BOISE, Idaho (AP) - Stimson Lumber Co., a privately held wood-products company that owns 500,000 acres of forest in Idaho, Montana, Oregon and Washington, is firing 121 workers as it shutters a sawmill in Coeur d'Alene, Idaho because of falling prices, dwindling demand and foreign competition.

The Atlas mill in the northern Idaho timber and resort town produced pine board, molding, cedar boards, decking and other kinds of wood products for the building industry. It will close Dec. 31.

Idaho's congressional delegation blamed the job losses on cheap Canadian softwood imports that have been at the center of a bitter years-old trade dispute.

It was at least the second Northwest sawmill to announce recently it was firing workers because of difficult operating conditions.

Boise Cascade, a Boise-based wood-products company, said Wednesday it's laying off 70 workers at a La Grande sawmill because skyrocketing natural gas prices have made it too costly to run gas-fired boilers.

Stimson blamed its woes on imports and alternative wood products robbing its Coeur d'Alene mill of business.

”Stimson is no longer able to economically compete with import and alternative wood products to its pine and cedar products,“ CEO Andrew Miller said in a statement released Friday. ”We face dwindling market demand and pricing.“

Portland-based Stimson, which runs separate stud mills in Coeur d'Alene and Priest River, as well as in Hauser following its buyout of that facility in 2004, plans to apply for Trade Adjustment Assistance from the U.S. Department of Labor. That federal program helps workers who lose their jobs because of increased competition or jobs being moved outside the United States.

Immediately after the closure announcement, three members of Idaho's congressional delegation, Sen. Larry Craig, Sen. Mike Crapo and Rep. Butch Otter, all Republicans, lambasted what they called the result of a spike in softwood lumber imports from Canada.

”We will support your petition for Trade Adjustment Assistance to help with this transition and will also work to help outside workers, such as loggers, who are not directly employed by Stimson but will be impacted,“ the three said in a statement.

They called for a quick resolution of the dispute with Canada. The United States accuses its northern neighbor of sending millions of board feet of softwood lumber from government-owned timberlands across the border at low prices, making it tough for U.S. companies such as Stimson - harvesting wood from private land - to compete.

The Bush administration imposed tariffs on Canadian lumber in 2002.

While North American Free Trade Agreement panels have ruled in favor of Canada, the United States has kept the tariffs in place, on claims that its position is supported by the World Trade Organization.

In a telephone call Friday, President Bush pressed Canadian Prime Minister Paul Martin for a negotiated settlement of the bitter dispute. Martin rebuffed the overture and warned that Canada would seek relief in U.S. courts if necessary, according to the two men's respective press secretaries.