[ChessExpert]

That sounds right to me.

I assume that environmentalists killed the Oregon timber industry. Bringing back the timber industry would be good for jobs and for home construction.

[woodbutcher1963]

The Spotted Owl was used as a surrogate by the environmental movement to restrict logging in CA, OR and other states. They used trout and salmon elsewhere. They restricted logging in the National Forests and BLM lands wherever they could. Only the large corporations survived for the most part.

For example, there used to be 30 sawmills in Montana. There are now four. None are very big.

The biggest in the western US is Sierra Pacific. There are only three other sawmill companies left in CA other than Sierra Pacific. That is because Red Emerson owns so much private timberlands. Weyerheauser still has a lot of timberlands in WA. Potlatch/Raynier still has a lot in northern Idaho.
Idaho Forest Group is the largest in Idaho. The smaller mills that relied on public timber sales off of Federal lands have mostly gone out of business. There has also been a lot of consolidation. Just like in all other industries.