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ITzNOWN throughout North l\America as a 100-year-old business and a member of the Fortune 200. Weyerhaeuser is still fundamentally a timber company. Weyerhaeuser is trees. Acres and acres, spreading for miles through the mountains and valleys of the Pacific Northwest.

From its earliest years, Weyerhaeuser's forests have served as the foundation for the firm's subsequent growth, making possible today's integrated production and marketing of lumber, structural panels, engineered

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wood products and paper products.

Now, more than a century after its original 900,000-acre purchase in Washington state, Weyerhaeuser continues to protect and enhance the value and productivity of its timberlands as a fundamental management objective. Today, the company manages over 5.6 million acres in the United States. over 32 million acres in Canada (most in long-term timber licenses from the government), and almost 500,000 acres in the Southern Hemisphere.

But much has changed over the past hundred years. In the early decades. forest landownersn relied on unmanaged, natural forests to meet demand. Beginning in the 1930s, Weyerhaeuser began the first stages of sustainable forest management, protecting their lands from fire and other natural disasters, and improving reforestation techniques so that trees could be managed renewably.

In the 1960s, the company began its "high yield forestry" program, using state-of-the-art science to ensure successful reforestation and improve tree growth. New challenges arrived over the past several decades-from protecting fish and wildlife to meeting customer expectations for certified products to competition for non-wood substitutes such as steel.

"To survive," says Cassie Phillips, Weyerhaeuser's v.p. of Sustainable Forestry, "we must sustain the supply of wood from our managed forests into the future, and we must respond to environmental and customer concerns and competition from other products. Fortunately, Weyerhaeuser has a long history of scientific research and innovation, and as public and customer expectations have evolved, we have improved our ability to respond."

Weyerhaeuser manages its forests to increase the quality and volume of wood produced as well as to protect natural resources. Practices include:

During harvest, leaving buffers of trees along streams, to protect water quality and fish habitat, and standing trees and downed logs for wildlife habitat.

. Planting 300 to 600 seedlings on each acre.

Thinning forest stands to give remaining trees room to grow.

. Protecting soils from harmful compaction or erosion.

. Fertilizing stands as needed to supplement natural nutrient levels.

. Harvesting at sustainable ratesapproximately 27o of forestlands each year in the West.

. Planning harvest units to reduce visual impacts and protect unique sites, such as those with cultural, historical, or archaeological value.

In addition to its forest stewardship practices, the company has been engaged in the Sustainable Forestry Initiative since its inception seven years ago. SFI calls for a land stewardship ethic that integrates the growing, harvesting and replanting of trees for products with the conservation of soil, air and water quality; wildlife and fish habitat, and aesthetics.

Weyerhaeuser's U.S. timberlands and manufacturing units are using the SFI standard to certify that its products are produced in an environmentally responsible way. In conjunction with SFI, the company follows ISO standards. which focus on how well a company's management practices meet environmental requirements.

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"Weyerhaeuser' s commitment is that all company units-manufacturing and timberlands-will be certifiable to the ISO standard by 2005," says Phillips. "We're well on the way and especially proud of our latest achievement. Our Western Timberlands organizations in Washington and Oregon-1.9 million acres-were successfully audited and will be certified. To our knowledge, that's the largest block of private timberlands to be concurrently certified in the world."

Phillips cautions, however, that the industry and Weyerhaeuser face aggressive competition from nonwood substitutes, particularly steel and concrete. "To counter the efforts of the steel industry, the wood products industry in the United States and Canada is jointly sponsoring a woodpromotion campaign emphasizing to consumers that wood is both a renewable resource and an environmentally preferred, energy-efficient building material.

"I believe we're now at a point where the public and our customers can have confidence that managed forests can be both highly productive and able to provide the multiple benefits that are essential to society."

and manufactured by the Colville India:n Tribe

Acquiring Payless Units

84 Lumber received permission from a U.S. bankruptcy court in Missouri to buy l5 former Payless Cashways sites for $24.8 million.

With the go-ahead, the lumber retailer plans to make its first move into Nevada with a Las Vegas location, in addition to new stores in Auburn, Bakersfield, and Clovis, Ca.

The purchase is the first time a large grouping of former Payless Cashways stores have been bought at one time. Until now, the stores have been sold individually or in blocks of two or three.

Boise Cascade also took part in the proceedings, buying a former Payless DC in Denver, Co., for $4 million.

In addition to locations in California and Nevada, 84 Lumber will take over sites in Nebraska, Oklahoma, Texas and Missouri.

Since last summer, Payless Cashways has filed for Chapter l1 bankruptcy and is liquidating its remaining locations.

Roseburg Opens Oregon Mill

Roseberg Forest Products, Dillard, Or., opened a new l2-acre engineered wood plant last month in Riddle, Or.

The $75 million plant produces laminated veneer lumber and joists, and is expected to employ close to 200 workers once it is fully operational.

Roseburg first broke ground on the project in the fall of 1999. It is the first mill the company has built in 30 years.

New Mill For Yakama Nation

Yakama Forest Products, White Swan. Wa.. has begun construction on a $35 million sawmill scheduled to open next June.

Tribal council members of the Yakama Indian Nation held a blessing ceremony in October on the construction site. The facility is being built next to Yakama's log sorting yard and small-diameter mill.

General mgr. Chris Ketcham said the new mill was built to stop the flow of timbers leaving the reservation.

Currently, the majority of the Nation's timber is being sold to private producers such as Boise Cascade. "(The Nation) will now be keeping their own timber resources on the reservation, adding value and creating a profit in doing that," Ketcham said.

Whereas the existing mill cuts 40 million bd. ft. of timber a year, the new mill is expected to cut 80 million bd. ft. a year. Out of the Nation's 600,000 acres of grand fir, Douglas fir and ponderosa pine, an estimated 143 million bd. ft. will still head to outside mills once the new plant is operational.

Yakama Forest Products began in 1995 with l0 employees working in the log sorting yard.

Eel River To Have 90-Day Halt

Eel River Sawmills. Fortuna. Ca.. will temporarily close Mill A in Fortuna from mid-December until at least the end of February.

Workers at the mill have received notices that they will be placed on temporary leave for up to 90 days during the closure.

Eel River officials said that mill may be closed permanently if the company is unable to restart the mill during the 90-day period.

The company is currently up for sale while efforts to find a source of affordable logs continue.

Eel River closed its Redcrest, Ca., sawmill this past April, although according to plant mgr. John Littlefield, "We could manufacture again with a business plan that works, something that makes money."

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L-P Braces For Recession

Louisiana-Pacific has decided upon a variety of measures to cut costs by $30 million annually as the U.S. slides toward a recession.

The actions will include the closure of facilities, wage freezes, selling of some assets, exiting the pulp business and job cuts. There are already plans to eliminate 160 mid-to-high level corporatejobs by the end of the year.

Chairman/c.e.o Mark A. Suwyn said, "These actions are absolutely essential given the uncertainties of the building products markets."

One of the first facilities effected will be L-P's OSB mill in Olathe. Co.. which is expected to close in early November or when existing log supplies are depleted. The closure will eliminate 100 mill jobs.

Asked if other plants had been chosen for closure, spokesperson Kelly Stoner said, "No decision has been made yet, we are currently evaluating all our operations."

The current reductions are in addition to the 20Vo reduction L-P has already made over the last 18 months.

Highs End For Oregon Dealer

The owner of Conde's Redwood Lumber, Harrisburg, Or., has closed his lumberyard and says he is leaving for Central America to escape criminal drug charges.

Bill Conde. 58, is facing six criminal charges related to allegations of drug use at the three-day World Hemp Festival his lumberyard hosts each summer. "I'm running for the border now," said Conde, who will be leaving for his wife's native country of Belize as soon as the sale of his lumberyard is finalized.

In mid-October, he auctioned off lumber, tools and even a forklift. This past June, Conde served a two-week sentence after a felony conviction for abetting delivery of a controlled substance and hindering prosecution.

Conde hopes to negotiate with the local district attorney's office so he can leave the country legally.

Summit Timber Sells Sawmill

Summit Timber Co., Darrington, Wa., has sold its Darrington sawmill to Portland, Or.-based Hampton Associates.

The mill, which has been idle since the purchase in late October, is undergoing changes Hampton hopes will improve log efficiency.

Before the shutdown, the mill produced 80 million bd. ft of lumber per year. Hampton president and c.e.o Ron Parker expects the changes to increase production to upwards of 180 million bd. ft. a year.

Parker said the mill is slated for a late November reopening with the possible addition of a second shift at a later time.

Summit Timber had operated the mill since the 1940s. The company will continue its logging, trucking and distribution operations.