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A Hatton-Brown Publication

Co-Publisher: David H. Ramsey Co-Publisher: David (DK) Knight Chief Operating Officer: Dianne C. Sullivan Publishing Office Street Address: 225 Hanrick Street Montgomery, AL 36104-3317 Mailing Address: P.O. Box 2268 Montgomery, AL 36102-2268 Telephone: 334.834.1170 FAX: 334.834.4525

Volume 40 • Number 7 • September 2015 Founded in 1976 • Our 416th Consecutive Issue

Renew or subscribe on the web: www.timberprocessing.com

Executive Editor David (DK) Knight Editor-in-Chief: Rich Donnell Managing Editor: Dan Shell Senior Associate Editor: David Abbott Associate Editor: Jessica Johnson Associate Editor: Jay Donnell Art Director/Prod. Manager: Cindy Segrest Ad Production Coordinator: Patti Campbell Circulation Director: Rhonda Thomas

5 6 8 16

Classified Advertising: Bridget DeVane • 334.699.7837 800.669.5613 • bdevane7@hotmail.com

Advertising Sales Representatives: Southern USA

Randy Reagor P.O. Box 2268 Montgomery, AL 36102-2268 904.393.7968 • FAX: 334.834.4525 E-mail: reagor@bellsouth.net

THE ISSUES

F.H. Stoltze Lasting Power

NEWSFEED

Softwood Lumber Issue Heats Up

SC POLE & PILING

Flexibility Is Paying Off

F.H. STOLTZE

Sawmill And Cogeneration

GRADER OPTIMIZATION

A Handful Of Key Players

SOUTHERN APPALACHIA When The Timber Industry Came In

MACHINERY ROW

Arauco’s New Technology At Horcones

COVER: SC Pole & Piling in South Carolina and F.H. Stoltze Land & Lumber in Montana each bring lots of experience to vastly different operations. PAGE 8 and Page 16. (Jay Donnell and David Abbott photos)

Midwest USA, Eastern Canada John Simmons 32 Foster Cres. Whitby, Ontario, Canada L1R 1W1 905.666.0258 • FAX: 905.666.0778 E-mail: jsimmons@idirect.com

VISIT OUR WEBSITE: www.timberprocessing.com Member Verified Audit Circulation

Western USA, Western Canada Tim Shaddick 4056 West 10th Avenue Vancouver BC Canada V6L 1Z1 604.910.1826 • FAX: 604.264.1367 E-mail: tootall1@shaw.ca International Murray Brett Aldea de las Cuevas 66, Buzon 60 03759 Benidoleig (Alicante), Spain Tel: +34 96 640 4165 • FAX: +34 96 640 4022 E-mail: murray.brett@abasol.net

Timber Processing (ISSN 0885-906X, USPS 395-850) is published 10 times annually (January/February and July/August issues are combined) by Hatton-Brown Publishers, Inc., 225 Hanrick St., Montgomery, AL 36104. Subscription Information—TP is free to qualified owners, operators, managers, purchasing agents, supervisors, foremen and other key personnel at sawmills, pallet plants, chip mills, treating plants, specialty plants, lumber finishing operations, corporate industrial woodlands officials and machinery manufacturers and distributors in the U.S. All non-qualified U.S. Subscriptions are $55 annually: $65 in Canada; $95 (Airmail) in all other countries (U.S. Funds). Single copies, $5 each; special issues, $20 (U.S. funds). Subscription Inquiries— TOLL-FREE: 800-669-5613; Fax 888-611-4525. Go to www.timberprocessing.com and click on the subscribe button to subscribe/renew via the web. All advertisements for Timber Processing magazine are accepted and published by Hatton-Brown Publishers, Inc. with the understanding that the advertiser and/or advertising agency are authorized to publish the entire contents and subject matter thereof. The advertiser and/or advertising agency will defend, indemnify and hold any claims or lawsuits for libel violations or right of privacy or publicity, plagiarism, copyright or trademark infringement and any other claims or lawsuits that may arise out of publication of such advertisement. Hatton-Brown Publishers, Inc. neither endorse nor makes any representation or guarantee as to the quality of goods and services advertised in Timber Processing. Hatton-Brown Publishers, Inc. reserves the right to reject any advertisement which it deems inappropriate. Copyright ® 2015. All rights reserved. Reproduction in whole or part without written permission is prohibited. Periodicals postage paid at Montgomery, Ala. and at additional mailing offices. Printed in U.S.A.

Postmaster: Please send address changes to Timber Processing, P.O. Box 2419, Montgomery, Alabama 36102-2419 Publications Mail Agreement No. 41359535 Return Undeliverable Canadian Addresses to PO Box 503 RPO West Beaver Creek, Richmond Hill, ON L4B 4R6 Other Hatton-Brown publications: Timber Harvesting • Southern Loggin’ Times Wood Bioenergy • Panel World • Power Equipment Trade

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THEISSUES

Rich Donnell Editor-in-Chief

HISTORY OF MONTANA OPERATION STOLTZE IS CLASSIC STUFF 8

ne of the feature stories in this issue is the F.H. Stoltze Land & Lumber sawmill operation in Columbia Falls, Montana. Our senior associate editor, David Abbott, visited the sawmill as well as the cogeneration plant that started up two years ago. What struck me early in David’s article was that a sawmill had been on site since 1923—as in 92 years. My experience with the F.H. Stoltze business dates back to late 1987, when I visited the company’s new sawmill at the time, called Stoltze-Conner, in Darby, Mont. I met with Rem Kohrt and Royce Satterlee, who were both extremely proud of the new mill, the flow of which they had sketched on the back of a napkin while attending the Portland machinery show. Timber supply issues encouraged Stoltze to sell the Darby mill in 1993. Timber access, or the lack thereof on federal government timberlands, was a problem back then, and if you read David’s article beginning on page 16, it remains a problem today for the Stoltze operation at Columbia Falls. But that’s getting away from what initially piqued my interest in David’s story, the longevity of Stoltze. Who was F. H. Stoltze anyway? Born in Wisconsin, and beginning his business career in St. Paul, Minn., Stoltze became associates with railroad man James Hill and built general stores and towns for Hill as the Great Northern Railroad stretched west into northwest Montana. Stoltze also partnered in the formation of Enterprise Lumber to build a mill west of Kalispell that provided ties and lumber to the railroad. And he formed another mill in the area called Empire Lumber. Some years before, in 1912, as Stoltze gained more and more timber leases, he formed F.H. Stoltze Land Co. The current Columbia Falls sawmill has its roots as State Lumber Co., which operated a sawmill on the Whitefish River. Stoltze apparently held interests in State Lumber as well when it shut down in 1918 and had many of its buildings moved to Halfmoon (the current mill is on Halfmoon Road). A new bunkhouse and cookhouse were built and at one time there were 32 company owned homes at Halfmoon. Construction of the sawmill at Halfmoon took five years with the first logs sawn in May 1923. State Lumber contracted with F.W. Horstkotte to build the mill with a capacity of 100MBF in an eight-hour shift for $225,000. Much of the equipment came from other mills. The mill employed about 100. Production at the planer mill began in summer 1924. Five boilers were installed, fueled by wood waste, and a waste burner, possibly the first in Montana, was installed in 1926. In 1933 State Lumber Co. was reorganized as F.H. Stoltze Land and Lumber Co., listing Halfmoon as its place of business. By then F.H. Stoltze had died at age 62 (in 1928) after failing health. His son, John Stoltze, who had been in the oil business in Louisiana, took over the lumber business, eventually assisted by son-in-law Dan O’Brien III. John Stoltze died in 1991. O’Brien passed away in 2012, and as recently as this summer his wife, one of F.H. Stoltze’s granddaughters and board member, Sallie, died at 85. Family members remain as the current owners of the company, which the company proudly proclaims on its website as the oldest family owned TP lumber company in Montana. Contact Rich Donnell, ph: 334-834-1170; fax 334-834-4525; e-mail: rich@hattonbrown.com TIMBER PROCESSING

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NEWSFEED CONIFEX BUYS FORMER GP MILL

LUMBER AGREEMENT APPEARS AT AN END

Conifex Timber Inc. of Vancouver, Canada reports it has purchased the former GeorgiaPacific sawmill and 186 acres at El Dorado, Ark. for $21 million. GP closed the mill in 2008. The company states it is completing an evaluation of an upgrade of the El Dorado mill.

JORDAN INCREASES OUTPUT CAPACITIES The Jordan Family of Companies announced increased production and drying capacity developments at its sawmills in Barnesville, Ga. and Mt. Gilead, NC. Jordan Forest Products, LLC has added a second shift to its Barnesville sawmill, which doubles sawmill production to 160MMBF per year. The operation has also purchased a new continuous dry kiln capable of drying 1.8MMBF per week. It will come on line in the first quarter of 2016, increasing drying capacity to more than 200MMBF at Barnesville. Jordan Lumber & Supply, Inc. has converted a large steam kiln to continuous drying and has another conversion package on the way at the Mt. Gilead sawmill. The conversion should be operational in the first quarter of next year. This will give the site continuous drying capacity of 170MMBF per year, pushing its total capacity including five other kilns to more than 300MMBF per year. Current annual production at Mt. Gilead is at 250MMBF. Jordan has also added a 410,000 sq. ft. value-added facility in Biscoe, NC, and is producing 45MMBF of product at the site. Additional equipment is being added, which will increase valueadded production to 69MMBF per year. 6

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The Softwood Lumber Agreement between the U.S. and Canada expires October 12, nine years after it was signed into place in 2006. Don’t expect the U.S. Lumber Coalition to push the renew-as-is button. “After careful and extensive review and analysis, the U.S. Lumber Coalition has determined that the current Softwood Lumber Agreement should not be renewed on its current terms,” comments coalition Executive Director Zoltan van Heyningen. van Heyningen says the U.S. coalition continues to urge both the U.S. and Canadian governments to engage in pro-active negotiations to bring about a “new, effective, stable and sustainable” Softwood Lumber Agreement. “The coalition has clearly communicated its position as well as proposed approaches to a new agreement to the U.S. government, and remains hopeful that the Canadian industry and government will engage in a similar comprehensive process so as to allow both governments to find long-lasting solutions in the form of a new trade agreement,” van Heyningen says. “Unfortunately, it appears that Canada has thus far rebuffed all efforts at any comprehensive discussions to finding a long-term solution in the form of a new agreement. As such, the agreement appears to be on a path to expiration. The coalition will continue to push for a government-to-government negotiation after the expiration of the agreement. Simultaneously, the coalition will ensure that it can and will file trade cases if necessary at the appropriate time as allowed under the current agreement.” The agreement in 2006 terminated collection of countervailing and antidumping duties and replaced them with Canadaimposed taxes and quantitative restrictions (quotas) on softwood lumber exports to the U.S. based on softwood lumber pricing and Canadian softwood lumber share of U.S. lumber consumption. The agreement also ended more than 20 legal disputes. For decades, elements of the U.S. softwood lumber industry have argued that Canada’s unfair lumber subsidies, primarily government-imposed cheap stumpage fees, and below cost of production lumber sales in the U.S. market have harmed the U.S. industry, its workers and suppressed the market for private timberland owners. Though the current agreement lasted nine years, the final two of which were part of an extension agreement, the U.S. coalition has had complaints about it through the years, mostly concerning alleged provincial violations of the agreement or the softness of Canada’s enforcement of the agreement. The U.S. coalition has stated that the existing agreement is out of date and is no longer effective at addressing the fundamental differences between the U.S. and Canadian industries. For example, a new agreement should address the changing cost structure of the market, according to the U.S. coalition, and it should more aptly address enforcement especially when provinces adjust policies after an agreement is implemented and claim ensuing exemption. The U.S. coalition remains hopeful, according to van Heyningen. “Our focus is to bring about true progress through government-to-government negotiations. This matter is best discussed between the governments who would, and should, negotiate such agreements.”

SUWANNEE NAMES LANGDALE AS CEO Blue Wolf Capital Partners LLC announced that its Suwannee Lumber Company LLC in Cross City, Fla. has named James Langdale as Chief Executive Officer. He succeeds Frank (Bump) Faircloth, who becomes Chairman of Suwannee’s Board of Directors. Faircloth had served as CEO of Suwannee since 1992 and oversaw the growth of Suwannee from $5 million of revenue in 1992 to more than $100 million in revenue in 2014. Langdale comes to Suwannee with more than 23 years of experience in the forest products industry. Most recently he headed a consulting business, Pannon Enterprises, LLC, specializing in forest products consulting, which he launched in 2011. While at Pannon, he acquired a shuttered, bankrupt sawmill in southeast Oklahoma, which he re-commissioned as Langdale Lumber Enterprises, LLC and sold in November 2014. Prior to that, he spent 20 years with The Langdale Company in Valdosta, Ga., where his experience ranged from entry level to vice president and included time as a director.

WEABER FAMILY BACK AT HELM Weaber, Inc. of Lebanon, Pa. reports that its President and CEO Matthew Weaber has led a recapitalization of its business which has transitioned a controlling interest in the company back to the Weaber family. The company was founded in 1941 by Walter H. Weaber. His son Galen, grew the company into one of the nation’s most respected hardwood lumber operations and was named a Timber Processing Man of the Year.

TIMBER PROCESSING

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LOGS

INTOPOLES South Carolina Pole and Piling is celebrating its 30th anniversary.

By Jay Donnell

Ongoing success of South Carolina pole operation begins in the woods.

LEESVILLE, SC ne thing that South Carolina Pole and Piling, Inc. learned from the recession is to have an operation that can adjust quickly to market opportunities. As the recession unfolded the company, unfortunately, found out it was a good barometer of the construction industry. Sales started dropping immediately in the summer of 2007 and continued to decline. Their response, instead of sticking solely with their traditional production of large white poles, was to start exporting pine logs, hardwood logs, and getting more into the small piling industry. They also became more picky in their pole sizes, finding special sizes they could move since the whole range of sizes was not moving. Today, according to owner Sam Coker, markets overall continue to come back, and the company is positioned to take advantage with improved production facilities.

BACKGROUND The pole and piling business first requires expertise in the woods, and Sam Coker brought that to the table when he founded SC Pole and Piling 30 years ago in 1985. Sam, 66, graduated from Clem8

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son University with a degree in forestry and then worked for 11 years at Southern Wood Piedmont, a subsidiary of ITT. He cruised timber and procured poles and was involved in the startup of a pole mill. He entered the business himself, purchasing land that had been the site for a sawmill, and which was on a ridge with the Sand Hills and their longleaf and slash pines to the south and the Piedmont and its healthy stands of loblolly and shortleaf pines to the north. He purchased two old pole mills from his former employee. Coker took a big risk financially, basi-

cally putting all his equity and more into the venture, when he moved his family from Augusta, Ga. to Lexington, SC. At first, the company was only producing a small number of poles, but Coker’s experience established some early momentum and today he proudly works with his sons, Hollis and Will, and an experienced employee count of 28, as they serve primarily wood preservative operations in the Eastern and Southeastern U.S. and Canada. They have 23 acres that Coker owns and leases to the company and another 53 acres for future expansion.

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OPERATIONS The company is well known, especially upstate, by timber suppliers, timber dealers and loggers. “They all know us and they’ll call us when they think they’ve got poles,” Coker says. “We go give them a price, agree on a delivered price per ton and then we’ll mark it for them. They want to deliver to us because poles usually bring the best price. They are the ‘cream of the pine timber crop.’” Coker employs three foresters who have all been with him for many years. They procure and mark poles not only for SC

Sam Coker jumped into forestry at Clemson University.

Pole log procurement is challenging and time-consuming.

Pole & Piling, but also for United Wood Treating in Whitmire, SC, of which Coker is half owner. The combined operations are marking and procuring up to 80-90 loads a week. That’s a lot of timber to cover in a week because normally they’re only pole marking 20% of the trees in a given tract of timber, and therefore having to cover considerable ground and many tracts to procure for three mills . “The name of the game is procuring the right sizes that are needed by the power companies,” Coker says, noting the power companies buy their poles

Shop-built buggy moves log into peeling machine. TIMBER PROCESSING

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Log exits peeler.

Peeler outfeed also has buggy transport.

semi-annually, annually or even with two-year and three-year contracts. They provide a range of sizes they’ll need and take bids from wood treating companies. Pole trees are all about size and quality. There are several standard pole lengths, even up to 110 ft. for the big

Poles get a closer look on the classing deck.

Two dry kilns are on site. 10

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transmission poles, and each of those have several diameter classes, which means there are a considerable number sorts at the SC Pole & Piling pole yard. The small piling market that SC Pole & Piling has enjoyed as of late requires mainly 16, 20, 25 and 30 ft. poles with 8

and 10 in. butt diameters. Coker has noticed fewer loggers in the area, but notes that most logging companies are becoming larger. “The gradual elimination of small size logging companies has hurt us because we can’t take very much high production,” Coker explains. “We get filled up real quick. If we get 100 loads ahead on the barky yard we start worrying about bugs.” He says during the warm months they have three weeks to get the bark off. Flathead borers (Pine Sawyer beetles) will get into the wood and one hole will cull a pole. “You’ve got a perishable product out there that you really have to monitor,” Coker says. “The loggers are so big now that they flood us out if they’re cutting poles,” Coker adds. “If they get cut off at sawmills or pulp mills they’re going to flood in here and it’s hard for us to regulate that. “Probably the hardest thing and what we pay the most attention to is how much material we have in each size and whether we’ve got too many barky poles and are they going to go bad on us.” The company owns one truck, primarily for going into the woods and retrieving long poles, as most loggers don’t want to haul much over 70 ft. Sometimes they’ll let a logger borrow one of their extendable 60 ft. trailers. The Leesville operation brings in an average of 58 loads per week. After the wood comes in it’s unloaded and piled with a 966 Caterpillar wheel Loader (the operation also operates prototype Cat 938 wheel loaders). Once the barky pole’s turn in the rotation comes it’s put into the big pole mill by a Volvo L90G wheel loader. The pole mill is an Efurd HD peeling machine made by Pierce Manufacturing. SC Pole & Piling has shop-built infeed and outfeed buggy transports. “It’s unlike anybody else’s,” Coker notes. They have one buggy on the infeed that’s powered and in front of it is a trough that has a chain in it and it moves at the same rate

TIMBER PROCESSING

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as the buggy and also elevates the pole to lift it up to the mill. The mill and buggy wheels are almost in tandem as they spiral the pole through the twoheaded mill. A knotter head takes most of the bark off and trims the knot swell down. The finishing head puts the smooth surface on the pole, which moves onto the outfeed buggy and is immediately dumped into a 70 ft. trough where a cutoff saw removes butt flare. Kickers push the poles onto the classing deck and three employees measure, class, and look A family affair, left to right, Will, Sam and Hollis out for defects as some poles might need to be cut back or hand barker into a pole mill. Having separate scraped. They have an overhead measur- small and large pole mills has streaming cable and the top man has to measure lined production. the top to make sure it’s big enough to In 2014 the company put in a natural make the class pole it needs to be. gas fired dry kiln made by BOLDesigns Several years ago the operation also out of Lenoir, NC. They also have an put in a small pole mill for manufacturolder Irvington-Moore (now USNR) dry ing small pilings from smaller diameter kiln that was updated with a new USNR trees. They converted a 628 Morbark de- biomass burner several years ago.

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A constant challenge is getting rid of the waste wood. About half of their waste is utilized in the biomass burner. As for their waste cutup blocks, the most economical thing they’ve found to do is simply to stockpile them at the corner of the yard and annually bring in a grinder operator to reduce them and transport the fiber. The company ships poles up and down the East Coast, from south Florida to Nova Scotia. The Canada market opened up for them right before the recession and it’s grown. “We’re trying to ship more by rail, but we don’t own a rail siding,” Coker explains, adding that a nearby NS rail service is only a block away and they’ll load about three cars per week.

LOOKING AHEAD “We’re just trying to stay ahead of the curve and keep our heads above water,”

TIMBER PROCESSING

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Coker adds. “We’re not trying to diversify too much, but I could see us sawing some pine timbers with a little sawmill for added production that could also be sold to our same treating customers. That’s a way we could expand or we could get into the bark and mulch business. However, anything we do outside of what we’re doing right now is going to take away from our time spent on doing what we do best.” Coker believes their woods expertise has been a key to their success. “You’ve got to have the expertise in the woods and we’ve probably got 80 years of combined experience in wood procurement. What’s so different about pole procurement over saw timber or pulpwood is we’re not just buying raw material (wood) that’s going to be sawed up and manufactured to size. When we’re in the woods we’re selecting quality and size standing which takes expertise.” Sam’s two sons, Will and Hollis, have worked for the business for several years and will most likely take over the company one day. Sam’s wife, Kay, does the bookkeeping for the company. Coker has been active in the wood products industry. He served as chairman of the South Carolina Forestry Assn. and

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Caterpillar wheel loaders work the log deck.

has been on the board three times. He also serves on the state board of the South Carolina Forestry Commission. The company is a member of the Southern Pressure Treaters’ Assn. and the Treated Wood Council. Coker was chairman of the biomass committee for the forestry association at

one time and looked into getting into the biomass industry. South Carolina’s power companies did not commit to it, he says. “If our power companies had committed to it, it would have been a different story,” he says. “Our state is heavily involved in nuclear power, which now has become TP the most expensive.”

TIMBER PROCESSING

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ALL

A BOARD By David Abbott

With several upgrades, longtime softwood producer sees boost in production and drying times and adds a cogen plant, while dealing with scarce timber availability.

COLUMBIA FALLS, Mont. oftwood lumber producer F.H. Stoltze Land & Lumber Co. celebrated the 100th anniversary of its incorporation in 2012, but its founder, F.H. Stoltze, actually started operations in the Flathead Valley in the 1890s. Thus, Stoltze has been in the lumber business here for parts of three separate centuries, with lumber production starting at the current site in 1923. Today, the mill turns out up to 75MMBF annually of 1 in. boards, machine stress rated (MSR) and dimension lumber. That production comes mostly from Douglas fir, western larch, spruce and lodgepole pine. Finding that raw material, however, is the greatest challenge. Not that there’s any shortage of timber; it’s just that much of it is on federal lands and is off-limits to timber harvesting operations. “Water, water, everywhere, but not a drop to drink,” laments the Ancient

Mariner in Samuel Taylor Coleridge’s poem. Lumber producers in Montana could mimic the sentiment, according to Chuck Roady, the vice president and general manager of Stoltze. “We are surrounded by a sea of trees that we can’t harvest,” he says, calling log sourcing his single greatest concern and the headache that keeps him awake at night. “Land ownership is 80% federal but if we are lucky maybe 20% of our supply comes from federal lands,” he continues. About 50% of the mill’s wood does come from government agencies, but close to half of that is state, mainly school trust lands that have been mandated to maximize and return a profit to the trusts. Stoltze does currently get about 25% of its logs from USFS land. The other 50-55% comes from privately owned timberlands—Stoltze companyowned land (39,000 acres) as well as other tree farmers and tribal lands. Competition for those logs is so great that even when the lumber market drops down, Roady says, Montana mills still pay a higher premium relative to the market price. “We have no choice if we want to continue to operate.”

Stoltze sawmill has operated at Columbia Falls since 1923.

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FIRED UP Roady is quick to point out that the harvesting restrictions on federal lands have wider repercussions than keeping him awake at night—namely, destructive insect infestations and catastrophic fires. “When we have a fire in the West now, it’s very scary,” he says. “It’s more intense, burns hotter, and the spread rate is faster. If you actively manage the forest, the fires are way less devastating and generally easier to control.” Roady, for his part, attempts to do more than just curse the darkness. “I spend about a third of my time working with forest reform legislation. We worked and worked to get the Healthy Forest Restoration Act and forestry provisions in the Farm Bill passed.” Unfortunately, he notes, the political reality is that Montana has only three electoral votes, one for each of its Congressional delegates (two senators, like all states, but only one in the House—Congressman Ryan Zinke—representing the entire state as his district). “The closest a presidential candidate ever gets to our state is at 30,000 ft.,” Roady notes. “Our Congressional delegation is very supportive of forest management and our industry, but there just aren’t enough of them,” he laments. “They get it, but on the priority chart of things in the U.S., management of our forests resources aren’t real high—at least not until you have a whole bunch of really bad fires in California or near a national park like Yosemite or Yellowstone…that’s when it makes headlines and gets the attention of people who live in urban and suburban society and Washington, DC. For people who have never seen a wall of flames come over the ridge and a towering smoke column on the wrong side of your home, it’s an instant wake-up call, that’s why the forest needs to be managed.” On the plus side, Roady says that litigation from environmental activist groups has become less prevalent, a few outliers of extremists notwithstanding. Most conservation and wildlife organizations have come to see that unmanaged forests cause wildlife to lose habitat to wildfires and damages our watersheds. Still, he admits, “Montana is probably ground zero for those outliers that continue to litigate any forest management project that harvests trees.”

Comact small log primary breakdown line and big log carriage side produce cants for curve-sawing gang.

MILLING PROCESS The green end of the mill is divided into a small log side processing 4-17 in. diameters and a large log side ➤ 48

BEFORE YOU LEAVE THIS PAGE! Be aware that while this article jumps to page 48, a related article on the new Stoltze cogeneration plant begins on page 18. You wouldn’t want to miss it.

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POWER PLAY IS A WIN-WIN

fter several years of studies and analysis, Stoltze management decided to build a cogeneration plant in 2011. There were two main reasons that drove this decision. First, the boilers that were used to produce steam for the dry kilns needed to be replaced. (The old riveted outdated boilers, built in 1909, continued in use until the cogeneration project was completed in 2013.) Second, the mill needed an outlet for its residual products. “This would kill two birds with one stone,” VP and GM Chuck Roady says. “Adding a power turbine gave us a way to generate cash flow and a payback on the system.” The primary use for the system is to heat the dry kilns; second, to heat the facility buildings during winters; and third, to turn the turbine. By December 2011, Stoltze had signed contracts with the Flathead Electric Cooperative and Bonneville Power Administration for a 20-year power purchase agreement. The mill also contracted Wellons, Inc. to build a turnkey boiler power plant with machine centers. Stoltze and other subcontractors built the fuel conveyor systems outside the cogen footprint to connect it to the planer and sawmill. The project broke ground in June 2012. The system began making steam in May 2013, and took over providing steam to the kilns from the old boilers, which were then demolished to make way for the completion of the new conveyor system for the cogen. The turbine was commissioned August 9, followed by two more months of further testing and tweaking. Commercial power generation started on October 1, 2013, in accordance with the power purchase agreement.

“The sweet spot is in the 20-25 MW range, in terms of ROI on the cost per megawatt to build a wood biomass power plant, but we simply couldn’t sell the power,” Roady says. The basic infrastructure necessary, he explains, is largely the same whether it’s 2 MW or 22 MW. Stoltze ultimately opted to generate less power than it could have easily produced from available fuel sources. “In Montana, we have very limited transmission capacity. We could have sold the power outside the state, but we couldn’t get it there. We ended up selling a much smaller amount of power to a local cooperative system (Flathead Electric Cooperative) and have become very good partners. In the end we simply had to tone our project (the power generation and boilers) way down.” The purchase agreement is for an annual average 2.5 MW/hr. for 8,400 hours or 350 days a year. The Flathead Electric Co-op utilizes about 170 MW of power in its distribution system, according to Power Plant Manager Bryan O’Connor. “So we are a small slice of their total portfolio, but our power is good PR for them. They get to use locally generated green renewable energy. It’s a mutually beneficial arrangement.” After researching the options, Stoltze opted to go with a single cell Wellons boiler, Dresser-Rand extraction turbine with a nameplate rating of 2.5 MW, and a Toyo Denki Power Systems generator with a maximum capability rating of 3.75 MW. “It’s been quite an experience, especially for a company our size and in an area where there hadn’t been any of these built in conjunction with a sawmill facility,” Roady reflects. “It was quite a learn-

Power Plant Manager Bryan O’Connor, left, and Stoltze VP and GM Chuck Roady 18

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ing curve. Everything we did was new, not only for Stoltze, but to the consultants, engineers and everybody else involved in the planning and construction.” Of course, it was never going to be as simple as just installing a new boiler. “When you build anything like this, your grandfathering for permits and technology goes out the window,” Roady notes. “You have to buy the best available technology to meet all current standards.” The old boiler system, built over a century ago, had no emissions controls that would have met today’s specifications.

Hog fuel is stored in two silos.

Being located near Glacier National Park, Stoltze is in a very strict air quality zone, so a high tech air emission system was necessary. “When the machinery is all operating properly, 99.9% of all particulate is trapped,” O’Connor says. The plant uses a dry ESP (electrostatic precipitator) with a series of 60,000 volts DC plates to remove particulate matter before the exhaust exits the stack. “That’s why our (DEQ—Montana Department of Environmental Quality) air permit went through so easily; they knew the system we have works.” Roady adds that the entire permitting process went smoothly. “The state of Montana worked with us from start to finish. Quite frankly, they wanted one of these facilities to be built in Montana too.” The environmental impact is seen as a net positive. In fact, O’Connor says, not only the state government but the public supported the installation of the plant. “When we built it we had zero opposition from the public. We are on the border of Columbia Falls and Whitefish; both cities were extremely supportive. We had no public outcry at public comment meetings.” ➤ 20

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Inside the furnace

Toyo Denki generator

18 ➤ Roady says that the local people get it and understand the value of the timber resource. “They know we need to manage the forest. We are good stewards of our company and state owned timberlands, but very much need the federal lands to be actively managed also. The general public would much rather see us burn wood waste in a high tech energy plant than seeing and breathing the smoke in the air from wildfires.” O’Connor adds, “In our cogen plant we are burning material that, if it burns in the woods, 100% of that residual goes out into the air, and there is no emission control in a forest fire. Here at our facility the emissions are next to nothing.” The public support is earned; Stoltze maintains an open door policy on its timberlands, and regularly hosts tours of its facilities for visitors. “We have a very good relationship with the community and are continually working on our public outreach here,” O’Connor says. “Paul McKenzie, our resource manager, and our forestry department are very active in the community and spend a lot of

time educating the public about what we do and proper forestry practices.” As far as fuel supply, Stoltze generates 60-70% of its needs from its own sawmill residuals. The plant has two fuel silos: one for planer shavings and one for hog fuel. Stoltze utilizes all its bark, and in the winter mixes in a portion of its planer shavings. “That helps with moisture content,” O’Connor explains. “We have wet bark in the spring and fall, so we like to use those planer shavings to get our aggregate moisture content down to where we can burn more efficiently.” They buy the balance of fuel from several local sources—small post/pole and pulp companies, among others. The mill has also developed a trade relationship with the local county landfill. Stoltze receives hog fuel ground up from brush, trees and stumps brought in from residential and municipal properties and in exchange the county takes the ash from the Stoltze boiler to utilize as a cover agent in their landfill. “They like our ash because they spread it on the

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landfill to help break down the trash and garbage, then they extract methane gas off the bottom of the landfill.” The landfill in turn burns that methane in a small gas turbine to generate electricity that also feeds the local electric grid. “The key is that you cannot haul fuel very far,” Roady says, adding that most residual byproducts—chips, sawdust and shavings—all have a higher value if sold in other forms than burned in a boiler. Stoltze sells its sawdust and chips to Plum Creek’s MDF facility in Columbia Falls and its shavings to Roseburg Forest Products in Missoula. One of the requirements for the power plant is a series of trip protection devices (TPD). If there is a problem internally at Stoltze or from outside their system—such as a lightning storm or a power outage—then the Flathead Co-op can externally trip the Stoltze generator. It also protects Stoltze internally. “Those TPDs were huge cost factors in building our plant that we were not aware were coming,” Roady says. “It was an eye opener, because these TPDs all have to have fiber optic communication that can send signals in a fraction of a second, faster than the blink of an eye, and it is very expensive technology.” One of the worst events for a boiler is to run out of water, so the cogen plant has a primary and a secondary source of water feeding a 5,000 gallon makeup tank. The mill received DNRC (MT Dept. of Natural Resources and Conservation) permits for a deepwater well, plus the creek that runs through their property, which is the cogen plant’s primary and secondary sources of water. The well is much deeper than most domestic systems. The plant can also use water from Trumbull Creek as a backup water source if there is a problem with the well or a loss of power. A reverse osmosis and softener system treats up to 13 million gallons of water per year to supply the boiler. Multimedia filters can treat up to 46 million gallons of water per year to supply the cooling tower and other plant load needs. The plant employs several water recycle and reuse methods to conserve on consumption and wastewater production. It will be a few years before the $20+ million investment will be paid off. Though the cogen would have paid for itself faster if they could have sold more megawatts from a larger system, Roady says the management team is very pleased with how it all turned out. “It makes our kilns and our lumber drying process super efficient, so the end result was a win-win for Stoltze.” TP

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MAKING

THEGRADE Surviving suppliers of downstream lumber grading optimization are a competitive mix. Autolog Offers New Knot Detection

Autolog ProGrader features new technologies.

Autolog’s ProGrader linear planer optimizer is a complete optimization system for automatic lumber grading. It is placed just after the planer and allows replacing a part or all of the positions of the traditional graders. This equipment is reliable, constant and fast, allowing many clients to benefit from a return on investment in less than a year. Autolog is continuously investing in the development of new and innovative technologies and is proud to present its new knot identification technology based on the detection of the wood fiber orientation. This new TBS-2 sensor uses a dual laser technology to maximize tracheid data collection for high accuracy knot detection. The first laser emits a series of dots which are spaced at ¼ in. and the second laser emits a solid line spaced at ½ in. from the dotted line. The first laser line provides information on the direction of the fiber and the second laser line provides information on the dispersion of light in the fiber. By combining this data, they are able to identify knots with a very high level of accuracy and with virtually no false detection. This new sensor is the first in a new series that can operate up to 4000 FPM (available by the end of this year). The operating 22

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speed of the sensor allows readings at 1⁄8 in. (0.125 in.) at 4000 FPM. They can also take readings at 1⁄10 in. (0.100 in.) at 3000 FPM or less. Stay tuned for more news from Autolog with regards to its new UV code printer, available soon. Autolog offers a wide range of products and solutions, from the sawmill to the planer mill, for both softwood and hardwood as well as customized control systems. Visit autolog.com.

Comact Marks 10th Year Of GradExpert

Comact is approaching 100 sales of its GradExpert.

Ten years ago Resolute Forest Products in Thunder Bay (Canada) started running the very first Comact GradExpert. The GradExpert is an automated grader made to optimize geometric and vision defects found in boards without any human intervention. This breakthrough in the field of optimization has created a new trend for grading lumber in planer mills and has substantially increased corresponding profitability. Comact has sold 93 GradExpert systems in North America. Worm-eaten pitch detection is among Comact’s new features for 2015. This type of defect is found mostly in the Southern U.S. where worms attack wood fiber. In order to counter the injuries caused by these parasites, the tree secretes resin and thus creates the worm-eaten pitch. This defect comes in various forms and is forbidden in some grades while being limited in others. An algorithm has been developed in order to properly detect this defect and optimize it according to the grades defined in the user’s interface. Comact has also developed an end camera which is now an integral part of all the systems it sells. The end camera takes a picture of the piece before it enters the GradExpert. From the picture thus taken, the software identifies some defects, such as decay, cracks and paint marks, besides analyzing growth rings in order to

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pinpoint pith position, which can be located either inside or outside the piece and adjusts knot calculations accordingly. Technology used by Comact has evolved tremendously over the last 10 years. For Comact, it is of the utmost importance to pursue technological innovations and remain at the forefront of the industry for planer optimization systems. The company’s R&D department is currently testing new, state-of-the-art technology. Remember to watch for the upcoming launch of a new generation of GradExpert. Visit comact.com.

Lucidyne Maximizes Fiber, Value Recovery Lucidyne Technologies has become an industry leader in lumber scanning by consistently incorporating technological advances that maximize fiber and value recovery for final grading. The Lucidyne GradeScan system uses a proprietary set of sensors that collect data linearly on all four faces of the board. It features unmatched color detection, identification of fiber inside the board (including slope of grain and grain distortion), and a patented T3 that identifies decay. Lucidyne’s exclusive license Dielectric technology means that it is the only company using Dielectric for density detection. GradeScan also finds timber breaks and cross breaks, sees knots behind blue stain, and identifies star check—but with detail that literally goes beyond the surfaLucidyne emphasizes benefits of ce. For example, it’s not just GradeScan lineal method. the size of a knot that’s measured, but also its quality: pitted, loose, decayed, checked—all required considerations for manufacturing products like decking. Lucidyne recognizes that not every mill needs this powerful array of sensors, but because its results are superior to what would be realized with a less robust set of sensors, even mills producing one product or just a few grades will see greater benefits using a Lucidyne GradeScan. Once a board’s characteristics are identified, GradeScan’s powerful optimizer takes over to maximize fiber and value recovery. The user interface is intuitive and interactive, so your staff will be using GradeScan productively from day one. And, when you’re positioning to expand into new markets, new grades and new species, additional in-depth tools are available to help. Lucidyne’s GradeScan is a lineal scanner, an orientation that creates notable advantages. First and foremost, its footprint is impressively small—it fits behind the planer in just inches of space. Secondly, lineal design uses just one set of sensors, so when it’s time to change or upgrade sensors, only one set is required; and a lineal scanner can integrate with other sensors such as MSR, lineal moisture and CLT. Lineal scanning also has the added advantage of looking at fiber in the same direction as the fiber is running, which provides a greater level of accuracy. Further, the GradeScan enclosure is pressurized and temperature-controlled,

and the compact system won’t expand or contract as temperatures change, so the measurement stays accurate. Lineal scanning also results in the most accurate warp detection. Lucidyne’s warp detection system measures the board’s crook, twist and bow when it is in its natural, relaxed state. Because the system doesn’t artificially constrain the board, the resultant measurement is highly accurate. To ensure that the correct solution is matched to each board, Lucidyne’s patented True-Q board tracking system identifies each board by its unique “fiberprint.” Without making marks of any kind on the board, each board is automatically matched to its correct solution before reaching the trimmer. At Lucidyne, everyone is committed to one thing: final grading of lumber. “We don’t build planers, or saws, or trimmers—our sole focus and dedication is premier, reliable, and efficient lumber scanning and optimization,” the company states. The Lucidyne service team is available 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Visit lucidyne.com.

New Orders For USNR’s High Graders

USNR’s THG at Urufor’s solid wood manufacturing plant in Uruguay

Urufor has invested in USNR’s Transverse High Grader (THG) for the green trimmer line at its manufacturing plant in Uruguay. The system provides automated grading of green mill products derived from high value, Eucalyptus Grandis prune logs. USNR is pleased to be a part of this important project, and expresses its appreciation to Urufor for its confidence in USNR and in its technology. USNR’s versatile auto-grading solution, the Transverse High Grader (THG), can be configured for automated planer mill applications grading dry lumber, as well as grading green flitches and boards in the sawmill. Orders are streaming in for USNR’s visionbased grading technology for the green mill. Urufor joins a growing list of customers around the world that are adding this advanced technology to their lines, including recent projects with Pukepine Sawmills, Craigpine Timber, Hyne Timber, Chugoku Lumber, Stoneyhurst Sawmilling, AKD Softwoods, Kiwi Lumber, and Tenon Limited. A producer in the Pacific Northwest U.S. has ordered USNR’s Lineal High Grader (LHG) for grading Douglas fir. The unit replaces a competitor’s system. The LHG employs dense laser profile data, X-ray data, and HD vision data, and through DataFusion it detects and classifies a wide range of defects for highly accurate grade extraction. The recently launched Grade Projector assists the process by clearly projecting the grade and trim locations on each board, with no marking required. USNR’s THG and LHG deliver proven defect detection that meets strength grading requirements in kiln-dried lumber applications. DataFusion integrates multiple sensing technologies like GrainMap, color vision, and laser profiles, to ensure preciTIMBER PROCESSING

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se and consistent grading solutions. USNR auto-grading solutions consistently deliver grading decisions that are accurate and repeatable. Visit USNR.com.

VAB Solutions Teams With Baxley In South VAB Solutions and Baxley Equipment announce an exclusive agreement that will see Baxley Equipment promote the grader optimizer manufactured by VAB Solutions for the southern yellow pine market. “We are very proud to be associated with Baxley Equipment,” says Jean Berube, president of VAB Solutions situated near Quebec City. “This agreement will allow the positioning and representation of our planer mill grader optimizer in the South with the assistance of a very successful and reputable company.” For more than 27 years the team at Baxley Equipment, located in Hot Springs, Ark., has been active in the lumber industry, manufacturing and providing high performance products and a high level of service. Chris Raybon, vice-president at Baxley Equipment, considers this agreement as a perfect fit and a great complement to the planer mill equipment that Baxley offers: “It will allow us to provide our customers with a planer grader optimizer manufactured by an innovative group that has conquered a large segment of the Canadian market in recent years.” Pierre Compagna, VAB Solutions U.S. sales manager, recently announced that the VAB-Baxley association had already produced results, with the first sale of a grader optimizer in the South going to Chips Inc., a SYP producer in Troy, Va. “We thank Clark and Dicky at Chips Inc. for choosing our system and look

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forward to a fruitful relationship,” comments Compagna. “Our equipment is at the cutting edge of vision technology,” adds Marc Voyer, vice president and general manager of VAB Solutions. “Chips’ system includes a vision module that uses our Twin Tracheid Technology for unsurpassed dimensional precision and knot detection. It is high tech but yet simple. The system uses only four computers and can be operated by the head grader with no need for a full time computer wiz.” Pat Conry, Baxley vice-president, announced that the integration of the VAB grader optimizer comes with the installation of a new Baxley dual fence system. “The combination of our dual fence system with the VAB grader optimizer is easily integrated to the planer outfeed and bin system we previously installed at Chips.” At the time of publishing the system was in the startup phase. Visit vab-solutions.com and baxleyequipment.com TP

VAB Solutions grader optimizer is represented by Baxley Equipment.

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CHANGING

LANDSCAPE Logging crew and fit team of oxen take a rest on uphill skid trail in the heavily timbered mountains near Tallulah Falls, Ga. in the early 20th century. (Photo courtesy Forest History Society, Durham, NC)

eginning during the 1880s, the Southern Appalachian mountains became the scene of a major logging boom that continued until the 1920s. It was begun and sponsored almost wholly with capital from outside the region. Within four decades, the logging boom dramatically altered the land ownership pattern and influenced the economic and social structure of the Southern mountains. In addition, large-scale logging caused extensive damage to the mountain environment, and drew the attention of conservationists in the region and in Washington, DC. A movement to secure the protection of the Southern Appalachian forests in national parks or national forests helped lead to the passage of the Weeks Act in 1911, and with that, the federal government came to the region as a major holder and manager of land.

LOGGING GROWTH The logging industry started gradually, with scattered investments. In the early 1880s Alexander A. Arthur arrived in Newport, Tenn., and purchased 10 square miles of forestland for the Scottish Carolina Timber and Land Co. With funds supplied by backers in Glasgow and in Cape Town, South Africa, he constructed a sawmill at Newport and built a huge boom across the Pigeon River above the town. French Canadian loggers and rivermen came to eastern Tennessee for this enterprise. For three years the operation was successful; however, in 1886 a storm flooded the Pigeon River, broke the boom, and swept away hundreds of ash, cherry, oak and yellow poplar logs, and the company closed for lack of additional capital. Though this first major venture failed, others were not deterred. H.N. Saxton, an Englishman, organized the Sevierville Lumber Co. in the late 1880s and later started Saxton and Co., a firm exporting hardwoods to Europe. As the forests of the Northeast and the upper Midwest were depleted, more and more Northern lumber companies came to the Southern Appala-

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In east Tennessee, Little River Lumber Co. had settlements at Townsend, Elkmont and Tremont.

chians. Speculators came also to take advantage of the rich resources and low land costs. Businesses were organized for the explicit purpose of buying land and timber. In the 1890s timber speculators began in earnest, and an astonishing number of timber companies moved into the Southern mountains. In North Carolina, Unaka Timber Co. of Knoxville, Tenn. was active in Buncombe, Mitchell, Madison and Yancey counties, while Crosby Lumber Co. from Michigan operated in Graham County. In 1894 Foreign Hardwood Log Co. of New York and the Dickson-Mason Lumber Co. of Illinois made extensive purchases in Swain County. Tuckaseigie Lumber Co. purchased 75,000 acres of land in Macon, Jackson, and Swain counties. Other firms included Toxaway Tanning Co., Gloucester Lumber Co., Brevard Tanning Co., Asheville Lumber and Manufacturing Co., and Asheville French Broad Lumber Co. After 1900 Montvale Lumber Co., Bemis Lumber Co., and Kitchen Lumber Co. bought large tracts in the North Carolina Great Smokies. The largest NC firms were Champion Fibre Co., which came from Ohio to Canton, NC, in 1905, and William Ritter Lumber Co. from West Virginia. The Ritter firm, the largest lumber company in the Southern Appalachians, owned almost 200,000 acres of land in North Carolina alone. New timber companies also acquired land and timber rights in eastern Kentucky, eastern Tennessee, and northern Georgia. The Burt-Brabb and SwannDay lumber companies, early developers in eastern Kentucky, were followed by Kentucky River Hardwood Lumber Co., which at one point owned over 30,000 acres. Watson G. Caudill operated a lumber company that was active in several counties. However, it was not until William Ritter Co. moved in that truly

extensive and long-term operations began in the eastern counties of the state. The Ritter companies were so large and enterprising that they built their own railroads after the Norfolk and Western Railroad refused to construct lines needed for their business. Ritter also purchased acreage in the mountains of eastern Tennessee. The Little River Lumber Co. became a major landowner in the Great Smoky Mountains, with more than 86,000 acres near Clingman’s Dome. Norwood Lumber Co., Vestal Lumber and Manufacturing Co., and Pennsylvania-based Babcock Lumber Co. also bought land in eastern Tennessee. Gennett Lumber Co., organized in Nashville in 1901, speculated in land and timber in Tennessee, South Carolina, Georgia and North Carolina for most of the 20th century. Gennett was one of the most prominent in northern Georgia, along with PfisterVogel Land and Leather Co. of Milwaukee, which actively purchased land there after 1903, for about $2 an acre.

CHEAP TIMBERLANDS Prices paid by the timber companies for land in the Southern mountains were astonishingly low. The agents of Northern and foreign firms found a people unaccustomed to dealing in cash and unfamiliar with timber and mineral rights and deeds. The companies bought up huge tracts of land for small sums. When local opposition to such purchases began to develop, they switched to buying only timber or coal rights. Some lumber companies even purchased selected trees. The mountaineer, offered more cash than he had seen before in one transaction, found it difficult to refuse an offer, especially since he usually had no idea of the fair value of the land or timber. Enormous yellow poplars and stands of white

and red oak and black cherry were sold for 40 to 75 cents a tree. Ronald D. Eller told how much Appalachian mountain land was acquired: “The first timber and mineral buyers who rode into the mountains were commonly greeted with hospitality by local residents. Strangers were few in the remote hollows, and a traveler offered the opportunity for conversation and a change from the rhythms of daily life. The land agent’s routine was simple. Riding horseback into the countryside he would search the coves and creek banks for valuable timber stands or coal outcroppings, and having found his objective, he would approach the cabin of the unsuspecting farmer. The farmer’s cordial greeting was usually followed by an invitation to share the family’s meal and rude accommodations for the night. “After dinner, while entertaining the family with news of the outside world, the traveler would casually produce a bag of coins and offer to purchase a tract of “unused ridgeland” which he had noticed while journeying through the area. Such an offer was hard to refuse in most rural areas, where hard money was scarce, life was difficult, and opportunities few.” Thus the money often provided a welcome opportunity for a family to leave a farm that had been worn out for years. In northern Georgia especially, the farm population was greater than the land could reasonably support, and people sold willingly. In other areas, people were more reluctant to sell to outsiders. Some unscrupulous firms enlisted the aid of local merchants, who would make purchases for ‘dummy’ corporations. Sometimes land with inexact or missing titles was simply taken from the mountaineers, who often had failed to obtain formal title to their land. This ‘unclaimed’ land could be taken by anyone TIMBER PROCESSING

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willing to stake a claim, survey the land, and pay a fee to the state. Other claims were clouded, or not properly surveyed. In some counties, courthouse records had been destroyed by fire, creating uncertainty about ownership. Thus, a timber company could move into an area, conduct its own surveys, and file claim for lands that the mountaineer had long used and thought were his. Litigation was expensive and time-consuming; most residents had neither the sophistication nor the resources to carry a case through court proceedings. In Kentucky, the state legislature passed an act in 1906 that permitted speculators who had held claims and had paid property taxes for five years to take such property from previous claimants who had not paid taxes. Thus, rising property taxes created by speculation worked to the advantage of the corporation and against the original claimant, who probably paid low taxes to start with and could not afford an increase. These processes were gradual, but they marked the beginning of the disestablishment of the mountaineer, and further alteration of the mountain economy. Once the land was acquired, timber companies often did not cut the timber immediately. Most of the Pfister-Vogel lands of northern Georgia were never harvested by the firm. The Gennett brothers bought and sold land for decades, cutting over parts, and waiting for good or better lumber prices on others. Cataloochia Lumber Co. lands in

Tennessee were sold to Pigeon River Lumber Co. and in turn were bought by Champion Lumber Co. The firm of William Whitmer and Sons purchased tracts in North Carolina that it deeded to Whitmer-Parsons Pulp and Lumber Co., which later sold them to Suncrest Lumber Co., a Whitmer-backed operation. Other outside firms bought land, timber, or mineral rights for speculation, or for possible use. For example, the Gennetts bought an 11,000 acre tract from the Tennessee Iron and Coal Co.; the Consolidation Coal Co. owned vast tracts in Kentucky, and employed a forester to manage those lands. At one point, Fordson Coal Co., a subsidiary of the Ford Motor Co., owned about half of Leslie County, Ky. and several land development companies purchased extensively in the mountains of northern Georgia. Such speculation was to inflate the value of all land in the region, as illustrated in the following comments by a Forest Service purchasing agent who came to the Southern Appalachians in 1912: “This is a virgin timber county (the Nantahala purchase area) and about three years ago the big lumber companies, seeing their present supplies in other regions running low, came in here and quietly bought up large ‘key’ areas of timberland. They are now holding these at prices which are more nearly compared with lands in regions where railroad development is more favorable. The withdrawal of these large bodies has en-

RITTER LED LARGE LUMBER ENTITY William McClellan Ritter (February 19 1864-May 21 1952), born in Lycoming County, Pa., was one of West Virginia’s most prominent lumbermen. Having learned the lumber business on his father’s farm, he began a logging operation in Mercer County in 1890. He was successful and, in addition to harvesting timber for others, soon set up his own mills. His operations included Mercer, McDowell and Mingo counties, as well as Buchanan County, Va. and Pike County, Ky. Ritter incorporated the W.M. Ritter Lumber Co. in 1901 and expanded his operations into Tennessee and the Carolinas. During World War I Ritter moved his W.M. Ritter primary residence from Welch to Washington, where he served on the War Industries Board as an adviser to Chairman Bernard Baruch. In addition to his lumber interests, Ritter owned and operated coal companies and railroads in Virginia and West Virginia. In 1907, the W. M. Ritter Lumber Co. was indicted by a federal grand jury on a charge of peonage. Ritter, on behalf of his company, entered a guilty plea and paid a fine. Ritter’s later life was spent in Washington, from where he directed his many business interests. In 1924, he made national headlines by sharing $3 million in Ritter company stock with his employees. 28

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hanced the value of the smaller tracts.” Between 1890 and World War I, a great deal of timber was cut on purchased lands, and the economic impact was felt throughout the southern mountains. The years 1907 to 1910 were the years of peak activity. Throughout the region, lumber production rose from 800MMBF in 1899 to more than 900MMBF in 1907. In 1910, the number of lumber mills in Georgia reached almost 2,000; a decade later it had fallen to under 700. Individual tracts yielded vast quantities of lumber. For example, in 1909 a 20,000-acre tract in the Big Sandy Basin produced 40MMBF of yellow poplar, while in 1912, the mountains around Looking Glass Rock in North Carolina yielded 40MBF of yellow poplar per acre.

FARMING UPENDED The social and economic impact of the logging boom on the people of the Southern Appalachians was lasting. For decades small firms and individuals had engaged in selective cutting throughout the region without appreciably changing the economy, structure of the labor force, or size of the forests. Now, within a decade or two, the land ownership pattern of the Southern mountains changed drastically. As mountain lands were sold to the timber interests, farms and settlements were abandoned. Ron Eller wrote: “Whereas mountain society in the 1880s had been characterized by a diffuse pattern of open-country agricultural settlements located primarily in the fertile valleys and plateaus, by the turn of the century the population had begun to shift into non-agricultural areas and to concentrate around centers of industrial growth.” By 1910, vast tracts of mountain land, which had previously been held by privately scattered farmers, had fallen into the hands of absentee landowners, and towns were becoming important centers of population. Although some mountaineers remained on the land as tenants, sharecroppers, caretakers, or squatters, many were displaced. The changing pattern of land ownership was reflected in changes in population and acreage devoted to farming. The population growth of some counties slowed considerably—a few actually lost population. For example, Macon and Graham counties in North Carolina, which had grown at a rate faster than the state between 1880 and 1900, experienced almost no growth between 1900 and 1910. Over the same decade, Georgia’s Rabun and Union counties lost

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Splash dams were commonly erected on waterways in the mountains to facilitate the movement of logs to downstream sawmills. Typically made of log cribs filled with stones and fitted with wide gates, the dams held stored logs in ponds. This dam was located on Big Creek in Pisgah Forest near George Vanderbilt’s Biltmore Estate, Asheville, NC. (Photo courtesy Forest History Society, Durham, NC

11.5% and 18.4% of their populations, respectively. Similarly, both the number of farms and farm acreage declined in areas where heavy outside investment had occurred. Between 1900 and 1910, in the counties of extreme northern Georgia,

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southwestern North Carolina and southeastern Tennessee, the number of acres in farms dropped roughly 20%. As the timber companies moved into the region, numerous logging camps and mill towns were established, absorbing

the mountain people who had sold their lands and attracting outsiders eager to benefit from the logging boom. In 1910 alone hundreds of company towns were established in the region. Most of theses became permanent parts of the landscape.

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Logging settlements and mill towns circled the Great Smokies and included Fontana, Bryson City, and Ravensford, NC; and Rittertown, Gatlinburg, Elkmont, and Townsend, Tenn. By 1911 Tellico Plains, Tenn., with a population of about 2,000, discovered itself a busy little city, boosted by the heavy demand for the area’s timber. Perhaps the most famous mill town was Canton, NC, created by Champion Fibre Co. Having bought timberlands along the Pigeon River, the company in 1905 built a large flume from the site to

the town, about 15 miles away. Carl Schenck wrote about the operation some years later: “At the upper inlet of the flume a snug village with a church and a school was planned. The whole scheme was the most gigantic enterprise which western North Carolina had seen.” Numerous temporary logging camps were established to shelter thousands of timber company employees and many of these flourished for several years before being abandoned. Although the lumber companies employed local men, they also imported crews from the North and

Once the land was acquired, timber companies often did not cut the timber immediately. Most of the Pfister-Vogel lands of northern Georgia were never harvested by the firm. The Gennett brothers bought and sold land for decades, cutting over parts, and waiting for good or better lumber prices on others. overseas, sometimes hundreds of laborers at one time from their camps in Pennsylvania, New York or Michigan. A logistical network of support personnel was needed to maintain a lumber camp; thus, building and servicing the camps provided labor for many mountain families. Local men also lived in the logging camps for a few weeks or months at a time while maintaining the family farm. For several years, lumbering provided steady, dependable employment for thousands of mountaineers. For this reason, although logging helped to disestablish the mountaineer, its social impact was not nearly so destructive as that of coal mining. The southern mountaineer could work in lumbering without relinquishing his life to the company employing him; many of the lumber camps were never intended to be permanent and did not demand that a laborer give up his home for work. Thus, the immediate effects of lumbering were not especially destructive. In many respects the operations suited already established work habits. Nor were wasteful methods likely to disturb a people who traditionally viewed the forests as a barrier to be destroyed whenever the need for farmland demanded. Nevertheless, in bringing industrial capitalism and absentee landownership to the Southern Appalachians, the lumber boom altered the region’s economy, and made a lasting mark upon its landscape. TP This article was sourced from the U.S. Forest Service archives, and appeared in affiliate publication, Southern Loggin’ Times.

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MACHINERYROW Arauco Classifies Logs For Lumber And Plywood To increase yield and add value, Arauco decided three years ago to install a Microtec CT Log scanner at the log merchandising station of its Horcones, Chile sawmill and plywood mill complex. The high-speed 360° X-ray scanning optimization system uses advanced algorithms to reconstruct a high resolution 3D dimensional volume image of the logs. Since September 2012, according to the participants, Arauco has used the Microtec CT Log system to scan more than 5,000 logs with a length of 5.3 m each day. The CT Log scanner has worked at full speed in the harsh sawmill environment with a minimum of downtime and maintenance. All of the critical components in the scanner are proving to last much longer than originally anticipated, resulting in much lower than expected maintenance costs. “The CT Log scans each log and calculates the volume of the log regarding the clear wood and the yield of the final product. Once the logs are scanned and

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Logs enter scanning system at Arauco facility.

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MACHINERYROW

Pieces advance from two bucking lines to a single conveyor for bin sorting.

classified, they are directed either to plywood manufacturing or the sawmill. This way it is possible to get the most out of each log,” explains Ramón Figueroa, plant manager at Arauco Horcones. After scanning and optimization, the logs are bucked and transported to multiple sorting bins. The system is able to precisely detect the knotty core diameter. The yield of knot free veneer is increased not only by better sorting, but by optimizing the centering position in the peeling machine. For sawmill products, CT Log recognizes the precise 3D internal shape of the heartwood, discolorations, mechanical damage, and differences in density, shape and position of knots. By considering all of these internal features in the sawing process, sawing is optimized based on the final quality and real value of the boards, rather than simply their volume. The technology of being able to see inside the log prior to breakdown and make decisions based on the internal information overcomes one of the major optimization hurdles in wood processing, according to Microtec. In 2006 Bosques Arauco and Bioforest began work on a visionary project to find a system able to detect all the defects and inner characteristics of a log before processing. As the project developed, it became clear that the computed tomography of CT Log made this possible. Arauco evolved to be one of the major forestry companies in Chile and Latin America by taking advantage of the size and quality of the Radiata Pine plantation forests common in the area. Microtec and Arauco have enjoyed a valuable partnership. At the Horcones site, Microtec delivered all of the measuring systems for the log yard from bucking and log sorting through to the optimization. In addition, all production process controls and automation were provided by Microtec, as well as all raw material processing TP for the sawmill and plywood mill. Article supplied by Microtec. 38

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MACHINERYROW Stenner Reports MHS10 Contract With Thomson

brication system for the band saws and pulleys. The MHS10s have been sold to UK company Thomson Sawmills and both Brian and Jamie Thomson visited the stand to give their machines the “once over.” The contract covers a total of nine Stenner saw units and is part of a major investment at the Norwich site. Also on display was the latest in the range of single stand alone 36 in. resaws. The ST100R is part of a family of machines that stretches Stenner stand and happy customers at Ligna show. back over 50 years. Several orders were secured on the stand. Stenner’s MHS horizontal band saw range has been its core business for LIMAB Takes more than 25 years with more than 900 Next Step units sold worldwide. During Ligna 2015 in May, the latest design for the The Swedish based company LIMAB, MHS10 was showcased with new featu- established in 1979, is one of the piores that include non-tilting overhead fe- neers in non-contact laser measurement, edworks and a setting system that conwith sensor development, engineering, trols the height and angles of the saws design and manufacturing all done inat the touch of a single button. Also fehouse. LIMAB has developed several inatured was the relatively new spray lunovative measurement solutions for the

LIMAB trimmer optimization

wood industry, including more complex systems such as its BoardProfiler and LogProfiler for optimization of boards and logs. A steady market growth and an increased demand for better process control and quality from end users forced LIMAB to find more adapted facilities for both development and production. Systems for larger dimensions can now be produced at the new assembly area. LIMAB’s non-contact dimensional measuring systems are well known by sawmills, planing mills and the wood industry to optimize the process and improve production yield. Its new transversal and lineal 3D systems includes five major product launches for different applications. Visit limab.com.

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ATLARGE Proposed Pellet Mill Now Has Plant Site PHI Group reports it has completed the acquisition of 10 acres from Klausner Holding for the Cornerstone Biomass Corp. 200,000 metric ton wood pellet project in Live Oak, Suwannee County, Fla. The parcel of land is adjacent Klausner Lumber One sawmill, which is expected to be a primary source of feed-

stock for the pellet mill. PHI Group is in the process of raising $60 million and plans to use a portion of the proceeds for the Cornerstone Biomass project. Cornerstone Biomass appears to be a joint venture between PHI Group and AG Materials, LLC. Earlier in the year they reported they had been able to secure more than 400,000 tons of southern yellow pine feedstock per year. The ven-

ture also indicated it was in the process of purchasing machinery, including PM30 pellet machines manufactured by Andritz Group.

Van Horn Joins Baxley Holdings Tom Van Horn has accepted the position of Capital Sales Account Manager for Baxley Holdings. Van Horn has worked in the sawmill industry for more than 23 years, starting with HEMCO as a field service technician in 1992. He moved to Hi-Tech Engineering as field service technician and PLC programmer. In 2004 he went to work for well known southern pine lumber producer, Jordan Lumber Company. At Jordan he filled many key roles ranging from technology manager, capital projects manager and operations manager during his 11 years there. Van Horn’s extensive background in PLCs and real world mill experience is a huge asset and will help Baxley Equipment/Price LogPro communicate with their customers.

Suwannee Lumber Sets Up Mulch Operation Suwannee Lumber Company LLC has set up shop on 20 acres in northwestern Suwannee County, Fla. with a new pine mulch operation, Suwannee Lumber Bark. The operation comes with a $2 million capital investment and an initial two to four new jobs, according to Suwannee Lumber Vice President Brian Faircloth. The site is adjacent the Klausner Lumber One sawmill. Suwannee Lumber Bark will use Klausner’s screened bark byproduct to make bark fines, mini nugget and large nugget pine mulch. They have already begun collecting inventory and installing equipment. (suwanneedemocrat.com)

Homan Picked For BioPreferred Homan Industries, Homan Forest, and Tri State Lumber have been selected to participate in the U.S. Dept. of Agriculture’s (USDA) BioPeferred program. The process includes an audit of manufacturing process and laboratory testing of products to ensure they meet the established biobased standard. Products approved under the program for Homan Industries, Homan 44

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ATLARGE Forest Products, and Tri State Lumber include: southern yellow pine lumber; SYP wood chips; SYP pine bark mulch; SYP lumber treated CCA; and SYP lumber treated micronized copper. The goal of the BioPreferred program is to increase the purchase and use of biobased products. The BioPreferred program was created by the 2002 Farm Bill and reauthorized and expanded as part of the Agricultural Act of 2014 (the 2014 Farm Bill). The program’s purpose is to spur economic development, create jobs and provide new markets for farm commodities. Homan Industries is located in Fulton, Miss.

Hurst Boiler Founder Gene Hurst Dies Clifton Eugene (Gene) Hurst, founder of the Hurst Boiler & Welding Company, Coolidge, Ga., died peacefully on July 22. He was 79. An entrepreneur, skilled engineer, and devoted family man, Hurst is remem-

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bered for his kindness, dedication, vision and inexhaustible will. Not only did he grow Hurst Boiler into one of the world’s leading boiler companies, but he helped to transform the boiler industry through Gene Hurst innovation. “We lost one of the greatest men to ever live, a man adored by many, a man of true character, a man that meant so much to so many...my hero, best friend and my grandfather,” says Chad Fletcher, Hurst’s grandson and Hurst Boiler’s Director of Aftermarket Parts and Sales. Hurst started his family business in 1967 with his wife Edna in a shop behind their home in Thomasville, Ga. He moved the business to its present location in Coolidge in 1970, where the company today successfully manufactures a full line of solid waste, wood, gas, coal and oil fired steam and hot water boilers and related equipment in a 314,000 sq. ft. manufacturing facility on 17 acres.

Forty-eight years later, the business Gene began remains in the family, currently under the direction of the Hurst children: Tommy, Hayward, Teri and Jeff. It is the largest employer in the area, maintaining more than 350 employees at full production capacity. Hurst attributed his success to his faith, his family’s support, and the dedication of the Hurst Boiler team and customers. “Anyone who knew him, in whatever capacity, would certainly agree he was a kind, humble and inspiring individual who cared deeply for his family and the people who worked for him,” says Jeff Hurst, Gene’s youngest son and Hurst Boiler’s Director of Marketing. In 2007 he was awarded the Thomasville-Thomas County Chamber of Commerce Lifetime Achievement Award for his dedication to his community. A memorial service was held July 26 at The Gathering Church in Thomasville. The family requests a donation be made in lieu of flowers to the Lives Without Limits organization: www.liveswithoutlimitsga.org.

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Stoltze maintains a larger log carriage side.

17 ➤ handling up to 46 in diameter logs. A Nicholson A5B tandem ring debarker is the first step for logs entering the small side, with a Forano debarker on the large log side. The small log side uses a Comact fully optimized twin band as its primary breakdown. Installed in 2004, the Comact’s two band saws and two chipper heads reduce each log to two- or foursided cants. The big log side uses a single cut optimized headrig on a Corley carriage with Lewis Controls optimization. “We get just enough big logs to operate it, but we don’t get enough to operate it full time,” Roady says. Currently the big log side runs at about two-thirds capacity while the small log side runs a shift and a half at 50 hours a week; the large log side runs just one shift. Cants from both sides merge downstream at a CAE Newnes/USNR curvesawing gang. Lumber from the gang saw proceeds to Klamath edgers then to a Hi-Tech/Comact trimmer line. A recently added new Comact lug loader sped up production by 3,000 feet per hour, from 18,000 FPH to 21,000, depending on what product and species is being produced. “If we are cutting 2 inch dimension, it’s faster,” Roady explains. “If it is 1 inch boards of spruce or lodgepole, then it is slower.” From the trimmer, boards proceed to a Lumber Systems, Inc. stacker and 26 bin sorter. “You are only as fast and efficient in a mill as the next slowest thing,” Roady notes. With that in mind, the next big investment on the budget for Stoltze is a new stacker and 10-14 more sorting bins on the green end. “We want to facilitate better, more even drying and to change the outfeed direction of the stacker. We are simply waiting for the market to improve to justify the investment.” Stoltze is currently considering bids from USNR and Comact.

DRYING PROCESS “Drying times in our part of the country is almost seasonal,” Roady reveals. “If it’s 30 below and there are several

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feet of snow, wood doesn’t dry a lot sitting out there waiting to go to the kiln. In the summer months when it is 90 degrees with little humidity, you can almost get to our target moisture content before it ever goes in the kiln.” Stoltze has four double-track dry kilns, three from Wellons and one IrvingtonMoore (USNR), with 100,000 ft. capacity each. All control systems on the kilns are by Wellons. Roady says the mill’s recent

investment in cross ventilation fans has made drying tremendously more efficient. “It saves probably 20-25% on drying time,” he figures. “It was quite an expensive investment, but it saves in drying time and (allows) a more even drying of the lumber. There is another advantage in that the very middle of the lumber unit dries the same as the outside, so you aren’t over-drying the ends.” Stoltze has a long tradition of staying up-to-date on technology, however it is expensive to do so. “You have to legitimize that you will get enough return on investment to pay for any improvement in a relatively short time period.” He in-

dicates that the combination of a more efficient boiler system (see sidebar) and the cross ventilation fans has been well worth the cost. Drying time has improved by as much as 25%, according to the kiln supervisor, Will Wood, and Plant Manager Trevor Kjensrud.

PLANER MILL/MSR In the planer mill, a pair of 16-knife units—Stetson Ross and a Yates-American—handle the duties. “We have the ability to do 28 different patterns with our 1 inch boards, if we were to get a special order.” Roady says. They use

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Feeding the planer mill

Graders stay on top of multiple products.

manual grading because they make such a wide gamut of products. “I think eventually we will go to automatic grading, but we have been waiting for it to be perfected for just what we need, and I think they are getting close,” Roady says. “If all we processed was dimension or studs, we probably would have already gone to automated grading, but as is we have too many grades, species and products.” A Lucidyne grademark reader follows the grading station and then to a LSI trimmer line. Dried, planed, graded lumber moves to a LSI 30 bin sorter. After the planer comes the Metriguard MSR (machine stress rated) machine. MSR lumber has long been a Stoltze staple. “There’s a definite advantage of being located in the inner mountain area, where our trees don’t grow quite as fast,” Roady explains. “The growth rings are a little tighter, the wood is denser and stronger, so a very high percentage of our wood rates out as machine stress rated at the higher end, and that helps us in the market place.” The MSR products are popular across the northern tier of the U.S., in earthquake zones, and specifically for use in trusses and joists that have to be able to bear a heavy snow load. “They can grow the tree three times as fast on the west side of the Cascades and in the South, but it might have a fraction of the percentage of MSR that we have be- ➤ 53 50

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WOOD PRODUCTS marketplace NORTH AMERICA ■ United States

■ Kentucky HAROLD WHITE LUMBER, INC. MANUFACTURER OF FINE APPALACHIAN HARDWOODS

(606) 784-7573 • Fax: (606) 784-2624 www.haroldwhitelumber.com

■ Florida CRACKER SAWMILL CYPRESS AND SYP Sawmill, Drying and MillIng facility Custom Cut to Order Lumber, Cants, Specialty Beams to 44’ We will Mill Log Home logs S4S 6”x6” thru 8”x12” T&G Your wood or ours WE DO WHAT OTHERS CANNOT 20253 N.E. 20th Street Williston, Fl 32690 www.Crackersawmill.com Info@Crackersawmill.com

Ray White

Domestic & Export Sales rwhite@haroldwhitelumber.com

Green & Kiln Dried, On-Site Export Prep & Loading Complete millworks facility, molding, milling & fingerjoint line

■ Minnesota

Buyers & Wholesalers We produce quality 4/4 - 8/4 Appalachian hardwoods • Red Oak, White Oak, Poplar •

Green Lumber: Air Dried, Kiln Dried Timbers & Crossties • Hickory, Sycamore, Beech, Gum & Elm • Custom Cut Timbers: Long lengths and wide widths

Sales/Service: 336-746-5419

336-746-6177 (Fax) • www.kepleyfrank.com

WANT TO GET YOUR AD IN OUR NEXT MARKETPLACE? Call or email Melissa McKenzie 334-834-1170 melissa@hattonbrown.com

(352) 529-2070

■ Tennessee

■ Georgia

STACKING STICKS

Beasley Forest Products, Inc.

FOR SALE

P.O. Box 788 Hazlehurst, GA 31539

AIR-O-FLOW profiled & FLAT sticks available Imported & Domestic

beasleyforestproducts.com Manufactures Kiln-Dried 4/4 Red and White Oak, Poplar, Ash and Cypress Contact: Linwood Truitt Phone (912) 253-9000 / Fax: (912) 375-9541 linwood.truitt@beasleyforestproducts.com

Pallet components, X-ties, Timbers and Crane Mats Contact: Ray Turner Phone (912) 253-9001 / Fax: (912) 375-9541 ray.turner@beasleyforestproducts.com

■ North Carolina

DHM Company - Troy, TN 38260 731-538-2722 Fax: 707-982-7689 email: kelvin@kilnsticks.com www.KILNSTICKS.com

Cook Brothers Lumber Co., Inc.

■ Virginia

■ Indiana

Producing Quality Southern Yellow Pine Since 1939

Manufacturer of Appalachian Hardwood Lumber LEONARD COOK, Sales (828) 524-4857 • cell: (828) 342-0997 residential: (828) 369-7740 P.O. Box 699 • Frankin, NC 28744 NATIONAL HARDWOOD LUMBER ASSOCIATION

P.O. BOX 25 • 628 Jeb Stuart Highway Red Oak, VA 23964 Tel: 434-735-8151 • Fax: 434-735-8152 E-mail Sales: john@morganlumber.com Website: www.morganlumber.com Product Mix: ALL KD, HT STAMPED

Next closing: Jan. 5, 2016

1x4 D&BETTER, 1x6 D&BETTER, 1x4 #2, 1x6 #2, 1x4 #3/#4, 1x6 #3/#4, 5/4x6 PREMIUM, 5/4x6 STANDARD, 5/4x6 #2/#3/#4,

08/15

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Call Toll-Free: 1-800-669-5613

EMPLOYMENTOPPORTUNITIES

In keeping with the company’s strategy of expanding its U.S. footprint, the BID Group of Companies is recruiting for a Vice President, Business Development USA

JOB OPPORTUNITIES SALES REPRESENTATIVE

Lucidyne Technologies is expanding its sales team. The ideal candidate will have strong technical aptitude, experience with the wood product industry, and outstanding oral and written communication skills. Based in Corvallis, Oregon the position requires up to 50% travel time. We are looking for someone who will contribute to our company goals and add to the positive momentum of our team. Apply online at http://www.lucidyne.com/company/ career-opportunities/sales-representative

CONTROL SYSTEMS ENGINEER

Lucidyne Technologies is hiring a Control Systems Engineer with the primary responsibility of designing, developing, and implementing lumber sorter control systems that are sold in conjunction with our scanning systems. A degree in Engineering and/or Computer Science, plus experience with ControlLogix PLC programming, networking, and basic electronics skills are required, with a commitment to understanding customers’ needs and providing the functionality to match. Experience with lumber mills and grading a plus. Travel approximately 25%. Apply online at ttp://www.lucidyne.com/ company/career-opportunities/controlsystems-engineer

This position will be instrumental in working with all of the business units in developing a comprehensive plan to further support and grow our valued customer base. You will have experience in the sawmill industry and the mobility to interface with current and potential customers. Your hands on approach will be valued in enabling complete customer solutions including a full turnkey service. The position will be located in the historic Charleston, South Carolina area where the company owns a 40 acre compound with multiple manufacturing and administration facilities. All enquiries to Brian Fehr-Chairman BID Group Brian.Fehr@bidgroup.ca About the BID Group of Companies. The privately owned BID Group family of companies has over 30 years of experience in providing industry leading solutions for its highly valued customers. Powered by Comact, PHL, Deltech, SEC, Miller Planers, and BID Group Construction, the group of companies provides innovative, efficient and reliable equipment to exceed its customers' expectations. Its ability to provide a turnkey solution that includes engineering, project management, installation, startup, and after sales service furthers the BID Group's strategic value to its customers. The company has offices in fourteen locations across continental North America. Learn more about the BID Group on www.bidgroup.ca. 3208

FOREST PRODUCTS RECRUITING SINCE 1978

The Jobs You Want — The People You Need WWW.SEARCHNA.COM

& ASSOCIATES, INC Contingency or Retainer

Depending on Circumstances / Needs

“Your Success Is Our Business” Serving the Wood Products and Building Materials Industries For more than 21 years.

Toll Free 1-800-536-3884 www.johngandee.com Austin, Texas

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Specializing in confidential career opportunities in the Forest Products industry

Management Recruiters of Houston Northeast

Gates Copeland 281-359-7940 • fax 866-253-7032

298

3779

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JOHN GANDEE

CONTACT CARL JANSEN AT 541-593-2777 OR Carlj@SearchNA.com

Michael Strickland & Associates, LLC Executive Recruiters Wood Products/Building Materials Industries Mike Strickland mike@woodproductjobs.com 601-529-2157 • www.woodproductjobs.com

SEPTEMBER 2015

Executive – Managerial – Technical - Sales

IT'S YOUR MOVE...

Lucidyne Technologies is seeking a Scanner Specialist who can work with high technology equipment, and our internal teams and our customers. Must have a two year technical degree with an emphasis on electronics, computer science, mechatronics, or networking, good logical sense, outstanding personal and communication skills, and fluency in English. Lumber and quality control a plus. Apply online at http://www.lucidyne.com/company/ career-opportunities/scanner-specialist

■

Recruiting Services

gcopeland@mrihouston.com • www.mrihouston.com

SCANNER SPECIALIST

13148

SEARCH NORTH AMERICA, INC. 1615

Technologies, Inc.

2200

Lucidyne

Fees paid by employer

8187

Top Wood Jobs Recruiting and Staffing George Meek geo@TopWoodJobs.com www.TopWoodJobs.com (541) 954-8456

13046

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Call Toll-Free: 1-800-669-5613

LUMBERWORKS ■ LUMBERWORKS GREENWOOD KILN STICKS Importers and Distributors of Tropical Hardwood Kiln Sticks 127

“The lowest cost per cycle” GW Industries www.gwi.us.com

Dennis Krueger 866-771-5040

Jackie Paolo 866-504-9095

d.krueger11@frontier.net

jackie@gwi.us.com

PROFESSIONALSERVICES WORN OR MISALIGNED CARRIAGE RAILS?

1248

A Proven Process

50 ➤ cause of our trees. That’s a huge thing for us at Stoltze. We are blessed in northwest Montana from the standpoint of multiple species and strong wood, if we can just get to cut the trees we need.” Stoltze added a new Metriguard model a little over a year ago. The MSR product has helped to keep lumber moving in slow markets, Roady reports.

MARKETS “All these huge housing starts and this super cycle that were predicted, never did quite happen,” Roady notes. As of mid-July, Roady reported that lumber sales over the summer had not been bad, but he was not overly optimistic that the market would improve very much. “I don’t think it will go down significantly, but I don’t think it will get a lot better, either.” One concern: the influx of competing products from his neighbors to the north. “We see locally a lot of lumber coming from Canada—as many as 3040 rail cars of Canadian lumber pass by the mill daily. They cut the same products from the same species we do. I think the softwood lumber agreement, which expires in October, is pretty critical for U.S. companies—especially in a

• Rails straightened & ground in-place at a fraction of the cost of rail replacement • No down time for the mill • Restores carriage rails to optimum sawing efﬁciency •Precision Laser Alignment • Machining and Grinding • Carriage and Bandmill Alignment 489

limited market. In a good market, nobody pays attention.” Export has become a small, but important piece of the Stoltze pie. Export products from many Western U.S. and Canadian companies go from the port of Vancouver, BC to Asian markets, leaving a higher percentage of the domestic market open for companies like Stoltze. In the past Stoltze has sent some high grade western larch to Italy, but that market is currently limited due to recession and currency issues in Europe, Roady says. Any product bound for export has to be heat treated in the kilns for a sustained temperature of 140° F for a minimum of one to two hours to kill all microorganisms. Stoltze uses Western Wood Products Assn. (WWPA) in Portland as its grading service. “They come out and check all of our grading and MSR ratings about once a month to ensure each grader is on spec and that the lumber is dried and milled properly,” Roady explains. “It is important from the quality control aspect, because the first thing many of our customers ask, who is your grading service?” According to Roady, the most important asset at Stoltze is their hard-working dedicated employees. Stoltze em-

Stoltze operates four kilns.

Lumber heads into a lukewarm market.

ploys 120, offering them a very generous benefits package with the company paying about 90% of their premiums for their Blue Cross Blue Shield health inTP surance program. TIMBER PROCESSING

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MAINEVENTS 9-12—FMC China 2015: Furniture Manufacturing & Supply, Shanghai World Expo Exhibition & Convention Center, Shanghai, China. Call +86-21-64371178; visit expo.fmcchina.com.cn. 10-12—Lake States Logging & Heavy Equipment Expo, UP Fairgrounds, Escanaba, Mich. Call 715-282-5828; fax 715-2824941; visit timberpa.com. 13-15—Alabama Forestry Assn. annual meeting, Perdido Beach Resort, Orange Beach, Ala. Call 334-265-8733; visit alaforestry.org. 14-15—39th Annual Lumber Quality & Process Control Workshop, College of Forestry, OSU, Corvallis, Ore. Call 800-6786311; visit blogs.oregonstate.edu/lumberquality2015.

18-19—Western Saw Filers Educational Association Annual Workshop and Conference, Monarch Hotel and Conference, Portland, Ore. Email westwm@chwa.com; visit westernsawfilers.org. 18-19—Kentucky Wood Expo, Masterson Station Park, Lexington, Ky. Call 502-695-3979; visit kfia.org.

OCTOBER 2-4—Ohio Forestry Assn. Paul Bunyan Show, Guernsey Co. Fairgrounds, Cambridge, Ohio. Visit ohioforest.org. 7-9—North Carolina Forestry Assn. annual meeting, Marriot Resort Spa at Grande Dunes, Myrtle Beach, SC. Call 919-8343943; visit ncforestry.org. 7-9—Southern Forest Products Assn. annual meeting, Marriott Grande Dunes Resort & Spa, Myrtle Beach, SC. Call 504-4434464; visit sfpa.org. 7-9—National Hardwood Lumber Assn. Annual Convention & Exhibit Showcase, Omni Hotel, Nashville, Tenn. Call 901-3771818; visit nhla.com. 12-13—27th Annual WMI Workshop on Design, Operation and Maintenance of Saws and Knives, Holiday Inn, Portland Airport, Portland, Ore. Call 925-943-5240; visit woodmachining.com.

NOVEMBER 3-5—97th Annual Railway Tie Assn. Symposium and Technical Conference, Marriott Starr Pass Resort and Spa Tucson, Ariz. Call 770-460-5553; visit rta.org. 5-6—Mid America Lumbermens Assn. annual meeting, Hilton Promenade at Branson Landing, Branson, Mo. Call 800-7476529; visit themla.com. 6-8—Arkansas Forestry Assn. annual meeting, Arlington Hotel, Hot Springs, Ark. Call 501-374-2441; visit arkforests.org. 54

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24-27—Woodex, 14th International Exhibition of Machines, Equipment and Technologies for Logging, Woodworking and Furniture Production, Crocus Expo, Moscow, Russia. Visit woodexpo.ru.

APRIL 2016 5-6—Bioenergy Fuels & Products Conference & Expo, Omni Hotel at CNN Center, Atlanta, Ga. Call 334-834-1170; e-mail dianne@hattonbrown.com; visit bioenergyshow.com. Listings are submitted months in advance. Always verify dates and locations with contacts prior to making plans to attend.

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16-17—29th Annual Lumber Quality Leadership Workshop, College of Forestry, OSU, Corvallis, Ore. Call 800-678-6311; visit blogs.oregonstate.edu/lumberquality2015.

11-13—South Carolina Forestry Assn. annual meeting, Marriot Resort at Grande Dunes, Myrtle Beach, SC. Call 803-798-4170; visit scforestry.org.

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SEPTEMBER

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