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August 15, 2006
As of October 2006, employees of International Paper Company’s Southlands facility who have not been placed with the new owner of the company’s forest land operations or else put in new positions within International Paper may be out of a job.
But the 16,000 acres of land on which they once worked in Decatur County known as the Southlands Facility will still belong to International Paper until the company can decide what to do with it next, according to information from International Paper’s media relation manager, Amy Sawyer, on Tuesday.
When International Paper sold 5.1 million acres of its forest lands in April this year for approximately $6.5 billion, to two different companies—Resource Management Service of Birmingham, Ala., who bought 3.8 million acres in the Southeast United States and 440,000 acres in Michigan, and TimberStar, who purchased about 900,000 acres in Louisiana, Texas and Arkansas—and to some conservation groups, the Southlands Facility was “carved out” and not included in the sale, Sawyer said.
However, the planning phase for layoffs of International Paper personnel has already begun even while the company is still “evaluating our options” regarding the Southlands Facility, Sawyer said. To date, the fate of 30 to 40 employees still located on site at International Paper’s Southlands facility is yet unknown.
“In conjunction with our sale of forest lands, we’ve been trying to place our foresters with the new owners of the forest land operations and are working closely with the buyer,” Sawyer said. “We are dealing with these employee transitions at a national level, so we do not have specifics about Decatur County yet, that is, we have no sense of numbers at this point.”
Sawyer said other options being considered for some International Paper employees who cannot be transitioned to new jobs with RMS include moving people into other positions within International Paper, finding comparative jobs with other companies—called outplacing—or providing severance packages for still others.
Details on change-over
Earlier this year, International Paper announced its intention to transform its company in order to get out of the actual business of growing trees and instead focus on uncoated papers and consumer packaging.
International Paper chairman and CEO John Faraci said in April that the sale of 5.1 million acres of company-owned forest lands were important to the plan for increasing focus and improving returns to investors.
“The strong value achieved is a testament to the expertise of our forest resources team and their excellent management of the forest lands,” Faraci said in the April 4 news release. “As we transition much of our forest land to new ownership, we continue to demonstrate our commitment to sustainable forestry and environmental conservation. The agreements we have negotiated will ensure this fiber will continue to come from sustainably managed forest lands.”
The local facility is currently managed by Jim Rakestraw, who replaced long-time manager Fred Haines when he was moved to IP’s Gulf Coast forest operations in April this year. When Janice Baty, a long-time Southlands employee, was contacted Tuesday about the status of employees, she referred the questions to Sawyer at International Paper corporate offices and only said that she believed there would be some personnel changes made at Southlands but could not specify details.
Sound forestry management
International Paper first purchased 16,000 acres in Decatur County in three different locations along the Flint River in 1947, the majority of it located on Highway 97 South.
In 1957, the International Paper Forestry department decided to develop the site where a 2,000-acre slash pine plantation was already established in what is now Southlands.
In the last four years, International Paper was recognized as one of the largest private land owners and the largest tree seedling grower in the world and it was during this time that Haines managed the Southlands Facility.
The local facility has also been recognized over the years for its many successful collaborative research projects—as in the case of its partnership with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Department to protect the habitat for the red-cockaded woodpecker—as well as its watershed studies conducted with the Georgia Forestry Association and many other such projects going on at the local site.
Haines often spoke of Southlands’ strict adherence to the Sustainable Forestry Initiative program, or sustainable forest management, and Georgia’s own best practice management techniques. Through its Southlands facility, International Paper developed a strong working relationship with Bainbridge College’s staff and its Georgia Youth and Science Technology Center, as well as with universities throughout the South, who sent students to study and experiment with innovative forestry techniques at Southlands.
In Haines’ words, the goal of Southlands was “to study the different species of trees, to advance the knowledge of forestry tree growth and to practice environmentally sound sustainable forest technology.”
In addition to employing 30 to 35 persons locally, Southlands had an economic impact on Decatur County of between $3 million and $4 million annually, Haines said. The company sponsored local school science clubs, hosted FFA forestry field days, promoted Keep America Beautiful, Adopt-a-Stream and United Way, along with making major contributions to conserving and protecting the area’s wildlife, wetlands, waterways and forests.
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