Plum Creek Montana

Plum Creek is an important part of Montana’s economy, especially in the western part of the state where the company is a major employer, the largest private timberlands owner. The company is also in the wood products manufacturing businesses and real estate.

People
In addition to employing 735 Montanans to work in forestry, manufacturing, real estate and land sales, Plum Creek keeps a significant number of contractors and vendors busy.

Through the Plum Creek Foundation and a scholarship program, the company provided $528,200 in 2009 to Montana community organizations and college scholarship recipients. Grants are accepted and awarded on a quarterly basis. 

Read more about Plum Creek's grants and community involvement.

Timberlands
Plum Creek owns 972,000 acres of land in seven counties in the western part of the state-- representing a little less than 14 percent of the company’s nationwide land ownership. 

Trees the company manages on its land include: Douglas fir, western larch, Englemann spruce, ponderosa pine, grand fir, alpine fir, western red cedar, western hemlock, and lodgepole pine.

Plum Creek works with local, state and federal agencies to ensure we meet or exceed all forestry and environmental rules, regulations and laws. The company was the first in the nation to exceed mandatory guidelines on all of its timberlands by obtaining Sustainable Forestry Initiative® (SFI^®) standard third-party certification.

Manufacturing
Plum Creek operates wood product manufacturing facilities in Montana that produce lumber, plywood and medium density fiberboard (MDF) that are sold to construction, retail, industrial, and other specialty markets.

Despite the difficult climate for manufacturing, Plum Creek continues to upgrade our Montana manufacturing facilities. Plum Creek has spent $150 million in the last 10 years on upgrades and improvements of our manufacturing operations including $87 million to expand our MDF facilities, where one of the world’s largest biofilters was installed in 2008.

Land sales and public access
Plum Creek’s real estate experts work with people who wish to own recreational property.

All of Plum Creek’s lands in Montana are open to the public year-round for hunting, fishing and recreation without charge.

All roads on Plum Creek lands are open to the public. Some roads may be gated to vehicular traffic on a seasonal or permanent basis, but they can be accessed on foot.

Conservation and the environment
Since 1989 Plum Creek has committed 595,000 acres into conservation in Montana through land sales, easements, and land exchanges. This includes the 310,000-acre Montana Legacy Project,  one of the largest private conservation land sales in the U.S. in recent history.

Our land is under Habitat Conservation Plans with federal conservation agencies to protect native fish. We work with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to improve fish habitat and fish migration with erosion control, riparian protection and construction of fish-friendly culverts under roads.

Read about our conservation partnerships with Montana organizations.