Elk Creek Forest Products

through and adding another vendor or getting a new company to come and intercept one of those existing relationships would be extremely difficult.” Elk Creek Forest Products has faced other challenges in the past. For a long time, one of those challenges was a misperception that the lumber industry was bad for the environment. Producers especially faced criticism from both activists and the press. But the Douglas-fir used at Elk Creek Forest Products is harvested in a sustainable way. Mike Taron, Forest Stewardship Council manager, saw the change in perception first hand. Before joining Elk Creek Forest we started growing really fast. We now have a 90-person company, two shifts, and we deal with 20-plus million board feet through this location and 15 variable cost partner locations in Oregon and Washington. We service probably 40 states.” Getting to this point wasn’t easy, and starting a company like Elk Creek Forest Products today would be nearly impossible. Fortunately, their core vendor relationships were established years ago, because now demand for lumber is outpacing supply. “If you were a start-up company today, you wouldn’t have the ability to go find a vendor,” Slaughter reports. “The relationships you have are what’s getting you