REIT Conversion	12 Months Ended
Dec. 31, 2012
REIT Conversion [Abstract]
Organization, Consolidation and Presentation of Financial Statements Disclosure [Text Block]	REIT CONVERSION Effective January 1, 2006, we restructured our operations to qualify for treatment as a Real Estate Investment Trust, or REIT, for federal income tax purposes. As a REIT, we generally are not subject to federal corporate income taxes on our income from investments in real estate that we distribute to our stockholders, including the income derived from the sale of standing timber. The REIT tax rules require that we derive most of our income, other than income generated by a taxable REIT subsidiary, from investments in real estate, which for us primarily consists of income from the sale of our standing timber. Accordingly, we restructured to create a new parent company that holds our timberlands through a REIT subsidiary and substantially all of our non-timberland assets, consisting primarily of our manufacturing facilities, assets used for the harvesting of timber and the sale of logs, and selected land parcels that we expect to be sold or developed for higher and better use purposes through wholly owned taxable REIT subsidiaries, which we refer to collectively in this report as Potlatch TRS. Our use of Potlatch TRS, which is taxed as a C corporation, enables us to continue to engage in these non-REIT qualifying businesses without violating the REIT requirements.

REIT CONVERSION

Effective January 1, 2006, we restructured our operations to qualify for treatment as a Real Estate Investment Trust, or REIT, for federal income tax purposes. As a REIT, we generally are not subject to federal corporate income taxes on our income from investments in real estate that we distribute to our stockholders, including the income derived from the sale of standing timber. The REIT tax rules require that we derive most of our income, other than income generated by a taxable REIT subsidiary, from investments in real estate, which for us primarily consists of income from the sale of our standing timber. Accordingly, we restructured to create a new parent company that holds our timberlands through a REIT subsidiary and substantially all of our non-timberland assets, consisting primarily of our manufacturing facilities, assets used for the harvesting of timber and the sale of logs, and selected land parcels that we expect to be sold or developed for higher and better use purposes through wholly owned taxable REIT subsidiaries, which we refer to collectively in this report as Potlatch TRS. Our use of Potlatch TRS, which is taxed as a C corporation, enables us to continue to engage in these non-REIT qualifying businesses without violating the REIT requirements.