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 and the largest private timberlands owner. The company also operates wood products manufacturing facilities and engages in real estate transactions.

People
In addition to employing 750 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 nearly $451,000 in 2012 to Montana community organizations and college scholarship recipients. Grant requests are accepted and grants are awarded on a quarterly basis. 

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

Timberlands
Plum Creek owns 897,000 acres of land in eight counties in the western part of the state. 

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 standards set by 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 several wood product manufacturing facilities in Montana.  These facilities 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 an investment of $87 million in 2008 to expand our MDF facilities, which are home to one of the world's largest biofilters.

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 currently 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 all can be accessed on foot.

Conservation and the environment
Since 1989 Plum Creek has committed more than 613,000 acres of our Montana property to conservation through land sales, easements, and land exchanges. This committment includes the 310,000-acre Montana Legacy Project,  one of the largest private conservation land sales in U.S. history.

Plum Creek has also entered into 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.