Logs from West End forests were lifted aboard a year-old freighter ship Monday in a three-day operation that will mark Port Angeles’ first log export operation in nearly a decade. Eighteen longshoremen — mostly from Port Angeles — started a packed three-day schedule loading the 554-foot Koombana Bay. The ship will then head to Longview to be filled with logs before it heads out on a 15-day journey to South Korea.
The absence of ships loading logs in Port Angeles Harbor has been a constant reminder of the slowdown in the industry, said George Schoenfeldt, a former ILWU dispatcher and current Port Commissioner. “The main thing is the economic benefit to the community.”