Boise Cascade shows off

Published 4:24 pm Wednesday, June 24, 2015

By Cherise Kaechele, The Observer

Boise Cascade welcomed members of the Union County Economic Development Corporation to the Elgin plywood plant on Tuesday afternoon. Members got to tour the facility and learn about how the logs are treated and prepared from start to finish. (Cherise Kaechele/The Observer)

Members of the Union County Economic Development Corp. put on their hard hats, protective eye wear and earplugs to tour Elgin Boise Cascade’s plywood plant Tuesday.

La Grande city employees, Union County commissioners, chamber of commerce employees and other local business owners and employees gathered in Elgin to get a close-up encounter of one of Union County’s biggest employers.

Boise Cascade’s Lindsey Warness introduced the group to the company’s history before the tour began. Warness said there are two mills cohabitating at the Elgin plant – a plywood plant and a stud mill.

Warness said the entire process of gathering lumber and treating it to become ready to sell can be done at the mill, and 100 percent of the logs are used in some way in the facility.

Like many large businesses in Union County, Warness said the Elgin plant is dependent on the vitality of national forests. The safety of private lands is being threatened and diminished, either by the federal government or by natural-caused disasters, such as forest fires, Warness said. Lumber mills everywhere are suffering in the market, Warness said. In Northeast Oregon.

For the complete story, please see Wednesday’s edition of The Observer

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