San Luis Obispo Tribune Logo

Lawmakers, local leaders seek stimulus money for sawmills | San Luis Obispo Tribune

×
  • E-edition
  • Home
    • Customer Service
    • Contact Us
    • Mobile & Apps
    • Submit an Event
    • Buy Photos
    • News in Education
    • FAQ
    • Activate Digital Subscription
    • Manage Account
    • Newsletters

    • News
    • Local
    • Crime
    • Education
    • Environment
    • Investigations
    • California
    • California Weed
    • Nation & World
    • Lottery
    • Weather
    • Weird News
    • Submit a News Tip
    • Columns
    • Photos from the Vault
    • Weather Watch
    • Joetopia
    • That's SLO Weird
    • Sports
    • Outdoors
    • High School
    • Cal Poly
    • MLB
    • MLB Scores & Stats
    • NBA
    • NBA Scores & Stats
    • NFL
    • NFL Scores & Stats
    • Politics
    • The California Influencer Series
  • Business
    • Living
    • Food & Drink
    • Wine & Beer
    • Home & Garden
    • Travel
    • Columns
    • Linda Lewis Griffith
    • Pet Tales
    • Entertainment
    • Arts & Culture
    • Comics
    • Puzzles & Games
    • Horoscopes
    • Restaurants
    • Events Calendar
    • Movies
    • Music
    • TV
    • Opinion
    • Editorials
    • Viewpoints
    • Influencers Opinion
    • Editorial Cartoons
    • Letters to the Editor
    • Submit a Letter
    • Columnists
    • Tom Fulks
    • Andrea Seastrand
  • Obituaries
  • The Cambrian

  • Contests
  • Today's Circulars
  • Classifieds
  • Jobs
  • Moonlighting
  • Cars
    • Homes
    • Real Estate Weekly
  • Place An Ad

  • About Us
  • Work For Us
  • Mobile & Apps

News

Lawmakers, local leaders seek stimulus money for sawmills

Michael Doyle - McClatchy Newspapers

    ORDER REPRINT →

April 14, 2009 01:36 PM

WASHINGTON — The pending closure of a sawmill near the mountain town of Sonora is driving lawmakers and local leaders to search desperately for a federal fix.

Some hope money can be peeled off from a big economic stimulus package. Others are suggesting the government itself can buy more boards, or they are resurrecting long-running efforts to ease environmental regulations.

"We're not looking for a handout," Sonora-based forester Mike Albrecht said Tuesday. "We're not looking for free money."

Albrecht is president of the pro-logging Tuolumne County Alliance for Resources and the Environment, which convened a sawmill brainstorming session late Tuesday afternoon. The closed-door session held inside Sonora's city fire station was scheduled to bring together federal, state and local representatives, each with their own ideas to salvage the Sierra Pacific Industries sawmills now slated for closure.

SIGN UP

Sign Up and Save

Get six months of free digital access to The Tribune

SUBSCRIBE WITH GOOGLE

#ReadLocal

A $787 billion economic stimulus package signed by President Barack Obama in February provides one potential target. The Forest Service is doling out at least $980 million of the total, with many of the funding decisions still in the works.

"Maybe we could access some of the stimulus money to keep something going," said Rep. George Radanovich, R-Mariposa.

Radanovich joined other House Republicans in voting against the stimulus bill, but on Tuesday he said "it's a reality" that now offers potential help.

The Sonora session was to be the first of its kind since Sierra Pacific announced late last month that it would close its Standard sawmill, throwing 146 employees out of work in mid-July. The Redding-based company also plans to close its Camino mill in El Dorado County, costing 164 workers their jobs.

Although Sierra Pacific plans to retain its smaller Chinese Camp sawmill elsewhere in Tuolumne County, the company earlier this year also announced plans to lay off 150 people in May when it closes its Quincy sawmill in Plumas County. The nation's second-largest lumber producer, Sierra Pacific has been hit hard by the recession.

"The downturn in new home construction has reduced both the demand for lumber and the prices (Sierra Pacific) receives for its finished product," company spokesman Mark Pawlicki said last month.

Lawmakers of various stripes have been tossing out ideas ever since the sawmill closure announcements. State Sen. Dave Cogdill, R-Modesto, immediately suggested legislation offering incentives for builders to buy California lumber. Currently, Albrecht noted, the state imports 70 percent of the lumber used in construction.

Cogdill's federal counterparts, in turn, have been eying potential funding sources within the economic stimulus package.

The Forest Service has stated that "wildland fire management" and "capital improvement and maintenance" will be the primary focus for projects. So far, the agency has distributed 10 percent of its total.

The California projects announced to date include $750,000 for forest trail work in rural Fresno and Madera counties, $120,000 for "biomass removal" and tree thinning in the Stanislaus National Forest, and $750,000 for grants aiding small logging-related businesses in the southern Sierra Nevada forests.

The $750,000 is subsidizing the truckers who take small sawlogs to a Sierra Forest Products mill in Terra Bella, Janice Gauthier, public affairs director for the Forest Service's Pacific Southwest region, said Tuesday.

The next Forest Service funding announcements are expected to be made public as early as next week. Approximately $780 million will be allocated.

"There is more to come, certainly," Gauthier said.

Separately, conservative lawmakers including Radanovich and Cogdill are citing the sawmill closures as reason to boost timber harvesting by loosening environmental rules, including the Endangered Species Act. Unlike short-term funding, these legislative proposals face extremely high political hurdles.

Radanovich was among those slated to attend the 5 p.m. Sonora sawmill session, along with Tuolumne County educators and administrators, Forest Service officials and representatives from the offices of Cogdill and Democratic Sen. Dianne Feinstein, among others.

  Comments  

Videos

A frosty morning in Santa Margarita

Check out this entire wine appellation for sale near Ukiah at $3.3 million

View More Video

Trending Stories

An unsettling sight: Someone strung dead coyotes along a fence near Oakdale

February 20, 2019 12:04 PM

Snow in SLO! Hail, sleet and more winter weather arrive on the Central Coast

February 21, 2019 05:29 PM

Nike probing Zion shoe malfunction that led to injury

February 21, 2019 07:37 AM

These SLO County restaurants scored highest, lowest in health inspections in January

February 21, 2019 10:59 AM

SLO’s Heidi Harmon calls on mayors across U.S. — and the public — to boycott Amazon

February 21, 2019 03:50 PM

Read Next

National Politics

Ducey joins White House advisory group on national security

The Associated Press

    ORDER REPRINT →

February 22, 2019 05:51 AM

Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey named to group that advises the White House on homeland security, national defense issues.

KEEP READING

Sign Up and Save

#ReadLocal

Get six months of free digital access to The Tribune

SUBSCRIBE WITH GOOGLE

MORE NEWS

National Politics

New Mexico governor travels to nation’s capital

February 22, 2019 05:50 AM
Fly-past honors WWII airmen who died saving UK children

World

Fly-past honors WWII airmen who died saving UK children

February 22, 2019 05:46 AM

National Politics

Father of man fatally shot by Seattle police officer sues

February 22, 2019 05:46 AM

National

NY community mourns 4 children, father killed in fire

February 22, 2019 05:40 AM
Wintour honors Lagerfeld; Bottega Veneta shows new direction

Celebrities

Wintour honors Lagerfeld; Bottega Veneta shows new direction

February 22, 2019 05:39 AM

National Politics

What started as death penalty case ends in 15-year sentence

February 22, 2019 05:35 AM
Take Us With You

Real-time updates and all local stories you want right in the palm of your hand.

Icon for mobile apps

San Luis Obispo Tribune App

View Newsletters

Subscriptions
  • Start a Subscription
  • Customer Service
  • eEdition
  • Vacation Hold
  • Pay Your Bill
  • Rewards
Learn More
  • About Us
  • Contact Us
  • Newsletters
  • News in Education
  • Archives
Advertising
  • Place a Classified Ad
  • Advertise with Us
  • Local Deals
  • Public Notices
Copyright
Privacy Policy
Terms of Service


Back to Story