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SUSSEX - Private woodlot owners are being asked to take part in efforts to help the struggling Irving sawmill here re-open and remain in operation.

The mill has been shut down since May 31, with an insufficient wood supply cited as the reason. Previously a market price slump had shut the mill down for six months.

J.D. Irving Limited, the SNB Wood Co-op Ltd. and SNB Forest Products Market Board are jointly appealing for more wood deliveries to the Sussex mill, which requires 70 per cent of its wood supply from private woodlots in the region, to bring it back into production in July.

Prior to this latest shutdown the Sussex mill, which employs about 55 people, had re-opened after a six-month shutdown that was due to a 27 per cent drop in market prices, a rising Canadian dollar and a slump in the American housing market.

Rising fuel prices have also contributed to the cost of maintaining woodlots and harvesting and transporting wood.

The performance-based contract bonus, available to woodlot owners through the SNB marketing board, is part of a new process developed jointly for buying private wood, and is not something that would be voted on by the membership of the SNB board, Keith said.

"It is important to note that even though the Sussex mill was closed for six months, we continued to purchase studwood from private woodlots at Sussex without restriction," Keith said.

"The price we were offering during this period when the sawmill was not operating was lower to reflect tough market realities at that time."

The forest industry's economic woes have trickled down from sawmills and pulp mills to private woodlot owners, who've been unable to maintain traditional harvesting levels for years.

"In the southern New Brunswick region alone, wood producers have been harvesting less than 50 per cent of what they normally do," SNB spokesperson Pam Folkins stated recently. She is the general manager of SNB Wood Co-op Ltd. and the SNB Forest Products Market Board.

J.D. Irving Limited had offered a contract proposal for wood from private woodlots in recent market discussions to help boost the local industry.

"SNB woodlots are the most central bread basket of private wood for a number of Irving's mills," Folkins said, explaining the goal is to arrive at a workable committed volume and price agreement that works for woodlot owners and the Irving company alike.

Mike Turnbull, Sussex regional manager for J.D. Irving Limited agreed.

"We are in this together and we want to work with the marketing boards and their members. They need a fair price and a customer for their wood, and we need a competitive wood supply," he stated, explaining it's a win-win situation for the mill and woodlot owners alike to keep the Sussex sawmill running.