Contact Info
Collins Pine Company
Terry Collins
500 Main Street
Chester, CA 96020-0796
Phone: 530-258-2111
Fax: 530-258-4266
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Our Website
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Services
- Logging Museum
- Audio Tour
- Mill Tours
- Sustainable Forest Tours
- Saw mill
- Electric power co-generation
Going Green Commitments
- Collins Pine uses surplus forest biomass (more than that needed to replenish soils) to power its cogeneration plant at its sawmill and manufacturing facility in Chester, CA. It produces enough electricity and heat for its own operations and to sell to Pacific Gas and Electric Co. (PG&E), which then distributes up to six megawatts per hour during peak periods to homes and businesses in northern California. See Heat and Energy: Cogeneration
- Collins Pine corporate culture also considers a healthy forest itself as a product, allowing extensive use of their lands by the public for education and recreation, often creating innovative partnership models with both. When new Forest Manager Jay Francis noticed that a busy highway bisected an old Pacific Crest Trail Association (PCTA) interpretive trail through the Collins Almanor Forest, he worked with a variety of partners to improve safety at the highway crossing and build new trails on 40 acres that Collins Pine conserved in perpetuity for education and recreation -earning Collins Pine the PCTA’s first ever Partnership Award given to a business.
Hours of Operation
May through October 9:00 AM to 5:00 PM on Wednesday through Saturday. (530) 258-2111.Admission is free.Monday-Friday 8 a.m.-5 p.m. for Office Staff. The Mill is in operation 24/7.
News
Going "Green," Working With Nature Instead Of Against It. (04/16/08)
Location: Chester, CA *Sierra Nevada Region North: Plumas County
Contact: 503-417-7755 for general product information, or contact product specialists; Forest Manager Jay Francis jfrancis@collinsco.com 530-258-4401
Collins Pine, a family-owned wood products company begun in 1855, practices sustainable un-even age harvest of primarily single-tree selection that integrates timber management with wildlife, watershed and community health objectives. Collins Pine owns and manages its 295,000 acres of forest in California, Oregon and Pennsylvania in accordance with the protocols and “total ecological integrity of the forest” criteria of the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC). A founding member of the FSC, Collins Almanor Forest in Chester was the first privately owned forest FSC-certified by independent third-party Scientific Certification Systems Forest Conservation Program.
Collins Pine produces lumber, FSC-certified and trademarked CollinsWood and Collins Pine FreeForm particleboard and veneer. CollinsWood is used in such varied products as Berkeley Mills cabinets and furniture, Venture Snowboards, and contributed LEED credits to the award-winning design of the Adam Joseph Lewis Center for
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About Us
The Museum
Outdoor Display
The Museum has an outdoor display of twelve pieces of equipment that were used by Collins Pine Company back in the 1940s, 50s and 60s, including some trucks dating back to the 1930s.
Museum Building
The Museum building, patterned after the old mill that operated in Chester from 1943 to 2002, has Incense Cedar siding and decking, Ponderosa Pine ceiling, railings and interior doors, clear Sugar Pine interior trim around the windows, Douglas Fir posts and beams and a verticle-grain White Fir bookcase.These are all species of lumber that grow in this area.
Inside the building are panels and displays with information on lumbering, forestry and principles of sustainability. A small theater room plays a 20-minute documentary on Sustainable Forestry and a TV screen in the main part of the building plays a silent video of the sawmill operation.
Location, Hours & Admission
The Museum is located on the Collins Pine Lawn off Main Street at the west end Chester and is open for visitors from May through October 9:00 AM to 5:00 PM on Wednesday through Saturday. (530) 258-2111.Admission is free.
The Collins Pine Company
The Collins Pine Company has operated in Chester since 1943, and has been recognized for their sustainable management of the Collins Almanor Forest. The old sawmill building was replaced by a new mill in 2002.This mill at Chester produces White Fir, Ponderosa Pine and Sugar Pine.Collins Pine also has operations in Lakeview, Oregon; Klamath Falls, Oregon; Kane, Pennsylvania; Richwood, West Virginia; and a corporate office in Portland, Oregon.
The 94,000-acre FSC certified Collins Almanor Forest is tucked into the Sierra Nevada mountains of northern California. The timberlands were acquired in 1902 and have been managed on an uneven-age, sustained yield basis from the beginning. In 1993, it was the first Collins forest to become certified. Species include ponderosa pine, hemfir, sugar pine, Douglas Fir, incense cedar.
