News Article
Patrick Lumber Manufacturing Adds Sawmill to Philomath Operations
October 31, 2023Philomath OR
U.S. Forest Service Provides Partial Financing with $1 Million Grant. Patrick Lumber Manufacturing (PLM) has begun work to add a sawmill at its manufacturing facility located in Philomath, Oregon. The mill is being funded in part by a $1 million Community Wood Grant provided by the USDA Forest Service.
Patrick’s is one of nine projects in Oregon to receive grants totaling more than $4,000,000 during FY 2023 through the forest service’s wood innovations and community wood grants programs. The programs’ primary purpose is to support local economies while directly contributing to improving forest health and reducing wildfire risks to communities. Partial funding for the programs was made possible by President Biden’s Bipartisan Infrastructure Law and the Inflation Reduction Act.
Patrick will cut lumber from Oregon white oak, Pacific maple, tan oak, madrone, chinquapin, myrtle, and Oregon ash trees found throughout western Oregon and northern California. With no commercial outlets for the fiber, hardwoods have in some cases become a nuisance for land managers working to improve forest health and they are an increasing component of wildfire threatened overstocked stands.
“We saw a real opportunity here,” said Patrick Lumber’s CEO David Halsey, “We can produce and market products that are in demand while also making it possible for forest managers to more economically perform activities that further the health of our forests.”
Halsey believes the mill will be the only commercial-sized hardwood mill in western Oregon that isn’t primarily cutting alder. As such, its fiber-sourcing area will extend hundreds of miles, from northwest Oregon to northern California, making it a critical outlet for land managers fighting pathogens such as Sudden Oak Death in SW Oregon and No. California. It likely will be the only commercial outlet for ash trees threatened by a recent emerald ash borer outbreak in NW Oregon. Logs for the mill will be supplied from private, tribal, state, and federal lands.
In a letter of support for Patrick’s grant proposal, the Oregon Department of Forestry’s Marcus Kauffman and Wyatt Williams wrote, “Utilization infrastructure for hardwood products is rare in Oregon… With no other high-capacity hardwood mills within reasonable transportation distance of the affected areas, Patrick’s new utilization capacity would bolster our mitigation efforts.”
Once fully operational, the mill will produce about 150,000 board feet of hardwood lumber per month, a 4X increase over the smaller mill Patrick had been contemplating before the federal grant opportunity was announced. “The chance for federal support for the project was a game-changer,” Halsey said. “It allowed us to think bigger and consider how we could make a much more significant impact for the community and the forests.”
Among the key criteria for the Community Wood Grant program was to demonstrate economic impact in areas of low employment. Patrick was able to show an expected positive impact in 18 Oregon counties, 17 of which were experiencing unemployment levels that were more than one percentage point higher than the 2019 federal rate (the baseline chosen by the forest service) at the time the application was submitted. Patrick Lumber Manufacturing expects to add at least four new full-time positions to the 28 already employed at the Philomath location.
“We couldn’t be more pleased that the forest service recognized the importance of supporting industry infrastructure in our rural communities,” Halsey said. “This project is a great example of what our programs are all about – it addresses a specific need for wood processing infrastructure that will help us improve the health of forests and reduce the risks of wildfire while also serving as a key investment in rural America,” said Brian Brashaw, Assistant Director for Cooperative Forestry Wood Innovations at the USDA Forest Service.
The mill is expected to be operating at full capacity by June 2025.
