness is the author of “Best Hikes with Kids: Oregon” and “Hiking Southern Oregon.” He can be reached at zurness@StatesmanJournal.com or (503) 399-6801. Find him on Twitter at @ZachsORoutdoors.
This article originally appeared on Salem Statesman Journal: Oregon timber company Rosboro temporarily closes mill and lays off 25
