Potlatch to sell tree farm for $65 million

Potlatch Corp. plans to sell its poplar tree farm in Boardman, Ore., and reinvest the money in Wisconsin forestlands.

A group of private investors will purchase the tree farm for $65 million, company officials announced Friday. The sale is expected to close later this spring. At the request of the investors, they are not being identified at this time, said Mark Benson, Potlatch’s vice president of public affairs.The poplars are a silvery-green landmark to motorists driving a dusty stretch of Interstate 84. When Potlatch established the 17,000-acre plantation in 1992, the company planned to produce wood chips for its pulp and paperboard operations in Lewiston.

But sawmills could provide a cheaper source of wood chips, Benson said. Potlatch switched to producing poplar logs instead.

Company officials considered building a small sawmill to process the logs, but decided it would be better to sell to an operator specializing in poplar products, Benson said.

Potlatch will record an after-tax loss of approximately $33.5 million on the sale. Proceeds from the sale go toward the company’s recent purchase of 76,000 acres of private forestland in Wisconsin, officials said.