Blue Lake Forest Products' demise leaves bitter taste By Matt Kapko Eye Correspondent The Arcata Eye 12-31-2002 One of the few remaining family-owned sawmills in the area has shut down and sold off its remaining equipment, taking with its demise the jobs of 94 employees. Blue Lake Forest Products, located along the north bank of the Mad River, is now in bankruptcy and in the process of paying off its outstanding debts to its creditors. Bruce Taylor, president of the company, faults the company’s demise on what he called, “radical preservationists in the community,” and more simply put: a lack of log and timber supply. “The environmentalists put us out of business. It put roughly 100 families out of work.” Taylor said regulations on the amount of timber being sold from the national forests have become too restrictive. He cited the spotted owl’s listing on the endangered species list, the Northwest Fire Plan and subsequent court injunctions on timber sales as catastrophic to his company’s production. Perhaps in the same boat as Taylor, Mark Anderson, licensed forester and employee at Schmidbauer Lumber, said, 70 percent of the company’s volume came from national forests in 1987. Currently none of its timber is purchased from national forests. Taylor finds it ironic that the environmentalist campaign has had its most successful effect on the most producing places, such as here, in the coastal region of the Pacific Northwest. Admittedly bitter about the condition of the lumber industry, Taylor said he finds it most troubling that “We’re using the ‘not in our backyard’ idea and exploiting other countries” for their timber resources. “We’re exporting the jobs to other countries,” he said. There is a huge misunderstanding that this area used to be solid old growth from ridge top to ridge top, commented Taylor. He asserted there are more old-growth redwoods now than there was 150-to-200 years ago. Environmental ‘scapegoats’ “It’s really nice to have a scapegoat like the environmentalists,” said Tim McKay, executive director of the Northcoast Environmental Center. He continued, “It’s absolutely fallacious,” that Taylor would claim more old-growth redwoods exist now than 150-to-200 years ago. There are only one-to-two percent of the old-growth redwoods in existence now that existed 150 years ago, McKay said. McKay cited other issues associated with and responsible for the closing of Blue Lake Forest Products: changes in the industry since the ‘40s and the cutting of most large trees in the area by 1968. “(Taylor) should probably be blaming the forest service for not following their own rules,” McKay added, referring to numerous attempted sales of national forest trees without following environmental guidelines. McKay said Taylor’s bitterness may also be attributable to his coming into the industry too late. In the past, the private logging industry itself, contested cutting in public lands because of its affect on the market value of privately-owned timber, McKay said. Also, when the Redwood National Park was expanded in 1978, changes were made to previous tax laws which accrued annual taxes on uncut privately-owned timber. “All these issues are coming up again with the Bush Administration,” McKay said, referring to President Bush’s recently announced logging plan, which calls for increased logging in national parks and forests – a highly-controversial approach to reducing wildfires. Robin Arkley, who founded BLFP in 1949, sided with Taylor, but added an academic twist. “The shutdown of extractive industries pretty closely follows public colleges and universities locating in whatever part of the country the extractive product might be in, such as timber, oil, mining and so forth,” he said. “These students are largely the product of liberal families who were predisposed to be 'anti' everything, including being cynical about our government on a national basis… One should never be fooled for a minute – they don’t really care about saving a spotted owl. What they truly want is power in the hands of a few middle-aged former hippies and philosophers.” Ramifications of the closure Blue Lake Forest Products was operated by Taylor since August 1986 and at its peak had 225 employees. In its 16 years of business, Taylor claims the company brought a half billion dollars to the local economy. Since the closing of the mill in April, the properties are all that remain of the company’s holdings. Taylor said the mill was offered for sale at 10 cents on the dollar, but because of the lack of timber harvest supply, there was no interest. He fears the closing of Blue Lake Forest Products resembles a growing global trend for companies to move to other regions with less-restrictive regulations on logging. Retraining programs are available to the company’s employees through the state, but Taylor said, “There are some good people that have still not found work.” Home