Equipment & Supplier News

The cold rain that greeted first-day participants at Ohio’s Paul Bunyan Show in early October may have soured the moods of some but clearing skies helped lift spirits on days two and three. Exhibitors reported fewer customers than in previous years; however, many who did attend were serious lookers planning for the upturn.

Held October 2-4 in Cambridge, the event was sponsored by the Ohio Forestry Assn.

Reflecting all the attention on woody biomass these days, chipper and grinder manufacturers were well represented. Bandit, Morbark, Rayco, Dynamic and Woodsman products were there. Earl Smith, one of the owners of Dynamic, noted that the increased demand for fuel chips continued to generate many inquiries.

BCAP Settles In by Jennifer McCary

In the last couple of years, developing biomass markets have been among the few bright spots in an otherwise bleak growth outlook for forest products producers. In places where biomass markets are emerging and traditional wood outlets have contracted, a number of loggers have converted some or all of their production capacity to supplying these facilities, which can include pellet mills, co-gen and/or co-fired power plants and industrial or institutional entities that produce some of their own heat and/or power needs.

The economic viability of providing this feedstock is challenging though, due to the high investment and operating costs involved in producing and transporting the inherently lower valued byproducts of farming and timber management activities. That challenge was particularly intense last year due to the unprecedented spring and summer run-up in fuel costs.

Beyond SFI by Donny Dructor

In the spring of 1994, several loggers from across the country were gathered at the annual meeting of the American Pulpwood Assn. in Nashville, Tenn. Much to their surprise, they were introduced to a new higher-standards program being rolled out by the American Forest and Paper Assn. (AF&PA) and without input from loggers. The program was called the Sustainable Forestry Initiative, or SFI for short. The precept basically set the compass heading for forest management activities, including timber harvesting, and included requirements for “best management practices” and logger training and education. Even at that time loggers were struggling to control costs and maintain decent profit margins.

After the meeting was over, an attending veteran logger, Earl St. John from Spalding, Mich., commented to Keith Olson, Executive Director for the Montana Logging Assn., that he hoped he’d live long enough to see the day when loggers from across the country would have representation of the

Black Hills Salvage by Dan Shell

Timely teamwork and a commitment to resource utilization are the hallmarks of a successful timber salvage project in the Black Hills National Forest on a tract in northeast Wyoming where mid-July tornadoes struck, damaging between 5 and 10MMBF of mostly public timber with estimated 130-135 MPH winds.

The fierce line of storms carrying the tornadoes destroyed one house, damaged national forest campgrounds and other infrastructure and caused varying damage in multiple communities across the area.

Expanding Horizon by Jennifer McCary

Indeck Energies recently started up its first pellet fuel production plant, Indeck Ladysmith Biofuels Center, in Ladysmith, Wis. It is expected to consume approximately 180,000 tons of wood fiber annually and is a welcome development for Wiitala-Vozka Logging LLC (W-V), a cut-to-length enterprise owned by Smokey and Ron Wiitala, (brothers), and Mark Vozka. The last 12 months have been fraught with shrinking markets and challenging quotas at traditional paper, lumber and panel mill outlets.

With the 2008-09 economic decline, the partners have seen production decrease about 30% mainly because of sagging paper markets, which comprise roughly half of W-V’s annual output of roughly 30,000 tons. The other half breaks out as 30% sawlogs and 20% biomass.

Higher Performance by Jennifer McCary & David Abbott

According to Billy Rice, Jr., owner of Rice Timber Co. (RTC) here, “Everything we do is about increasing speed and efficiency. I’m interested in helping our business be more efficient. I’m always looking for the better way in everything we do out here. I tell the guys if they have a better idea, let me know. If it’s good, we’ll go that way.”

His open-minded innovation and think-outside-the-box mentality are among the reasons he was selected Georgia’s Logger of the Year and Forest Resources Assn.’s Southeastern Region Outstanding Logger in 2008. They are also a driver in his four-man harvesting team’s ability to regularly extract 100 or more loads a week. A laptop computer, wireless internet and a webcam aren’t commonplace in the woods, but being ahead of the curve is nothing new for Rice.

New Products & Technologies

Supertrak, Inc. is the U.S. dealer and distributor for the WB55 Biobaler manufactured by FLD Biomass Technologies, Inc. of Canada. It is a towable mulching and baling system capable of harvesting woody material, encompassing it into bales, and then enables the bales to be used in a number of applications, including the bioenergy industry. The biobaler is an implement that combines the technologies and applications of forestry mulching/mowing and hay baling technology. The unit is towed behind a 150-200 HP farm tractor.

While being towed the WB55 can be offset to the left or right of center to the rear of the tractor or it can be pulled directly behind the tractor. The unit is designed to harvest up to 4 in. diameter material and under by mulching the material either on the ground or as it stands. The mulcher is composed of a specially designed mulching drum that is reversed, runs backwards and cuts the material in an upward direction as opposed to standard forestry mulchers

Developments, Meetings

North Carolina Assn. of Professional Loggers (NCAPL) continued its series of popular biomass oriented equipment demos on October 1, this time through the sponsorship by Pioneer-Gregory Poole Forest Products (PGPFP). Hosted near Fort Barnwell by logger David Civils in cooperation with broker Rankin Timber and landowner Jeff Braxton, it drew a strong turnout of 350 loggers, foresters, landowners and equipment reps.

PGPFP asked to sponsor the event to showcase its extensive machinery line. Live action in the morning and afternoon gave the crowd an opportunity to observe and evaluate Caterpillar 525 and Prentice 2432 skidders, Peterson 4800 debarker and 5900 chipper, and 334, 337 and 440 Woodsman chipper models. In addition, Maxi-Load Scales had a Maxi-Lite unit on display.

Biomass-To-Energy: Buyer Beware by Sam Radcliffe

Wood biomass for energy is receiving increasing attention in a world looking for alternatives to fossil fuels. Proponents cite wood’s renewability, reduced carbon emissions, minimal toxic emissions, apparently abundant supplies and low cost. Much of the excitement has been spurred by national or state-level studies that estimate excess wood biomass supplies in the hundreds of millions of tons annually.

In the last two years, Prentiss & Carlisle analysts have discussed or completed a number of studies for firms seeking to understand the biomass supply potentials of a region or a specific site. In the course of this work it has become clear that while there are some solid opportunities, there are a number of supply-related issues that must be understood by investors and managers of prospective biomass energy projects. Consider the following:

Industry News

Two of the Southeast’s most established family owned lumber operations, Scotch Lumber Co., Fulton, Ala., and Gulf Lumber Co., Mobile, Ala., are merging. The new company, Scotch and Gulf Lumber, LLC, will encompass the Scotch sawmill in Fulton and Gulf’s sawmills, remanufacturing plant and wood treating facilities in Mobile and Jackson, Ala. The transaction does not include timberlands.

Current market and economic conditions are being analyzed to determine a potential startup date for the Fulton sawmill, which has been idle since last April. Scotch and Gulf Lumber, LLC currently employs 296 within the Mobile and Jackson operations. Once the Fulton plant resumes operation, another 100 jobs will be added.

ALC In Flagstaff: Fun, Adventure by DK Knight

Participating in the American Loggers Council’s (ALC) annual meeting in Flagstaff, Ariz. in late September was very gratifying for a couple of reasons. First, my wife, Jane, and I enjoy visiting with established friends and making new ones. Second, some Knight vacation time was way overdue. There are many fabulous sights to take in around Flagstaff and we did our part to pump up the economy by spending money we didn’t have.

We traveled with friends Janet and Gene Carter, the amicable owners of Rainbow Logging, Stanton, Ala., who made the trees-mountains-canyons-rocks-desert adventure even more enjoyable. Gene’s takeaway memories surely include an encounter with scores of mules and a helicopter ride, both linked to the Grand Canyon.