Western Forest Products Reduces and Renegotiates U.S. Term-Debt

Duncan, British Columbia, Canada, 08 March 2007 -- /PRNewswire/ -- Western Forest Products Inc. (TSX: WEF) today announced that it has renegotiated the terms of its U.S. dollar denominated long-term debt with the Brookfield Bridge Lending Group. Principal changes to the terms include:

- Interest rate reduced from floating one-month LIBOR + 8.15% to
floating one-month LIBOR plus 3%

- Annual fees of 0.75% (1% in final year) eliminated

- U.S. dollar denominated debt reduced from USD 95.3 million to USD 73.7 million through a payment of USD 21.6 million from the company's cash reserves

The U.S. debt matures on 10 March 2010, and may be fully or partly prepaid at anytime without penalty. In addition to the U.S. debt, at 31 December 2006, the company had outstanding CAD 99.9 million of Canadian dollar denominated debt that will mature on 10 March 10, 2008. The Canadian debt bears interest at floating CIBC Prime plus 5.25%.

Commenting on the revised terms, Reynold Hert, president and CEO stated, "The combination of lowering the U.S. debt, reducing the interest rate, and the other amendments will together save the company approximately $7.0 million annually in interest costs and is an important next stage in our efforts to refinance the company's balance sheet and reduce our cost of capital."

Western Forest Products

Western is an integrated Canadian forest products company and the largest coastal British Columbia woodland operator and lumber producer with an Annual Allowable Cut of approximately 7.7 million cubic meters of timber (before temporary AAC reductions and reductions with respect to the removal of certain private timberlands from Tree Farm Licences) and lumber capacity in excess of 1.5 billion board feet from eight sawmills and four remanufacturing plants. Principal activities conducted by the Company and its subsidiaries include timber harvesting, reforestation, sawmilling logs into lumber and wood chips, and value-added remanufacturing. Substantially all of Western's logging is conducted on government-owned timberlands in British Columbia. All of Western's operations, employees, and corporate facilities are located in the coastal region of British Columbia, while its products are sold in over 20 countries worldwide.

Source: Western Forest Products Inc.