Page 9 - Georgia Forestry - Issue2 - Spring 2018

Timber Rising
In the space of 48 hours, foresters in east Georgia saw not one but two major wood companies announce plans for sawmills. It was a reward of faith.
Story by Ray Glier | Photography by Hayley Hudson
W ASHINGTON, GA — Their timber has sunk to a third of its price from the heyday of logs 20 years ago. Some of their tallest spires of yellow pine, 65-75 years old, have toppled and crashed in the woods, never to be har- vested because of the inert wood market. They have seen logger friends go off to other careers, which means fewer and fewer
of the stick wagons rolling along Highway 47 here in east Georgia.
Yet, while there have been moments of despair, the goodness of optimism never left three people sitting together one afternoon here in mid-March. They were never overtaken by bitterness. They always thought
there would be a rebound in wood.
“If you’re a farmer,” said John Bounds, who raises cattle and grows trees
in Washington, GA, “you are an eternal optimist.”
This club of optimists, and their community of optimists here in east
Georgia, saw their faith in wood rewarded twice in just 48 hours. On Feb. 20, the U.S. company Georgia-Pacific announced it was building a $135 million sawmill in Warrenton, which is just below Interstate 20 near Augusta. On Feb. 22, the Canadian lumber giant Canfor announced
John Bounds, a fifth-generation landowner from Washington, GA, stands on a recently thinned tract near the newly proposed mill.
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