Sierra Pacific Industries (SPI) is an American forest products company. It is the second-largest lumber producer[1] in the United States. A privately held company, it was co-founded in 1949 by R. H. Emmerson and his son, A. A. "Red" Emmerson, the long-term CEO, and A. A. Emmerson's sons George and Mark are now president and CEO. Headquartered in Anderson, California, it is the largest private landholder in California. It has drawn criticism for some of its environmental practices.
Logging in the Sierra Nevada arose from the desire for economic growth throughout California. The California Gold Rush created a high demand for timber in housing construction, mining procedures, and building railroads. In the early days, forest harvesting was unregulated, and within the first 20 years after the gold rush, a third of the timber in the Sierra Nevada was logged.[2] The overall economic impact of the forest industry in California in the 21st century is fairly modest. California forests produce about 350million board feet of wood products annually. These products include $100million in market value for saw timber and $40million in market value for electricity produced from biomass. As of 2024[update], logging provides jobs for about 2,000 private sector workers in California. For comparison, thirty-three million people visit National Forests in California for recreation annually, generating 38,000 outdoor recreation-related jobs.[3]
A. A. "Red" Emmerson has been described as "low-key, hard-working and notoriously shy of publicity".[4] Writing for The Land Report in 2022, Eric O'Keefe reported on Red Emmerson's rags to riches rise.[5] Emmerson told him he was brought up in Newberg, Oregon[6] in a broken home, failed in education, was sent to a strict[5]Seventh-day Adventist[6]boarding school in Eastern Washington, from which he was expelled,[5] although not before getting a paying job driving a truck at 35¢ an hour (equivalent to $6.38in 2023 in 2023).[6] His father, R. H. "Curly" Emmerson, endeavored to make a living in timber, which at the time dominated the economy of the Pacific Northwest, building "crude, temporary" sawmills in the backyard, but was so unsuccessful that his wife, Emily, left him and went to Alaska.[5][6] Red Emmerson found a job as a ranch hand, where he gained his nickname.[5] Curly Emmerson finally achieved some success in 1947, when competitors were embroiled in a regional strike.
History
In the 1920s and 1930s, the Northwest teemed with jerry-rigged sawmills, crude contraptions in logging camps and at railheads that sputtered to life and spewed diesel fumes and sawdust. Such was Curly’s lot. Most of his mills were woefully undercapitalized. The ones that actually made money burned to the ground. Twice.[5]
In 1949, Curly Emmerson asked his son to join him.[5] They founded R. H. Emmerson and son,[7][8][9] and together built a sawmill in Northern California, which Red ran, with Curly buying the timber.[10] They prospered, and further mills followed the flagship mill in Arcata. O'Keefe notes that, at this point, the Emmersons "didn't own a single acre. Yet they could profit from the millions of acres around them."[5] They bought a 2,500-acre tract in 1958 and a 5,400-acre tract in 1961.[9] The new company benefitted from post-war economic growth, which rejuvenated both the lumber market and housing production. However, with greater demand came greater competition, which by the 1960s was severe.[11]
A partnership with fellow Arcata lumber owner Mike Crook—which saw him invest $10,000 (equivalent to $253278.01 in 2023) and the Emmersons manage his mill as well as their own—as well as a successful lawsuit saw them finally "flush with cash". A series of further investments and large purchases followed until they could borrow massive sums from the Bank of America to fund growth. For example, in 1957, they borrowed $250,000 (equivalent to $2712085.31 in 2023). This was followed by another of $500,000 (equivalent to $5149606299.21 in 2023), until in 1965 the Emmersons borrowed $2.8million (equivalent to $27071594.51 in 2023). Further, each loan had been paid off early.[5]
Tree marker indicating property of Sierra Pacific Industries
Crook's son John entered into a partnership with Red in 1969,[5] and the company became a publicly traded company and changed its name to Sierra Pacific Industries.[10] In 1974, Keene was bought out[5] and SPI was privatized,[9] with Red's and Curly's partnership being officially dissolved.[10] The company underwent radical expansion due to the 1980s housing boom as the majority of its lumber was destined for the house-building market. As a result of this demand, it purchased a large quantity of land. Small mills that could not compete went to the wall; SPI "took advantage of the situation and managed to record enviable growth as other companies struggled to survive". Contemporary industry leader and millionaire Harry Merlo summed up the reasons for SPI's growth at this time: "As people got out of sawmilling, what did they do? They sold their assets to Red. He was the last man standing."[12][note 1] The precise figures are unknown but appear to range from approximately 525,000 acres (820sqmi)[10] to 1,000,000 acres (1,600sqmi)[7] in Northern California at a cost of between $465million (equivalent to $1174770.96million in 2023)[10] and $660million (equivalent to $1700326392.8million in 2023).[7] SPI bought the Sonora sawmill in 1995; this had been in operation since 1901. SPI closed the plant in 2009, although it reopened two years later following an upgrade.[14] In 1996, SPI was incorporated.[15]
Red Emmerson and his wife, Ida, had two sons, George and Mark, who succeeded their father as President and Chief Executive, respectively.[8] Vaughn Emmerson, Red's grandson, runs the Anderson fabrication plant.[5]
George Emmerson has said that in the early 21st century SPI had reached its limits in the state: "We had got to the point in California where there wasn't opportunity to expand... We owned almost 1.5million acres,[note 2] and we weren't going to build another sawmill".[10] As a result, in 2021 the company purchased Seneca, a timber company based in Eugene, Oregon, adding 175,000 acres (273sqmi) of land in Oregon to its holdings.[10][16] That year SPI became the country's biggest private landowner.[10]The San Francisco Chronicle has argued that the reasoning behind Emmerson's land purchases is his belief that as Federal regulation increases, national forests will become unreliable for timber sourcing.[4]As of 2024[update] the company owns mills and timberland in California, Oregon, and Washington, but has also diversified into recreational parks and biomass energy.[10]
Wealth
Forbes has estimated SPI's operating profits at around $375million on annual sales of over $1.5billion.[17]Real assets comprise 18 sawmills and other holdings across five states.[10][note 3] It is headquartered in Anderson, California, where it also runs its own fabrication plant, building many of the parts, spares and repairs for the mills.[5] Another major source of income is salvage logging[note 4]—at which SPI is the country's biggest operator—with some such purchases being "for pennies on a dollar".[17] As a result of the Forest Resources Conservation and Shortage Relief Act of 1990, there is little overall competition in the lumber industry.[17][note 5]
A. A. Emmerson and his children have all donated to the National Alliance of Forest Owners PAC, which has listed them among "individual donors [who] gave 110 large ($200+) contributions" over several election cycles.[20][note 6]
Land ownership
By 2009, SPI and Turner Enterprises had been overtaking each other to be the largest land owner in the United States.[22] SPI is the largest landowner in California, with an estimated holding of 1,700,000 acres (2,700sqmi), amounting to twice the area of Yosemite National Park. SFGate has argued that the company is "a major player in any consideration of the state's environmental future".[7]
Criticism
Two different visions are evolving for the Sierra Nevada. The first is one promulgated by the U.S. Forest Service, environmentalists and... implies an intact and essentially inviolate forest. Moderate selective cutting is allowed, but greater emphasis is placed on wildlife and recreation values. The second is basically Sierra Pacific's long-range harvest plan: clear-cutting in a methodical fashion and replanting the logged units. Meticulously managing the forest as a tree plantation, in other words. Only one vision can prevail.[4]
The company's activities have attracted criticism from environmentalists. By the late 1980s, public opinion had begun to turn against corporate irresponsibility in the environment, and several amendments had been passed to tighten the 1964 Wilderness Act.
Environmental activists have been particularly concerned about the practice of clear cutting. The San Francisco Chronicle described the results of clear cutting in the Sierra Nevada as leaving "a blank spot in the forest, a treeless zone, littered with charred stumps".[4] SPI have argued in response that they are "in the business of growing forests, not destroying them", and that while they do clear cut in bulk, they also replant quickly. Further, not only do they replant, but they also replant brushlands with new saplings, effectively creating a new forest. This meant, said SPI, that "we're growing more timber than we're harvesting".[4] Local activists have further complained that application of herbicides in the replanted areas harms the local ecology, especially rivers.[7] In summer 2000, protestors from the Yuba Nation chained themselves to SPI logging equipment and vehicles and occupied the company's head office in Grass Valley, California; some protesters did jail time.[23] Soon after, SPI placed continuing logging activities in the Sierra under a moratorium.[24] The Earth Island Institute, through its John Muir Project, investigated SPI over several years and describes itself as "a clearinghouse for SPI-related information". Earth Island Institute has said that SPI "embodies the worst practices in the timber industry" around the turn of the century, and that while other logging companies, such as the Pacific Lumber Company, had been in the spotlight for a decade, SPI "has been quietly plundering the state's forests on a scale that makes Charles Hurwitz[note 7] look like a novice".[26]
Northern Spotted Owl
In the 1990s, protestors began to target SPI mills in Northern California over concerns for the Northern Spotted Owl, whose habitat is old-growth and mixed-growth forests.[12] The logging industry estimated up to 30,000 of 168,000 jobs would be lost because of the owl's protected status,[27] and indeed the lumber harvest declined by 80 percent in the Northwest. In turn, supply fell, and consumer prices rose.[28][note 8]
Former Pacific Forest Trust director Dr Andrea Tuttle has identified 1990 as a pivotal year in the political campaign against companies such as SPI. She recalled that several measures intended to limit logging had finally achieved sufficient public support in California to be placed on the ballot as initiatives. Although on election day, they all eventually failed, she recalls receiving a phone call from Red Emmerson telling her, "Andrea, I never want to go through that again. What can we do?". From then on, she says, SPI became part of the debate: "All these pressures were just hammering the industry. It was piling on them from every direction. They were losing their social license to practice forestry in California."[30]
In May 2008 SPI's plans for clear-cutting 1,000 acres (1.6sqmi) in the Sierra foothills were cleared by the California Supreme Court.[37]
Pollution
In 2007 the State of California announced that SPI had paid fines equalling $13million (equivalent to $19102551.76 in 2023) in a civil settlement brought by the California Air Resources Board. The allegations related to complaints that several of SPI's mills were operating in breach of their air pollution certification, falsifying reports and monitoring equipment, and discharging waste material to the detriment of their neighbours.[38]
Fires
A.A. Emmerson (second from left) and Dan Tomascheski (second from right) of SPI at a meeting on wildfire mitigation during the 2018 Carr Fire
Climate change is intensifying the incidence of drought and the threat of wildfires in California. Sparks from heavy equipment on an SPI site were blamed for the 2007 Moonlight Fire. In 2012, the company agreed to pay a $47million fine and give up 22,500 acres of land to settle a federal liability lawsuit.[39] It has participated in forest thinning intended to mitigate fire risk[40] and in planning for environmental recovery after the 2018 Camp Fire, which destroyed everything SPI had replanted after an earlier fire.[41][42]
The company has been praised by the Deputy Fire Chief of CAL FIRE for being "on the forefront of progressive fire prevention practices", particularly through their investment in weather prediction technology and meteorological stations. Data from these stations is fed into the National Fire Danger Rating System to provide a more advanced indication of imminent problems.[5]
Economically, SPI's fire salvage logging drew controversy. Forbes reported that following the Rim Fire in Yosemite in 2013, in which 257,000 acres (402sqmi) was burned, "not long after firefighters doused the flames, a fleet of bulldozers and trucks arrived" from SPI.[17] After the Fountain Fire of 1992, which touched the SPI sawmill at Burney,[43] Red Emmerson commented that the company "had trucks coming down the road that had flames on the back".[17] Due to the company's economic weight, SPI can buy large contracts in salvage logging at a heavy discount when they are announced by the government. SPI pays between a half and a quarter of the usual price for wood that it calculates is often still 90 percent useful.[17]
Conservation work
SPI has occasionally sold some of its land to the Trust for Public Land (TPL) to consolidate habitat for wildlife, including 7,000 acres (11sqmi) near Lake Tahoe and its forest.[44] Some of that land had originally been designated for housing development by SPI.[45] TPL has defended SPI, stating the two organisations had "an excellent working relationship... We've done a lot of important land conservation together. They've been an extremely reliable landowner to work with."[7] In land previously cut down by SPI, some species have apparently undergone a population boom, such as the blacktail deer and black bear as a result of new food sources being revealed.[4]
In 2009, the company started a living gene bank of trees using seeds harvested from Sequoia National Park with permission from the National Park Service.[46] It distributed the seeds across its land, with some planted far north of their original environment.[47] This was followed a new policy of carbon sequestration. Several scientists writing in Forest Ecology and Management stated that such a program was intended to "protect the genetic diversity of giant sequoia and expand the current range within California" for perpetuity, while monetizing the profits from the concomitant gains in carbon storage.[48] SPI is a member of trade association Washington Forest Protection Association.[49]
Sierra Pacific Foundation
SPI created a private foundation in 1979, with the stated purposes of raising money for its workers' dependents to go to college,[14] as well as broader investment in youth and community projects.[10] Red Emmerson's wife, Ida, served as president; she was succeeded by their daughter, Carolyn Dietz.
The Foundation has made several grants and donations. In 2015, it committed $6million to Oregon State University's wood laboratory to expand its development. In return, the laboratory was named for Red Emmerson.[8] Three years later, following the Carr Fire, it donated $1.1million towards the Whiskeytown Environment School and another $750,000 for the rebuilding of damaged housing.[50] It also donated $2,000 to the Hoquiam Fire Department to help fight wildfires.[51]
Notes
↑ For example, in 1995 Sierra Pacific acquired the wood products division of Fibreboard.[13]
↑ "SPI says that it now has 18 sawmills across the three states. It also has window plants in Alabama and Wisconsin."[10]
↑ Salvage logging is the practice of felling trees damaged by wildfire, flood, severe wind, disease, insect infestation, or other natural disturbance in order to recover economic value that would otherwise be lost.[18]
↑ The Act forbade log-export companies from participating in domestic contract bidding.[19] SPI does not export, but other large U.S. companies such as Weyerhaeuser and Rayonier and foreign companies, such as Canadian timber producers, are thus forbidden from competing with it.[17]
↑ Between 2014 and 2024, A. A. Emmerson donated $40,000; George and Mark Emmerson $45,000; and Carolyn Dietz $15,000.[21]
↑ However, jobs were already declining because of dwindling old-growth forest harvests and automation of the lumber industry.[27] One study at the University of Wisconsin–Madison by environmental scientists argued that logging jobs had been in a long decline and that environmental protection was not a significant factor in job loss.[29]
The Sierra Nevada is a mountain range in the Western United States, between the Central Valley of California and the Great Basin. The vast majority of the range lies in the state of California, although the Carson Range spur lies primarily in Nevada. The Sierra Nevada is part of the American Cordillera, an almost continuous chain of mountain ranges that forms the western "backbone" of the Americas.
A log flume is a watertight flume constructed to transport lumber and logs down mountainous terrain using flowing water. Flumes replaced horse- or oxen-drawn carriages on dangerous mountain trails in the late 19th century. Logging operations preferred flumes whenever a reliable source of water was available. Flumes were cheaper to build and operate than logging railroads. They could span long distances across chasms with more lightweight trestles.
PotlatchDeltic Corporation is an American diversified forest products company based in Spokane, Washington.
Sierra National Forest is a U.S. national forest located on the western slope of the central Sierra Nevada in California, bounded on the northwest by Yosemite National Park and on the south by Kings Canyon National Park. The forest is known for its mountain scenery and beautiful lakes. Forest headquarters are located in Clovis, California. There are local ranger district offices in North Fork and Prather.
North Fork is an unincorporated community in Madera County, California, United States. As of the 2020 United States census it had a population of 3,250. For statistical purposes, the United States Census Bureau has defined North Fork as a census-designated place (CDP). North Fork is part of the Madera Metropolitan Statistical Area and is home to the tribal headquarters of the Northfork Rancheria of Mono Indians of California.
Archie Aldis "Red" Emmerson is the founder of Sierra Pacific Industries, a lumber products company that operates in California, Oregon and Washington. With 2.33 million acres, Emmerson and his family rank as America's largest private landowners, according to a profile by Eric O’Keefe in the 2021 Land Report 100. As of March 2024, they had a net worth of $5.4billion.
The Pacific Lumber Company, officially abbreviated PALCO, and also commonly known as PL, was one of California's major logging and sawmill operations, located 28 miles (45 km) south of Eureka and 244 miles (393 km) north of San Francisco. Begun in 1863, PALCO was managed over most of the twentieth century by generations of the Simon J. Murphy, Sr. Family or managers chosen by the Murphys from 1905 through 1985. Primary operations existed in massive log storage and milling operations at the historic company town of Scotia, California, located adjacent to US 101 along the Eel River. Secondary mills were located in nearby Fortuna and Carlotta. PALCO had extensive timber holdings exceeding well over 200,000 acres (890 km²) in the Redwood and Douglas-Fir forests of Humboldt County. For generations, it was one of the largest private employers in the entire region, appropriately known as the Redwood Empire.
Logging in the Sierra Nevada arose from the desire for economic growth throughout California. The California Gold Rush created a high demand for timber in housing construction, mining procedures, and building railroads. In the early days, harvesting of forests were unregulated and within the first 20 years after the gold rush, a third of the timber in the Sierra Nevada was logged. Concern for the forests rose and created a movement towards conservation at the turn of the 19th century, leading to the creation of state and national parks and forest reserves, bringing forest land under regulation. Between 1900 and 1940, agencies like the U.S. Forest Service and National Park Service regulated the use of the Sierra Nevada's resources. The economy boom after World War II dramatically increased timber production in the Sierras using clear-cutting as the dominant form of logging. In addition, the California Forest Practice Act, or the Z'Berg-Nejedly Forest Practice Act was enacted in 1973 to regulate private timberland holdings.
The 2007 Moonlight Fire was a large wildfire that burned near Westwood in Lassen County, California. The fire, which started on September 3, scorched 64,997 acres before being declared contained on September 19. Approximately 2,300 firefighters were involved in fighting the fire. Strong winds pushed smoke to the Sacramento Valley, Bay Area, Nevada and Idaho. In Plumas County, 500 homes were threatened by the Moonlight Fire; 100 residences were evacuated near Greenville in the North Arm area of Indian Valley, as the wild fire was still raging in the Plumas National Forest.
John Aloysius Campbell was a timber executive who served as president of the Pacific Lumber Company in the 1990s.
Rockport is a former settlement in an unincorporated area of Mendocino County, California. It is located 7.25 miles (12 km) north-northwest of Westport, at an elevation of 30 feet.
Caldor was a company town in El Dorado County, California. Caldor was linked to Diamond Springs by the Diamond and Caldor Railway. The community was named for the California Door Company, which owned and operated the town.
Andersonia is an unincorporated community in Mendocino County, California. It is located near U.S. Route 101 on the South Fork of the Eel River 1 mile (1.6 km) north-northwest of Piercy, at an elevation of 541 feet.
The Simpson Investment Company is a company based in McCleary, Washington in the US Pacific Northwest that specializes in manufacture of forest products. Founded as a logging company in 1890 by Sol Simpson, the company now functions as a holding company for the Simpson Door Company, a manufacturer of wood doors.
The Finkbine-Guild Lumber Company was established to harvest and market the virgin longleaf pine stands of southern Mississippi during the early 20th century. The main sawmills were located in Wiggins and D'Lo, Mississippi. When the local timber supply dwindled, the company tried to utilize redwood trees from California, but that operation failed because of high transportation costs. Other attempts were made at promoting a more diversified use of the cutover timberlands; some ventures were successful while others were not.
Battle Creek is a 16.6-mile-long (26.7 km) creek located in Shasta and Tehama counties, California. It is a major tributary to the Sacramento River.
The Hume-Bennett Lumber Company was a logging operation in the Sequoia National Forest in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. The company and its predecessors were known for building the world's longest log flume and the first multiple-arch hydroelectric dam. However, the company also engaged in destructive clearcutting logging practices, cutting down 8,000 giant sequoias in Converse Basin in a decade-long event that has been described as "the greatest orgy of destructive lumbering in the history of the world."
Independence Lake is a natural glacial lake in the Sierra Nevada of California. At an elevation of 6,949 feet (2,118 m) in the upper reaches of the Truckee River basin, it has been less affected by development than most lakes in the area. The Nature Conservancy owns a 2,325 acres (9.41 km2) parcel of land around it, which it manages privately as the Independence Lake Preserve for the purposes of conservation and low-impact recreation.
The Madera Sugar Pine Company was a United States lumber company that operated in the Sierra Nevada region of California during the late 19th and early 20th centuries. The company distinguished itself through the use of innovative technologies, including the southern Sierra's first log flume and logging railroad, along with the early adoption of the Steam Donkey engine. Its significant regional impact led to the establishment of towns such as Madera, Fish Camp, and Sugar Pine, as well as the growth of Fresno Flats and the formation of Madera County.
The Sugar Pine Lumber Company was an early 20th century logging operation and railroad in the Sierra Nevada. Unable to secure water rights to build a log flume, the company operated the “crookedest railroad ever built." They later developed the Minarets-type locomotive, the largest and most powerful saddle tank locomotive ever made. The company was also a pioneer in the electrification of logging where newly plentiful hydroelectric power replaced the widespread use of steam engines.
↑ Jones, Randall (June 25, 2009). The Richest Man in Town (EPUB). Business Plus Imports. p.118. ISBN978-0446537834.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: date and year (link)
↑ St. George, Zachary (2020). The Journeys of Trees: A Story about Forests, People, and the Future (EPUB). W. W. Norton & Company (published August 25, 2020). p.164. ISBN978-1324001607.
Cox, L. E.; York, R. A.; Battles, J. J. (2021). "Growth and form of giant sequoia (Sequoiadendron giganteum) in a plantation spacing trial after 28 years". Forest Ecology and Management. 488: 1–11. Bibcode:2021ForEM.48819033C. doi:10.1016/j.foreco.2021.119033.
Gulbrandsen, Lars H. (2010). Transnational Environmental Governance: The Emergence and Effects of the Certification of Forest and Fisheries. Edward Elgar Publishing. ISBN9781849806756.
Lane, Christine L. (1998). Log Export and Import Restrictions of the U.S. Pacific Northwest and British Columbia: Past and Present. U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service, Pacific Northwest Research Station.
Seidler, Reinmar; Bawa, Kamaljit S. (2013). "Biodiversity in Logged and Managed Forests". In Levin, Simon A. (ed.). Encyclopedia of Biodiversity. 7 volumes. Vol.1 (2nded.). Princeton, NJ: Academic Press. pp.446–458. ISBN9780123847201.
SFI (2021). "Board Members". forests.org. Archived from the original on January 24, 2021. Retrieved January 28, 2021.
Sorvino, C. (2018). "The Last Timber Baron". Forbes. 201: 98–106.
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