Lumber mills lay off workers in northern Idaho

What about the Riley Creek, Laclede Idaho Lumber Mill shut-down? There's no information from any of the local papers.

Willow wrote:

What about the Riley Creek, Laclede Idaho Lumber Mill shut-down? There's no information from any of the local papers.

Yes they are shut down intill forther notice

The Inland Northwest has suffered from downturns before in the lumber industry. About the time that the spotted owl and national moods were agains sustainable lumber, Bonner County, where the lumber mill is closing, had unemployment rates from 11.1 to 15.1 percent. In Oregon, where the county government revenues are so tied in to the lumber industry, basic services like ambulances and county sheriffs are either being eliminated, or cut to the bone. In Sandpoint and Bonner County, it has been a long time since the heydays of Humbird and the other great mills. While Priest River is still largely dependent on lumber, Sandpoint has diversified with industries like Quest Aircraft, Airtow, Encoder, Litehouse Foods, and Coldwater Creek, and many more. Yet, just last summer and the summer of 2007, ads ran for months offering jobs at the mills at roughly $100 a day, including full benefits. The building boom was a reprieve for the industry, but there doesn't appear to be any comeback on the horizon. It is hard to compete with Canada right to the north. Their prices for 2x4s are lower than ours, and with free trade, it is hard for local mills to compete. Once, doing a talk radio show in Sandpoint, I hosted an hour-long reading of the History of North Idaho. Right after the show I got a call from a Miss Eppie who chastised me at length for not mentioning the Laclede lumber mill. She is in her 80s. Pretty soon, maybe only octagenarians will remember when lumber was king in North Idaho. We may be able to keep some of them open, but without the rest of the nation needing our tree products, we will probably see more closing soon.