Precision Pine & Timber

Lon Porter is the owner of Precision Pine & Timber, Inc. and
Transporting Renewable Resources, Inc. He began Precision Pine &
Timber 20 years ago, but had to shut down operations in the mid
1990s due to the Mexican spotted owl injunction put on the Sitgreaves
National Forest. Porter also owned sawmills in Winslow and Eager
that were forced to close down because of the injunction. Three
years ago the USFS opened several tracts to bidding. Porter won
the bids and proceeded to prepare the Precision Mill and the Eager
Mill to go back to work. Environmentalists, most notably the Southwest
Center for Biological Diversity, filed lawsuits again, and work
was halted. Porter lost a significant amount of money and the Eager
Mill was never opened. He has laid off all but 18 of his original
185 employees. Porter filed his own lawsuit against the federal
government on the basis that they had a contract for work. He won,
but it is now in appeals.
Precision Pine and Timber is now working on the Sitgreaves National
Forest. Presently, they have got a one-block contract to salvage
burned timber. Precision takes 12" diameter and higher and
their operations are not set up to utilize the small diameter timber
(STD). Currently (June 2004), they can only work from 12 midnight
to 10 am due to the very high winds and drought conditions. Precision
sells their by-product to local utilizers, such as Western Organics
who produce mulch.
SDT Utilization in H-O
There are no SDT utilizers in H-O. This is one of the goals of
the Community Wildfire Protection Plan. USFS employee, Klasner stated
that the local contractors will not be able to fill their needs
once the stewardship contracts are in full force. When asked if
they have communication with the contractors telling them their
future needs, he said it is on an informal basis.
Since the Rodeo-Chediski Fire, two sawmills in the area have opened.
The Parker Mill, in Clay Springs (16 miles away) takes 8-9"
diameter and up. 35 miles east is another mill starting up in Snowflake,
that will take 6" diameter and up.
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