Roseburg to Continue to Operate Under Oregon ‘Stay Home’ Order

Oregon’s essential wood products industry will continue to operate under an executive order issued today (March 23) by Oregon Gov. Kate Brown in response to the coronavirus (“COVID-19”) pandemic.

The order allows all but a handful of specifically listed businesses to continue operating as long as social distancing and disease prevention protocols are in place and enforced. By nature, the wood products industry accommodates social distancing, and Roseburg has taken additional steps to protect the health and safety of our team members.

“Gov. Brown’s order today allows our industry to continue providing essential infrastructure products to the coronavirus response and recovery,” Roseburg President and CEO Grady Mulbery said. “Our 2,400 team members working in the state of Oregon – largely in rural communities – will continue to earn income for their families while manufacturing materials used in affordable housing, emergency shelter and hospital construction.”

The timber and wood products industry accounts for 60,000 jobs in the state of Oregon. Roseburg has seven plants, two administrative offices, more than 400,000 acres in timberland, and a pulp chip export facility in the state, employing 2,400 people directly and supporting hundreds more indirectly.

Earlier this month, the company ordered all employees who could work remotely to do so, managing the number of people in our offices and facilities to limit the potential for disease spread as much as possible.

Last week, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security designated the wood products industry as an “essential critical infrastructure workforce” in its guidance to states, recommending that the listed industries continue to operate in response to the pandemic.

Source: Roseburg Forest Products Co.