Deals were closing at July month-end on sales of approximately 120,000 acres of Louisiana-Pacific forest land in North and Central Louisiana, sources told The Piney Woods Journal.

Consulting Forester Steve Templin of Boyce, who assisted in arranging the sales, said the LP lands are being acquired by the investment company Barrs-Glawson LLC, of Macon, Georgia.

Earlier, LP public affairs spokesman David Dugan at the company's Portland, Oregon headquarters, said there were "definitive agreements to buy and sell" with closings expected in early August.

Neither source revealed the prices paid for tracts totaling about 120,000 acres in LaSalle, Grant, Winn, Caldwell, Rapides, Allen, and Natchitoches parishes. The lands are basically in two packages, according to Templin, including approximately 96,000 acres in LaSalle, Grant, Winn, Caldwell, Rapides, and Natchitoches parishes, and approximately 30,000 acres in Allen parish.

The acquiring investment group is reselling some tracts to individuals and other investors, and will keep major acreages which will be managed for forest products, said Templin.

Louisiana-Pacific announced in May that it will sell all of its 935,000 acres of timber land in Louisiana, Texas, and Idaho. The company also has on the market about half of its manufacturing capacity, including its lumber and plywood operations at Urania, Louisiana.

The downsizing company-wide aims to reduce its work force and plant capacity by nearly half, with proceeds of the sales to reduce debt and concentrate on its profitable core business, manufacturing oriented strand board (OSB).

Dugan told The Piney Woods Journal that it is continuing with marketing efforts to sell the Louisiana manufacturing plant, but has nothing to announce as yet.

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