The U.S. Department of Agriculture has guaranteed $115.2 million in new loans to sawmills and wood processing facilities across eight states — backing projects to expand domestic timber capacity and reduce wildfire risk on national forest lands. That is according to the USDA, which unveiled the latest round of the Timber Production Expansion Guaranteed Loan Program (TPEP) at the Advanced Bioeconomy Leadership Conference on Monday.
“We cannot allow wildfires to devastate and destroy our rural communities,” according to J.R. Claeys, USDA’s Rural Business Cooperative Service Administrator. “That’s why the USDA is taking this bold action to stop the destruction of our forestlands by investing in sawmills and wood processing facilities that support sustainable timber harvesting. Through the announcement made today, the Trump Administration is strengthening local businesses, driving rural prosperity, and supporting 485 jobs for hardworking Americans.”
Wood Central understands that the largest single deal is a $12.3 million loan to Beachcombers in Oklahoma, which recently acquired two Teal-Jones yellow southern pine sawmills — one in Antlers, Oklahoma, the other in Liberty, Mississippi. Phase one will see the Antlers facility reach 80 million board feet of annual output, against a total site capacity of 130 million board feet. Phase two brings Liberty back online at 25 million board feet.
As it stands, California received the largest state allocation — $61.25 million across three recipients — nationally. Alpenglow Timber took $18.5 million to establish a new sawmill in high-priority forest restoration country, whilst Sierra Forest Products Holdings received $17.75 million to expand and modernise existing operations. Both hold Forest Service contracts to harvest timber from wildfire-affected federal land.
U.S. Forest Service Chief Tom Schultz said the program was as much about forest health as economics. “The American forest products industry is critical to maintaining the health of the nation’s forests,” he said. “The Timber Production and Expansion Guaranteed Loan Program is one of many ways the Forest Service partners with the timber industry to maintain rural jobs, processing facilities, and an outlet for wood that needs to be removed from national forests.”
The program runs through a joint USDA Rural Development and Forest Service partnership, providing guarantees to lenders whose borrowers process timber cleared from national forests under ecosystem restoration activities. Across all eight states, the 485 jobs backed by this round sit inside a broader Trump administration push to lift American timber production by 25 per cent.
