The Washington company’s historic timber deal includes new part-owner The Conservation Fund … and questions
Cut deal: The SDS Lumber mill and other assets are part of a blockbuster timber transaction in the Columbia River Gorge. Photo Jurgenhessphotography.com
By Jordan Rane. October 4, 2021. Last year, the SDS Lumber and Timber Company’s unexpected announcement that it planned to sell off its mill properties and extensive timber assets prompted a wave of foreboding in the Columbia River Gorge community and beyond.
A timber industry fixture since the 1940s, the Bingen, Wash.-based company manages nearly 100,000 acres of Pacific Northwest forest reserves on top of its deep-rooted mill operations. Generally well regarded by commercial and conservation interests, SDS’s reliance on a tight-lipped New York investment firm to engineer a sale to undetermined buyers inspired about as much local comfort as a loose saw blade, as detailed in an earlier Columbia Insight report.
Late last week, the suspense was at least partially lifted with the announcement of a buyer—or, more accurately, buyers.
They consist of a consortium of three separate entities: Seattle-based, multi-tiered management and investment company Twin Creeks Timber; Carson, Wash.-based lumber company Wilkins, Kaiser & Olsen, Inc. (WKO); and The Conservation Fund, a national nonprofit dedicated to land and water resource protection, climate change mitigation and sustainable community and economic development.
“Each of these entities brings deep expertise,” said SDS Lumber Companies President Jeff Webber in a September 30 press release. “Under their ownership and leadership there will be ongoing positive economic and environmental impacts for Bingen, the Gorge and the entire Northwest.”
Many questions remain
The SDS transaction includes lumber and plywood mills, associated assets in Bingen and over 96,000 acres of timberlands near the Columbia River in Washington and Oregon.
Green Diamond Resource Company, manager and investor in Silver Creek Capital Management’s Twin Creeks Timber, will acquire and manage the majority of the timberlands as working forests.
The Conservation Fund, which holds more than 760,000 acres of working forestland across several states “will acquire a portion of the SDS properties and manage the conservation easement process and community engagement to ensure that lands with the highest natural, climate and community values are conserved,” states the same press release.
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What all of this actually means is a question that will certainly fuel ongoing concerns about future operations under this new triumvirate ownership—and how SDS’s legacy will evolve.
Will the Bingen mill stay open? Will company headquarters move? Will logging rotations be adjusted (i.e., shortened) from SDS’s long-term cycles that are generally well above the 35-year Washington average? Were there any important SDS contingencies in the acquisition? And when will the sale finalize?
Columbia Insight asked SDS all the above questions. “No additional comment” was provided for all but the final one.
The transaction is expected to close in the fourth quarter of 2021.
Walking the Bingen waterfront I have already seen less and less wildlife and birds in WETLANDS area. The WETLANDS have been particularly filled in from both ends!! WETLANDS need to be protected. Loss of that amount of WETLANDS in a fairly small area goes against regulations. Building etc. anywhere by wetlands had strict guidelines. Have the laws changed? What company has ownership to new ground on both ends?
I love the Gorge ??