FORKS — Allen Logging, the last production lumber mill on the North Olympic Peninsula’s West End, expects to cease operations by mid-July.
The closure will idle 45 workers, including drivers, millwrights, mechanics and log yard laborers, said Gerry Lane, general manager.
It comes at a time when timber consumption in the United States is climbing — but most of it from wood imported from Canada, Europe and South America, Lane said.
Logging in the U.S. is constricted by regulatory controls, Lane said.
Lane said that the mill is closing because of an unreliable supply of logs both from private and state land.
The mill at 176462 U.S. Highway 101 on the Hoh River in Jefferson County is the last production softwood mill west of Port Angeles, where an Interfor mill remains.
Started by Lloyd Allen in 1956, it produced 15 million board feet — 35 million in its heyday 15 years ago — of 8-foot-long 2-by-4s, 4-by-4s, 2-by-6s and railroad ties, Lane said.
It sold its lumber locally to Forks True Value Hardware and regionally through a Tacoma broker to retailers that included Home Depot in Sequim, he said.
