Port Blakely News

Christchurch, New Zealand — Port Blakely’s restoration efforts at the Robinson Kakahu Wetland were featured in a recent Environment Canterbury article (June 26, 2025), which features a $5,000 contribution from the Ōrāri Temuka Ōpihi Pareora (OTOP) Water Zone Committee. This funding will enhance the ongoing restoration of the 16-hectare inland wetland in the Geraldine region, a project that Port Blakely has been leading since 2020.

At Port Blakely, we’re constantly seeking new ways to make forestry safer, smarter, and more sustainable. That’s why we were excited to pilot an innovative technology in our Geraldine forests in New Zealand: heavy-lifting drones that can deliver seedling loads directly to planting crews working in steep, rugged terrain. Recently featured in the Timaru Herald, this pioneering work is the result of a collaboration between Port Blakely and ProVision Ltd., a South Canterbury-based company led by drone innovator Khan Adam.

This past spring, Port Blakely welcomed fifth-grade classes from Molalla Elementary School to our forest near Molalla as part of our Environmental Education Program. This experience was highlighted in the Molalla River School District Newsletter (June 2025). For the past five years, Port Blakely has hosted students from the Molalla River School District. These forest field trips provide hands-on lessons in forest ecology, the importance of trees, and the diverse wildlife that thrives in our working forests.

René Ancinas, Chairman and CEO of Port Blakely, was featured in the April 2025 edition of Family Business Magazine. The article offers a thoughtful look into René’s leadership journey, insights on sustaining a multigenerational family business, and the values that continue to guide Port Blakely’s mission.

Recent coverage about the Department of Natural Resources’ “legacy forests” suggests that DNR is the only landowner managing extended rotation forests. As a fourth-generation owner of Port Blakely — a family-owned company that has managed long-rotation forests for generations — I am concerned by this assumption.

Christchurch, New Zealand -- Port Blakely New Zealand Essential Oils (PBNZEO), a global leader in sustainable essential oil production, is among the first essential oil producers worldwide to attain the Forest Stewardship Council® (FSC®) certification. This milestone validates the company’s commitment to environmental stewardship and recognizes its sustainable practices for customers who maintain chain-of-custody.

René Ancinas has served as the family-owned forest products company Port Blakely’s CEO since 2010 — an appointment preceded by five years with the business working in several different operations and leadership roles in its forestry and real-estate operations. In addition to his work at Port Blakely, Ancinas serves on the boards of directors for the National Alliance of Forest Owners and Washington Roundtable.

Port Blakely has implemented an “in-forest” storage and supply chain to recover wood residue (offcuts) from its forests in South Canterbury. What used to be considered waste is now being processed into wood chips and used as biofuel at the Washdyke Energy Centre.

NOAA Fisheries has approved a new conservation framework for about 30,000 acres of private forestland in northwest Oregon. It will improve habitat for threatened Chinook and coho salmon and steelhead over the coming decades. The habitat conservation plan addresses Port Blakely US Forestry forests in the Clackamas and Molalla basins. 

The second session in the company's series, "Investing in the Future of Forestry: Building a Thriving Workforce," featured Terry Baker, CEO of the Society of American Foresters, and Kathryn Fernholz, President/CEO of Dovetail Partners and a founding member of the Steering Committee for the Women's Forestry Congress.

Crown Research Institute Scion welcomes the appointment of three new directors to its Board. Minister of Research, Science and Innovation Hon Dr Ayesha Verrall has appointed Nicole Anderson, Phil Taylor and Kiriwaitingi Rei-Russell to the Board for a three-year term, starting 10 July. They will join existing Board members for their first official meeting together in Rotorua on 27 July.

Commercial timber construction has been raised to new heights with the first-of-its-kind Structural Round Timber (SRT) building, the Children’s Museum of Eau Claire (CMEC). The project was realized by visionary Architectural, Engineering and Construction (AEC) leaders across the country in close partnership with WholeTrees Structures, a woman-owned national timber products company whose mission is to improve the economic viability between healthy-managed forests and their rural communities.

SEATTLE, Wash.— Port Blakely has been honored as the 2021 Industrial Forest Landowner recipient of the fish and wildlife stewardship award by the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife and the Oregon Board of Forestry. The award was presented during an online ceremony on Friday, April 22.

Port Blakely has announced that Kim Eiring has joined the family-owned company as Chief Financial Officer. She fills the position previously held by Jeff Cook, who retired at the end of 2021 after eight years as the company’s top financial executive. Eiring comes to Port Blakely with three decades of experience as a senior financial leader. 

Tumwater, Wash. – The Squaxin Island Tribe and Port Blakely have reached historic agreements for the Tribe to acquire approximately 1,000 acres of its ancestral lands from the forest products company. Included in the transaction are timberland, shoreline, and tidelands on the Little Skookum Inlet in Mason County.

It’s that special season when bats are in the limelight, but this year, they are even more on centre stage as the long-tailed bat – ‘pekapeka’ in Māori – has been nominated for New Zealand Bird of the Year. While ornithologists and wildlife biologists will disagree with the "bird" part – the pekapeka is one of two mammals native to New Zealand – unfortunately, like too many native flying species, it too is facing extinction.

Madison, Wisc. – Madison-based mass timber building products fabricator WholeTrees Structures is joining forces with Port Blakely, a Pacific Northwest, family-owned renewable forest products company, to provide sustainable structural mass timber products with verifiable traceability to Port Blakely’s certified carbon forest. 

Port Blakely was recently honored at the Ministry for Primary Industries’ Good Employer Awards, recognizing the company as a national leader in health and safety in the forestry sector and beyond. “We are thrilled and honored to have received the Safe and Healthy Work Environment Award,” said Port Blakely Managing Director, Phil Taylor. 

SEATTLE, Nov. 12, 2020 – Port Blakely CEO, René Ancinas joined 47 environmental, conservation and forest business leaders today in announcing an agreement of principles on the important role sustainably managed forests and forest products can play in mitigating climate change. “As a family-owned company focused on cultivating a healthy world, tackling the climate crisis is an urgent priority,” Ancinas said. 

Seattle, WA – Port Blakely has announced Liz Marzolf has joined the Seattle-based sustainable forest products company as Vice President, People.  Marzolf brings a strong track record leading high-performing teams and developing people through various executive-level human resources and organization and talent positions in her 12-years at Starbucks and most recently at WeWork. 

Blakely Harbor Park is located on the site of a former sawmill that operated from 1864 until 1923. Over that period, the mill was run by several companies, including the Port Blakely Mill Company. At one point, it was one of the world’s largest sawmills, producing cut lumber and shipping it around the world. 

Port Blakely is proud to be a signatory of the Oregon timber industry and conservation communities’ MOU and we look forward to working together to ensure the long-term sustainability of our working forests and the rural communities and ecosystems they support. Our thanks to Governor Brown for championing a collaborative path and bringing key stakeholders to the table.

Port Blakely is working to provide enhanced protections for water quality and wildlife habitat on 30,000 acres of our forestland in Clackamas County, OR under a voluntary stewardship agreement being proposed with the Oregon Department of Forestry (ODF). Under a stewardship agreement, a landowner agrees to exceed ODF regulatory requirements designed to protect natural resources in exchange for long-term regulatory certainty under Forest Practices Act rules.

The discussion with a small group of forestry professionals focused on the opportunities and challenges facing the sector. Port Blakely was represented by Phil Taylor, Port Blakely’s Managing Director in New Zealand and Alfred Duval, a regional forester for the company and the 2017 recipient of The Prince of Wales Award for Sustainable Forestry.

The forestry industry came together on Thursday, November 14th in Portland, Oregon to celebrate John “Onny” Warjone, former Port Blakely President of Forestry, and his induction into the World Forestry Center’s Leadership Hall. Warjone joins a distinguished list of visionaries who have advanced the forestry industry worldwide.

Port Blakely was approached by our friends at DroneSeed who wanted to use our forest as the setting for a #TeamTrees video, part of a YouTube campaign to raise $20 million to plant 20 million trees by 2020. We were in. After all, we plant 1.5 million trees in our own forests every year – 3 to 4 for each one we harvest. 

In the spring of 2017, Port Blakely area forester Jerry Bailey got a call from a log buyer in Montana looking for some very special trees. Nothing unusual in that. Our foresters often receive calls from log buyers across the country, but this call was different. The caller wasn't looking for just any trees, he was looking for big, BEAUTIFUL trees that would headline a high-profile project: replacing the original log columns at the entrance of the historic Glacier Park Lodge.

With Tay Yoshitani’s recent retirement from Port Blakely’s Board of Directors, the company wanted to find a fitting way to celebrate his contributions to the company and for a career dedicated to trade and the global economy. We found just the right thing. 

Company marks 25th year in New Zealand with their largest investment in the last decade.  “Not only does it mark our largest investment in New Zealand since the early 2000s, it will allow us to support forestry sector jobs in one of the most important forest product manufacturing sectors in the South Island.”

The recent fire season has proven how critical public-private partnerships are to protect our forests and communities. Central Forestry Services is a silviculture crew from the small town of Waimate that works with local forestland owner Port Blakely and is making huge waves in the Rural Fire sector in New Zealand. 

Seattle, WA. Port Blakely has kept its focus on sustainable management both in nature and the boardroom. The century-old forestry company embraces change and family values. The Civil War was raging and Washington was still a territory when former sea captain William Renton made a $10 down payment on 165 acres of land at Blakely Harbor on Bainbridge Island.

Nearly five years have passed since the Tohoku region of Japan was hit by a massive earthquake and tsunami. Although the disaster brought great hardship and pain to innumerable people, it also produced many stories that demonstrate the depth of the human connection. 

Tree 1007 is a western hemlock, gnarled by nature and now girdled by man. A forester chiseled off a 3-inch-wide band of its thick bark, circling the tree to create a deathly halo of exposed cambium layer. Girdling disrupts the flow of nutrients from the roots and creates a pathway for pathogens. The hemlock will be dead in a year.