Citing a lack of federal timber,

is closing its 90-year-old sawmill in Cave Junction, the last mill operating in southwest Oregon's

The closure, announced Wednesday, means the loss of 85 jobs. It comes amid a Congressional stalemate on plans to boost logging in

"For 23 years now, we've been pleading with members of Congress and the federal agencies to do something about these log supplies," said Jennifer Phillippi, the family- owned mill's CEO and co-owner.

"We were prepared to stick it out, but in the last few weeks it became clear to us that, at least in the near term, nothing is going to happen."

The federal government owns 80 percent of the forestland around the mill, Phillippi said.

Thinning and restoration projects have proceeded on federal timberlands. But they don't produce a steady supply of medium, 22- to 23-inch diameter logs needed at the mill, which specializes in appearance-grade exposed beams and posts and high-quality door and window-frame stock, Phillippi said.

Environmental groups have protested sales targeting larger trees, she said, and the mill didn't see enough of a future supply to fill more than one of three shifts and pay for $2 million in needed upgrades.

In 1975, Jackson and Josephine counties hosted 22 sawmills, she said. By 2003, 13 years after the listing of the northern spotted owl under the Endangered Species Act, they had dropped to six.

Logging on Oregon's private lands has stayed relatively steady since the listing, but logging on BLM and U.S. Forest Service lands has dropped sharply. Environmental groups say past volumes were unsustainable, harming streams, salmon and wildlife.

Joseph Vaile, program director for the

, said he sympathizes with employees who lost jobs.

"We hope there's a way that we can have a wood processing facility that utilizes what we think is quite a bit of restoration-based (timber) volume," he said. "We need one in Josephine County."

Federal foresters, backed by restoration science, focus on thinning around large diameter pine, Vaile said, and clearing smaller trees in Douglas fir forests. Those projects are less controversial.

Three Oregon congressmen -- Democrats

and

and Republican

-- have proposed

, which would also increase revenue to cash-strapped southwest Oregon counties.

Their proposal would put 1.5 million acres of public land into a trust managed by the state for commercial logging.

But U.S. Sen.

, D-Ore., and environmental groups have warned that approach could run afoul of the Endangered Species Act and environmental laws, undermining Senate support.

Wyden, chairman of the Senate's

, has said he wants to reach a compromise that provides higher harvests.

Phillippi of Rough & Ready served on a committee established by Gov.

to forge a compromise it could forward to Congress.

But the committee, which included representatives from industry, environmental groups and southwest Oregon counties, deadlocked earlier this year over logging volumes and the extent of streamside protection.

Phillippi said it's possible the mill could re-open if Congress allows more logging, or that another owner with access to timber supplies could buy the mill. But she said she doesn't want to raise false hopes with employees.

"If Congress comes up with a solution that would work, we would take advantage of it," she said. "But if there's anything like that, it's going to take two to three years before the wood really starts flowing."

-- Scott Learn