Millworker values trees dead and alive

Bruce Vinson’s alarm rings in predawn darkness.

By 5 a.m., he’s folded his 6-foot-5-inch frame into a brown vinyl chair in front of a console controlling a circular saw. The next nine hours play out like a video game for the DeArmond sawmill worker.

A loader drops logs onto a conveyor belt. Vinson eyeballs the logs and decides what length to cut each. He controls the 6-foot saw, the belt speed and log flow with six foot pedals, two knee pedals and a joystick.

“It keeps your body a little busy,” Vinson, 52, says with typical understatement. “I go as fast as I can all day long.”

Speed has its rewards. Workers earn up to $300 in incentives per paycheck for beating monthly production goals. It isn’t easy. White fir glides easily through saw blades – “nice logs, very nice logs,” Vinson says. Hemlock has stubborn knots. Douglas fir is the hardest wood of the bunch.

Vinson aims for a light touch. The logs weigh hundreds of pounds each, and unnecessary knocking around breaks equipment.

Vinson was hired on at the DeArmond mill 30 years ago. His first job on the production line gave him blood blisters in every finger. Later, he spent 14 years in the mechanic shop, also hard physical work. “The wages and benefits will keep you here,” said Vinson, who earns just over $16 an hour. Being a senior employee has side benefits, too. He gets first pick of vacation days during elk season.

Vinson has a practical conservation ethic. By wresting as many boards as possible out of each log at work, he figures he’s doing his part for the environment.

“I like the trees, and I like the woods,” Vinson says. “If you got a guy who doesn’t do a good job with timber, you’re wasting natural resources. I’m very conscious of that.”

Vinson’s work station overlooks the Spokane River. He can watch storms brewing at Signal Point and measure daily progress on the new health sciences building under construction at North Idaho College.

He likes the mill’s waterfront location. But he doesn’t have any angst over a possible sale. Developer Marshall Chesrown has a working agreement to buy the DeArmond and nearby Atlas mills from Stimson Lumber Co.

The DeArmond shows its age. It’s an old-style mill, with tight quarters that haven’t allowed the company to install automated equipment. Physical labor is still required for many tasks.

“We’d be working in a brand-new sawmill,” Vinson says. “I like new mills.”