Where Do You Go When You Lose Your Job at the Mill?

In Douglas County, that question has an uncomfortable answer: nowhere.

For generations, mill work has been the backbone of our local economy. Running heavy equipment, maintaining industrial machinery, managing large-scale production—these are real, technical, hard-earned skills. But when a mill job disappears, there is no second local industry ready to absorb that workforce. No parallel manufacturing sector. No industrial employer is waiting to say, “we need exactly what you know how to do.”

That lack of choice is not accidental.

Douglas County has been structured around a single dominant industry, and the people in power have worked to keep it that way. Incumbent commissioners, including Tim Freeman, routinely accept substantial campaign contributions from timber interests. In return, there is little incentive to welcome competing industries into the county—industries that would give workers leverage, mobility, and options.

When workers have no alternatives, employers don’t have to compete.

They don’t have to offer truly livable wages.
They don’t have to provide strong benefits.
They don’t have to innovate or modernize.

Because if you leave (or are laid off), where else are you going to go?

This is the quiet crisis facing Douglas County. It’s not that timber work lacks value or history; it’s that depending on a single industry leaves workers exposed. One downturn, one mill closure, one corporate decision made hundreds of miles away—and families are left scrambling in a county with no industrial safety net.

That is why economic diversification is not an abstract policy idea. It is a worker protection strategy.

We should be investing in additional manufacturing, renewable energy, and other industrial sectors that directly transfer the skills already present in our workforce. Mechanical aptitude. Equipment operation. Electrical and maintenance expertise. Process control. These are assets—and they should be usable across multiple employers, not locked to a single industry.

When workers have options, wages rise.
When employers must compete, benefits improve.
When an economy is diverse, communities become resilient.

Douglas County deserves more than a one-industry future. We deserve an economy that rewards skill, encourages innovation, and gives working families real choices—today and for generations to come.