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| Loggers get some bad news and hope |
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2006/4/12
A panel of forest product experts painted a picture of economic struggle, but also foresaw hope in new uses for wood as they addressed more than 500 people attending the 26th annual Loggers Conference at Telemark Lodge last Friday.
“Fiber prices are higher in the Midwest than anywhere else in the nation and perhaps the world,” said Gene Francisco, executive director of conference co-sponsor Timber Producers Association (TPA) of Michigan and Wisconsin. “Stumpage prices are at an all-time high and mills are closing down in our area at an alarming rate.
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“Fuel and other operating costs are at an all-time high. The availability of skilled workers in our industry is diminishing. Environmental restrictions are increasing. So what can we do to right this ship?” Francisco asked.
A few answers were provided by conference panelists.
Steve Kariainen, wood resource manager for LP Corporation in Hayward, urged loggers to “know your industry, know your competition,” have a written business plan, join a professional organization, read trade journals and use the Internet.
He predicted that 10 years from now, there will be fewer pulp mills, fewer loggers, less wood harvested, lower fiber costs and “a smaller but more stable industry. I suspect that energy byproducts will be an important part of the revenue stream and it’s not going to be just pulp and paper. And finally, I predict an increased output from public (land) timber harvests.”
Chris Risbrudt, director of the USDA Forest Products Lab, said “Without you folks (loggers), we can’t manage the national forests. And without management, they turn into parks. It’s getting tougher to manage them as working forests.”
Risbrudt said the Forest Service chief has identified four threats to the nation’s forests: invasive (non-native) plants and animals; forest fires and the biomass which fuels fires; loss of open space due to people building houses in the forest and the creation of more small unmanaged forest parcels; and “unmanaged recreation, otherwise known as ATVs.
“Forests are very important as producers of clean, steady supplies of fresh water,” Risbrudt added.
“We need a strong forest products industry in the U.S. because of the accumulating biomass,” he said. “Rather than forest fires, we would rather process that wood into chemicals, energy and wood products.”
Risbrudt said the USDA Forest Products Lab is working to “figure out ways to use this biomass economically. We’re moving out of research into commodities (like paper) and into other areas,” including nanotechnology. “We think it’s possible to make paper 10 to 100 times stronger than it is.”
The lab is also working on getting more energy and chemicals out of wood, and on making advanced composites, Risbrudt said. “We can produce a more sustainable economy based on carbohydrates than on oil, which is nonsustainable.”
He said wood nanofibers are already being used in wings on advanced aircraft because of their light weight and strength.
A biorefinery can turn wood into ethanol and gas for fuel or into synthetic diesel, Risbrudt added.
Pat Schillinger, executive director of the Wisconsin Paper Council, told conferees that Wisconsin has been the top paper-making state in the nation for 50 years. It employs about 40,000 people, although “unfortunately that number keeps shrinking. We have the highest wages of any manufacturer in Wisconsin. Indirectly, we support another 40,000 jobs.”
Right now, “there is overcapacity in the paper industry. We’re too good at making paper world-wide,” Schillinger said. That has resulted in consolidation of companies, more foreign ownership of Wisconsin mills and competition with mills in other states and countries for limited corporate resources to improve expensive and outdated equipment. Paper has become a global commodity.
“Unfortunately, Wisconsin’s business climate is not conducive to encouraging corporate investment here. We’re trying to change that,” Schillinger said. In 2005, profits were down for paper makers across the country, mainly due to the rising costs of raw materials, energy and transportation, he added.
The Wisconsin Paper Council is trying to “reform and improve Wisconsin’s tax climate,” Schillinger said. A bill which took effect on Jan. 1 exempts paper makers from sales tax on energy costs.
Also, the industry is trying to reform the environmental regulation process, he said. “We’re willing to abide by all those federal and state environmental standards. The problem is, it takes too long for the DNR to work with our industry in obtaining the permits we need to do business.” That puts Wisconsin plants at a disadvantage compared to mills in other states, he said.
Also, “rising energy costs are killing the paper industry in Wisconsin,” Schillinger said. “We need to get a handle on that.”
“Rail costs are too high and we’re working on that,” he added.
Francisco added “What’s good for the paper industry is good for the logging industry.”
Bruce Petit of Kretz Lumber, former manager of the Georgia-Pacific wood yard at Weirgor in Sawyer County, said mills have been converting to hardwood. That wood grows in heavier soil, which makes it harder to access in warm-weather seasons. Environmental concerns also have resulted in more winter-time logging.
Dropping prices for wood delivered to the mill have resulted in less wood delivered, Kretz added. The cost of labor in wood product manufacturing has been an issue, as well as health care.
Francisco said that during the past two years, TPA, the Forest Industry Safety and Training Alliance (FISTA) and Wisconsin Professional Loggers Association (WPLA) “have done a lot to enhance your profession in the state. People are beginning to realize that our industry is the second largest in the state and each of you logging contractors produces enough material to create over 200 jobs in this state.”
The “Log A Load For Kids” programs have “showed kids and communities what you to do for a living and how you enhance the sustainability of our forests,” Francisco added.
Also, the Master Logger certification program is “resonating throughout the state capital, the woodland owners association and the environmental community as something very positive,” Francisco said.
The TPA and WPLA have worked with individual members on OSHA (Occupational Safety and Health Administration) complaints, as well as complaints by forestry and zoning agencies, Francisco said. One complaint sparked enactment of a state law which now prohibits local communities from zoning out forestry practices as long as those practices are sustainable, he said.
Francisco cited the importance of the second annual Forest Products Industry and Professional Loggers legislative rally, slated for next Tuesday (April 11) in Madison.
Accomplishments of last year’s legislative day included scholarships for Master Logger students, creation of a mechanized logging equipment certification program in the technical colleges, and money for a logger apprenticeship program with cost-shared wages, Francisco said.
Also, right-to-practice-forestry legislation was passed. More recently, Gov. Jim Doyle signed three forestry bills in one day relating to trucking weights, he said. “They essentially allow you to haul what you haul in the wintertime year-around — with another axle added. That will save 26,000 trips from the woods to the mill and 1 million gallons of diesel fuel.”
Francisco said the logger and forest products organizations are now working to create a self-insurance fund in Wisconsin for worker’s compensation. “Such a fund has been successful in Michigan for 30 years,” resulting in rates that are 25 percent of Wisconsin’s rates, he said.
Another bill that is on the governor’s desk would exempt custom farming, including silviculture, from sales taxes, he said. That would save loggers 60 cents per cord.
“We have to get access to available timber,” Francisco added. “Stumpage rates are going out of the world in this state, and that’s one reason why industry is closing down and moving out. We have to get more supply out so we can get prices down. If they (companies) can’t get wood cheaper here than they can get it from South America and other countries, they close (mills) down.”
Green speaks
Congressman Mark Green (R-Green Bay), the Republican candidate for governor and the conference’s keynote speaker, told attendees that he wants to “make Wisconsin great again. The forest industry accounts for half of all manufacturing jobs in the state. We cannot forget the traditional industry in our state. We’re good at making things. Our people are the most hard-working, innovative and hopeful of any in the country.”
Green said that throughout his career in the Wisconsin Assembly and in Congress he has “been a leader on the issues that are important to the forest industry. I worked with the Forest Service to try to ensure that multiple opinions are heard when decisions are made about our national forest.
“I helped pass the Healthy Forests Initative (HFI), which will protect our forests against devastating forest fires and disease. Now if we can just get the environmental extremists and their lawyers out of the way, the HFI will begin to work.”
The Healthy Forests Initiative “removes some of the procedural obstacles and will speed up the approval process for timber being harvested on public lands,” Green said. “The HFI will help us better manage the national forests.” He promised to work to increase loggers’ access to the forests.
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| Source:http://www.haywardwi.com |
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