SILVERTONAPPEAL.COM
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WEDNESDAY, JUNE 22, 2022
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Lumber
Continued from Page 2A
Last year’s pandemic-caused lumber
market disruptions are largely to blame
for the high prices, and they include
shifts in homebuilding trends, layoffs at
sawmills and limited production as the
virus appeared. Demand is high, and
producers are trying to keep up.
Sawmills began limiting production
and, in some cases, laying off workers
during the pandemic’s early months.
New home construction also stalled
around the same time.
“We were making a product nobody
was buying,” Roscoe said.
Seneca didn’t lay off employees, but
reduced hours and shifted production
crews to other duties. But before long,
the pandemic created a lumber de-
mand: People were now shopping for
homes with months of isolation ahead
and starting do-it-yourself projects.
Demand for wood continued to grow
through 2020 and into 2021, and prices
kept rising.
It isn’t for a lack of wood: U.S. timber
production in February reached a 13-
year high.
“The lumber market is extremely
strong. It’s the highest since I’ve been in
business, and I’ve been in business 39
years,” said Mike Pihil, owner of Mike Pi-
hil Logging Co. and president of Oregon
natural resources worker advocacy
group Timber Unity. “It’s not really help-
ing out the loggers right now because
there are so many logs on the market.”
Oregon’s 2020 wildfires have created
an excess of locally available timber, Pi-
hil said. Many landowners are salvaging
what they can before the wood becomes
unusable.
“This is an epic event. We’ve never
seen this in our lifetime and hopefully
we’ll never see it again,” Pihil said. “But
just wait. Two years from now, there’s
not going to be any logs on the market
because that 40-year supply is gone. It
was burnt up and sent to the mill.”
Roscoe said availability of wood is
only one part of the equation. Lumber
mills need time to scale up production,
but other aspects of the market are in
disarray, including the loss of harvest-
ing equipment in the fires and altered
timber harvesting timelines statewide.
“There’s a lot of access to wood right
now to the degree mills are willing to
take black logs, so that part is good,”
Roscoe said. “But there’s layers of com-
plexity on everything.”
A costly time to rebuild
How deeply the cost of building ma-
terials will affect those trying to rebuild
after the fires will depend much on how
well their insurance policies will adjust
to those rising prices.
Blue River resident Terry Herndon
Heat rule
Continued from Page 1A
“Oregon’s unions are firmly commit-
ted to making sure Oregon OSHA creates
the strongest rules possible so that out-
door or indoor workers who are exposed
to excessive heat and wildfire smoke are
protected as best as possible,” Graham
Trainor, Oregon AFL-CIO president, said
in a March press release. “The stakes are
too high for anything less.”
OSHA spokesperson Aaron Corvin
said farmers, including Farm Bureau
members, have been invited into the
process at every step since February
when the rule was first proposed.
The agency unveiled resources to
help employers and workers under-
stand the rule at the beginning of June,
including an online training course that
fulfills parts of the rule’s training re-
quirement and is available in English
and in Spanish. Two fact sheets about
the rule are available in English and will
soon be available in Spanish, according
to OSHA’s website.
“We’re talking about exposures to a
very real hazard,” Corvin said. “We have
been engaging with stakeholders and
employers [since February] to help
them understand. We want them to be
successful. They have an obligation to
maintain safe and healthy workplaces.”
The specifics
There are four main components to
the new rule: shade, water, breaks, and
preventative training.
Employers must provide at least one
shade area, natural or artificial, when
the heat index reaches 80 degrees.
Employers also are required to pro-
vide enough water for each employee to
be able to drink 32 ounces per hour. The
water must be cool or cold — no warmer
than 77 degrees Fahrenheit. Employees
can substitute some, but not all, of the
day’s water requirement with caffeine-
free electrolyte drinks such as Gatorade.
Employers must choose between
three rest break schedule options based
on workload. Rest break schedules don’t
apply until the heat index reaches 90
degrees.
Each of these decisions must be doc-
umented in a written plan.
OSHA will enforce the rule based on
complaints from employees and work-
Many of the workers at Freres Lumbers’ Mass Plywood Plant have been able to social distance due to technology such as
robots and cranes. SPECIAL TO THE STATESMAN JOURNAL
Freres Lumber Company president Rob
Freres has donated $1 million to the
Defeat the Sales Tax Now committee.
SPECIAL TO THE STATESMAN JOURNAL
has had the ash and debris cleared away
from his lot and is in the early stages of
rebuilding efforts. He recently spoke
with his insurance company and was
told his replacement cost policy would
cover the rising cost of lumber.
“They wanted a quote. The longer it
takes, the more it’s going up,” Herndon
said.
From the trailer on her parents’ prop-
erty, Melanie Stanley can see the now-
cleared lot where her Blue River home
stood before the Holiday Farm Fire.
There are already a number of things
weighing on her rebuilding plans, such
as building permits and septic systems.
Add to it the rising cost of materials
to rebuild her home and her store.
“Most people aren’t insured well
enough to be able to deal with the full
replacement costs with the price of lum-
ber,” she said. “Nobody foresees a 300%
increase in the cost of building materi-
als. That’s kind of where everything is
sitting: exponential increases.”
Stanley said her insurance likely will
make possible rebuilding her home back
place inspections focused specifically
on heat. Corvin said the agency has
maintained a heat emphasis program,
meaning inspectors specifically focus
on heat safety, since 2017, before the rule
was adopted or even proposed. Enforc-
ing the new rule shouldn’t come at an
extra cost, he said.
The minimum penalty for a “non-se-
rious” violation is $100, according to an
agency fact sheet. The minimum penal-
ty for a willful violation — in which an
employer purposefully disregards the
rule — is $9,753.
Resources available
h Heat illness prevention online
course available in English and Spanish
h Fact sheet about the key require-
ments of the heat rule available in Eng-
lish
h Fact sheet about the heat rule’s rest
break schedule options for preventing
heat illness available in English
h A worker’s right to a safe and health
workplace.
h Free Oregon OSHA consultations
for employers to improve workplace
safety and health programs – no fault,
no citations, no penalties.
h Questions about how to apply rules
to your workplace? Contact Oregon
OSHA specialists.
h A-to-Z topic index, including pages
for heat illness prevention and wildfire
smoke.
h Oregon Department of Consumer
and Business Services (includes Oregon
OSHA as a division) Multicultural Com-
munications Program, provides out-
reach to communities with limited Eng-
lish proficiency. The toll-free number for
Spanish-speaking Oregonians: 800-
843-8086.
h Ombuds Office for Oregon Workers
for help understanding workplace safe-
ty and health rights, and workers’ com-
pensation rights.
Oregon OSHA also adopted wildfire
smoke rules in May. The wildfire smoke
rule will take effect July 1. Resources to
help understand and comply with the
wildfire smoke rule are coming.
Shannon Sollitt covers agricultural
workers in the Mid-Willamette Valley as
a corps member for Report for America,
a program that aims to support local
journalism and democracy by reporting
on under-covered issues and communi-
ties. You may reach her at ssollitt@
statesmanjournal.com.
Freres Lumber workers sorting veneer are separated by plastic dividers on Oct.
22, 2020, in Mill City. The measure was taken to prevent the spread of COVID-19.
ABIGAIL DOLLINS / STATESMAN JOURNAL
to what it was before the fire, but she
had hoped to build back her store, Mey-
er’s General Store and Liquor Shop, big-
ger and better. Now she expects to have
to scale back those plans.
“Where we may have been looking at
hopefully upgrading the size of the
building ... we may not be able to do that
now simply because of the cost,” Stan-
ley said.
Supply chain issues are limited to
just wood products at the major lumber
mills. It’s hitting all wood products.
Freres said he waited over a year for
two deck chairs to be delivered to his
house last weekend.
“Just for two chairs,” he said. “They’re
nothing extraordinary. They’re just two
wooden chairs with cushions on the
back and on the seat. Two of them.”