Silicon Forest Is Growing Alongside Timber Industry
In this farm town just outside Portland, Oregon’s evergreen forest is fast giving way to the Silicon Forest.
Not far from a quiet Main Street little changed since the 1950s, acres of new corporate parks sport the logos of Intel, Fujitsu, NEC and Tektronix.
By year’s end, high-tech manufacturers like these are expected to employ more Oregonians than the timber industry--a significant milestone as Oregon’s rural, resource-based economy evolves into one dominated by the computer and electronics industries.
Two converging trends are behind the change. First, the forest-products work force has been declining for years. Logging bans to protect spotted owls and other wildlife have reduced the timber supply, and increased automation in mills has reduced the number of workers needed.
Electronics and computer firms, meanwhile, have discovered Oregon to be fertile ground for business. The state’s lack of sales tax can save a company millions of dollars on construction materials; tax breaks offered by counties competing for high-tech development can save millions more.
Add in Oregon’s scenic surroundings and affordable housing, and it’s easy to see why companies that started in California’s Silicon Valley are heading north.
The American Electronics Assn. says Oregon has the nation’s third-largest collection of high-tech companies, behind California and Massachusetts.
Intel, already Oregon’s largest single employer, plans to spend $2.2 billion over 10 years to build a new plant in Hillsboro making semiconductor chips and computer equipment. Integrated Device Technology Inc. is planning an $800-million expansion project nearby.
In five years, high technology will provide 27.7% of Oregon’s manufacturing jobs, and the timber industry will provide just 20.8%, predicts state economist Paul Warner. It’s a dramatic reversal from 1980, when high tech accounted for 21.8% of all manufacturing jobs, and timber accounted for 32.4%.
As the high-tech development continues, some residents worry that its environmental impacts will make loggers’ clear cuts look good.
Producing silicon chips is a thirsty business, and Oregon is already starting to strain its water supply. Rapid industrial growth also may bring the same problems that pushed companies out of California: rising real estate prices, traffic jams, and a spreading morass of factories, housing tracts and strip malls.
Despite concerns, the high-tech boom seems likely to keep building, especially around Hillsboro.
“In Washington County, we have built up a large enough pool of labor and infrastructure that it’s feeding on itself,” Warner said. “We’re really benefiting from that clustering effect and will continue for a number of years.”
