Sierra Pacific sawmill, in operation nearly a century, to close in July

STANDARD — The Sierra Pacific Industries sawmill, the heart of Tuolumne County's timber industry for nearly a century, will shut down in July, putting 146 people out of work.

Weak demand for lumber and government limits on logging have forced the move, company spokesman Mark Pawlicki said Tuesday.

The announcement rattled residents of a county that has lost many timber and mining jobs in the past two decades.

"It's pretty devastating," said Melinda Fleming, executive director of the pro-logging Tuolumne County Alliance for Resources and Environment. "We're all in shock."

She said the job losses likely will top 300 because the mill provided work for contract loggers, truckers and other people.

Robert Dunbar, a third-generation employee at the mill, said he hates to see it go.

"Working for SP has been the best thing that happened to me," he said. "You work hard, they treat you well."

The company plans to continue operating its smaller Chinese Camp mill, which specializes in cedar fence boards and employs 120 people.

The Standard plant could reopen if the economy and log supply improve, but there is no definite plan at this point, Pawlicki said.

"We are going to leave it in place," he said. "We will not dismantle it."

The company also plans to close a mill in El Dorado County and another in Plumas County, leaving it with 14 plants in Northern California and three in Washington state. Workers at the three shuttered mills will be considered for openings at other plants.

Mike Albrecht, a private forester and president of the Tuolumne County Alliance for Resources and Environment, said the job losses could reach 400 as the ripple effect of the Standard closure plays out at related businesses.

"These are family-wage jobs," he said. "Where are these folks going to go? There are no jobs here."

Albrecht said the closure will hinder efforts to thin trees from overgrown stands to reduce fire danger. The smaller logs and brush go to the Ultrapower wood-burning power plant near Chinese Camp, he said, but larger logs must be milled into lumber to make it all pay.

Tuolumne County had 3,390 unemployed people in February, a jobless rate of 12.5 percent, according to the state Employment Development Department. It was 7.9 percent a year earlier.

"My heart goes out to the families who will suffer due to these mill closures, particularly during these tough economic times," said state Sen. Dave Cogdill, R-Modesto, whose district includes Tuolumne County. "Unfortunately, this is just one more example of California's red tape forcing businesses to shut their doors."

The county will have to continue efforts to diversify its economy beyond resource-based jobs, said George Segarini, executive director of the Tuolumne County Chamber of Commerce.

"It wasn't a total surprise," he said of the mill closure, "but it still hurts."

The Standard and Chinese Camp mills long have been key parts of the county economy, employing about 550 people in the early 1990s.

They held on as many other mills in California closed in the past two decades. Pawlicki said the Standard plant finally fell victim to the recession, which has sharply reduced lumber demand and prices, and to strict environmental rules on national forests and state-regulated private timberland.

The mill had its beginning in the construction, starting in 1903, of Sugar Pine Railroad. It snaked deep into the woods north and east of Twain Harte, bringing massive old-growth logs to Standard Lumber Co. in Sonora.

The mill moved in the late teens to the company town of Standard. It went through a series of owners over the next several decades — Pickering, Fibreboard, Louisiana-Pacific and, since 1995, Sierra Pacific.

The Depression brought a long closure, and strikes caused shorter breaks, but most of the time, the mill turned out lumber for a growing nation.

In about mid-July, the last of the logs stockpiled outside the plant will go through the saws.

"It feels like a little bit of our history is dying right now," Segarini said, "and it's sad to see."

Bee columnist Jeff Jardine contributed to this report.

Bee staff writer John Holland can be reached at jholland@modbee.com or 578-2385.

This story was originally published March 24, 2009 at 11:07 PM with the headline "Sierra Pacific sawmill, in operation nearly a century, to close in July."