The dismantling of the last large-scale sawmill in Jackson County has hit White City residents hard as they watch equipment being hauled away, entire buildings being gutted and a way of life rapidly disappearing.
"I've been watching the demolition of this mill for the past couple of months," said Ann Hathaway, 65, who lives a little more than a mile from the former mill that turned logs into lumber at Agate and Antelope roads. "It just makes me want to cry."
Its contents auctioned in December, Boise Cascade's sprawling sawmill is vanishing, with gaping holes in the sides of buildings to remove equipment.
The mill began closing in January 2008, with 32 of 59 workers losing their jobs. Boise closed its other sawmill in north Medford in 1998 after a fire, and announced in January it is shutting down its White City plywood mill and will lay off 110 workers March 13.
Over the past 25 years, Jackson County has seen at least 17 mills close their doors.
Last week, a huge metal shearer tore into a roof at the Boise sawmill while salvage crews separated materials for recycling. Other metal buildings have been sold off, and workers removed lights and sprinkler systems and stacked up siding. Once the work is completed, only a few of the dozens of buildings that produced millions of board feet of lumber on the property will remain.
"How many more jobs are we going to lose?" asked Hathaway. "It's like a ghost town."
For many Jackson County residents, the mill along Highway 62 near White City's business district is a landmark. The property will continue to store stacks of logs that will be used to make other wood products.
When the mill used to operate three shifts a day a decade ago, it produced up to 50 million board feet of lumber annually, enough for the equivalent of 3,000 homes.
Boise isn't sure what it will do with the property in the long-term, but officials say they may eventually consider selling off the industrial-zoned land. Boise will continue to operate a veneer mill and engineered wood products plant in White City and a plywood mill in north Medford.
Jackson County Commissioner C.W. Smith said the closure of the sawmill means the valley no longer has sufficient production facilities to process raw timber from local forests when the economy turns around.
"We are not only losing jobs, but we're losing the infrastructure, as well," he said.
The closure of other mills in recent years has devastated an industry that supplied high-paying jobs and will make the economic recovery in the valley all the more difficult, said Smith, who has lobbied at both the federal and state level for increases in logging on federal land.
"That's six or seven mills in White City that don't exist," he said.
The economy has been a major factor in the downturn, but Smith said lawsuits and pressure from environmental groups have meant less logging in federal forests in recent years.
Boise officials decided to permanently close the sawmill rather than mothball it because the amount of lumber flowing out of local forests has slowed markedly. Boise needed sufficient quantities of Ponderosa and sugar pine, which was processed at the sawmill then sold to companies that made doors, windows and other finished wood products.
"This is the last of an era — it really is," said Dave Schott, executive vice president of the Southern Oregon Timber Industries Association.
He said a large-scale sawmill is still in operation in Josephine County and another in Klamath County.
Across the country, the wood products industry is struggling because demand has declined sharply.
"We have a very soft, actually a no-demand, economy right now," Schott said.
In addition, the timber industry is nervously eyeing the long-term prospects for timber harvest in Southern Oregon, particularly on federal land.
Schott said that in recent years, 85 percent of the wood used in Jackson County has come off private lands, but in years past 85 percent came from national forests.
Bob Smith, human resources manager for Boise Cascade's Western Oregon Region, said the economy has dealt a crippling blow to his industry.
In 2005, the country recorded 2,068,000 housing starts, according to statistics he released. In 2008, that number slowed to just 904,000 starts. According to a comparison over the past 50 years, 2008 was the worst year on record for housing starts.
Bob Smith said Boise hopes to reopen the White City plywood mill when the economy rebounds, but the future looks less certain for the sawmill.
"We didn't anticipate a renewal of the timber supply to allow us to operate again," he said.
He said there are no immediate plans to sell the sawmill property.
A plant in north Medford will handle all Boise's plywood needs for the near future.
"We don't have any plans to close (the Medford plant)," he said.
Joseph Vaile, campaign director of the Klamath-Siskiyou Wildlands Center, said conservationists don't want to see the timber industry decline.
"We don't want to see a loss of this infrastructure," he said.
Vaile said a vital industry is needed locally to handle what he expects will be an increasing demand for thinning of forests, though some plants may have to retool to handle smaller diameter trees.
Vaile disputes claims the environmentalists are causing some of the mills to shut down, pointing out there is a backlog of small-diameter thinning and timber sales that haven't found buyers.
"You can blame the environmentalists all you want, but the economy is having the effect of shutting these folks down," he said.
Reach reporter Damian Mann at 776-4476 or dmann@mailtribune.com.
