Expert Views

A Northwest timber company is studying how to support bees among trees. Hampton Lumber, a fourth-generation family business, is building pollinator habitats at its timber harvest sites around Oregon and Washington. Read More

Daily Astorian, 12/29/22 – In mid-November, the Oregon Board of Forestry met in Seaside to discuss, among other things, a new 70-year plan for state forests. At the meeting, environmental interest groups led petitions to support the plan regardless of the impacts to rural Oregon. Their solution to the ensuing drop in revenue? Decouple state […] Read More

Oregon State University, 12/27/22 – “Three-quarters of current total material demand is met through non-renewable natural re- sources,” the authors note. “Changing unsustainable consumption patterns is necessary to avert a climate catastrophe. Transitioning to a forest-based circular bioeconomy can be a significant step in that direction.” Read More

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Every autumn in Oregon, motorists traveling down the route 18 receive a “beaming” smile from the hills above the roadway. Oct. 6, 2022 – Good News NetworkEvery autumn in Oregon, motorists traveling down the route 18 receive a “beaming” smile from the hills above the roadway. That’s because years ago, Hampton Lumber company logged the […] Read More

May 22, 2022 – The Oregonian Last week, the most comprehensive changes to Oregon’s forestry regulations in 50years were ceremonially signed into law. What is remarkable about the bipartisan Private Forest Accord is not just that it is the most significant update to the Forest Practices Act since 1971, governing the management of more than […] Read More

April 6, 2022 – AFRC – American Forest Resource Council (AFRC) President Travis Joseph had the following to say regarding the Washington Department of Natural Resources’ (DNR) ‘carbon project’ on public working forests known as state trust lands: “DNR should follow the recommendations of the U.N. Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change that the best way to mitigate climate […] Read More

Edie Sonne Hall, March 19, 2022I am constantly asked about whether it is better to let a tree grow or to use wood products. There is a perception that this is an either/or, but it is not. You can grow more trees and use more wood products. However, as with anything, the devil is in […] Read More

Each year, the Department of Forestry releases a report on the annual benefits of state forests. In addition to stumpage revenue, you’ll see an accounting of the number of visitors and miles of trails maintained, but you won’t see a valuation of the multigeneration, family-owned businesses that make a living in these forests. Read More

/PRNewswire/ — Lowe’s Companies, Inc. announced today that it has named Anatolia Tile & Stone, Chervon and Larson as the company’s 2021 Vendor Partners of the Year…Lowe’s has also recognized long-time partner Hampton Lumber with the Sustainability Award.  Read More

Seattle Times - May 15, 2021 - Add one more factor to the rising cost of new housing in the Seattle area: skyrocketing lumber prices. Nationally, lumber prices have more than tripled in the past year. That can add tens of thousands of dollars to the price of a new house or town house. Read More

/Oregon Forests Forever/ — September was one of Oregon’s most destructive and damaging wildfire seasons in recent history, burning nearly one million acres across both public and private lands. Restoration and regeneration of Oregon’s forests will likely take years and require more than 100 million tree seedlings… Read More

/Oregonian/ — When we thought 2020 couldn’t get worse, the windstorm and resulting wildfires from Labor Day created the worst fire season in Oregon history: bigger than the previous record-holding Silver Falls Fire in 1865, bigger than all the Tillamook Burns combined, and bigger than the footprint of degradation left in the wake of the eruption […] Read More

May 15, 2020, Oregonian – Sturgeon Development Partners announced Thursday it will build an eight-story office in Portland’s Central Eastside, despite the deadly pandemic and the economic ruin left in its path. Read More

May 11, 2020, Seattle Times – Orange juice cartons. Toilet paper. Electricity. Coffee cups. Lumber. The one thing all these things have in common? Trees. Read More

Feb. 23, 2020, Register-Guard – Surviving through the spotted owl era, evolving logging processes and now climate change, timber communities continually face the sense that their livelihood and way of life is dubious. Read More

Feb. 10, 2020 – Corvallis Gazette Times – A new deal between Oregon’s timber industry and environmentalists to protect forest waters, modernize logging regulations and create a new conservation plan was announced Monday by Gov. Kate Brown and representatives of both interests.  Read More

Jan. 29, 2020 – Nisqually Valley News Washington state legislators are organizing bipartisan support for the timber industry and noting that forestry draws carbon from the atmosphere and could help the state meet its carbon reduction goals. Read More

Jan. 6, 2020 – The Daily Herald – DARRINGTON — In a town where the high school mascot is the Loggers, timber is embedded into the community’s identity and its way of life. But changes in state forest management will put Darrington’s largest employer, the Hampton Mill, at risk. Read More

Dec. 19, 2019 – TreeHugger – It also can put people back to work and save our forests. TreeHugger has been covering the mass timber scene for a dozen years, starting with Waugh Thistleton’s timber tower in Hackney. Now Tim Smedley of the BBC talks to Andrew Waugh and writes a really thorough article that looks at the benefits […] Read More

Denise Silfee, Roots & Rivers – Don Arndt didn’t plan to become a logger after high school, but he has never regretted it. “Love the industry, love the people, love the work,” Don says. Don started D&S Logging with his father-in-law Sam Tyler, a lifelong logger, in 1983. Now his two eldest sons, Larsen and […] Read More

Dec. 18, 2019 – Business Tribune – Tennessee-based manufacturer will open a production facility in city’s industrial area to produce prefabricated CLT, glulam building components. Read More

Dec. 11, 2019 – The Oregonian – It took a Linn County jury only a few hours to determine what timber communities have long known—state forests are being mismanaged (“Oregon loses $1 billion timber lawsuit to rural counties,” Nov. 20). Read More

Dec. 2, 2019 – Oregon State University – Long considered pests by forest managers, deer and elk can help Douglas-fir seedlings thrive under certain vegetation management conditions, a five-year study by Oregon State University shows. Read More

Nov. 1, 2019 – Daily Astorian – Each Douglas fir and western hemlock entering Hampton Lumber’s mill runs through several scanners as it’s broken down from a tree trunk into boards. As much of the log as possible is utilized for lumber, with wood chips sent to Georgia-Pacific’s Wauna Mill for paper making and sawdust […] Read More

10/7/2019 – USDA Forest Service— When we think of a renewable resource, the first thing that usually pops in our head are the solar panels on our neighbor’s roof or perhaps the water that flows from the mountains. Rarely does a stand of trees root in our idea of a renewable resource. But the cycle […] Read More

10/3/2019 – By Frank Lowenstein, Brian Donahue and David Foster, Opinion, New York Times — Trees are some of our best allies in solving the climate crisis. A study by scientists from Yale University and the University of Washington showed that expanding wood construction while limiting global harvesting to no more than the annual growth could produce a combination of emissions […] Read More

10/2/2019 – By Phil Morton, The Bottom Line — The timber industry has been a cornerstone of the Pacific Northwest economy since the 1880’s…From humble beginnings the timber industry flourished in the Pacific Northwest and plays a key role today in our modern economy. We asked two local members of the timber industry to give […] Read More

6-21-2019 – K5 News — Logging has deep roots in the forests just outside the Darrington community. For generations, loggers and environmentalists have waged bitter battles over these lands. They’ve been about as friendly as a chainsaw and tree trunk. Now, the Darrington Collaborative is forging an unlikely alliance. Read More

Michelle Skjei doesn’t take no for an answer. She turned a temporary job in July of 2005 to supplement her three boys’ school clothes into a permanent career that she loves.  Michelle is currently an accomplished Journey-Level Lead Electrician for Hampton Lumber, and she admits the journey hasn’t been easy. Read More

ASTORIA — Clatsop County logger Jay Browning of J.M. Browning Logging Inc. of Astoria has been chosen as 2018 Operator of the Year for the Northwest Oregon Area. Browning was singled out for protecting a fish-bearing stream within Hampton Lumber’s Big Creek Forest. Read More

Hampton’s crew on this day, one week before the Portland Timbers’ home opener, is a special one. In the back seats of his Ford Super Duty FX4 sit Timber Jim and Timber Joey, whose annual mission to find the team’s Victory Log has brought them to the mountain. In the coming hours, the team will identify, cut and prepare the logs that will be used through the 2018 season. Read More

KTVZ.COM news sources: A decade-long study of cutthroat trout in the Oregon Coast Range has found that logging practices conducted in accord with the Oregon Forest Practices Act had no adverse impacts on coastal cutthroat trout and coho salmon populations or movements... Read More

Nearly a quarter of the people in attendance were employees of Hampton Lumber and their families...announcing the company’s displeasure at the awarding of a $2 million TIGER grant to the Port of Newport to create a log export facility. The Hampton employee said he was concerned how the exporting of raw logs would impact local sawmills. Read More

Daily Astorian - February 15, 2017 Q&A with Lois Perdue, plant manager for Hampton's Warrenton lumber mill. Read More

Washington state-based Alaska Airlines today made history flying the first commercial flight using the world’s first renewable, alternative jet fuel made from forest residuals, the limbs and branches that remain after the harvesting of managed forests. Read More

Kathy Abusow is President & CEO of the Sustainable Forestry Initiative® Inc. (SFI), a non-profit that plays a central role in strengthening the vital links among sustainable forestry, responsible purchasing, and thriving communities. In this TEDx event, Kathy talks about how well managed forests provide products and benefits that help society at large. Read More

Trees are harvested then replanted. Nearly 100 million trees are replanted each year in Washington and Oregon managed forests. This cycle of harvesting and replanting stores carbon–not only in living trees in the forest, but in finished wood products such as lumber and furniture. Read More

The OSU College of Forestry provides science leadership for 11 research cooperatives that conduct research and apply the results to solve problems, develop new products, support long-term field studies, and develop decision support tools. Read More

Building a skyscraper? Forget about steel and concrete, says architect Michael Green, and build it out of … wood. As he details in this intriguing talk, it's not only possible to build safe wooden structures up to 30 stories tall (and, he hopes, higher), it's necessary. Read More