With doubt over the future of the Reefton sawmill, there are fears a possible closure could mark not just the end of the Forever Beech story, but the end of sawmilling in the entire Inangahua area. Forest Beech grew from the native logging ban of 2000, and was heavily subsidised by the West Coast Development Trust (now DWC) by at least $6million. Forever Timber Ltd began in Hokitika, cutting beech harvested from private land as a replacement for rimu and other native timbers from public forests. Eventually, Forever Beech was sold to Sustainable Forest Products and moved from Hokitika to Reefton. Development West Coast then wrote off almost $6million.

Source: Otago Daily Times July 19, 2019 14:48 UTC