Former Wallowa County Commissioner Todd Nash addresses grievances ranchers have about wolf management at a listening session U.S. Rep. Cliff Bentz held April 4, 2024, in  Pendleton. Now a state senator, Nash sponsored a bill to create a lumber grading pilot program, which the Oregon House passed on June 4, 2025.

SALEM — Oregon is a step closer to establishing a lumber-grading pilot-training pilot program.

The Oregon House on June 4 approved Senate Bill 1061, the Oregon Forests to Homes Act, on a vote of 48-3 to allow individuals who complete a one-day training course to become certified to grade lumber.

Once certified as a grader, a mill owner could sell his lumber directly to a builder.

“This bill opens the door for small sawmill operators to participate in local housing solutions,”  Sen. Todd Nash, R-Enterprise, said in a press release. He is the bill’s sponsor.

Eastern Oregon had 69 mills 40 years ago, according to Nash, but only seven remain.

“This is a practical step to support rural economies and increase housing options using locally sourced materials,’ Nash stated.

The Senate on April 28 passed the bill 27-2. But SB 1061 now moves back to the Senate for concurrence before heading to the governor’s desk for her signature.

Oregon State University’s Extension Service, in partnership with the Department of Consumer and Business Services, would operate the pilot program, according to Nash. Certified small sawmill operators will be able to sell lumber directly to homeowners or their agents for use in single-family homes or duplexes.

According to the Secretary of State’s web page, the bill has minimal fiscal impact and none on revenue.

Nash said the bill isn’t likely to fully revive Oregon’s once-thriving timber industry, but it will help.

“It just gives another way to process lumber and use it,” he said. “It’s local timber going into local lumber into Oregon homes.”

Nash, who has long been a proponent of the best use of Oregon’s natural resources, said this bill is in line with that.

“The Forest to Homes Act will empower small sawmills to be part of the housing solution while revitalizing local economies,” he said. “This is about unlocking the value of Oregon’s natural resources and giving landowners and mill operators the tools they need to build a stronger future one board at a time.”

Rep. Mark Owens, R-Crane, who carried the bill in the House, agreed.

“Senate Bill 1061 is about empowering Oregonians to use the resources they already have to build homes, support their communities, and promote responsible forest management,” Owens said in a press release. “This bill restores local self-sufficiency by making it easier for small mill owners and landowners to mill, grade, and use their own lumber. It’s a win for rural Oregon, a win for housing, and a smart way to reconnect with sustainable forestry practices.”

Nash said he talked to one contractor who said 90% of the material he’s putting into houses is Canadian lumber.

He said there were three major mills in Wallowa County in the mid-1990s — one near the Joseph State Airport, a Boise-Cascade Mill near the Chief Joseph Days Rodeo Grounds in Joseph and one in Wallowa where Heartwood Biomass now is.

Today, other than a number of smaller mills, there’s only Zacharias Lumber in Joseph and Heartwood, both of which he said are considered small mills.