Boise Cascade Leases Sawmill In Mexico Move May Signal End To Work In Idaho, Where Timber Laws Called Too Restrictive

Boise Cascade Corp. has leased a sawmill in Mexico, a move that may signal the end of its mill operations in Idaho, where company officials say federal timber policies are too restrictive.

The company has been quietly moving equipment from the closed sawmill in Council to Papanoa, a small community near Acapulco on the Mexican coast southwest of Mexico City. The subsidiary is called Costa Grande Forest Products.

Boise Cascade intends to make lumber from the lush evergreen forests of southwestern Mexico for at least five years, spokesman Doug Bartels said.

The mill’s production is tiny compared with what Boise Cascade produces in Idaho and other parts of the Pacific Northwest.

So far this year, Boise Cascade has produced 3 million board-feet from the Mexican mill, enough timber to frame 300 homes.

But the strategy of seeking foreign sources of timber could result in more closings at the company’s Idaho sawmills - especially if the Forest Service continues to make it difficult and expensive to buy federal timber in Idaho, Bartels said.

“Federal timber supply will be a very large part of the equation,” he said.

“Will there be a turnaround and more federal timber? At this point, who knows?” Bartels said. “But without it, the entire industry in the Northwest and in Idaho will be smaller.”

The Boise-based forest products and paper company is scouring the globe for new timber sources to augment shrinking supplies of suitable trees available in the Northwest at fair prices, he said.

Forest Service officials say the region’s timber problems are not the agency’s fault. Forest Service prices are set to follow the ups and downs of the lumber market, thus making timber as affordable as possible.

“I think there are certainly a number of factors playing in the complexity of (Boise Cascade’s) decision,” said Boise National Forest’s Dave Rittenhouse.

Environmentalists say Boise Cascade is abandoning its home state for cheap labor and lax environmental laws.

Bartels said Boise Cascade has no current plans to close any more Idaho mills. It closed a mill at Joseph, Ore., in 1994 and another in Council in March.