1980

Mount St. Helens, 1980

On May 18, 1980, Mount St. Helens exploded with the force of several atomic bombs. The eruption devastated 68,000 acres of Weyerhaeuser land and destroyed logging camps and equipment, 650 miles of road, 19 bridges and 16 miles of railroad track. It was one of the most cataclysmic events in the natural history of the United States.

Salvage Logging

Once again, the company faced the challenge of salvaging enormous amounts of downed timber. The dirty, dangerous work began two weeks after the eruption, involved over 1,000 people and took nearly three years to complete. In the end, workers rescued enough wood to build 85,000 homes.

Reforestation

Many doubted that the ash-covered and heat-blasted landscape could be reforested. For seven years, Weyerhaeuser applied scientific research and hard work to replant the timberlands devastated by the eruption. Planting crews had to dig down through a foot or more of ash to get to the soil below. One by one, 18.4 million seedlings from Weyerhaeuser nurseries were hand planted. Today, the area has grown back and will be ready for harvest again by the year 2020.

Engineered Wood

New product lines became part of Weyerhaeuser's product line with the construction of the oriented strand board facility in Grayling, Michigan. Engineered wood is made from wood leftovers and species not suitable for sawn lumber. The wood is chipped and flaked and then compressed into structural and nonstructural panels for homes, doors and furniture.

Reduce, Reuse and Recycle

Weyerhaeuser became an early pioneer in the recycling movement with an innovative program to recycle office wastepaper and corrugated containers. The company opened its first recycling plant in Charlotte, North Carolina.

Two Billionth Seedling Planted, 1986

George Weyerhaeuser planted a genetically improved seedling in the blast zone of Mount St. Helens to commemorate two decades of trees planted under the High Yield Forestry program. Two billion seedlings is equivalent to planting three seedlings every second of every day for 20 years.

Jack Creighton

In 1988, Jack Creighton was elected president, chief operating officer and director, becoming chief executive officer in 1991. He led the development of a new vision and values statement for the company and established high-performance work systems as a cornerstone of achieving the vision. He initiated the Performance Share Plan, which made virtually every employee a stockholder in the company, and the Labor Relations Principles, which foster cooperative relationships between the company and unions representing Weyerhaeuser employees. He guided the company into an era of deeper and more comprehensive environmental stewardship, and served on the front lines in a series of historic town hall meetings with the public. He oversaw significant expansion of Weyerhaeuser activities in Southeast Asia and South America.