Today’s closure of the Camino mill is one more blow to hard-working middle class Californians. At a time when government is spending unprecedented amounts of money it doesn’t have and taking over industry after industry, private sector jobs are disappearing. Camino now joins Quincy and Sonora as mountain towns that have each lost 150 direct and 350 indirect jobs due to litigation over forest thinning operations. As the sawmills disappear, the threat of catastrophic wild fires grows stronger.
In order to examine the regulatory and legal issues that have led to the closure of the mills, I held a community forum May 11 in Quincy with Rep. Wally Herger and Rep. Rob Bishop, the Ranking Member of the Subcommittee on National Forests and Public Lands. That led to a June 11th Subcommittee on National Parks, Forests and Public Lands hearing in Washington where union officials, industry executives and foresters testified.
The information gathered will be used as the basis for legislation that we are developing to rein in the out-of-control lawsuits that decimated these communities. 

Photo of Last Day at SPI Camino Sawmill

News 10 Story On the Mill Closure