GREENSBORO, NC - Columbia Forest Products will invest $9 million to upgrade its sawmill in Boardman, OR, that ultimately services cabinet, furniture and other secondary wood product manufacturers.

Columbia Forest Products' capital improvement project will allow the mill to peel hybrid poplar logs harvested from the GreenWood Tree Farm, a 35,000-acre forest operated by Collins Companies. The poplar will be further processed into plywood core product at Columbia Forest Products' plywood mill in Klamatch Falls. The poplar is currently transpored to Klamatch falls from Colubmia's eastern plants, according to the Herald and News.

The upgrade will reportedly generate up to 18 new jobs.

Columbia Forest Products is America's largest manufacturer of decorative hardwood plywood and hardwood veneer. The company operates about one dozen sawmills, hardwood veneer and hardwood plywood mills in the U.S. and Canada.