El Dorado Plant Achieves One Full Year of No Injuries

Congratulations to the team at Roseburg’s El Dorado MDF plant in Arkansas, which recently achieved a full year injury-free. The plant and its nearly 120 team members reported no injuries from June 26th, 2021 through June 26th, 2022. This is a huge achievement and displays Roseburg’s tremendous efforts to continue our mission to stay Safe to the Core.

“The team at El Dorado has done a tremendous job in safety this past year,” said D. Wade Ratcliff, Jr., CSP, Eastern Regional Safety Manager. “There were many distractions along the way from being short-handed in hourly and salaried positions, as well as, challenges from COVID. I am extremely proud of this group for navigating these challenges and completing a year without getting someone hurt.”

Jason Bridges, Site Safety Professional at El Dorado MDF, agrees that the El Dorado team overcame many obstacles and triumphed. He said, “We are very proud of the many improvements from our team at El Dorado; everyone has stepped up to make a positive change for our safety culture. Throughout the many challenges we’ve had in the past, we have grown as a team and are making the changes needed to be safe to the core.”

“It speaks highly of the team members as well as the leadership at the plant,” added Wade.

El Dorado’s 16-member joint health and safety committee helps cascade the company’s Safe to the Core messaging throughout the plant. Made up of team members from across the facility, the committee plays an important role in driving culture change.

What work by the committee helped lead to this achievement? It came down to being receptive to change. A new chairman was elected, and the structure of the team was reorganized. Safety committee chairman Dustin Hilton recently toured a state-of-the-art plywood plant in Central Louisiana and spent time with their safety committee to gain new insight and safety ideas. The committee put in the work through diligently through performing monthly audits, completing audits during shutdowns, and participating in hazard recognition, safety challenges, and more – and continue to do so.

Jason said, “The support from the Roseburg team has helped turn our mill in the right direction. Training, tools, resources, equipment upgrades and everything else the company has done for us has boosted plant morale and and shown the importance of teamwork.”

Congratulations again to El Dorado for prioritizing the safety of team members and continuing to drive Roseburg’s goal to be Zero to the Core.

About Roseburg Forest Products

Since 2017, Roseburg has been the largest private timberland owner in the Roanoke Valley area, with nearly 200,000 acres of timberland in North Carolina and Virginia. Logs from that land will feed the new sawmill once it is operational. The 86-year-old privately owned company owns and operates a total of 14 wood products mills across North America, as well as 400,000 acres of timberland in Oregon, where it is headquartered.

Contact:

Rebecca Taylor – Corporate Communications Director – rebeccat@rfpco.com – (541) 679-25614

Source: Roseburg Forest Products Co.