Warm Springs mill laying off 93 workers

Warm Springs Forest Products said Wednesday it is expecting to lay off 93 full-time employees this November.

It’s not the mill’s first big layoff in recent years, but there’s still hope for restoring some of the lost positions next spring.

The lumber mill is among the top 15 private employers in Jefferson County.

The upcoming layoffs are only temporary, according to officials, but it is significant to those who could be affected.

“I really love it here,” said Aaron Culps, quality control manager at the mill.

“I will be here as long as I can, as long as the place is open,” Culps said. “There’s a layoff every year. We keep coming back because we just love this place.”

Culps is one of 127 employees at the lumber mill that is a big piece of the Warm Springs economy.

Nearly 75 percent of their workforce is being let go. Most of them are tribal members.

“The battle that we have been having with them (the tribal council), with the board feet in a year” that can be harvested, Culps said.

With dozens of employees affected, you can imagine the impact this will have on the economy in Warm Springs.

“Some years it’s worse, some years its not,” Culps said. “We had a year where we were laid off for six weeks, and that’s just because of the snow and the rainfall.”

Yes, even the weather can cause layoffs.

“Winter effects cause layoffs too, because it just gets so muddy and wet out here, just difficult for the truckers to bring the logs in,” Culps said.

The new round of layoffs aren’t the worst the company has seen. In 2008, the company even came close to closing down entirely, but Vanport International stepped in and saved the company.

The owners say they have no plans to permanently closed the mill.

But in a news released Wednesday, they said, “Due to completion of their 2012 allowable timber harvest, the mill will temporarily shut down on December 1st. During this time, upgrades and maintenance will be performed with plans to re-open and begin operations again” at the end of February or early March.

Now, all the company can do is predict better times to come.

“I can predict, but there’s more of a hope, I believe,” Culps said. “Because you can never know what’s going to happen, with what’s going on with the (tribal) council and the natural resources.”