A New Sawmill Will Buy and Process Timber Burned by the Caldor Fire From Sierra-at-Tahoe Ski Resort, CA

The timber from Caldor Fire salvage and cleanup efforts at Sierra-at-Tahoe has to go somewhere—so why not repurpose it for a profit? A new sawmill is being built near Carson City, Nevada, and is expected to produce about 50 million feet of lumber per year with its first purchase being the scorched lumber from Sierra-at-Tahoe that remained as a result of 2021’s Caldor Fire, according to The Tahoe Daily Tribune.

Tahoe Forest Products in a partnership with Washoe Development Corporation, an affiliate of Washoe Tribe of Nevada & California, has leased 40 acres of Washoe-owned land near Carson City to construct the first sawmill in the region in decades, according to a news release.

“This project came about because there was no reasonable market for salvage logs and thinnings from the Tahoe Basin or from the Humboldt Toiyabe National Forest,” according to Jon Shinn, CEO of TFP. “A local sawmill is one of the critical missing links in beginning to address forest health and resilience, not to mention critical post-fire cleanup efforts from catastrophes like the Caldor Fire.”

Trees from Sierra-at-Tahoe Ski Resort that were burned by the Caldor Fire have been arriving at the mill’s construction site all August, the Record Courier reports. The mill will process predominately large fire salvage logs at first but later plans to also add on a small-log line to effectively process thinnings.

The news release shared that the mill would create about 40 or more jobs, providing employment opportunities for the local community. Logs will be processed into various products, ranging from dry-surfaced 2-inch construction lumber, fence posts, landscaping products, as well as “factory” lumber, chips, sawdust, and other agriculturally-purposed lumber products, according to the Tahoe Daily Tribune.

Where disaster strikes, opportunity is born.