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| In the New Timber Industry, Small is Better |
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2006/4/7
Forget nanotechnology, biomedical devices or avionics, the next hot investment may just be found in the woodlots, forests and construction trash bins of the West, and particularly New Mexico.
In San Miquel County, New Mexico, for example, the legislature allocated $500,000 to a Regional Sustainable Wood Business Park. The park, in the former Medite site in Las Vegas, will be a cluster of companies that will mine the area's small diameter lumber, which is both too small to use in building and a potential fire-storm waiting to happen in our national forests.
The discussion over what to do with small diameter timber cleared from forests, as well as construction industry waste such as saw dust and wood chips, has been going on for sometime. In 2002, the Mescalero Apache reservation hosted a wood symposium where participants discussed the possible uses of small diameter logs--the nation's tribes manage about 17 million acres, according to a story in the New Mexico Business Weekly. Since then, companies of all stripes have sprung up to use wood waste, from craftmakers to sign makers.
For example, a Mountainair, a company mixes recycled plastic milk jugs with small diameter timber to create durable outdoor signs. Altree has contracts with the Forest Service and many state agencies. It's been around since 1990 and logs annual revcenues of over $1.3 million, which is pretty good for a company in a tiny town with little industry.
In Reserve, the shutdown of a large-diameter sawmill (due to a moratorium on logging in the Gila National Forest) put most of the non-ranchers in the area out of work, and the town into a tailspin of economic and emotional depression. A citizen's group got together and developed a small-diameter logging/millwork plan, using the abandoned Stone Forest Sawmill. Catron County purchased the facility to develop the small diameter industry in the town.
The latest entry in the small diameter lumber products industry is Healthy Buildings, the anchor tenant for the 78-acre Las Vegas (NM) wood park. Colleen Cayes, the founder of Healthy Buildings, called yesterday to tell me about her company, which is on the verge of receiving funding, she says. Based on the "triple bottom line" of products, people and planet, Cayes is part of a group hoping to revive the timber industry in the economically depressed northern part of the state. Healthy Buildings will make a 12” tall block made from 85% recycled wood and 15% Portland cement that is both breathable and highly insulating. Cayes says the blocks can replace styrofoam. Already she's had interest from homebuilders and others in the construction industry, and Healthy Buildings will ship its first product eight to twelve weeks after funding.
There's little downside to the small diameter logging industry--it both creates jobs in rural towns and clears the forest of tinder rather than live trees. For once, the conservationists and the timber industry agree. |
| Source:http://www.newwest.net |
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