ATLANTA – The impact of International Paper’s decision to close two pulp and paper mills in Coastal Georgia at the end of this month will spread far beyond those workers directly affected, state Commissioner of Agriculture Tyler Harper said Wednesday.
“This is more than 1,100 jobs,” Harper told members of the Georgia House Rural Development Committee meeting on the campus of South Georgia State College in Douglas. “This is tire shops, truck dealerships, mom-and-pop restaurants.”
But most affected by the impending shutdown of mills in Savannah and Riceboro will be Georgia’s timber industry, still reeling from the devastation of Hurricane Helene nearly a year ago and a longer-term drop in demand for wood due to foreign competition, increased use of recycled wood, and technological innovations that have led to lighter wood products…