Oregon timber country ponders future with fewer logs

O‘BRIEN, Ore. (AP) — Jennifer Phillippi’s grandparents started producing lumber in this corner of Oregon timber country in 1922, when a man could set up a mill, log the trees within range of a team of horses and move the mill to a new stand when those trees ran out.

In those days the forests were full, timber and work both plentiful. But now what was the last sawmill standing in Josephine County has hit the end of the line after yet another timber family had to give up hope that the lands surrounding them could provide enough of the big pine logs they needed to stay afloat.