Image provided by: Morrow County Museum; Heppner, OR
About Heppner gazette-times. (Heppner, Or.) 1925-current | View Entire Issue (Nov. 24, 2010)
Recession hits tree farm sawmill By David Sykes The nationwide re cession has hit home at the sawmill set up two years ago to saw logs from the 25,000 acre poplar tree farm near Boardman. The mill has cut back from two shifts and 105 full time employees to just one shift with 59 employees, a rep resentative of the company Bessie Wetzell Newspaper L ibrary University o f Oregon Bugene. OR 97403 HEPPNER imes VOL. 129 NO. 47 8 Pages Wednesday, November 24,2010 Morrow County, Heppner, Oregon Students take to the hills Heppner students took advantage of their snow day on November 23, taking their sleds to Water Street. -Photo by Autumn Morgan Area pastors invited to submit Christmas messages The Heppner Gazette-Times invites area pastors to submit Christmas mes sages to be published in the December 22 edition. The deadline is Friday, December 17, at 5 p.m. Messages can be dropped off at the Gazette office, emailed to editor@rapid- serve.net, or faxed to 541-676-9211. Gazette-Times to close for Thanksgiving The Heppner Gazette-Times will be closed on Thursday and Friday, Novem ber 25 and 26, in observance of the Thanksgiving Holiday. The office will re-open on Monday, November 29, at 9 a.m. told the Heppner Chamber of Commerce at its weekly meeting last Thursday. Luke Maynard, ir rigation manager at Green wood resources, which operates the tree farm, said the cutback was neces sary because of the overall recession and slowdown in the economy. The mill produces mostly boards for molding, cabinetry and furniture pieces, much of it exported to China. He said in the third quarter of this year the mill had two shifts and was operating full time but then had to cut back. The mill is capable of producing 100 million board feet per year at full production. Maynard gave an overview to Chamber mem bers of the tree farm, which was purchased in 2007 from the Potlatch Corp. The tree farm ir rigation system is capable of pumping 225,000 gallons of water from the Columbia River per minute to irri gate the 23,000 acres near Boardman and an addi tional 2,500 acres across the river in Washington. The water is delivered through a complex computerized irrigation system of canals, 100 pumps and finally into miles and miles of black drip irrigation lines. The hoses are used over and over and can last up to 25 years, Maynard says. Two years ago the company up graded all its intake pipes to protect fish in the Co lumbia. The manmade for est attracts a multitude of wildlife including coyote, deer, porcupine and cougar. Maynard said there is an estimated 600 deer on the property and one section is set aside for employee and contractor hunting. He said some animals, especially the coyote, like to chew on the drip lines. The company has also installed 150 nest ing boxes for owls which prey on rodents which also chew on the lines. The fast growing trees are planted between 145 to 290 per acre and are harvested after 12 years when they reach an av erage height of 110 feet. They grow an average of 10 feet in height and one inch in diameter per year. They are then taken to the mill in eight, 10 or 12 foot logs where they are cut into boards, then taken to the dry kiln on the Port of Morrow and cured with excess steam heat from the nearby gas power plant. The company plants and harvests about 600,000 trees per year. During the growth Arbogast, Gould fill elk tags Cade Arhogast (left photo) and Tom Gould (right photo) filled their elk tags this hunting season. -Contributed Photos Health department to conduct free flu clinic The Morrow Coun ty Health Department will conduct a free flu clinic at Riverside High School in Boardman from 4-7:30 p.m. on December 1. Shots will be given on a first come, first serve basis. People with no insur ance or funds to pay for flu shots and would otherwise not be able to get a flu shot are encouraged to stop by and get their shot. Everyone is welcome. For more infor mation call the Morrow County Health Department in Heppner at 541-676- 5421 or in Boardman at 541-481-4200. Luke Maynard, irrigation manager for Greenwood Resources, gave a presentation about progress at the Boardman tree farm and sawmill to the Heppner Chamber of Commerce last Thurs day. He said the recession has hit the mill operation and they have had to cut back on production. Photo by David Sykes L-R Lee Jimerson, manager of manufacturing accounts for The Collins Companies, shows Larry Nicholson, Claudia Hughes, Nancy Snider, Jeff Bailey, Sheryl Bates and Kricket Nicholson the cut Pacific Albus boards from the sawmill in Boardman. File photo from 2008 Heppner Chamber o f Commerce tour o f sawmill article Trees are grown in straight rows with as few limbs as possible. They are cut and taken to the sawmill in 12 years. File photo by David Sykes cycle the trees are pruned by hand by between six and 15 crews of 15 men each. The trees are breed to be as straight as possible with the bottoms going to the mill and the top part being chipped and sold on the chip market. About 65 per cent of the tree is used for lumber. The company also plans to supply some mate rial to the new ZeaChem ethanol plant opening soon in Boardman. Maynard also said they are testing some logs with peeling for ply wood manufacturing. Maynard said they usually have 15 to 18 dif ferent clones of the Pacific Albus poplars growing at any given time, and that they are always trying to develop new clones which grow straighter, faster and more bug resistant. He said it takes four to five years of testing to develop a new hybrid ready for production growing. After the trees are cut down the ground is made ready again for a new crop again by mulching up any leftover material and grinding the stumps down to the ground. The irrigation line is pulled up and wrapped in coils ready to be laid again. The new trees are planted in between the last rows of trees. The stumps are not removed because in four to five years they will break down and deteriorate away, saving quite a bit on labor costs, Maynard explained. “It's a little tough right now," Maynard said about business and the economy. “But we expect things to pick up in the fu ture and we are in this for the long haul.” We will be closed at ALL locations Thursday, Friday 8c Saturday M onday for holiday shopping Lorenz announces retirement from school district Check out our Christmas shopping Longtime Morrow County School District Business Manager Rhonda Lorenz recently announced her retirement. Lorenz joins district office superintendent Mark Burrows, assistant superintendent Phyllis Danielson, and Mary Kay Bellamy from accounts payable who will retire at the end of the 2010-2011 school year. flyer in this week's paper1 . M o r r o w C o u n ty G r a in G ro w e rs Greeen Feed & Seed, Heppner and MCGG, Lexington »
