SUN JOURNAL • November 7, 2020
Lumbermen have taken a massive hit this year after COVID-19 and the Jay mill explosion, with business down as much as 40% industrywide. Dana Doran, executive director of the Professional Logging Contractors of Maine, said his group has reached out to the Mills administration and Maine congressional delegation to do everything they can to encourage Pixelle to rebuild. The Forest Opportunity Roadmap/Maine initiative launched two years ago, has a goal of growing forest products in the state to $12 billion by 2025. “I think obviously it’s put a hold, or at least put some uncertainty, into the equation on how attainable those goals are by 2025,” said Ryan Wallace, director of the Maine Center for Business and Economic Research at the University of Southern Maine.