Stimson Lumber Forestland and Mill

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Originally uploaded by World Forest Institute

Stimson Lumber hosted Fellows at their Forest Grove forestland and mill. Stimson, a privately-held forest products and natural resource company, is based in Portland and has its roots dating back to the 1850s. Fellows visited with managers to learn more about the business of one of the oldest, continuously operating forest products companies in the United States.

Stimson’s Resource Group manages 500,000 acres of company-owned timberland, which are certified through the Sustainable Forestry Initiative. The company primarily sells lumber to Home Depot, a retail outlet catering to the home remodeling and construction industry and “do-it-yourselfers.”

Fellows traveled through the snowy hills with forest managers Scott Gray and Dave Sweeney to visit a harvest site and learn about forest operations. They watched as a local contractor, Cross and Crown, felled trees and loaded them with ease onto log trucks. Fellows were impressed with the 40 to 45 year rotation age and the efficiency of harvesting.

The group followed the logs to the nearby Forest Grove mill, which employs 220 people. Mill manager Bob Banchero walked the group through the manufacturing process, where Fellows watched as logs were converted into dimensional lumber. Waste from the sawmill is then used to create hardboard on site, which has a variety of uses, including home siding. Fellow Shouxin Xie was particularly impressed with the operations and technology used. “This kind of scene is entirely different from China’s factories,” he said. “It’s high level of automation really makes me surprised.”