NORTH CLARENDON, Vt. (WCAX) - A southern Vermont lumber mill is closing its doors.
Mill River Lumber in Clarendon is the second lumber mill to close recently; A. Johnson Lumber in Bristol closed last year.
Workers at Mill River Lumber were only able to confirm the mill is in the process of closing but did not give a reason why or an exact date. The mill was created in 1983.
The Vermont Department of Forests, Parks and Recreation says the last 18 months have hit both loggers and mills hard. Recent winters with above-average warm temperatures, as well as wet summers, have decreased the time loggers can spend chopping down trees, like the eastern white pine that Mill River Lumber processes.
Ken and Joe Gagnon own a lumber yard in nearby Pittsford, Gagnon Lumber, and knew the owners at the mill and said they have noticed the industry shifting.
“It was kind of sad to hear. We knew they had a new owner and they were going pretty good guns and they were hiring a new crew… We knew that the lumber business was not doing so well, that the pine business especially had slowed down, and a number of places hadn’t slowed down on their log intake,” Ken Gagnon said.
“Sawmills seem to be like the dairy farms, they’re getting less and less, a few every year disappear, you never see a new one start up, it’s sad,” Joe Gagnon said.
“The warm mild winters have been difficult they’ve shrunk our operating season for getting our log inventory by at least 30 percent, or probably a third less time,” Ken Gagnon said.
A spokesperson said extra funding is coming to help loggers purchase or provide better equipment.
We don’t know yet when operations will stop at Mill River, but it appears they will continue to sell mulch to nearby Clarendon residents and landscapers for now.