2 FOREST PRODUCTS WEEK t Bangor Daily News Special Advertising Section t October 23, 2014
FOREST PRODUCTS WEEK t Bangor Daily News Special Advertising Section t October 23, 2014
Hancock Lumber Deeply Rooted in Maine’s Forest Products Industry COURTESY OF HANCOCK LUMBER COMPANY
PHOTO COURTESY HANCOCK LUMBER COMPANY
Hackers Mill.
Established in 1848, Hancock Lumber Company is a sixth generation, familyowned forest products business operating a land company, a sawmill division and a network of retail lumber yards across Maine and New Hampshire. Hanging on the wall in the company’s main office in Casco Village is the original copy of a hand-written contract dated Oct. 4, 1848 for the construction of a new mill for the grand sum of $840. Today, the company continues to purchase logs year-round, and manufactures them into pine boards at their three Eastern White Pine manufacturing facilities in Bethel, Casco and Pittsfield. Hancock Lumber is America’s leading producer of Eastern White Pine lumber and the secret to their success starts right in the log yards. Top quality raw material is the key ingredient to Hancock Lumber’s reputation for premium pine products and they actively purchase White Pine logs from Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New York, and Vermont. Hancock
pine boards are distributed locally, nationally and internationally and in 2012, the Maine International Trade Center named Hancock Lumber Maine’s Exporter of the Year. Hancock Lumber takes great pride in producing top-quality, made-in-Maine pine boards with a commitment to sustainable growth and environmentally responsible forest management. Hancock sustainably manages 12,500-plus acres of certified timberland that are open to the public for recreational use. The Eastern White Pine tree is the heart of Hancock Lumber. On average, it takes 100 years for an Eastern White Pine tree to grow to maturity. In Hancock Lumber’s 165 year history, only two harvest cycles have been completed. Plus, there’s ZERO WASTE! In their manufacturing process, the company utilizes every part of each log that is harvested; from boards for building, to chips for paper and playgrounds, and sawdust for alternative fuel that helps power its mills. Additionally, a longtime believer in tech-
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nological investments to support and grow business, Hancock invests and reinvests in its facilities and state-of-the-art equipment, and offers progressive and customer centric technology solutions for its customers. Recently, Hancock Lumber received a 2014 Best Places to Work in Maine award, large employer category. This statewide program identifies, recognizes and honors the best places of employment in Maine. Seventy Maine companies were selected this year and the rankings are determined by Best Companies Group, an independent survey group. Every day, Hancock Lumber works to foster a culture of employee engagement, constantly asking how can we improve and make Every Board Count for our customers. The company is a member of the North American Wholesale Lumber Association (NAWLA) and Northeast Lumber Manufacturers Association (NELMA). To learn more, please visit the company’s newly redesigned website at www.HancockLumber.com.
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4 FOREST PRODUCTS WEEK t Bangor Daily News Special Advertising Section t October 23, 2014
FOREST PRODUCTS WEEK t Bangor Daily News Special Advertising Section t October 23, 2014
UMaine researchers stick with cellulose nanofibrils
Developing eco-friendly adhesive, designing commercial-scale manufacturing plant Orono, Maine — University of Maine researchers have been awarded $700,000 to develop eco-friendly particleboard panels with adhesive made of cellulose nanofibrils (CNF), as well as design a commercial-scale plant to manufacture the CNF. With one $350,000 grant, UMaine scientists Mehdi Tajvidi, William Gramlich, Doug Bousfield, Doug Gardner and Mike Bilodeau, as well as John Hunt from the USDA Forest Service (USFS), are tasked with making strong, stiff and fully recyclable particleboard panels that can be used in countertops, door cores and furniture. UMaine researchers taking part in the project have areas of expertise that include forest products, chemistry and chemical and biological engineering. The adhesive in the particleboard will be made from CNF, rather than what has com-
monly been used — urea-formaldehyde. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has classified formaldehyde as a probable human carcinogen. Cellulose nanomaterials are natural structural building units from wood; they’re 1/100,000th the width of a human hair and can be used in high-value products with superior properties, including exceptional strength. “High-volume applications of cellulose nanomaterials, such as what we will be doing in this research, are a key step toward commercialization of these wonderful all-natural nanomaterials,” says Tajvidi, assistant professor of renewable nanomaterials in the School of Forest Resources. “Replacing formaldehyde-based resins with a biomaterial has always been desired and we are happy this is happening at UMaine.” University scientists say utilizing
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CNF in particleboard has considerable market promise, and optimizing both techniques and methodology are key to successful mass production and commercialization. To optimize techniques and methodology, UMaine has been awarded another $350,000 to construct a commercial-scale CNF manufacturing plant with a capacity of 2 tons per day. “This first commercial cellulose nanofibril manufacturing plant is the next phase in demonstrating the scalability of the technology,” says Bilodeau, director of the UMaine Process Development Center. “It will accelerate commercialization of CNF by making large quantities of CNF available to support the growth in application development activities.” Paperlogic, a Southworth Company, is a collaborator on the plant project. The CNF plant is slated to be built at Paper-
logic’s mill in Turners Falls, Massachusetts; it is expected to be commissioned in late 2015. Both projects are funded through P3Nano — a public-private partnership founded by the U.S. Endowment for Forestry and Communities and the USFS. Experts in business, government and academia chose to fund the UMaine proposals and seven others from 65 submissions. Carlton Owen, chair of the P3Nano Steering Committee and president of the endowment, said in addition to creating high-value products, the research could result in jobs and improve the health of forests. Federal matching funds are provided by the Forest Service’s State and Private Forestry and Research and Development branches and work is coordinated with the USFS Forest Products Laboratory.
Chadbourne Tree Farms stewardship reconized with Austin Wilkins Award Chadbourne Tree Farms LLC of Bethel recently was presented the prestigious 2014 Austin H. Wilkins Forest Stewardship Award by Gov. Paul R. LePage at the Blaine House in Augusta. The prestigious award recognizes people or organizations that stand above their peers to further forestry, forests, or forestland conservation in the state of Maine. Started by the Maine TREE Foundation in 2004, it is the only award in Maine that recognizes stewardship of the working forest. Representatives from several organizations were on hand, including the Maine TREE Foundation. “Maine’s working forests are a vital part of our past, present, and future economy,” said LePage. “I am pleased to publicly recognize Chadbourne Tree Farms for their leadership in promoting exemplary management of our working forests.” Chadbourne Tree Farms is a forest products company that has its origins in 1634 when William Chadbourne came to America from Devonshire, England under contract to build a sawmill. He built a water-powered sawmill in South Berwick, Maine that is thought to have been the first sawmill in America. Several generations have continued the family tradition, making Chadbourne Tree Farms what it is today, a producer of high quality white pine logs for sawmills and quality forest products including veneer, sawlogs and pulpwood. Chadbourne Tree Farms is a longtime MFPC member and Bob Chadbourne received the Alfred Nutting Award in 2011. “When you drive through Bethel all you can see are the Chadbourne white pines,” said MFPC Executive Director Patrick Strauch. “Chadbourne Tree Farms is a great example of forest stewardship at its best.” Walt Whitcomb, commissioner of the Department of Agriculture, Conservation and Forestry, and Sherry Huber,
executive director of the Maine TREE Foundation, also commended the Chadbourne family for their lasting impact on Maine’s forest. The DACF commissioner and the Maine TREE Foundation choose award recipients. “The Chadbourne family’s sustainable forest management, going back centuries, is an outstanding example of how the Maine forest continues to be productive,” said Whitcomb. “Chadbourne Tree Farms professionals manage both natural and planted trees to ensure a sustainable, longterm supply of quality white pine logs. Their pruning techniques have refined for decades to the produce the high quality logs sought by mills. The company also serves as an example for others providing public access to private lands for outdoor recreational opportunities like hiking, fishing, hunting, trapping and snowmobiling.” Named Maine’s forest commissioner from 1958-1972, the Austin H. Wilkins Forest Stewardship Award is the only award in Maine that recognizes stewardship of the working forest. Started by the Maine TREE Foundation in 2004, the award is given periodically, but no more than annually.
Previous Austin H. Wilkins Forest Stewardship Award Recipients: Austin H. Wilkins – 2004 Pingree Associates & Seven Islands Land Company – 2005 No award given – 2006 Sherry Huber & John Hagen – 2007 Roger Milliken Jr. & Baskahegan Company – 2008 Jensen Bissell & Baxter State Park Scientific Forest Management Area – 2009 Prentiss & Carlisle Company – 2010 Robbins Lumber Company – 2011 Robert Linkletter & the Linkletter Family – 2012 Maine Tree Farm Committee – 2013
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6 FOREST PRODUCTS WEEK t Bangor Daily News Special Advertising Section t October 23, 2014
FOREST PRODUCTS WEEK t Bangor Daily News Special Advertising Section t October 23, 2014
Project Canopy helping achieve healthy urban and community forests A collaboration between the Maine Forest Service and GrowSmart Maine, Project Canopy is Maine’s urban and community forestry program. The organization’s mission is to create and maintain healthy urban and community forests for or economic, ecological, and quality of life benefits for Mainers. Project Canopy educates people about the benefits trees provide, and how trees make people’s lives better. It connects people who have a particular expertise to people who need that expertise. It helps build bridges with town and city governments, and it knows how to communicate in a local, political environment. And just as important, Project Canopy helps people talk about success stories, so that they can find the motivation -- and inspiration -- that is crucial for developing creative, longterm community forestry programs. Project Canopy Assistance Grants are available to state, county, and municipal governments, educational institutions, and non-profit organizations for developing
and implementing community forestry projects and programs. Project Canopy, a cooperative partnership between the Department of Agriculture, Conservation, and Forestry’s Maine Forest Service and GrowSmart Maine, anticipates that $150,000 will be available in 2014 to support community forestry projects in the following categories: Planning and Education $10,000 maximum award Projects support sustainable community forestry management, and efforts to increase awareness of the benefits of trees and forests. Planting and Maintenance $8,000 maximum award Projects increase the health and livability of communities through sound tree planting and maintenance. In 2013, Project Canopy awarded $106,243 in grants -- a total of six planning and education grants and 11 tree planting and maintenance grants. The recipients were selected from a total of 27 applications, with
grant requests totaling $185,510. “Project Canopy increases community awareness of the benefits of our forests and trees and promotes community forest management practices,” Gov. Paul R. LePage said in a press release earlier this year. “It also supports Maine jobs by benefiting local landscapers, nurseries, foresters and loggers.” Maine Department of Agriculture Commissioner Walt Whitcomb noted that Project Canopy grants support important segments of the Maine economy. “In addition to the impact on the forest industry, these grants support Maine’s horticulture industry. That industry supports 7,826 jobs with a total annual economic impact of $286 million,” Whitcomb said in the same release. “Project Canopy supports and enhances economic growth and jobs in that growing segment of Maine’s economy as well.” 2013 Planning Grants were awarded to: t Androscoggin Land Trust (Canton and
Jay) - $10,000 t Lake Auburn Watershed Neighborhood Association (Auburn) - $7,230 t City of Lewiston - $10,000 t Town of Old Orchard Beach - $7,954 t Vinalhaven Land Trust (Vinalhaven) $6,850 t Town of Wilton - $2,500 2013 Planting Grants were awarded to: t Alna Volunteer Fire Department – $4,478 t Town of Camden - $8,000 t Town of Cape Elizabeth - $7,299 t Town of Houlton - $8,000 t Life Enrichment Advancing People (Farmington) - $2,500 t The Longfellow School (Portland) – $4,430 t Pleasant Hill Cemetery Association, Inc. (Freedom) - $2,822 t Town of Rockport - $4,185 t Town of Topsham - $8,000 t Town of Veazie - $4,000 t Town of Yarmouth - $7,995 To be eligible to apply for 2014 Project Canopy Assistance grants, all applicants
must attend a grant workshop prior to submitting an application (excluding previous workshop attendees). Grant workshops will be scheduled for November 2014, will be held in various locations throughout the state, and will cover topics including grant writing, project development, sustainable community forestry management, and grant administration. Grant applications are due to the Maine forest Service at 5 p.m. Friday, Dec. 19, 2014. All grants require a 50 percent match from the grant recipient in cash or in-kind services. Project Canopy is funded by the USDA Forest Service Community Forestry Assistance Program. The USDA Forest Service Urban and Community Forestry Program was authorized by the Cooperative Forestry Assistance Act of 1978 (PL95-313) and revised by the 1990 Farm Bill (PL101-624) to promote natural resource management in populated areas and improve quality of life. For complete grant application and workshop information, visit the Project Canopy website at projectcanopy.me/grants/grantapplications or contact Jan Ames Santerre at 207-287-4987 or atjan.santerre@maine.gov.
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BDN PHOTO BY GABOR DEGRE
Noah Parker (from left), 6, and twins Dominic and Zach Needham, both 8, rake mulch around one of the trees that were planted int he Veazie Community School yard in 2011 when the town received a gift of 44 trees from the Maine Forestry Program, and employees planted them on town properties including the school.
8 FOREST PRODUCTS WEEK t Bangor Daily News Special Advertising Section t October 23, 2014
FOREST PRODUCTS WEEK t Bangor Daily News Special Advertising Section t October 23, 2014
‘We need laborers’: Maine forest-products industry urging teachers to steer students its way NELL GLUCKMAN BDN STAFF
JACKMAN, Maine -- A tour bus carrying 25 teachers bounced down a dirt road into the forest, close enough to Canada that a U.S. Customs and Border Protection officer pulled it over. He explained he’s not used to seeing this type of vehicle traveling on the logging roads toward the border. After a brief explanation of what they were doing, the teachers were allowed to continue on their way, which would take them through the site of an active tree harvest, then to a sugar house and on a tour inside a mill. The July events were part of a four-day professional development workshop organized by the Maine TREE Foundation and Project Learning Tree. The idea is to enhance educators’ level of knowledge and perceptions of the forestry-products industry so they will teach their students about the industry and present it as a viable career option. “We need laborers,” Jeannot Carrier, a
BDN PHOTO BY NELL GLUCKMAN
Thomas Coleman, a forester with LandVest, gave teachers from across the state a tour of a site he was harvesting in Jackman. contractor for E.J. Carrier, told the teach- ing smart decisions about how to use the ers. “We need their hearts and their minds. trees on a particular site. He also said there’s a lack of qualified young people to We don’t need muscle anymore.” Carrier explained his company needs fill those jobs in Maine. That is where those participating in the workers with a wide range of tasks, from operating their new computer systems to workshop hope the teachers will help. Parquickly building roads and bridges to mak- ticipants will walk away with a Project
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Learning Tree curriculum that includes more than 100 lessons, contact information for the foresters, researchers and mill workers who they meet and can invite into their classrooms and, for some, video and photos of the industry in action. “Kids aren’t out in the woods enough. This is how you get them in the woods,” Cynthia Nye, a literacy specialist and curriculum integrator for the public schools in Old Orchard Beach, said. “I think field trips are the vehicle for learning. We should prepare for them a lot and not look at them as extended recess.” At the helm of the program is Sherry Huber, executive director of the Maine TREE Foundation, the nonprofit that has organized the teachers’ trip for 17 years. Huber is a former state legislator whose late husband, David Huber, was vice president of the J.M. Huber Corp., a global consumer and industrial products company. “There are a lot of stories to tell,” she said. “One of the things teachers learn right away is you don’t just go in and start cutting (trees down).”
At Frontier Forest LLC, the first stop on the teachers’ trip, Thomas Coleman, a forester with LandVest Timberland Division, explained he assesses this land acre by acre to determine which trees to cut. “In any harvest, we’re balancing the biology, the economics, personal relationships -- and the interests of the landowner are top priority,” he told the teachers, who gathered around him on a dirt road that cut through 53,000 acres of forest at various stages of harvesting. He added watershed management, road construction and simple math are important parts of his job. Susan Aygarn, a regional forest manager with LandVest, related Coleman’s presentation to the lessons teachers will be conducting in school. “When kids are struggling with math, we can put some examples in front of you about conversions,” she said. “The applications are right here in Maine. You don’t have to go out to the Amazon. We need kids with math skills.” Huber hopes teachers walk away with an “understanding of why you do certain things even though the general perception may be negative.”
When the Maine TREE Foundation began the teacher training workshops in 1998, environmental activists raised concerns about the program, saying teachers would get a one-sided account of the forest-products industry from industry professionals, according to news reports from that time. “We don’t have any kind of an agenda here except to help people get the best understanding they can of the Maine woods,” Huber said at the time of those accusations. Teachers pay $95 to attend the four-day workshop, which was hosted at the Birches Resort in Rockwood this year, but the majority of the program’s costs are covered by the Maine TREE Foundation. The nonprofit receives many donations from the forest-products industry, according to its newsletter. Bill Livingston, associate professor of forest resources at the University of Maine, said that, though the organization is not advocating for preservation of the forest, they aren’t purely pushing for the wood and paper products industries either. “They’re not out there trying to promote a specific use of the forest. They’re out there to show the range of the uses of the forest and help teachers understand that
better,” he said. “Whether that’s good or bad, that’s for people to decide.” Huber is not shy about the objectives of her organization. “Students today are not encouraged to become loggers and go into forestry because it’s not a very glamorous profession and it’s seen as dangerous,” she said. Though there are fewer workers needed in today’s economy because so much of the harvesting and processing is automated, the jobs that do exist are safer and require a higher level of skill, which means they’re better paid, she said. “It’s really about restoring manufacturing to northern Maine,” she added. That will be difficult, if projections by the state are correct. The two industries that are projected to lose the most jobs in Maine between 2010 and 2020 are paper manufacturing and wood products manufacturing, according to data from Maine’s Department of Labor. There were about 11,500 such jobs in 2010, and that number is expected to drop by more than 3,000 jobs by 2020, according to the DOL. On a tour of Moose River Lumber Co., a mill in Jackman, president Charles Lum-
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bert told the teachers the part of his mill that dries wood once needed 36 people to operate but now employs only six because a computer system does much of the work. Aygarn said though there will be fewer jobs, there will still be positions available in the industry because the workforce is aging. “Our workers are going to retire in the next 10 to 15 years,” she said. “So we need young people to come in and take their place.” In 2012, 62 percent of workers in the industry were over age 45, according to a report from the Maine Forest Products Council. The math, social studies and science teachers on the trip said the information they were gathering would give them reallife examples to use in their lessons. “I’m trying to do more with standardsbased stuff,” Pat Stanton, who teaches history at the Maranacook Community School in Readfield, said. Schools in Maine are at varying stages of transitioning to an education system that puts a premium on students’ mastery of state-determined standards. “The geography standards are so widespread and broad,” Stanton said. “This provides something to focus on.”
10 FOREST PRODUCTS WEEK t Bangor Daily News Special Advertising Section t October 23, 2014
FOREST PRODUCTS WEEK t Bangor Daily News Special Advertising Section t October 23, 2014
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12 FOREST PRODUCTS WEEK t Bangor Daily News Special Advertising Section t October 23, 2014
FOREST PRODUCTS WEEK t Bangor Daily News Special Advertising Section t October 23, 2014
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14 FOREST PRODUCTS WEEK t Bangor Daily News Special Advertising Section t October 23, 2014
FOREST PRODUCTS WEEK t Bangor Daily News Special Advertising Section t October 23, 2014
Forest products industry contributes $8 billion to Maine economy NICK SAMBIDES BDN STAFF
Maine’s forest products industry contributes $8 billion in total value to the state’s economy, including 38,789 direct and indirect jobs, the latest study commissioned by an industry advocacy group shows. According to the study released this week by the Maine Forest Products Council, the forest products sector in Maine includes businesses, organizations and individuals involved in logging and forestry, paper and related product manufacturing, sawmills and wood product manufacturing, wood furniture manufacturing, wood biomass power generation, maple syrup production and activities of the Maine Forest Service. Although some critics contend that the study paints a rosy picture of a declining industry, the study’s goal is to illustrate how the industry is still a vital player in Maine’s economy, said Roberta Scruggs, the council’s spokeswoman.
PHOTO CREDIT
A driver for Les Entreprise CNR of Quebec crosses the Priestly Bridge in T13 R14 in the North Maine Woods on a recent fall day. “All you are hearing is that there are fewer jobs,” Scruggs said Wednesday.
“That gives people the impression that the industry is shrinking or dying and that just
isn’t true.” What’s happening instead, according to the study, is that Maine’s forest industry and workers are more productive than ever, thanks partly to improved technology. Though far from booming, the industry has been generally retooling to prepare for an increase in productivity that industry workers expect will come with an improved economy, said Patrick Strauch, executive director of Maine Forest Products Council. “What we want to do is let people know that manufacturing has been part of Maine and is going to be a big part of its future,” Strauch said. “We want to attract capital to Maine to build more innovation and technology to bring more opportunities to Maine.” Lincoln Paper and Tissue LLC has installed natural gas burners. The new Great Northern Paper Co. LLC of East Millinocket is converting to natural gas. Several sawmills around Maine have added computer systems to catalog wood before it is even cut,
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Strauch said. Verso Paper is converting part of its mill to produce wholesale electricity. Old Town Fuel and Fiber is exploring a facility to produce clean cellulosic sugars and biobased ethanol. End products from this process can be used to make consumer product packaging and fuel, a company spokesman said. The technology has been lab tested with the next step being a demonstration facility. These innovations improve the amount of product and profitability the industry creates, Strauch said. The study also shows sustainable forestry is practiced on 10.3 million acres of Maine’s forests -- 59 percent of forestland in the state. The study is loaded with statistics that illustrate the industry’s potency. With $885 million in exports, the forest products industry is Maine’s top export, accounting for 28.9 percent of all state exports. One dollar out of every $16 in Maine’s gross domestic product -- the market value of all officially recognized final goods and services produced in Maine -- comes from forest products. The industry pays $302 million in taxes annually and at 5.7 percent, its average worker illness or injury rate matches
the private-sector average, the study states. Some of the numbers in the council’s study differ from a 2010 study the Maine Department of Conservation initiated. That study showed that in 2007, the forest products industry directly supported 24,000 jobs, $1.4 billion in earnings, and contributed $1.8 billion to Maine’s gross domestic product. Indirectly, the industry supported 55,000 jobs, $3.1 billion in earnings and contributed another $2.5 billion to Maine’s GDP. The recent council study shows 17,075 direct jobs, 38,789 in total direct and indirect jobs, and $1.9 billion in labor income. Scruggs and the study’s co-author, University of Maine Economics Professor Todd Gabe, said study comparisons are likely invalid because study authors don’t all use the same data in composing their studies. “It is really about how you define the forest products sector,” Gabe said. “I looked at products generated by using forest products, essentially manufacturing. I didn’t include forest-based recreation. I didn’t use it because I could not come up with a great way of estimating the size of that, but other studies might have.”
Officials at the University of Maine, the council’s board of directors and the Maine Forest Service sat on a subcommittee that set the council’s study parameters, Scruggs said. The council’s report, Gabe said, is a snapshot of the forest products industry that won’t likely make for valid comparisons determining the industry’s growth or decline unless their study methodology is repeated, perhaps in five years. “Even though this is one of Maine’s oldest industries, people don’t understand it in the same way that they used to,” Scruggs said. “There was a time where everybody who chopped wood understood it, but it is not that way anymore.” The increase in the industry’s productivity comes with a loss to local Maine economies that isn’t reflected in the state’s GDP -- namely, the industry’s significant drop in employed workers, said Joel Johnson, an economist with the Maine Center for Economic Policy. As the council’s report shows, Johnson said, Maine’s forest products industry had 27,010 workers directly employed in 2001, and 21,773 in 2007, as industry owners relied increasingly upon machine power, not
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manpower, to get the job done. “Where you used to have logging done with skidders and chain saws, now you have it done with more expensive, highly mechanized equipment that saves labor,” Johnson said. “The result of that is that the mills are generating just as much product as they used to and a lot of income for their owners.” With fewer workers employed by the industry, the industry’s effect on the state’s local economies has decreased, as fewer workers are earning and spending money in the areas in which they work, Johnson said. The GDP statistics, which measure the state’s overall production, cannot reflect this, he said. Maine’s GDP in 2012 was $46 billion, according to the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis. “On the labor side there are still good jobs in the mills and woods, but the gains from all these increases in productivity have mostly accrued to the owners of mills, not to Mainers who work in them,” Johnson said. “Anybody who lives in mill towns can explain to you pretty clearly that the mills don’t have the same impact on the local economy as they used to,” Johnson said. “That’s pretty common sense.”
16 FOREST PRODUCTS WEEK t Bangor Daily News Special Advertising Section t October 23, 2014
FOREST PRODUCTS WEEK t Bangor Daily News Special Advertising Section t October 23, 2014
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18 FOREST PRODUCTS WEEK t Bangor Daily News Special Advertising Section t October 23, 2014
FOREST PRODUCTS WEEK t Bangor Daily News Special Advertising Section t October 23, 2014
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Spruce Budworm: It’s coming and Maine wants to be ready FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS ABOUT TRAPS FOR SPRUCE BUDWORM MOTHS WHAT IS A PHEROMONE TRAP? Pheromone traps are used for sampling, monitoring or determining the first appearance of a pest in an area. Because they lure budworm moths with sex pheromones, they are highly species-specific. The traps also are reusable, relatively inexpensive (approximately $14/trap – including killing agent and lure;), and easy to place (three traps/site). They attract budworm moths even when the moths are present at very low densities. WHERE DO I GET TRAPS? MFS will provide traps at no cost to landowners.
PHOTO COURTESY USDA FOREST SERVICE
Spruce budworm larva. In an effort to ramp up monitoring efforts of spruce budworm -- one of the most destructive native insects in the northern spruce and fir forests of the Eastern United States and Canada -- the Maine Forest Service has placed about 400 traps have been in northern Maine with help from landowners and managers. With a spruce budworm outbreak expected in the next few years, the Maine Forest Service dramatically increased the number of traps set out for budworm moths this summer -- up from 100 traps in 2013. A new outbreak already has begun in Quebec, where more than 8 million acres are infested, and it is expanding south. Spruce budworm are always present in Maine’s forests, but roughly every 40 years there is a budworm population explosion, which results in serious feeding damage to Maine’s balsam fir and spruce. In the most recent epidemic, between 20 and 25 million cords of spruce and fir were killed between 1975 and 1988. The next outbreak is anticipated to perhaps not be as severe as the last, but will kill trees and reduce growth. This most recent monitoring and trapping effort covers most of the northern
third of the state, only leaving out some of the farmland on the east side and running down into Washington county. Pheromone traps have a lure based on the female spruce budworm moth scent that draws the male moths to the trap. It is a very sensitive method of trapping insects that the Maine Forest Service has been conducting since the early 90s.
WHEN WOULD I PLACE THE TRAPS? During the first three weeks of June, before the moth flight, which usually occurs from the end of June through July. WHERE AND HOW DO I PLACE TRAPS? Training will be provided, but three traps are generally placed on mature or pole-sized trees in uncut or lightly cut spruce-fir stands. HOW OFTEN WILL I NEED TO CHECK TRAPS? Although a sub set of traps may be monitored daily or weekly to check for flights, the sites surveyed by landowners need only be visited twice: once to set out the traps and once to collect the moths and retrieve the traps. WHEN DO I COLLECT THE TRAPS? From August to early October. Then you empty all three traps into a ziplock bag marked with the sample site location and send it to the MFS lab in Augusta. Keep the traps to put out next year. WHAT HAPPENS TO THE SAMPLES COLLECTED? MFS entomologists analyze the numbers and locations of moths collected to assess the budworm population and the risk to sprucefir.
Travis Duval (207) 231-1079 Fort Kent
AUBURN AUGUSTA BANGOR
Zack Frechette (207) 391-0901 Rumford
CARIBOU FALMOUTH FARMINGTON FORT FAIRFIELD FORT KENT
Pat Gaetani (207) 745-4890 Bangor
JEFFERSON MADAWASKA PITTSFIELD
WHO SHOULD I CONTACT TO PARTICIPATE OR FOR MORE INFORMATION? Charlene Donahue, 207-287-2431, Insect & Disease Laboratory, 168 State House Station, Augusta, Maine 04333.
Information courtesy of the Maine Forest Service.
PORTLAND Ed Therrien (207) 551-2048 Presque Isle
PRESQUE ISLE
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20 FOREST PRODUCTS WEEK t Bangor Daily News Special Advertising Section t October 23, 2014
FOREST PRODUCTS WEEK t Bangor Daily News Special Advertising Section t October 23, 2014
Maine Forest Products Council acknowledges outstanding industry individuals, businesses
COURTESY MAINE FOREST PRODUCTS COUNCIL
2014 Albert D. Nutting Award winner Luke Brochu
go to these meetings and speak out and be present and accounted for. And it wasn’t easy for me. It was always out of my comfort zone.” Brochu’s career began in 1981 as part owner of Stratton Lumber Company until 2004. From that time until 2013, he was preident and part owner of Pleasant River Lumber, during wich time the company acquired and restarted Crobb Box in Hancock and Lavalley Lumber in Sanford. From 199-2001, he served as president of the Maine Forest Products Council; was chairman of the Board of the Northeastern Lumber Manufacturers’ Assocation from 2005-2007; chaired the Coalition for Fair Lumber Imports from 2012-2014; is a board member and founding member of the Forest Products Trust Group; and is actively involved in missionary work in Haiti.
2014 Outstanding Logger: Richard Wing and Sons
Each year, the Maine Forest Products Council asks its members to select outstanding individuals from the forest products community. Nominees for best logger, forester, truck and manufacturer must not only excel in their professions, but they also must exert a positive impact on our industry. The following are the 2014 winners who were recognized in September at the organization’s annual meeting.
Albert D. Nutting Award: Luke Brochu In 1990, the Maine Forest Products Council established the Albert D. Nutting Award in 1990, to commemorate the many contributions to Maine Forestry that Al Nutting was instrumental in creating. He was the Director of the School of Forest Resources at the University of Maine, Maine Commissioner of Forestry, and, incidentally, one of the Founders of the Maine Forest Products Council. This award has been presented annually since 1990, to a remarkable group of individuals, each one of them truly unique, but with a common commitment to Maine and its forest industry. This year’s recipient was Luke Brochu. “I was really taken aback when I re-
COURTESY MAINE FOREST PRODUCTS COUNCIL
ing well with the landowner community and doing just generally great work.” John Emerson, a former teacher and long-time friend, then stepped up to expand on the Wings’ business principles, which he said have been handed down from father to son for several generations. “To be honest, to treat your landowners fairly, to establish a good loyal relationship with your mills and your providers, and to never forget your last name and who you are. You’re going to live in a community a long time and don’t forget it,” Emerson said. “Your name and your reputation are far more important than the money you can earn. I don’t think Richard ever forgot that. His wife worked hand in glove with him to make his business so successful. Behind every great logger is a great logger’s wife.” “Richard doesn’t advertise,” Emerson said. “Because of his reputation, he doesn’t have to. He has an unbelievable organization – clean, neat, safe respectful, great to employees and great to the people he works for. When you have Richard Wing working for you, you know you’re getting every dollar for every stick of wood that were harvested. Sustainability has been a key. The future forests of Maine will be much better and greater and much more sustainable if there are more Richard Wings working in the woods.”
2014 Outstanding Forester: Tricia Quinn, Plum Creek
Richard Wing with (from left) daughter Jennifer Connors, wife, Lynn, and son Tim.
COURTESY MAINE FOREST PRODUCTS COUNCIL
Luke and Pam Brochu ceived the phone call as to whether or not I’d be a willing recipient of this honor, of such a prestigious award,” Brochu said upon accepting the award. “I’m truly humbled. And as I look around this room I see so many familiar faces who helped me, throughout my career, find the courage to
The 2014 Outstanding Logger, Richard Wing and Sons Logging of Standish, were nominated by Winn Smith of Limington Lumber. “Their outfit was highly recommended by folks like Mike St. Peter (of Certified Logging Professionals) along with Winn Smith,” Patrick Strauch, the council’s executive director, said at the September event. “And the criteria was really based on safety, protecting the environment, great employee relations and really work-
COURTESY MAINE FOREST PRODUCTS COUNCIL
MFPC President Dick Robertson, Mark Doty, Tricia Quinn and Ben Dow. Ben Dow, resource manager at Plum Creek, stepped to the podium next and explained that choosing someone to nominate
as the year’s Outstanding Forester was very easy for him and Mark Doty, communications affairs manager. “We didn’t really have to think about it all that long,” Down said. “We looked at each other and came up with the same name at about the same time: Tricia Quinn.” “Tricia has been able to gain the respect of her peers – loggers, regulators, whoever she comes in contact with,” Dow said. “She began her career with Boise in 1990, managing the Rumford land base and she managed that same land base for multiple owners for a long time. She was able to adapt to different management styles and work with different people, and become part of a team no matter who she was working with. She came to work for Plum Creek in 2004, something that we’re very grateful for. She’s been able to add a lot of value and become a big part of our operation since that time. She began her career working out of her home in Rangeley for the company, managing our land base in western Maine and over in New Hampshire. In 2013, she was promoted to her current position of resource supervisor and today she’s responsible for the management and oversight of 200,000 acres of Plum Creek property in western Maine. It’s a big job and she’s been up to the challenge. She’s doing a fantastic job.” She also has served her country for the last 31 years, first in four years active service with the Marine Corps and since then in the National Guard where she currently holds the rank of master sergeant. She also is a great mentor for young foresters. “She’s using her experience, she’s bringing young folks into our organization fresh out of the university and she’s getting them up to speed and showing them the ropes. She has a unique style and she gains their respect almost instantly after they begin working for her,” Dow said. “This award recognizes her strong commitment to forestry and forestry principles and her contribution to the community — the forestry community in Maine as well as the communities where we all live.” Upon accepting the award, Quinn thanked her own mentors for all the help she’d received. “As a young forester starting out of Orono I was fortunate to work with a great group in the Rangeley office for Boise Cascade, and particularly Stan Bartash and
Sammie Spaulding, as my early mentors,” she said. “They taught me everything from silviculture to how to work with contractors to how with co-workers. They were there for me all the time, whenever I needed them, and that was such a gift. Now as a supervisor I have another mentor very close to me, John Ackley. And why I bring these gentlemen up is to show the importance of mentors and mentoring, both young or new or inexperienced individuals within your organization or the industry. I wouldn’t be here today without them.” She challenged others in the forest industry to pass on their experience. “Don’t hesitate. Your knowledge and your ability to pass it on to them will benefit not only you, but it will benefit them and the industry. It’s an unbelievable opportunity for both you and them.”
2014 Outstanding Trucker: Richard Carrier Trucking
COURTESY MAINE FOREST PRODUCTS COUNCIL
Jim and Andrea Carrier of Richard Carrier Trucking. Eric Dumond of ReEnergy presented the Outstanding Trucker Award to Richard Carrier Trucking of Skowhegan, saying that, “getting to know the Richard Carrier Trucking family was very enlightening. It was an education. I learned from Richard Carrier himself and from the family. They showed me the hard work that it takes to run a business – or many business that they have – the trucking, the sawmill, the chipping, the bark mulch, the lands. They treat every business that they have very personally, very sustainably and always in the back of their minds – always in the forefront really – it’s all about customer service and honesty. You don’t ever have to worry about
what the Carriers have to say. They tell you. And it’s a good thing; you never have to guess. It’s been and continues to be a privilege to know them and to work with them.”
2014 Outstanding Manufacturer: Hardwood Products
COURTESY MAINE FOREST PRODUCTS COUNCIL
Terry Young, chief operating officer; James Cartwright, vice president and one of the family owners, and Brad Deane, wood procurement manager of Hardwood Products. “It all began as the Minto Toothpick Company back in 1919 in Saginaw, Michigan, where Lloyd Cartwright began a small family business selling mint flavored toothpicks,” Gary Keene of Plum Creek began as he presented the award to this year’s Outstanding Manufacturer, Harwood Products of Guildford. Keene’s brief , but fascinating, history of the company told of its relocation to Maine in the 1920s, recovery from a devastating fire in 1958, diversification into medical and health products and successful strategy against stiff competition from China. “Hardwood Products is the only stick manufacturer left in the United States and is the only corn dog stick manufacturer in North America,” Keene said. “They continue to be run by the same family who started the business and with 410 employees they are the largest private employer in Piscataquis County and rank in the top 100 employers in the State of Maine. In 1950 their wood usage averaged 60 cords per week and today it averages 325 cords per week. That is only 41 cords of wood usage per person per year. Compare that to one of our large paper mills where they use over 1,200 cords per person per year. This is an indicator of how specialized they are and the labor intensiveness of the work that goes into their high-quality product. It is with great pleasure that I am able to award Hardwood Products with the distinction of being the Outstanding Manufacturer of the
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Year.” Terry Young, Hardwood Products’ chief operating officer, continued the story of the “Chinese invasion.” “We didn’t just roll over and wait for them to go away,” Young said. “We reinvested. We — the company and the family — spent a lot of money and we fought them and we beat them. So we’re proud. And we thank everyone here for their support. The people at Plum Creek have been a wonderful supplier of most of our wood and that’s not to slight anybody else here. With the family tradition, we’re close to 100 years here worth of business. We’ve got 400 plus people in Piscataquis County and we’re an important company and we aim to be there for a very long time. It’s our proud pleasure to accept this award and we thank everyone.”
Abby Holman Public Service Award: Maine Sen. Patrick Flood
COURTESY MAINE FOREST PRODUCTS COUNCIL
Sen. Patrick Flood and his wife, Marge Flood, at the 2014 Maine Forest Products Council annual meeting. The Abby Holman Public Service Award, presented each year by the Maine Forest Products Council to an individual (or individuals) in recognition of outstanding service on behalf of Maine’s forest products industry. This year’s recipient was Maine Sen. Patrick Flood, R-Winthrop. Award recipients must demonstrate a level of passion, loyalty, and dedication to Maine’s forest products industry, to good government, and a robust economy much the same way that our former (1998-2003) Executive Director Abigail Holman did.
22 FOREST PRODUCTS WEEK t Bangor Daily News Special Advertising Section t October 23, 2014
FOREST PRODUCTS WEEK t Bangor Daily News Special Advertising Section t October 23, 2014
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