CALIFORNIA IN BRIEF : BRANSCOMB : Sawmill to Lay Off 240 for 3 Months

About 240 employees of Mendocino County’s largest independent sawmill will be temporarily laid off Nov. 1, when the company curtails winter operations. Harwood Products General Manager Art Harwood Jr. blamed the 90-day cutback on rising log costs and slumping lumber prices. “We can’t afford to buy the logs to keep us running full-blast through the winter,” he said. The family-owned company hasn’t decided whether the sawmill will be completely shut down or whether it will operate on a one-week on, one-week off basis. Log prices have risen to about $400 per 1,000 board feet, but the price for 1,000 feet of finished Douglas fir lumber has dropped to about $225, Harwood said, adding: “You can’t make money doing that.”