The new year greeted Escalante with a spark of revival in the milling and timber industry that once provided 90 jobs in the small, rural Garfield County community.
Utah Forest Products, the newest small industry in Escalante, is beginning an operation to manufacture special wood products such as interior and exterior paneling, cabin logs and siding. Although not as large as the former industry, the new business will employ some former workers of the Escalante Sawmill with a $500,000 annual payroll."We didn't want to compete against big companies, so we are not milling such standard products as two-by-fours. But we will have some competition," said Stephen Steed, a partner in the venture. "Our greatest advantage is that we are close to the timber resource, while the disadvantage is limited capital to buy the high-cost federal timber sales."
Steed, who has long been involved in the industry and was in management with the former sawmill, organized Utah Forest Products with Danny Peterson and Teton West Lumber in Cheyenne, Wyo. He will be responsible for supervising the milling operation, Peterson will be in charge of hauling, and Teton West will do the marketing.
"Our goal is to capture specialty markets," Steed said. Sales will involve wholesale and retail markets.
"By being small, we will be more flexible with the specialty market and will also do custom work," Steed said. "We feel there's a need and demand for that."
He noted that the company will be in a good position for a timber supply, purchased from the Dixie Forest and private owners on land about 25 miles north of Escalante, for three years. But he also expressed concern about its availability in future years.
The timber hasn't been available in the quantities that it was in previous years. The Forest Service selling about 4.5 billion board feet last year, compared with 12 billion board feet each year during the 1980s. "We came to the conclusion we must watch what we do with the resource," Steed said, adding "thousands and thousands of people have been displaced in the Western states."
He blames the Forest Service's inability to "put up the resource (make it available) in a timely manner" and "appeals by environmental groups" for the decrease in production and employment in the industry. The latter have appealed most of the timber sales that have been proposed on federal lands.
The new mill will have a payroll of about $500,000 annually and now has about 15 employees, many of them family members. "It's about as close to a Mom-and-Pop operation as you can get, but I wanted to stay in Escalante and provide employment for as many as possible," Steed said.
He said the cost of the timber is critical to the new operation, and the financial burden is difficult. "For instance, we had to come up with $180,000 just to bid on one timber sale, and would have had to match that amount, if we had been successful in getting the contract."
A "debarking" system will clean off logs, an innovation that will help sell the products and result in a more efficient operation, Steed said.
Garfield County lost much of its economy when the sawmill closed in Escalante, and the work force was drastically reduced at a sawmill in Panguitch because of uncertain timber supplies in the future.
The mill at Escalante had 120 employees in the mid-1980s, with another 30 working as a logging crew. At the time of its closure, there were about 90 employees with a payroll of about $3 million.
The mill at Panguitch peaked at about 90 employees, and now there are barely enough left to keep it operating.
"We just ran out of wood," Steed concludes.
In laying the groundwork for the smaller milling operation, Steed and an engineering staff created a functional design with a changing market in mind for what they say is an environmentally sensitive area. Steed then traveled through a half dozen states in search of the right equipment.
He said the trauma of the closure of the former mill turned into a strong spirit of survival for the workers engaged in the new operation.
"Their enthusiasm for this project, which they are counting on as their job security, is evidenced in their willingness for hard work. Their contribution of collective experience in the industry is an invaluable asset," Steed said.