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more timber cuts

Plum Creek Timber Co. announced Tuesday that it is suspending operations at its finger-joint stud manufacturing facility in Kalispell for the rest of the year, leaving 24 employees at the plant out of work.

“This specialty wood product is used almost exclusively in new residential construction,” Hank Ricklefs, vice president for Northern Resources and Manufacturing, said in a prepared statement. “Market prices are depressed and don’t currently cover the costs of production. We reduced shifts in January, hoping to avoid a production stop, but unfortunately the market has not changed. We will re-evaluate the FJ Reman business throughout 2009 to determine if we can resume production at this facility.” [more]

Timber Cuts

Plum Creek Timber Company, citing a flat housing market and declining demand for wood products, announced Thursday that it was eliminating 35 jobs at its Medium Density Fiberboard plant in Columbia Falls.

The company will reduce the number of rotating shifts at the plant from four to three, which will cut its current staff of 185 by almost 20 percent. Employees at Plum Creek, the largest private landowner in the nation with about 8 million acres of timberland, have been told about the change, which will go into effect Sept. 29. [more]

Company pledges to be more “forthcoming”

A sluggish housing market, skeptical politicians and an increasingly cynical media have tarnished both Plum Creek Timber Company’s profits and image in recent months. While CEO Rick Holley acknowledged he doesn’t foresee a short-term fix for the former, his presence in Western Montana – meeting with newspapers and municipalities, and emphasizing a need for renewed “transparency” – showed the company is approaching public relations with renewed zeal.

Holley fielded a wide range of questions last week during a visit to the Flathead Beacon office in Kalispell. Click here for a transcript of the interview. [more]

obama vs. clinton

Former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, emphasizing good news on a bad night, told supporters in the early goings of Super Tuesday to cheer up. He may have been trounced by his opponents in several states, but things were looking up in Montana.

Montana? Mitt mentioned Montana? It was a desperate attempt to highlight good news; after all, Romney quit the race two days later as Arizona Sen. John McCain solidified his frontrunner status. But Montana’s first GOP caucus did what most party leaders had hoped: made them relevant – something that the state’s Democrats didn’t expect this year. They vote dead last for their presidential preference on June 3 alongside South Dakota. [more]

The Unfamiliar Addict

This addiction wears an unfamiliar face. It’s flush and healthy, instead of gaunt and haggard. It’s middle class, not poverty-stricken. In the greater Flathead Valley, as methamphetamine abuse has slightly decreased, the illegal pain pill market has catered to a new kind of drug abuser.

“This is something that’s partially taken (meth’s) place,” Geno Cook, commander of the Northwest Drug Task Force, said. Oxycodone, hydrocodone and other painkillers are increasingly common in the drug trade.

The Associated Press recently analyzed U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration statistics and found that oxycodone sales increased by 1,746 percent in Northwest Montana and hydrocodone-based drugs by 205 percent. That’s not unusual. Across the country the percentage of people using painkillers has jumped. [more]

real estate

As bad news pounds the national real estate market, Montana, while taking some punches, has proven to have a tough chin.

The pace of second-quarter existing home sales fell in 44 states – including by 7.1 percent in Montana – compared to the same time in 2006, according to numbers released last week by the National Association of Realtors. But NAR spokesperson Walter Molony put the Big Sky state’s apparent woes in perspective: “You’re in pretty good shape.” [more]

election 2008

Cross-posted from the Flathead Beacon

Former Massachusetts governor and current presidential candidate Mitt Romney will headline the GOP's annual convention in Helena later this month.

"We're very excited to have Governor Romney in Montana to talk about the important issues facing our nation," convention organizer, Jake Eaton, said in a prepared statement. "Attracting a top presidential contender is a great thing for Montana. Governor Romney's attendance at our convention speaks to the growing importance of Western issues on the national stage."

The convention will be held at the Red Lion Colonial Hotel in Helena on June 21 to June 23. Secretary of State Brad Johnson, Congressman Denny Rehberg and Colorado Republican Party Chairman Dick Wadhams will also be speaking.

In recent polls, Romney trailed both former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani and Sen. John McCain for the GOP's nomination, according to RealClearPolitics.com.

Snowmobiles in the Bob

If you are going to snowmobile, stay out of the Bob Marshall Wilderness, Mission Mountains Wilderness and Jewel Basin hiking area, or expect to be slapped with up to a $5,000 fine.

A recent flight over the area, where snowmobile tracks were spotted, has prompted Flathead National Forest officials to release a friendly reminder: motorized use, including snowmobiles, has been barred in the areas for decades.

“There are several opportunities for snowmobile activity and it is disheartening to see these violations of designated wilderness and Jewel Basin,” Swan Lake District Ranger Steve Brady said in a prepared statement.

It appears, according to the Forest Service, that snowmobilers have entered the wilderness from Swan Valley, despite the area being clearly marked as closed. Thus, forest officials will respond with additional flyovers and patrols near key access points.

For more information about snowmobiling and winter recreation on the Flathead National Forest, call the Forest Service office at 406-758-5252.
[more]

U.S. Forest Service

The U.S. Forest Service promoted Tom Tidwell Wednesday to regional forester for the Northern Region, which includes more than 25 million acres of public land in Montana, Idaho and North Dakota.

[more]

Biomimicry author to speak at UM

For answers to industrial-design challenges look outside the laboratory, past the pavement, past the edge of town, where the industrial world ends and nature begins.

That’s where Janine Benyus looks. And she continues to find answers for some of world’s biggest companies in unlikely places: on the leaf of a lotus plant; on the wing of a butterfly; in the home of a termite.

Benyus, of Stevensville, will lecture on biomimicry – a term she coined – in the Urey Lecture Hall, at the University of Montana at 7 p.m. Tuesday, Feb. 13. There, the award-winning natural science writer and founder of The Biomimicry Institute in Missoula, will explain how industrial design can mimic nature; how the tiny bristles on a gecko’s foot not only allow it to walk on walls but inspire scientists to develop recyclable glue-free tape. [more]