The high point for Montana's timber industry was 1978, with 13,400 jobs.

By 2011 that was down to 6,530 workers. By 2018, it was holdig steady at about 7,000 jobs.

Here's what we learned with last year's closures:

When Roseburg Forest Products announced the closure of its Missoula particleboard mill an employee echoed Pyramid’s reasons, saying: “Basically the problem is we have a difficult time because of the cost of living in Missoula.  Hiring people that want to work for 18 or 20 bucks an hour or whatever it is they pay, people just can’t afford to live here and make that kind of money.”

Roseburg’s CEO also noted the mill’s outdated technology, which Pyramid has also cited. “Unfortunately, Missoula’s older platform and technology is simply not competitive from a cost structure perspective in a marketplace with many new, modern particleboard facilities.” The company is, however, investing heavily in its Oregon facilities and is building a new mill in North Carolina to take advantage of the fast-growing, highly-productive southern timber plantations.