County gets grant to help with timber jobs

Sanders County and Mineral County were amongst the seven counties to receive federal money to assist them in the transition of moving away from the declining timber industry and toward high-growth industries.

The federal money is a $250,000 U.S. Department of Labor regional innovation grant recently awarded to the Montana Department of Labor.

“This is really an exciting time,” said Kathy Yankoff, a program manager for the MDOL, who wrote the grant.

“The Department of Labor is taking a whole different approach with this grant.”

In the past, the MDOL focused on helping individual workers, but with this grant they are trying to help an entire region with its economic development, according to Yankoff.

The region, which Yankoff describes as “the whole western block,” includes: Flathead, Lake, Lincoln, Mineral, Missoula, Ravalli and Sanders counties.

Yankoff said these counties have seen a drastic decrease in timber-related jobs in the past 20 years. According to Yankoff, in 1990, 12.2 percent of the total wages in this region came from timber-related jobs. In 2006, only 4.7 percent of the regions total wages came from timber-related jobs. Yankoff also said the number of workers in the timber industry had decreased by 32 percent during this time.

“If this is a declining industry, what are the growing industries and how are we going to develop the training for them?” Yankoff asked.

She said the grant will address these issues to help ease the transition of the displaced timber workers into jobs that are in demand and show the potential of continuing growth.

Administrative support, construction and service are just a few of the industries that have been growing in the region, said Yankoff. She said the MDOL needs to conduct a more extensive study to find exactly what industries will benefit the economic development of the region the most. “The bulk of this grant will be used to identify these industries,” Yankoff said.

Yankoff said that the MDOL will be sitting down with county commissioners, business leaders, education providers and legislators to identify the high-growth industries and finding the best approach to solving the issues.

“I want to be involved,” said Sanders County Commissioner Carol Brooker. Brooker said that she has contacted MDOL Commissioner Keith Kelly and has asked to be put on one the committees.

Brooker said that the timber-industry will never return to what it once was, so the county always needs to look for outside sources of income. She said the grant will help the county, but doesn't see the need to evaluate the issue any further. “This has been studied to death; we need to get the money on the ground and start training people,” she said.

Brooker said that an example for the need of immediate need of training can be seen at the Thompson River Lumber, a mill about four miles east of Thompson Falls along Highway 200. She said the mill needs electricians, but can't find any trained electricians.