Forest Management
Longview Fibre manages its more than 588,000 acres of timberlands in nine tree farms in the Pacific Northwest on a sustained-yield basis. Oregon and Washington stringent State Forest Practice Acts' regulations are met and surpassed as part of our overall forest environmental-protection activities. These lands provide income from log sales and offer a reserve fiber inventory in case of any interruptions in chip supplies for our Longview, Washington paper mill.
More than 115 million trees have been planted in company timberlands through the years in an ongoing intensive reforestation program, with substantially more trees planted per acre annually than required by law. The majority of seedlings planted on company lands are developed through our forest genetics tree-improvement program.
Longview Fibre fully participates in the new Forest & Fish Program in Washington and in Oregon's Salmon Plan. Fish and wildlife habitat-enhancement projects are conducted by our foresters and biologists in both states. Longview Fibre's leadership in protection and development of fish and wildlife habitat ranges from helping formulate new state stream-protection rules in Oregon, to providing technical expertise, in-stream structures and funding in cooperative streams/fisheries improvement projects with state agencies, sportsmen and environmental groups.
The company's long-term forest resource-management program emphasizes continued greater utilization of forest residuals, like our Chunk-Recovery Program and development of better ways to merchandise logs.
Our professional team of foresters and engineers optimize our renewable resource, which includes proper managing of the forest cycle -- preparation of the land for the new forest crop, reforestation, commercial thinning, fertilization, and harvest of mature trees. Construction and maintenance of essential woods access-road systems for forestry activities and protection of trees from fire, insects and disease are important tasks.
Longview Fibre continues to be recognized as an industry leader in advanced Sustainable Forestry practices. Our tree farms contribute substantially to local area economies through employment of independent logging, hauling, road construction and forestry contractors; purchases of materials and supplies locally; payment of taxes; and through supplying logs to area sawmills. And Longview Fibre timberlands are managed for multiple-use, with public recreational enjoyment including hunting and fishing.
