Sierra lumber firm to fold

SacBee ^ | August 16, 2003 | Loretta Kalb

[sasquatch]

The family-owned Wetsel-Oviatt Lumber Co. -- a fixture of the Sierra Nevada for three generations -- announced Friday it will close in 60 days due to skyrocketing workers' compensation costs and a glut of foreign competition.

The closing of the El Dorado Hills sawmill, in business since 1939, will eliminate work for 120 people, some of whom have been with the company for decades.

[sasquatch]

...And another one bites the dust...

[okie01]

"California is the most environmentally conscious state," said Craig Thomas, director of the Sierra Nevada Forest Protection Campaign, a coalition of conservation groups. "We would argue there are not nearly enough oversights of logging on public and private lands."

Damn the owners. Damn the employees. Damn the consumers.

All power to the enviro-fascists!

[Prof Engineer]

...And another one bites the dust...

Just damn.

My family has had a personal relationship with the owners since the company opened.

[Major_Risktaker]

April that the company's workers' compensation premiums jumped to $1.6 million a year, more than double last year's $760,000 premium. __________________________________________________________ __________________________________________________________

I would shut down also and 1099 anybody how needs work.

Our government is kill us and I blame special interest with their crass regulations.

[marsh2]

I attended a federal task force meeting last week. The Forest Service was talking about how they were getting some categorical exemptions which would allow small amounts of timber to be harvested off public lands without so much bureaucracy. There are plans in the works to ease up on survey and manage requirements for sensitive species.

The enviros huffed and puffed. I told them it's too late. We've lost our infrastructure. The mills are all gone here, if they hadn't noticed. No one is bidding on their timber sales. They are now going to have pay businesses to thin and manage the Forest. It is no longer a matter of releasing more harvest.

Whatever they do, they are going to have to guarantee a minimum steady stream of Forest product at a reasonable price to harvest in order to justify private capital investment in a mill, cogeneration or other processing facility.

They don't seem to have a clue that they have killed the industry. Those of us who have watched them dismantel our mills and sell off everything but the concrete slab already got the picture. In order to reduce fuel in the federal Forests, they are now going to have to pay people as contractors to cut and burn the slash.

[RLK]

More recently, companies have been buffeted by a glut of timber imports from foreign countries and other states, which industry advocates say now meet 80 percent of the state demand.

--------------------

You can't keep going when you have lost 80% of your business.

[okie01]

"We've lost our infrastructure. The mills are all gone here, if they hadn't noticed. No one is bidding on their timber sales. They are now going to have pay businesses to thin and manage the Forest. It is no longer a matter of releasing more harvest."

It's gone that far? An appalling situation.

There is no task that politicians can't screw up; no market that bureaucrats cannot distort beyond all recognition.

[Morgan's Raider]

They don't seem to have a clue that they have killed the industry.

They don't care. They would rather see millions of acres burn than see anyone make a profit off the forest. They are not environmentalists, they are anti-capitalists.

[CyberAnt]

Roger Hedgecock was interviewing some lady a few days ago, and she was telling Roger that 75 more companies are about to leave the state because of the skyrocketing workers compensation laws and environmental regulations.

This is the stuff Ahhnold must be ready to address - and with people like Buffett and Lowe - that does not seem likely!

[Ursus arctos horribilis]

60% of all timber harvested in the US comes from 13 southern states, year after year, for they treat it for what it is, a renewable resource.

The blood sucking enviro-nazis keep hush, hush about it, for they don't want to draw attention to private tree farms which produce timber and provide work for the people, with no environmental downside..

[eldoradude]

"California is the most environmentally conscious state," said Craig Thomas, director of the Sierra Nevada Forest Protection Campaign, a coalition of conservation groups.

But perhaps the biggest upset in Wetsel-Oviatt's bid to extend the family enterprise was the stunning news in April that the company's workers' compensation premiums jumped to $1.6 million a year, more than double last year's $760,000 premium.

$760,000.00 divided by 120 employees = $6,333.33 per employee. Raised to $1,600,000.00 = $13,333.33 per employee. Let's drive more business out of California. What's going to happen when there are no more fools paying taxes?

[Imal]

"It's a real irony that last year's California agriculturist of the year (Cecil Wetsel) is this year's man out of business."

No, it's simply the inevitable result of attempting to run a business in a state run by Democrats.

You can set your watch by it.

[Carry_Okie]

Judy D'Amico was too busy and too important to bother with looking at something different, as were most of the people I met at CFA.

It's too late to help them now.

[Carry_Okie]

It's gone that far? An appalling situation.

Except for two, Sierra Pacific and Simpson. The Democrats never met a monopolist they didn't like.

[Carry_Okie]

This is the stuff Ahhnold must be ready to address - and with people like Buffett and Lowe - that does not seem likely!

Ahnold doesn't have a clue, and neither do they.

[eldoradude]

Wetsel-Oviatt has been producing in recent years enough lumber to build 2,000 homes a year

One does wonder what they expect to build living spaces out of...recycled cardboard? Tijuana, Tijuana...

[Carry_Okie]

The big timber companies love this kind of development.

Weyerhauser is busy hacking Canada and trying to buy New Zealand. They'll get back to the Olympic peninsula in about 2030. In the mean time, they don't care what happens to anybody else's forest just as long as it doesn't produce logs, nor do they care about what happens to the people who bet their livelihood on continued production in the US. Weyerhauser will just make money in its mortgage business.

National Forests produce enough extra fuel to power the residential electrical needs of 190 million Americans. Ever wonder why the tax-exempt foundations of oil companies are big donors to environmental groups? Pew (SUNOCO), W. Alton Jones (Citgo), Rockefeller (Exxon/Mobil), Prince Bernhard (Shell)...

[Carry_Okie]

You'll note a new addition to my oil company foundation racketeering list: W. Alton Jones Foundation, aka Citgo.

W. Alton Jones funds Felice Pace.

[eldoradude]

National Forests produce enough extra fuel to power the residential electrical needs of 190 million Americans.

The forest fires of 2002 in California produced enough airborne particulate to equal 10,000 years of auto exhaust. That's why smog check is so important. Most of the airborne mercury comes from burnt manzanita in cinnebar rich soil formations. If Mr. grim, no sense of humor Craig Thomas was really serious about improving the environment he'd support Forest thinning. Of course, he's just another hater.

[Carry_Okie]

Most of the airborne mercury comes from burnt manzanita in cinnebar rich soil formations.

I hadn't heard that one.

I guess you know that the popular whizdome is that manzanita needs to burn in order to reproduce. Well, I'm doing some experiments on germinating manzanita without fire. It turns out that some seeds don't need the heat scarification as much as they need infusion from the chemical brew in a material called "charate," essentially the semi-combusted stuff you find on the edges of burn piles. I'm testing that theory by simply scattering charate under manzanita bushes where there has been no fire. If they germinate... voila!

One would normally think that this kind of pedestrian science would have been already done, but for the fact that learning how the nature works isn't part of the agenda.