A sawmill that has been a fixture in the El Dorado County community of Camino for 120 years may be down to its final months.

Citing a downturn in home construction and what it calls restrictive regulatory factors, Sierra Pacific Industries said it will close its Camino sawmill in June, resulting in a loss of 164 jobs.

Anderson-based SPI said it also will close its sawmill and a biomass-fueled electric power plant in Sonora in Tuolumne County, at a cost of 146 jobs.

SPI said the Camino plant will operate until about June 12, and the Sonora sawmill and power plant will run until sometime in mid-July.

El Dorado County Supervisor Jack Sweeney, whose district encompasses SPI's Camino facility, called the mill "a symbol of the economy in this county, a symbol of the heritage of this county."

Sweeney conceded that the outlook was bleak but promised "to talk with management" and make other efforts to try to preserve the mill.

Laurel Brent-Bumb, chief executive officer of the El Dorado County Chamber of Commerce, said the loss of 164 jobs in Camino, with a population of slightly more than 5,000, is "pretty huge."

SPI cited a laundry list of market and regulatory-legal concerns that it said led to its decision to close the Camino and Sonora facilities:

• The drop in new home construction has reduced both demand for lumber and the price for finished products.

• The fall-off in national forest and private timber for sale has made supplies uncertain.

• The complexity and cost of the Timber Harvest Plan review process has slowed plan approval, and time limits on the plans have made it difficult to adjust to market conditions.

The combined factors, "leave us no choice but to close the plants," said SPI spokesman Mark Pawlicki.

Ryan Land, area manager for SPI, said "it is ironic that California is still importing most of its lumber from places with lower environmental standards. We hope the time will come when more of the lumber needed in this state is produced in California's mills."

Federal and state forestry and environmental officials did not return calls seeking comment. They have consistently maintained that their regulations are designed to preserve the state's forest lands for the public, wildlife and other enterprises besides timber-harvesting.

Pawlicki said workers in Camino and Sonora were informed of the planned closures on Monday.

"SPI will consider affected employees for other potential opportunities within the company for those who are interested in relocating or transferring," Pawlicki said.

Pawlicki said SPI "would keep the equipment in the mills in case things change," but he added, "that looks doubtful at this point."

The Camino sawmill has been a fixture of the small community's economy for 120 years, riding out numerous boom-and-bust cycles.

Until now, the mill's darkest days were in 1994, when then-owner, Michigan-California Lumber Co., said it could no longer harvest enough timber from national forests – primarily the nearby Eldorado – to keep the mill running.

The company blamed the expected loss of 280 jobs and a $12 million payroll on environmentalists who pushed federal authorities to protect the California spotted owl on surrounding forest lands.

In early 1994, Camino merchants and residents heavily dependent on the mill and its jobs expressed their anger at community meetings and other gatherings.

In May of that year, the U.S. Justice Department approved the sale of the mill to SPI, which kept it open and retained all the workers. Officials had previously denied the sale on fears that SPI would have a monopoly in the region but reversed themselves based on a comparative lack of lumber sales in the area.

The closings in Camino and Sonora are the latest in the string of setbacks announced by SPI in recent weeks.

Earlier this month, SPI announced that it will close its small-log mill in Quincy on May 4, eliminating about 150 jobs in the Plumas County town. Then, on March 17, SPI said it will reduce production at its Arcata plant in Humboldt County, putting 48 employees out of work. Those layoffs took effect Monday.

Call The Bee's Mark Glover, (916) 321-1184.