🔒Made in Maine: An Aroostook County sawmill that produces construction’s essential lumber

An Aroostook County sawmill that produces basic lumber products used in nearly any construction job is set to expand. The Ashland sawmill, which is owned by J.D. Irving Ltd. subsidiary Irving Forest Products Inc., plans to double its production from 130 million board feet a year to 250 million board feet. The basic products fall into the “dimensional” lumber category — including the two-by-fours that make up the basics of most construction framing. Although called the Ashland sawmill, the facility is across the town line, at 1218 Portage Road in Nashville Plantation. It’s an area that has been defined by the forest products sector. The multimillion-dollar project to modernize and expand the sawmill will, in addition to doubling output, add significantly to its workforce, going from the equivalent of 140 full-time positions to 220. “With the planned expansion, the Ashland mill is expected to remain a top employer and economic engine in Aroostook County,” said Renee Ouellette, board chair at the Finance Authority of Maine, which awarded new markets tax credit financing to assist with an expansion. FAME administers the Maine New Markets Capital Investment Program in cooperation with Maine Revenue Services. The program aims to stimulate economic growth and community development in low-income areas of Maine by attracting private investment through tax incentives. The program allows eligible investors to claim tax credits against state taxes in amounts up to 39% of a project’s total cost.

The last rebuild

In 2014, Irving invested $30 million in the Ashland facility, including the installation of biomass boilers, dry kilns and a planer mill to produce softwood lumber, producing over 100 million board feet per year at that time. In the decade after that investment, the mill produced more than one billion board feet of lumber — enough to frame out 80,000 homes. The wood log supply for the sawmill is procured from the company’s Maine freehold woodlands as well as other woodlot and timberland owners in the state.

Additional expansions

Founded in 1882, J.D. Irving Ltd. is headquartered in Saint John, New Brunswick, with its Maine district headquarters in Fort Kent. Irving has sawmill and woodland operations in New Brunswick, Nova Scotia and in Maine. Earlier this year, an Irving subsidiary, Atlas Structural Systems, opened a factory in Lewiston — the first facility in the U.S. for the maker of factory-made wall, roof and floor systems that can be trucked to a job site and installed with a crane. In early 2025, Irving Forest Products, which owns and operates wood processing facilities in Maine and New York State, acquired a sawmill in the Aroostook County town of Masardis, just south of Ashland. Both sawmills are within close proximity to Irving’s 1.3 million acres of timberlands in Maine. The company operates 10 sawmills as part of its solid wood operations, with a total annual capacity of 1.3 billion board feet.