Weyerhaeuser staff pleasantly surprised by governor’s award

By CHRIS PETERSON

Hungry Horse News

Gov. Greg Gianforte came to the Weyerhaeuser MDF plant last week to read a forest products week proclamation at the plant.

The wind blew and it started to rain.

After reading it, a surprise came.

Gianforte opened a box and handed his annual Forest Products Award to Shaney Neuharth, the area raw materials manager for the company.

“I’m so surprised,” Neuharth said. “Our whole team is recognized.”

Neuharth has been with the plant for 29 years, starting out when it was owned by Plum Creek.

“This is so heartwarming,” she said.

The honorees of the award included Neuharth, Zack Miller, Milo Funk, and Jacob Parent. Miller and Parent focus on sustainable forest management and raw material procurement to ensure non-sawlog materials are used productively. 

Funk manages by-product procurement, handling over 400,000 tons annually, and Neuharth leads initiatives to utilize slash material for heating systems, reducing reliance on natural gas and lowering emissions.

MDF is made from sawdust and is used in thousands of different wood products across the U.S. and the world.

“When you dedicate your career to this industry, it’s nice to be recognized and being able to share our story and the impact we have on our communities and the forests,” Neuharth said. ”When you dedicate your career to this industry, it’s nice to be recognized and being able to share our story and the impact we have on our communities and the forests.”

Gianforte also had a brief roundtable discussion after the ceremony, saying the state would like to do more on federal lands through the Good Neighbor Authority.

The Good Neighbor program allows states to utilize their resources, like foresters and planners, to bring sales to market. Recent local projects, for example, have resulted in thinning and other logging along the Hungry Horse Reservoir, for example.

The governor said the state manages about 5 million acres of its own land, much of which is timbered, but it has the resources to manage 10 to 15 million acres if it could get more cooperation from the federal government.

Federal timber amounted to 40% of the wood at the MDF plant last year. This year it will be about 20%, company officials told Gianforte.

They use private and state sales to fill the gap.

Gianforte asked how hiring was going at the plant. Plant officials said they are currently running three shifts, but they would like to add a fourth. Twenty more workers would be great, 40 even better.

But the current cost of living in the valley is a challenge in recruiting and retaining workers.

“We’ve got the fiber, we’ve got the customers,” noted plant manager Kyle Cram. They just need the labor to get the product to market, adding that workers often see advancement opportunities as well.

“It’s a good time to be here,” he said.