BAKER CITY HERALD • TUESDAY, JULY 26, 2022 A5
OREGON
Closed for 15 years, Prairie Wood Products is back
BY STEVEN MITCHELL
Blue Mountain Eagle
Prairie City residents woke up last
week to a sound they had not heard
in years.
A working sawmill.
The Prairie Wood Products saw-
mill officially reopened on Monday,
July 11, for its first full day of opera-
tions.
The D.R. Johnson Lumber Co. an-
nounced last month that it intended
to reopen the mill, which was shut-
tered 15 years ago. To staff the oper-
ation, the company hosted a two-day
job fair at Chester’s Thriftway in John
Day.
Plant manager Tom Moore said
the mill hired roughly 25 people. He
said once the planer is up and run-
ning, he would be looking to hire be-
tween 15 and 20 more employees.
Prairie Wood Products President
Jodi Westbrooks said the company
was happy to be able to hire the staff
needed to get the mill running again.
“They are working hard,” she said.
“I’ve been in the mill watching them
go as hard as they can.”
Westbrooks said there are some
kinks the sawmill has to work out
with the old equipment. But all in
all, she said, things are running
smoothly at the mill.
“It is going,” she said, “and we are
thrilled.”
Moore, who used to work for the
DR Johnson-owned Grant Western
Steven Mitchell/Blue Mountain Eagle
A forklift motors around the Prairie Wood Products yard on Thursday, July 14, 2022.
sawmill in John Day, told the Eagle
that the mill’s mothballed cogenera-
tion plant has some issues that must
be worked through before it can be
fired up again.
Craig Trulock, Malheur National
Forest supervisor, told the newspa-
per last month that the cogeneration
plant could provide a way to remove
biomass from the forest. Currently,
he said, there is no market for that
material.
The biomass, which consists of
small logs, branches and bushes that
would otherwise get burned up in
the forest or left on the ground, could
be ground and burned in the cogen-
eration plant to generate heat and
electricity, Trulock said.
Westbrooks said the company
plans to get its timber supply from
a combination of public and private
lands and will purchase logs from in-
dependent loggers and landowners.
Brett Morris, the owner of Morris
Forestry, said in a Friday, July 15, in-
terview that he had already delivered
nine loads of logs to the sawmill.
“(Prairie Wood) is really cranking
up production,” he said.
Morris said he works as an inde-
pendent logger in the spring, but
during fire season he works as a
wildland firefighter with his logging
equipment, which makes him good
money. With Prairie Wood open, he
said he would be running his logging
company during fire season.
In the long term, he said running
his business would be better for him
and his family.
“My family will appreciate that
I won’t be gone for two to three
months in the summertime,” Morris
said.
Morris said his company had been
about a month behind schedule with
the late spring rain, but things are go-
ing well now.
He said if the mill had not been
open in Prairie City, he would have
had to haul logs to Elgin or Pilot
Rock for milling. With rising fuel
costs, there would have been a good
chance he would not have been able
to operate.
“My little company couldn’t afford
to haul (logs) that far with the way
fuel is right now.”
Having the mill open benefits local
private landowners with respect to
fuel reduction and removing wildfire
risks, Morris added.
While Prairie Wood hopes to col-
laborate with the Malheur National
Forest and other public agencies on
forest restoration projects, Moore
said the mill has primarily been
working with private landowners so
far.
He said the company hopes to
build other relationships going for-
ward.
Moore said he could not say how
many board feet of timber the mill
plans to process because it is in its
“infancy stages.”
Nonetheless, Moore — who
worked for Malhuer Lumber before
coming to Prairie Wood Products —
said that reopening the mill has been
a great feeling.
“It is not every day,” he said, “that
you get to bring something back
from the dead.”
The Prairie City mill was pur-
chased by the D.R. Johnson Lum-
ber Co. in 1976. Two years later, the
family-owned company added a stud
mill and planer. Then, in the late
1980s, the company installed a co-
generation power plant.
The sawmill, which operated suc-
cessfully in Prairie City for more than
30 years and employed upwards of
100 people who worked two different
shifts, shuttered in 2008 amid a hous-
ing market crash that led to a lack of
available sawlogs.
D.R. Johnson restarted the mill in
early 2009 but shut it down perma-
nently by the end of the year. The
cleanup of the mill, which sits at the
west end of Prairie City, concluded
in 2019.
Since then, much of the mill equip-
ment has remained on site, along
with the co-gen plant.
Oregon economy nears full recovery
Economist says
construction
sector is booming
BY PETER WONG
Oregon Capital Bureau
ODFW
A trail camera photo shows an adult wolf with pups in the Upper
Deschutes Wildlife Management Area in Central Oregon. ODFW has
designated a new Area of Known Wolf Activity in the area, including
parts of Deschutes and northern Klamath counties.
New group of wolves
seen in southern
Deschutes County
BY GEORGE PLAVEN
Capital Press
A new group of wolves has
taken up residence in Cen-
tral Oregon, including parts
of Deschutes and northern
Klamath counties.
State wildlife officials des-
ignated an Area of Known
Wolf Activity in the Upper
Deschutes Wildlife Manage-
ment Unit, which extends
from near Bend south to
Crescent along U.S. High-
way 97 and west to the Pacific
Crest Trail.
The Oregon Department of
Fish and Wildlife creates wolf
activity areas in locations
where the same wolves — not
wolves passing through —
use an area repeatedly over
time. The designation also
helps alert livestock produc-
ers about wolf presence.
Ranchers in the area
should consider nonlethal
measures to protect their live-
stock, according to the Ore-
gon Department of Fish and
Wildlife, such as hiring range
riders or using flashing lights
and alarms to scare away
wolves.
ODFW also recommends
removing any carcasses or
bone piles that might attract
wolves. Other deterrents may
include guard dogs, electri-
fied fencing of small pastures
and fladry.
While Oregon’s wolf man-
agement plan does allow for
killing wolves in the event of
repeated attacks on livestock,
this does not apply west of
highways 395, 78 and 95,
where wolves remain feder-
ally protected under the En-
dangered Species Act. That
includes the Upper Deschutes
area.
The minimum known wolf
population in Oregon based
on verified evidence was at
least 175 at the end of 2021,
though ODFW acknowledges
the actual population is likely
higher.
Biologists began monitor-
ing reports of a single wolf in
the area in August 2021, and
one wolf was counted during
ODFW’s annual winter sur-
vey.
Earlier this year, tracks of
four wolves were found in
the area, though it wasn’t im-
mediately clear if they came
from a new group of wolves
or from the Indigo Pack,
which occupies territory just
to the south.
On July 4, a trail camera in
the area snapped a photo of
an adult wolf with five pups,
confirming the new group.
Depending on how many
wolves are in the group by
year’s end, it may be desig-
nated the Upper Deschutes
Pack, with a pack being de-
fined as having at least four
wolves traveling together in
winter — typically with at
least two adults and their off-
spring.
ODFW says additional
surveys will be conducted
to learn more about the Up-
per Deschutes wolves’ home
range.
Wolf sightings from the
public can be reported to
ODFW online at www.dfw.
state.or.us/wolves.
With summer
here, there is
lots of traveling.
Be safe &
have fun!
The addition of 8,700 jobs
in June moves Oregon a little
closer to full recovery from
the pandemic downturn in
spring 2020, when the official
unemployment rate shot up
to 13.2%.
Oregon’s gains kept the
statewide unemployment rate
in June at 3.6%, essentially
unchanged from the previous
month (adjusted to 3.5%) and
identical to the national aver-
age. The record low of 3.4%
prevailed from November
2019 through February 2020,
at the onset of the coronavirus
pandemic.
“We continue to have a
strong labor market,” Gail
Krumenauer, economist for
the Oregon Employment De-
partment, said Wednesday,
July 20, in an online brief-
ing for reporters. “Large job
gains have been reported over
many sectors of the economy.
No broad sector of Oregon’s
economy had large job losses
in June.”
According to the June re-
port, also issued July 20, con-
struction led monthly gains
with 2,800 jobs. Its 118,700
but high unemployment rates
persisted longer.
On Monday, July 18, the
Employment Department
released its second-quarter
report on job vacancies. The
agency has compiled such re-
ports since 2013 — and the
106,500 vacancies in the new-
est report means that Oregon
has now exceeded the 100,000
mark for a full year. Employ-
ers told the agency that three
of every four vacancies was
hard to fill. (Counting spring
2021, vacancies ranged be-
tween 97,000 and 107,000 for
a record five quarters.)
“The need for workers was
widespread,” Krumenauer
said. “Businesses are looking
to fill a variety of jobs in more
than 280 occupations. That
means it’s still a tight labor
market where employers are
having trouble trying to find
enough workers.”
In Oregon and the nation
as a whole, she said there are
two job vacancies for every
unemployed person. Kru-
menauer said employers
have raised pay, added bene-
fits, increased job flexibility,
changed job requirements,
and advertised vacancies
more widely, including the
statewide network of Work-
Source centers run by the Em-
ployment Department and
partner agencies.
Big housing development planned in Pendleton
BY JOHN TILLMAN
East Oregonian
PENDLETON — The city
plans development of com-
mercial and residential prop-
erties on about 250 acres
south of I-84 between Exits
210 and 216, within its urban
growth boundary.
A road connecting High-
way 11 near the Red Lion
with Highway 30 at the Exit
216 intersection is estimated
to cost $8 million. Given el-
evation changes, the project
will require a $3 million wa-
ter boost station, according to
City Manager Robb Corbett.
“It’s probably the biggest
ever in Pendleton,” Corbett
said. “It’s three times the size
of the Sunridge subdivision
south of the middle school,
but with an arterial road, al-
lowing access to neighbor-
hood streets. There could be
1,000 homes, plus commer-
cial development in the west-
ern parcels.”
McDonald’s, Super 8 by
Wyndham and Holiday Inn
Express currently adjoin the
planned commercial zone on
its west.
Eastern Oregon Regional
Airport covers nearly 3000
acres, not counting develop-
ments off Airport Road on
N.W. Avenues A through N.
But homes and businesses
south of the airport and
north of Westgate cover less
area than the planned project.
The Umatilla County
Board of Commissioners ap-
proved a $2 million revolv-
ing fund to Pendleton for the
road in November and De-
cember last year. The city is
applying for state and federal
grants for the water and road
projects now.
“Pendleton’s policy is that
developers have to pay their
own way,” Corbett said.
“The city is trying to put the
money together, with the
understanding that the de-
veloper would pay us back.
We’re doing just enough
right now, then we’ll create a
reimbursement district, al-
lowing property owners to
repay us, based upon their
development. There are huge
upfront costs. We’ll partner
with developers to jump start
the project. Once repaid, the
money will be reinvested.”
The city used its $2 mil-
lion from the county to make
a loan to another developer
building house on S.W. Nye
Ave.
“The houses will be built
and the loan repaid before
the (Highways 11 and 30 con-
nection) project gets off the
ground,” Corbett said.
The properties are still be-
ing farmed. They belong to
the Rees and Goad families
and Jim Whitney, Corbett re-
ported.
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jobs overall is a historical peak ery in that sector is still only
for Oregon, surpassing the
87% of pre-pandemic levels,
112,300 in February 2020.
and 14,600 jobs remain to
All construction industries
reach those levels.
grew rapidly over the past 12
She said public and private
months, with several growing education continue to lag in
by double-digits: Building fin- job growth.
ishing contractors, up 13.2%;
Oregon has regained 94%
building equipment contrac-
of the jobs lost during the
tors, up 11.5%; heavy and civil pandemic, compared with
engineering construction, up
98% for the nation as a whole.
10.8%; and specialty trade
For Oregon’s private sector,
contractors, up 10.7%.
that mark is 98%.
Monthly growth also oc-
The Oregon Office of Eco-
curred in other services, such
nomic Analysis, which pre-
as auto repairs
pares the state’s
and hair salons,
quarterly eco-
“We
have
seen
1,600; health care
nomic and rev-
some sectors still enue forecasts,
and social assis-
tance and leisure
has projected that
struggle to get
and hospitality
Oregon will see a
(bars, entertain-
back to their pre- complete recov-
ment, hotels and
ery of jobs by the
pandemic levels.” end of this year.
restaurants),
1,300 each.
When that oc-
— Gail Krumenauer,
“We have seen
curs, the recovery
economist for the
some sectors
period of two-
Oregon Employment
still struggle to
and-a-half years
Department
get back to their
from the down-
pre-pandemic
turn will have
levels,” Krumenauer said.
been relatively short — far
She said the health care and shorter than the seven years
social assistance sector has re- Oregon required to recover
bounded strongly in the first
from economic downturns in
half of this year, after lagging
the 1980s and 2010s. Those
through the end of 2021.
earlier recessions did not see
The leisure and hospitality
a record one-month jump in
sector also has added 28,500
the unemployment rate from
jobs between June 2021 and
3.4% to 13.2% during March
June 2022, or 16.4% growth.
and April 2020, unlike what
But Krumenauer said recov-
happened in the pandemic —
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