mill guy Wrote:
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> I have some knowledge of the Klamath Nothern's
> mill situation. The mill has struggled the past
> few months with log supply. They almost ran out of
> logs in April and May. They have had to go to
> Northern California to obtain logs.
>
> The biggest reason is the Forest Service does not
> offer up enough timber any more. One thing that
> most people do not know is that when the Forest
> Service says they cut lets say 50 million board
> feet of timber on X National Forest, this is not
> truly the case because they take the volume of all
> the small and defective logs that went for chips,
> the volume of branches and slash that is ground up
> for hog fuel, and the volume of all the firewood
> permits sold and back that number into "board
> feet", while this material was never saw logs.
> This may not be the case everywhere, but is sure
> is in the National Forests surrounding the mill.
>
> The other factor is the price of wood chips. Wood
> chip prices are high and if the stands being
> logged are close to chip plants, it is worth more
> to chip average or marginal saw logs than to truck
> them past the chip plant to the mill.
>
> The Interfor mill is actually two mills in one
> complex. There is a large log mill and the newer
> small log mill. It is a nice facility, but without
> a supply of something to put in it, it is not
> going to last. Hopefully things will improve and
> they will stay in business. If any of you are
> thinking about getting by the Klamath Northern
> someday, I would not wait. You never know how long
> a railroad can survive if they only have one
> shipper.


Doesn't the shipper own the KNOR?