Idaho Forest Group, one of the nation’s largest lumber producers, is getting even bigger, with an expansion in Lumberton, Miss.
The family-owned, Coeur d’Alene-based business made its plans public last week after the Lamar County (Miss.) Board of Supervisors approved a proposal to transfer 174 acres of county land to Idaho Forest Group, according to a news release from the company.
The $120 million facility is expected to employ 135 people, who will earn about $44,000 per year plus benefits, according to a story in the Hattiesburg American, a newspaper published near Lumberton, about the project.
Idaho Forest Group will be hiring mill supervisors, information technology and human resources staff, engineers, technicians and operators from Lumberton and surrounding communities, according to the news release.
The company began laying the groundwork for the project more a year ago with visits to Lumberton and other places in the region, said Tom Schultz vice president of resources and government affairs for Idaho Forest Group.
That was before the coronavirus pandemic and a related recent spike in lumber prices, driven partly by a flurry of homebuilding and remodels.
Idaho Forest Group executives were aware that in the South, the growth of southern yellow pine trees exceeds the rate of harvest, Schultz said.
“What’s attractive is the abundance of the raw material,” he said.
The Missisissippi mill will be the only Idaho Forest Group plant outside of Idaho and Montana, where it has six sawmills and a finger-joint plant that make more than 1.2 billion board feet of lumber each year, according to the news release.
Those mills are operated by more than 1,100 employees, including close to 400 staff members in Lewiston and Grangeville.
There are no plans to shift production from the Northwest to the South, Schultz said.
“(The Mississippi expansion) doesn’t detract from what we’re doing in support of the employees, mills and communities in Idaho and Montana,” he said.
Williams may be contacted at ewilliam@lmtribune.com or (208) 848-2261.
