The whine of saws and the thrumming of machinery returned Wednesday to the Plum Creek Timber Co. sawmill in Evergreen, Mont.

Workers turned out the first dimension lumber since the sawmill shut down in June 2009.

Wednesday was the first full day of production at the Evergreen plant.

The plant restart included 30 workers, who will add $1.4 million a year in payroll to the Flathead Valley economy, according to Tom Ray, Plum Creek's vice president of Northwest Resources and Manufacturing.

A lack of demand for stud lumber products led to the closure of the Evergreen facility nearly four years ago. When the mill closed, there were 66 positions lost, since the mill had been running with two shifts.

The mill reopened with one shift.

During the shutdown, the company monitored market conditions and maintained the sawmill equipment.

Taking care of minor and major maintenance issues helped create the right conditions for restarting the mill, Ray said in an earlier interview, though construction growth is the biggest driver.

"We've seen a gradual rebound in housing starts, with lumber prices increasing over the last two years," Ray said.

"It's really a national market for us, in some cases a global market. We have products that end up in Mexico and Canada and even Pakistan."

Plum Creek also has added another 60 full-time permanent jobs in the last year in Northwest Montana, mostly at the plywood plant in Evergreen and medium density fiberboard plant in Columbia Falls.

Plum Creek is one of the largest landowners in the country, with approximately 6.4 million acres nationwide, and the largest private landowner in Montana, with 899,000 acres.

- Hagadone News Network