Weyerhaeuser Plans To Close Mill, Lay Off 65

Weyerhaeuser

plans to close

mill, lay off 65

COTTAGE GROVE, Ore.

Weyerhaeuser Co. is planning to close part of its sawmill complex in Cottage Grove and lay off 65 workers.

After a temporary, 14-day shutdown beginning next week to reduce lumber inventories, the 40-year-old sawmill will reopen and then close for good later this spring, the company said.

All lumber manufacturing in Cottage Grove will be consolidated into Weyerhaeuser's newer second-growth sawmill near the older plant, company spokesman Jim Bradbury said.

The changes will allow Weyerhaeuser to fully convert to milling second-growth logs in Cottage Grove, lumber manager Don Lenhart said. The shutdown is ``part of the transition from large logs of the past to second-growth logs of the future,'' he said.

Bradbury said about half the workers being laid off would be placed in jobs at Cottage Grove or Springfield.