A sawmill on Washoe Tribe land off Vista Grande Boulevard as seen from Old Clear Creek Road on New Year’s Day 2025.
Photo by Kurt Hildebrand.
A $50 million guaranteed loan to expand a sawmill on Washoe Tribe land in northern Douglas County has been in the works for more than a year, Tahoe Forest Products Chairman of the Board Kevin Leary.
“We’ve spent about 15 months working on this financing and an improved facility design,” Leary told The Record-Courier. “The use of these funds will be to improve production rates in the sawmill facility (with) newer equipment and to construct a planer mill and kilns, which will make Tahoe Forest Products a sustainable operating business, and further enable the critical forest restoration work already accelerating in our region.”
The loan is guaranteed by the U.S. Department of Agriculture, which makes it more appealing to debt buyers in the broader loan market, Leary said.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture announced the loan in a statement issued on Thursday.
The Record-Courier has reached out to the Washoe Tribe’s Development Corporation for comment.
“This expansion will allow Tahoe Forest Products to shift from raw material production to finished lumber suitable for sale to retail distributors and large-scale construction markets,” according to the statement. “In addition, the business will increase its capacity for lumber production from purely rough lumber to premium lumber by 60 million board feet.”
Rural Development Nevada State Director Alida Ceballos said the funding comes from a partnership between the USDA and MapleMark Bank that will enable the business to access guaranteed loan funds to support domestic timber production.
“Thanks to the leadership of Secretary of Agriculture Brooke Rollins and President Trump, USDA is partnering with lending institutions to make this substantial investment in new and upgraded timber processing equipment for Tahoe Forest Products,” Ceballos said. “This investment supports sustainable timber harvesting that improves forest health, reduces wildfire risk, and strengthens rural prosperity by creating jobs for hardworking Americans. Nevada is proud to further the Trump-Vance investments into our great state.”
The funding was made possible by a partnership between the USDA Rural Development and the U.S. Forest Service and ensures sawmills and other wood processing facilities have the necessary funding to establish, reopen, expand, or improve their operations.
“The program also helps address the wildfire crisis by investing in local sawmills that clear out dangerous fuel in our forestlands, helping to remove the most immediate threats to communities, critical infrastructure, and natural resources,” according to the statement.