News Release

BNSF Log Trains Helping to Salvage Apache Timber

SNOWFLAKE, ARIZONA, January 15, 2003:

The Burlington Northern and Santa Fe Railway Company (BNSF) today transported the first unit train of burned timber salvaged from the devastating forest fires that struck the White Mountain Apache reservation in 2002. BNSF is moving the salvaged logs in both unit and manifest trains from Snowflake, Ariz., to destinations in California, Oregon and Washington. The timber was burned during the summer of 2002 by the Rodeo-Chediski fire, the largest wildfire in Arizona’s history, which burned a total of 469,000 acres on the White Mountain Apache Reservation.

BNSF moved the first car loads on Dec. 19, 2002 from the Apache Railway in Snowflake to Klamath Falls and Prineville, Ore. Over the next six months, BNSF expects to transport 5,000 cars of logs, which equates to approximately 85 million board feet of lumber. “BNSF will take loaded manifest or unit trains daily from the Apache Railway,” says Ray West, Apache Railway and Transportation Manager

In an effort to salvage some value from the trees damaged in the fire, the tribe, which operates one of the last major sawmills in Arizona, will allow California-based Sierra Pacific Industries and Mississippi-based TCB Construction to harvest the logs. “The trees must be harvested quickly to avoid further decomposition from the fire damage,” says Chadeen Palmer, spokesperson for the White Mountain Apache Tribe. “We are very pleased with the immediate response the parties have taken at salvaging the trees so that they are taken in their best condition.”

“The logs will be used for high-end, high-value industrial lumber such as high-grade moulding for doors and windows,” says Dickie Joe Ladner, project manager for TCB Construction. The interior of the log will be used in the home building industry as framing material.

“It took a great deal of teamwork and coordination to support the salvage effort,” says Dick Krase, BNSF manager of sales, Vancouver, WA. “The efforts of our operating and fleet management teams have allowed us to create a great service product to move the logs. The lumber companies and the Apache Railway have been a tremendous help and we could not have asked for better partners,” says Krase.

In order to accommodate the loads, modifications were made to more than 230 rail cars, which were placed on the Apache Railway. “BNSF went out of their way to supply and modify the cars needed for this project and because of their diligence, this project is a success,” says Ladner. “Only in America with our great American railroads, can we pull a project of this magnitude off.”

BNSF operates one of the largest rail networks in North America, with 33,000 route miles of track covering 28 states and two Canadian provinces. BNSF is an industry leader in Web-enabling a variety of customer transactions. The railway moves more intermodal traffic than any other rail system in the world, is America’s largest grain-hauling railroad, transports the mineral components of many of the products we depend on daily, and hauls enough coal to generate more than 10 percent of the electricity produced in the United States.

BNSF Headquarters
BNSF Railway Company
2650 Lou Menk Dr. 2nd Floor
P.O. Box 961057
Fort Worth, TX 76161-0057
Phone: (817) 352-1000