Neiman announces cutbacks at Spearfish, Hulett sawmills

RAPID CITY, S.D. — An area forest merchandise firm has introduced they’re lowering hours at their mills in response to a scarcity of obtainable timber within the Black Hills National Forest.

Hulett-based Neiman Enterprises made the announcement to their staff at the Hulett (Devils Tower Forest Products) and Spearfish (Spearfish Forest Products) sawmills at 4:00 Thursday afternoon.

The discount in hours will get rid of a shift at the Hulett website and scale back work hours in Spearfish.

Sonja Merryman, the corporate’s group relations director, stated, “Neiman Enterprises is dedicated to our staff, communities, and this forest, which is why we’re conserving all staff on the payroll regardless of the discount in milling.”

The announcement comes about a year after they closed their sawmill in Hill City (Rushmore Forest Products) due to a timber scarcity.

In a press release launched late Thursday afternoon, firm president Jim Neiman says they’re nonetheless working with the U.S. Forest Service and different companions, regardless of their disagreement with the diminished timber harvest.

A 2021 report by the U.S. Forest Service states that the present dwell saw-timber quantity doesn’t help a long-term sustainable timber provide if harvests proceed at the 181,000 ccf allowable sale amount. (1 ccf = 100 cubic toes)

South Dakota Senator John Thune is without doubt one of the many legislators who’ve spoken out in opposition to the Forest Service’s discount plan.

Sen. Thune informed NewsCenter1:

“For years, I’ve pressed the U.S. Forest Service to collaboratively develop a plan that balances the wants of the Black Hills National Forest’s administration and the forest merchandise business, which performs a essential function in supporting forest well being and the regional economic system,” Sen. Thune stated. “It’s clear that the Forest Service doesn’t have a plan for turning across the pattern of mill closures, and if the company doesn’t discover a strategy to make extra timber obtainable, the forest merchandise business will quickly be gone. Through its inaction, the Forest Service is systematically dismantling the forest merchandise business. As we’ve seen in different components of the nation, as soon as milling infrastructure is gone, it’s almost unattainable to deliver it again, and forests face elevated threat of catastrophic wildfires, like people who have decimated thousands and thousands of acres in recent times. The Forest Service must acknowledge what is going on to the business within the Black Hills and provide you with a accountable plan to deal with it instantly. We can’t maintain extra mill closures or reductions in milling capability.I’m calling on the Forest Service to supply native officers with the workers and instruments obligatory to attain everybody’s shared aim of sustaining the well being of the forest earlier than it’s too late.”

South Dakota Congressman Dusty Johnson stated:

“Neimans has been a trustworthy accomplice with the Forest Service for years. These reductions threat the longevity of South Dakota’s sawmills. When mills go away – or on this case scale back hours – these employees have to seek out different jobs. These jobs are area of interest – these employees don’t simply come again when forest administration turns into obligatory once more once we see an uptick in fires and bug outbreaks. A managed forest is a wholesome forest.”

Opponents say a discount in timber harvest units the forest up for doubtlessly lethal wildfires and different epidemics like that of the mountain pine beetle. Their concern goes additional, saying a devastating fireplace would probably impression tourism within the area – South Dakota’s second-largest business.

Merryman stated, “These mills are essential inexperienced infrastructure that’s important for the well being and resilience of the Black Hills,” including that the discount in timber provide is believed to be non permanent.