Don C. Brunell: Camas Paper Mill May be Harbinger

Editor's Note: In 1978, I was hired by Crown Zellerbach. Part of my responsibility was to help with the permitting, incentives and public support for the $425 million modernization project at the Camas Mill. I left Crown Zellerbach with the takeover by Sir James Goldsmith in 1986.

The announced shutdown of the communications paper arm of Georgia Pacific’s Camas pulp and paper mill maybe the harbinger of what’s to come. Consumers are buying less paper, production costs are increasing, and competition is fiercer.

GP will lay off as many as 300 workers next year when it shifts production of paper...