BANGOR DAILY NEWS • March 3, 2023
Katahdin Forest Products laid off 20 employees this week in what the Oakland-based company says is an effort to reduce costs and adapt to a cedar harvest season shortened by record-breaking warm weather. The company operates mills in Ashland and Chester, with a third Ashland location that closed in January after running out of wood. “Over 50 years of operation, this record-breaking warm winter was a first. Compounding the weather challenge is a lack of logging crews to make up the difference during the abbreviated cedar harvest season,” CEO David Gordon said in a statement Friday.