Prospects for restarting the Grant Western Lumber Company sawmill this year are slim, barring a turnaround in the lumber market.

The market hasn’t improved since the sawmill was shut down last month, said Randy Crockett, chief operations officer for D.R. Johnson Lumber Company, owner of Grant Western.

“If there’s no significant improvement, it wouldn’t be likely that it would reopen soon,” he said.

D.R. Johnson shut down all of its sawmills July 23, but restarted the Umpqua, Riddle and Prairie City mill operations this month. The shutdown continues for Grant Western and Wallowa Forest Products in Wallowa.

The immediate problem for both mills is the lackluster lumber market, which went into a nosedive as housing starts went into a slump across the nation, Crockett said.

A longer-term problem, he said, is the log supply. Grant Western is set up for “shop lumber” – lumber milled from large logs, and Crockett said that with logging of trees over 21 inches in diameter restricted on public lands, the supply of trees available for the local mills is limited.

But the lackluster markets are the biggest concern, he said.

“And as we get closer to fall and winter, it’s less likely that things would improve and that Grant would start up again,” he said.

Crockett said that the company will be looking at opportunities for some employees to transfer to other mills, where possible.

He acknowledged that “this is a difficult time for our employees, for the company, and the community.”

Grant Western had about 50 employees on the payroll at the time of the shutdown.

The Prairie Wood Products sawmill, which restarted Aug. 1, got a new head rig that officials believe will keep it in production. Crockett is hoping that its operations can grow again.

“That mill has historically been a two-shift mill, and we hope to have that happen again,” he said.

The power generation plant was not affected by the sawmill closures, he said. D.R. Johnson operates two co-generation plants – in Prairie City and in Riddle.