Tag: lumber

Forest Facts: Rural Communities Benefit from Sustainable Forestry Industry

Posted on by Jeff Easterling

Sustainable forestry industry

Sustainable forestry is helping to create and preserve jobs and diversify economies in rural communities that have been hit hard by the recession, or have a high concentration of poverty. In forested areas all over the nation, tax credits combined with 21st-century methods of harvesting, moving and processing timber are improving the quality of life for local residents. The boom comes courtesy, in large part, of New Market Tax Credits, a federal program that aims to spur revitalization efforts in low-income and impoverished communities.

This program provides tax credit incentives to people and companies who invest in certain types of projects in low-income communities. Many of these companies are creating green jobs in struggling timber communities. The nonprofit organization Ecotrust reports that qualifying projects have included the re-opening of a closed plastic-wood composite manufacturing plant in Washington, construct a new wood biomass plant in Oregon and restore vast tracts of forest in the Northwest.

In Berlin, New Hampshire, the Burgess Biomass Plant recently received its first delivery of sustainably harvested wood. Built on the site of a defunct paper mill, the plant will produce 75 megawatts of power, sustain 40 jobs in management and plant operations, and create hundreds more jobs in the harvesting and transporting of the wood.

Another recipient of the New Market Tax Credits, the Appalachian Mountain Club (AMC), used funds for the Maine Woods Initiative to encourage nature-based tourism, creating jobs in forestry while also encouraging a ripple effect in the local economy from visitors who come to enjoy the beauty of nature in the area.

Image: wikimedia commons

Wood Biomass: Renewable Power from Logging Waste

Posted on by Jeff Easterling

Waste Wood Biomass

Have you ever thought about all of the scraps of wood that are produced as a byproduct of the lumber industry? Once harvested wood is cut and milled, there’s a lot of bark, sawdust and other forms of wood left behind. In the past, much of that wood was simply wasted, but today – with the rise of biomass as a form of renewable energy – it’s helping to power our world in a way that’s far better for the environment and our health than the burning of fossil fuels.

Sustainable biomass is a critical component of a clean energy future. There’s a wide range of biomass resources, ranging from wood waste sourced from the logging and paper industries to crops like switchgrass and even chicken litter. In addition to industry waste wood, which still makes up the majority of biomass burned for power in the United States, energy can be produced from the combustion of forest wood and woody residue.

According to the U.S. Forest Service, thinning out small-diameter and dead trees from overcrowded forests and harvesting the byproducts of forest management (limbs, needles, leaves, etc.) not only improves the health of the trees left behind in the forest, it’s also a valuable opportunity to reduce our dependence on fossil fuels and our greenhouse gas emissions.

Biomass is considered renewable because the carbon stored within trees and released back into the atmosphere remains the same, whether the trees are burned or left to decompose in the natural cycle. If new trees are planted as quickly as the harvested ones are burned, the carbon cycle is balanced. The key to keeping this process sustainable is planting trees for biomass on otherwise unproductive land, or only using byproducts of forest management, rather than cutting down forests specifically for biomass.

Biomass is converted to power in a variety of ways, including direct combustion, in which it is burned to create steam and turn turbines, and co-firing, a process in which it is mixed with coal. Learn more about the technicalities of how biomass works at the Union of Concerned Scientists.

Photo: Wikimedia Commons

This Week in Wood: Maine Firm Makes a Splash with Underwater Log Flooring

Posted on by Jeff Easterling

Reclaimed Underwater Wood Flooring 1

A century or more after they sunk to the bottom of Quakish Lake in Millinocket, Maine during transport to a nearby paper mill, submerged logs are brought to the surface and transformed into new products, including Eastern White Pine flooring. Maine Heritage Timber Company discovered a trove of logs estimated at an astonishing 700,000 to 1 million cords stacked in the bottom of the 1,000-acre lake. That’s enough to harvest for around 20 years, according to company co-founder Steve Sanders.

The lake is located along the west branch of the Penobscot River, which was a highway for delivering wood to mills throughout the rich history of Maine’s historic lumber industry. While being transported, some were naturally lost to the water, sunken and long forgotten. While Maine Heritage Timber Company initially reclaimed the old logs for use as pulp in biomass boilers, they’ve discovered a use that preserves the wood’s heritage.

Reclaimed Underwater Wood Flooring 2

“The waters of the Penobscot River have protected the timber from deterioration and ingrained the wood with an amazing assortment of grays, blues, and reds,” says Sanders. “Cut by hand, this lumber has characteristics found in no other wood.”

The company glues layers of the lake-salvaged wood to a thin layer of Baltic birch to create an engineered flooring product. They’ll harvest about 12,000 tons of the submerged wood this year to create this flooring for lines like Penobscot, made of Eastern White Pine, and the 1899 Collection, made of red oak and yellow birch.

Read more about how the wood is harvested and treated at MaineBiz.

The Pine Tree State: A History of Lumber in Maine

Posted on by Jeff Easterling

Maine Pine TreeThe towering Eastern White Pines of Maine, stretching up to two hundred feet into the sky, were an incredible sight for Europeans arriving for the first time in what would later become New England. Maine is now known as the Pine Tree State, and has taken the Eastern White Pine as its state tree (and even the White Pine Cone and Tassel as its flower, even though it’s not technically a flower.) This tree has played a major role in Maine history, from the very first days of colonization to the modern era.

Those tall trees were in such great demand, they played a role in sparking the Revolutionary War. Their trunks were ideal for use as masts in large seafaring vessels, and while Colonists depended on them to build their own ships and architecture, Great Britain began to claim the largest and strongest for its own ships. The conflict led to an incident known as ‘The Pine Tree Riot,’ one of the first real acts of rebellion against British rule.

Before it was settled, Maine was covered in forests, but colonists quickly began clearing large tracts of land for homes and farms, and to use the wood. The first sawmills of Maine were reportedly established in the early 1630s, and the lumber industry was in full swing by mid-century. By 1682, there were 24 sawmills operating in what is now Kittery, Wells and Portland.

By the 19th century, Bangor was the lumber capital of the world, home to over 300 sawmills. The Penobscot River played a large role in the industry, allowing loggers to send large logs from the northern Maine woods to Bangor, where they were processed. Today, the North Woods are a beautiful 10.4-million-acre undeveloped forest offering recreational opportunities for Mainers as well as visitors from all over the world.

It may seem, with all of this logging in the state’s history, that Maine would be in danger of exhausting its supply of trees. Yet today, almost 89% of the state is forested. In fact, it’s the most forested state in the nation. Timber continues to be a large part of the state’s economy, and Maine has been on the forefront of sustainable forestry.

Photos: Ohio State

Plastic Wood Isn’t Greener Than Sustainably Grown Timber

Posted on by Jeff Easterling

Plastic Lumber Sustainability

Recycled plastic lumber is growing in popularity as a green alternative to logged virgin wood, but is it really more sustainable? Made from post-consumer milk jugs and other plastics, this new material – used for things like picnic tables and decking – takes non-biodegradable materials out of the waste stream. It’s durable, sandable and can be re-melted to make new products. But it has its cons, too, and when all is said and done, wood grown in sustainably managed forests still comes out on top.

Post-consumer plastic lumber is impervious to pests, flame- and water-resistant, and doesn’t need to be painted or sealed. But it can also sag over time, and its discoloration after exposure to weather makes it look shabby, in contrast to the character taken on by aging wood. Though they may be recycled, the plastics used to make this lumber still contain harmful substances like PVC and dioxin.

Furthermore, it takes a lot more energy to manufacture plastic lumber than it does to log and mill real wood, and many plastic composites still require a certain percentage of virgin plastic. According to the EPA, a growing demand for plastic lumber could actually increase the production of virgin plastic and waste volume. And while wood can last centuries, the durability of plastic lumber is still unproven.

While a large percentage of the lumber industry is still composed of non-sustainably-managed forests or illegal logging, with trees being cut down without a real plan to replace them, there’s another option. The more demand increases for sustainably produced timber, the more forests will be maintained using ecologically sound practices. Purchasing truly ‘green’ wood like Eastern White Pine supports an industry that preserves ecosystems around the world.

Photo: US Fish and Wildlife Service