A federal judge has ruled against Freres Lumber Co. and subsidiary Freres Timber of Lyons, Ore., dismissing the company’s lawsuit against the U.S. Forest Service (FS) over its response to the Beachie Creek Fire in 2020. Over Labor Day weekend, the fire started on federal land and spread to private timberlands and towns along the North Santiam River east of Salem and caused five deaths and massive damage to timberlands and property.

       The lawsuit, which sought $33 million in damages, alleged the Forest Service was negligent in battling the Beachie Creek Fire in the Willamette National Forest. The complaint said officials did not put their full aerial firefighting arsenal or other resources to work in the first 14 days of the fire before it spread and became part of a complex of fires in the Santiam Canyon fueled by high winds and downed power lines.

       The Beachie Creek Fire eventually covered 193,000 acres, mostly in the Willamette National Forest, and destroyed dozens of homes in the towns of Detroit, Gates and Mill City. Rob Freres, President of Freres Engineered Wood (the company changed names in early 2024) and Freres Timber, said the ruling would be appealed and cited the FS’ “misconduct, negligence and failure to act” in responding to the fire and said they had brought the suit to change FS approach to wildfire fighting.

       Freres said the company had lost 7,000 acres of timberland in the fire, worth $30 million, and another $3 million in timber sales that were destroyed.

Weyerhaeuser Co. has announced plans to invest approximately $500 million to build a new, state-of-the-art TimberStrand facility near Monticello and Warren, Ark., expanding the company’s engineered wood products (EWP) capacity in the U.S. South. The facility will have an annual production capacity of approximately 10 million cubic feet, which is comparable to the company’s existing TimberStrand facility in Kenora, Ontario. Construction is expected to begin in 2025, with the goal of starting operations in 2027.

Leveraging its proprietary TimberStrand technology, Weyerhaeuser is combining institutional expertise from Kenora with extensive research and development to manufacture TimberStrand with southern yellow pine as the primary feedstock. Given the company’s sizeable timber holdings in Arkansas, the Monticello facility is strategically located to source most of its fiber log requirements from company-owned timberlands in the region. Additionally, the plant will include a biomass-fueled cogeneration system, which will fully supply the plant’s electrical needs and significantly reduce its environmental footprint.

This announcement represents an expansion of Weyerhaeuser’s total investment and impact in Arkansas, adding a third manufacturing facility to go along with a lumber mill in Dierks and a plywood and veneer plant in Emerson, as well as 1.2 million acres of timberlands, a seedling nursery and several offices—currently employing more than 700 people across the state, with 200 more jobs to be added as the new EWP facility comes on-line. 

“This is an exciting opportunity to grow our EWP business, expand TimberStrand into the U.S. South and provide an additional outlet for our fiber logs in Arkansas,” says Devin W. Stockfish, President & CEO, Weyerhaeuser. “Of the wood products we produce, EWP has the strongest tie to single-family housing construction activity, and this new facility aligns with our conviction that U.S. housing demand will remain favorable over the long term. In addition, this plant will allow Weyerhaeuser to better serve other customers and end markets in the region, including mass timber applications, and it supports our broader sustainability ambitions. I’d like to thank the state of Arkansas and local officials for working with Weyerhaeuser to site this facility. We look forward to building on our long history in the state and providing new employment opportunities in Monticello and surrounding communities.”

The company expects to incur approximately $500 million of capital expenditures for the facility through 2027 and plans to exclude this investment for purposes of calculating the company’s annual adjusted funds available for distribution, as used in its flexible cash return framework. This capital outlay may be sourced from cash on hand or through future financing, as the company deems appropriate.

Georgia-Pacific has changed its operations leadership. Jeff Koeppel, senior vice president of operations, will retire in the first quarter of 2025. A role he has held since 2016, Koeppel’s been a critical part of the transformation of Georgia-Pacific’s manufacturing operations.

Hudson Pope, currently senior vice president for manufacturing at Georgia-Pacific, will assume the senior vice president of operations position with responsibility for all manufacturing segments.

Pope brings nearly 30 years of experience in the pulp and paper industry—beginning his career with Georgia-Pacific as a co-op process engineer for the company’s Crossett, Ark. facility. He has grown his career with Georgia-Pacific and several other organizations, assuming consecutive leadership roles in manufacturing, logistics, and operations. In December 2018, Pope was promoted to Georgia-Pacific’s senior vice president, building products operations. In 2023, his role changed to assume responsibility for the company’s packaging and cellulose operations.

Pope holds a B.S. in chemical engineering, with a minor in pulp and paper technology from Auburn University. An active alum, he serves on the board of directors of the Auburn Pulp & Paper Foundation as the executive committee president.

Koeppel will support Pope in making a smooth transition in the coming months.