The Daily News

Old Longview Timber lands have once again changed hands after Weyerhaeuser announced it has closed the sale of 145,000 acres of timberlands in the North Cascades region of Washington to Oregon-based Hampton Resources.

In a July 8 press release, Weyerhaeuser said the $266 million sale is mostly high-elevation terrain in the North Cascades range. Weyerhaeuser acquired the property in 2013 when it bought Longview Timber LLC and its 645,000 acres of timberlands in Washington and Oregon.

Of the land it just sold, about 25% of the of the acreage is in Chelan County, the press release said. The rest is in Whatcom, Skagit, Snohomish, King and Kittitas counties, a Hampton press release said.

“We take great pride in being good neighbors and good stewards of the land,” Hampton CEO Steve Zika said in the press release. “This purchase reflects our ongoing commitment to wood manufacturing in Washington.”

The company plans to use the new land to provide a “long-term fiber supply” to its sawmill in Darrington, which employs 160 people and annually produces 240 million board feet of lumber for North American and Asian markets.

Hampton Lumber is a Portland-based family-owned company that operates nine sawmills in Oregon, Washington and British Columbia. All of Hampton’s forestlands are certified by the Sustainable Forestry Initiative, according to the company press release.

Weyerhaeuser owns or manages nearly 1.3 million acres and two mills, two nurseries and several other sites in Washington, including its company headquarters in Seattle.