Page 12 - Tree Line - North Carolina Forestry Association - Third Quarter 2020

Piedmont Membership Spotlight (Part 2 of 3)
Jordan Lumber & Supply Company
This family business is a longtime member of the North Carolina Forestry Association (NCFA).
BY AMY JULIANA AND JOHN HATCHER
Nestled at the foot of the Uwharrie Mountains lies Mt. Gilead, home to Jordan Lumber & Supply Company. The sign at the entrance,
which proclaims that “Our People Make the Difference,” speaks volumes to
this family-owned and operated forest products company.
Jordan Lumber started as a pine sawmill in 1939. One of the smallest mills in Montgomery County at the time, the company had just 13 employees on staff. Now, Jordan Lumber employs over 360 people at its main headquarters and an additional 250 at affiliated companies.
The company also owns and manages thousands of acres of land and has planted over 40 million trees since 1973. It is through the Jordan family’s ingenuity, dedication to environmental stewardship and community leadership that this once small town mill has grown to be home to one of the largest privately owned southern
pine sawmills in the country. A prime example of vertical integration in the 21st century, Jordan Lumber has managed to connect all aspects of the supply chain from cradle to grave.
The NCFA sat down with Timberlands Manager Chip Miller and Procurement Manager Bruce Evans to learn more about Jordan’s operations and the hard-working professionals that make up the forestry department.
“I grew up in Sylva, North Carolina
and came from a long line of foresters,” said Evans. His father was a procurement forester for Mead Paper and his grandfather a Jackson County Ranger. In 1979, he graduated from North Carolina State University in Forest Management. “When
I got out of college, there was nothing — a lot of government land but no activity in the mountains,” Evans said. “But I needed a job, so I interviewed at several places and I thought, why not Mt. Gilead?”
Chip Miller of Charlotte, North Carolina had a more varied path. Spending a lot of time on his grandparents’ and ancestors’ land-grant farm in Mint Hill, he always enjoyed being outdoors. After two years in Junior College, Miller transferred
to North Carolina State University
and graduated with a degree in Forest Management in 1973. “The forest- management side was intriguing. I really enjoyed my forestry courses during those two years at State,” he said. After school, Miller worked for Carolina Power and Light Company in land acquisition. This position evolved to a land management position in Wadesboro, where he built relationships with local mills. It was in 1976 that Miller was introduced to the Jordan family, when he sold timber to the mill. After a year, Miller moved to Boise Cascade as a district forester, and in 1981, he joined the Jordan team to assist with managing the timberlands.
An Innovative Approach to Forest Management
Jordan Lumber owns 67,000 acres in seven counties located in North Carolina. Company-owned lands supply one fifth of the annual wood supply to the Mt. Gilead sawmill. Each year, 2,000 acres
of company land are clearcut and up to 2,500 acres thinned. Through the efforts of the logging force, the land management team is able to rotate the mature timber
10 ncforestry.org / THIRD QUARTER 2020