Anderson Tully

[stang67]

Wasn't sure if the rules allowed it or not.

[NyssaAquatica]

[stang67]

[NyssaAquatica]

[420 racin]

All of ATCO land has been for sale for years now, however recently I believe they are getting out of the owner/manager of their own land. They have "let go" their foresters (they still work there though while they still have land) I hear the mill is going to stay open and under ATCO, they will just supply the mill by buying wood from us rather than cutting their own timber. It will be interesting to see what happens to the timber market around Vicksburg. As far as the camps go, all your ATCO camps have been for sale, just the right person with the fat wallet hasn't wanted your camp yet...YET is the key word. Whoever buys it may renew your leases or they may not, but leasing land is no guarantee. Can you imagine the pressure the public land would get if all those clubs lost their lease and all those folks had no where to hunt.... It's going to be soon that if you don't own your land, you hunt public land or you pay an ASSLOAD to hunt in some "premier" hunting club with dues and $#!+ like that.

I'm more interested in what will happen to the timber market. I have a some good timber for sale but we are gonna wait to see what happens with this deal before I bid it out.

[stang67]

Well, sure, everything is "for sale." They own so much, that selling it at any rate other than "over the course of decades" would make prices lower.

Jeremy, could this be good for the timber market in the area in any way? Care to speculate? I worry about the mill closing, which would not be good. I'll have some logs ready in a few years -- hoping things hold together.

[420 racin]

Well I don't know and that's the problem.

If the mill shuts down it's gonna be bad for a while, all our smaller mills will be overrun with wood and the prices will be low. I'd assume (dangerous) that if individuals bought alot of the ATCO land they would have to harvest some timber to help pay for the land, which would over run our mills with wood.

If the mill stays open but ATCO doesn't own the land anymore to provide the timber, they will have to start bidding and buying timber on the open market. They already do buy some timber on the open market, but most of the wood the consume is theirs already, ATCO has only bought one tract of timber that I sold, it has always been smaller mills/timber buyers.

This could make the price of wood go up some..(I hope)
Two problems I have are
Getting loggers---- There aren't a bunch of loggers left out there, and the ones that are stay tied up, mostly on ATCO land cutting for ATCO. When you do find a logger, it's hard to find a good one that will stay and clean up liek they are supposed to (BMP's)

Second problem i have is with IP and the pulpwood market. IP has this whole area by the balls, there is no where else to take pulpwood to and they know it, so they pay very little for it. IF we had a pellet mill or biomass mill anywhere near us, IP would have to start actually paying a decent price for pulp and that market would see better prices. Just think about all the replant int eh MS Delta that will be ready to "thin" in the next decade or so. Where are they going to take that pulp...IP and get paid nothing for it.

[stang67]

The demand for wood products is just poor. That's the root of all the issues.

[stang67]

The latest commission meeting minutes indicate the State's purchase deal is still alive but hasn't progressed much in the last month.

I've also heard that ATCo is, indeed, going thru some major changes. Lots of layoffs -- tough deal for a lot of folks, unfortunately. It's anyone's guess as to whether this would impact the sale of land to the state or not.

[Deltaquack]