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Show Greco's1 Lokes Timber Company is custom scow rsiili... iror now Bill Sweeney has been in the lumber business since 1929. His family has been in the business since 1913. His father started the business which is now Great Lakes Timber Company owned and operated by Bill Sweeney. Great Lakes Timber Company is located near Lapoint, at least for the time being. Sweeney is afraid the timber business will not exist for long in this area. Industry Problems Besides the poor economy, several other factors enter into the problem of continued timber industry. The recent mud slide which created Thistle Lake has hurt more industries than might be imagined. Sweeney said his company com-pany supplies a great deal of lumber to the coal mines in Carbon and Emery Counties. Since the mud slide covered the railroads tracks which carries the coal to market, the coal mines have shut down. They no longer need the lumber being supplied by Great Lakes Timber. That one factor would not do sufficient suffi-cient damage to the company, but when combined with two other factors, mountain pines beetles, and proposed . primitive areas, the results could be devastating. The mountain pine beetle has been increasing in tremendous numbers over the past several years. In 1980 it was estimated 65,000 trees were killed kill-ed by the beetles. In 1981 the estimate was 350,000. In 1982 it grew to 1,000,000 and lumber industry projections for 1983 are about 3,000,000, destroyed trees. The pine beetle is destroying much of the available prime timber areas, according to Sweeney. He said you can't use infested trees for many necessary lumber products, therefore green timber is necessary. That green timber is becoming harder and harder to get to, making the business continually con-tinually less profitable. Another problem is the proposed wilderness area, now under study. During the study, none of the land involved in-volved can be used for timber cutting, or any other industry related purpose. Sweeney said this in effect makes the area a wilderness area, even though Congress has not yet designated it as such. The lack of any action basically does the same thing as a decree. Right now environmental groups are attempting at-tempting to get the study area increased increas-ed in size. Part of the new area includes in-cludes the Thornburg Timber Sale area, which was expected to take place this spring. That decision has now been put off in case the area is included in-cluded in the wilderness study area. Sweeney said the end result of all this is lack of suitable timber which allowed allow-ed for commercial use. Products Great Lake Timber Company produces pro-duces about every conceivable lumber product which can come from a pine tree. Each tree is evaluated for what it will best be suited to produce. Some will be stripped and used, much as it is, for power poles. After cutting, it takes about one year for the pole to sufficiently dry. It mast have not more than 19 percent moisture content before it is used. The pole is then run through a saw that strips the bark. It is then examined by hand and any spots missed by the stripper are taken off with hand tools. A treating process is then implemented to cure the pole and keep it from rotting once it is placed plac-ed in the ground. The sawdust from this process is bagged and used in the oilfields. Poles not suitable for use as power poles are loaded in what is called the bucking chute. This is the beginning of processing all poles. They are cut to length and sent to the appropriate finishing area. The cut poles then make their way to the saws. The operator quickly makes a decision as to what each log will be used for. That determination is made by what the log will yield. Every possible piece of each log is used. One log may yield a railroad tie, 2 x 4's, and smaller pieces of building lumber. Another log may not be big enough for a railroad tie, so 2 x 6's are made, plus smaller items. The very little pieces of scrap that cannot be used for anything are burned in very hot stoves to eliminate nearly all pollution. Sweeney said almost everything that comes out of the chimney is steam. Great Lakes Timber is a custom saw mill. With piles of poles on reserve at all times, they can make what anyone wants on very short notice. Sweeney said many times you don't know what you're going to be doing from day to day. He said they usually try to keep most products in stock in sufficient quanities, but if they run low, it doesn't take long to catch up with demand. Future Sweeney said this past year has been hard on the lumber industry, as it has been on so many industries. Great Lakes has had layoffs for one of the few times in their existence. They currently cur-rently have about 25 employees who work full time. They usually increase their workforce in the summer, during timber cutting, to between 75 and 90. Sweeney said this year their workforce will only be about 50 Great Lakes Timber currently has a good stock of raw timber, and with what they will be able to get this summer, sum-mer, there is no immediate danger to the business, but Sweeney said this may not last too many more years. Sweeney said he is really not worried wor-ried about himself, even if the lumber industry could not continue to exist in this area, but he is concerned for his employees. He said he currently has employees who have been with the company for 20 years. He is currently fighting for the lumber industry by trying try-ing to get Congress to make some decisions deci-sions about final wilderness area designations, and to get the remainder of the area released for multiple-use. He said, contrary to what environmentalists en-vironmentalists would have people believe, lumber people don't want to destroy the forests, but they do want to use the forests to supply people with the wood products they need and want. "After all, who owns the forests? The environmentalists don't own them. The lumber companies don't own them. The people own them, and they should derive the benefits from them," he said. - i - 1 I ; V - -. : . , ""- -W .'t . .. ; -i I , 'm v -' - -.y-rr ' p - r M :...... . , ; i ' . s - : . -lj r . ;. 1 BILL SWEENEY inspects one of the smaller saws. Bill has been in the lumber business since 1929. He is, for the first time, now fearful for the lumber industry in Northeastern Utah. I . r - I V ' ...... .. GREAT LAKES TIMBER employees put the final touches on what will become power poles. Most of the bark is removed by an intricate saw as the pole rotates. Poles must be cut and stored for a year before they are dry enough to be treated and sold. Power poles are among many wood products produced at Great Lakes. v V J ' . . - " ' " ' ' '' " . . - - ' - - . mnmmwm i, 'nrmmm. ..... I t f t r ' ': . ' .-: ' - - '" -M ' ? ' '. ' - ' ":' ' '. ONE TREE, which is cut on the mountain, will eventually become many wood products. pro-ducts. A series of saws allows a continuous con-tinuous process. No pole must be backtracked along the production line. Each pole is quickly evaluated to determine deter-mine what it can best be used for, and moments later has been cut and stacked. |