AWP - News

To celebrate Earth Day, Grade 7 students from Glenmerry Elementary School planted some Douglas Fir seedlings on the bank below the Little League baseball fields in Glenmerry. Teachers Louise Sidley and Sandy Calder, along with Atco employees Ron Ozanne and Ron Babcock supervised the activity. Ron Ozanne taught the students about various ways trees help the environment. The seedlings were donated by Atco.

On May 18, 2010, the owners of ATCO Wood Products closed on the purchase of International Rail Road Systems Inc (IRRS). IRRS owns and operates the shortline railroad that runs from the ATCO veneer plant in Fruitvale to Columbia Gardens. The shortline delivers rail cars to and from the ATCO veneer plant and connects with the Burlington Northern Santa Fe railway network that runs throughout North America.

While IRRS will remain a separate company from ATCO, the staff at ATCO will take over the management and administration of this shortline. All other operations of the railroad will remain unaffected through the transition.

We are very excited about this acquisition, as it further secures ATCO Wood Products economic access to the wood products markets outside of the Beaver Valley for many decades to come. We intend to manage the shortline with a long term view and will be investing in maintenance and track structure upgrades accordingly over the next several years.

For their September/October 2010 edition, Canadian Wood Products published a four-page article highlighting some of the changes made over the past few years that have helped ATCO keep running through the tough market facing the forest industry. Click here to read the article.