09/13/06 Jaro, new CEO; tornado timber salvage

Amalgamated Sugar Company will have a new president and CEO on October first. Vic Jaro has been named to succeed Ralph Burton who is retiring after 36 years with Amalgamated, the past four as its chief executive office. Jaro has been with the Boise-based company for 33 years, most recently as vice president of agriculture. Amalgamated is a cooperative owned by 12-hundred growers with processing facilities in Nampa, Twin Falls and Paul. Chief financial officer Dave Budge had been expected to replace Burton but Budge decided not to take the job after being involved in a serious car crash earlier this year. If no objections are filed in the next couple of weeks a salvage logging operation will begin in the Payette National Forest on five thousand acres of private and national forest lands. Governor Jim Risch praised the US Forest Service for its quick response in issuing an environmental assessment in late August. A June 4th tornado near the small community of Bear tore through twelve miles of forest. If no objections are filed by September 25 the proposed plan will be implemented as recommended. It allows for the harvest of blown down trees, prescribed burns and the planting of new trees on more than 18 hundred acres of national forest land in and around the community of Bear and in the Bear Creek watershed. Today's Idaho Ag News Bill Scott