The flooring plant and sawmill at Kennebec Lumber Co. are bustling with activity on a weekday morning, as logs get measured and sliced into lumber and the boards are graded, stacked and prepared for shipping.
Meanwhile, just up the road, construction is nearing completion on a new biobrick manufacturing facility that will turn sawdust from the mill into a heating oil and firewood alternative – the eventual new home of Enviro Wood Briquettes. And in Athens, to the east, a wood pellet manufacturer is looking forward to that form of fuel taking off.
All three businesses are examples of growing areas in Maine’s forest industry sector amid a recent series of paper mill closings and concerns about the state of Maine’s wood products economy.
This month Madison Paper Industries, one of the area’s largest employers, announced it will close in May, eliminating 215 jobs. The pending loss of jobs is the latest for the state’s paper industry, which has shed more than 2,300 jobs in the last five years, according to the Maine Department of Labor.
Yet the forestry industry remains an important part of Maine’s economy, with the sector pouring about $5 billion directly into the Maine economy each year, including about $4 billion from the paper industry alone, according to the Maine Forest Products Council.
From the Portland Press Herald: https://www.pressherald.com/2016/03/27/wood-products-companies-look-for-ways-to-branch-out/