Weyerhaeuser Company announced on June 22nd that it will permanently shut down its operations at the lumber and plywood mills in Columbia Falls, Montana, somewhere in August or September.
The company will be left with 3 other mills in Montana: a lumber mill in Kalispell, a plywood mill in Kalispell, and a medium-density fiberboard mill in Columbia Falls.
"For some time now our operations in Montana have been running below capacity as a result of an ongoing shortage of logs in the region," said Doyle R. Simons, president and chief executive officer.
As Weyerhaeuser press release states, the closure will allow the company to align the available log supply with their manufacturing capacity. Thus, the extra shifts will be added to both Kalispell mills.
The log supply shortage is more than a decade problem, as Tom Ray, Weyerhaeuser Montana Resources Team Leader, stated. So Weyerhaeuser decided to consolidate its Flathead Valley operations as it would have more economic sense.
Nearly 100 jobs will be affected by the shutdown of the mills in Montana.
Weyerhaeuser had previously decided to move corporate positions that do not support manufacturing in Montana from Columbia Falls to its Seattle headquarters. Moreover, the company plans to close its main office in Columbia Falls by the end of the year.
The company owns 13 million acres of timberlands, mainly in the US, while managing additional timberlands in Canada. In February 2016, Weyerhaeuser merged with Plum Creek Timber Company, Inc.
