Finding marketable uses for beetle-killed trees and glorified underbrush is a little like the futile efforts of medieval alchemists to make gold from base metals, Rey said.
The only difference is the modern efforts work.
Then he presented big grant checks to three businesses in the region. The federal money will help them to expand and improve operations.
England Sawmills of North Fork, Idaho, received $250,000 to help pay for a dry kiln to expand the mill's capacity from 750,000 board feet to 9 million board feet annually. With the kiln, mill owner Gary England intends to hire an additional 25 to 30 employees.
Two smaller grants of $125,600 and $76,000 went to Big Sky Forest Products in St. Regis and Panhandle Forest Products in Cocalalla, Idaho. Those grants will help buy a post and rail processor for the Idaho plant and a small log chipper for the Montana plant.
In total, the U.S. Forest Service will present $4.4 million to 20 enterprises in 12 states as part of its 2005 Woody Biomass Utilization Program.
It's all about finding uses for the wood that is choking Western forests, Rey said.
"I'd much rather have it in the marketplace than go up in smoke," he said.
A few minutes later, Rey handed plaques to winners of National Fire Plan awards.
The recipients included Montana Community Development Corp., Porterbilt Co., Bitter Root Resource Conservation and Development Area Inc., Beaudette Consulting Engineers, Friends of the Darby Library, architect Ron LaRue, the Travelers' Rest Preservation and Heritage Association and the Forest Service.
In the past few years, the U.S. Forest Service has been pushing for marketable uses of "woody biomass" to create markets for the formerly useless material. Woody biomass includes tree parts and woody plants - including limbs, tops, and needles - that are byproducts of ecological restoration and hazardous-fuel reduction programs.
One obstacle to such forest work is that small-diameter wood and woody biomass have been more of a burden than a resource.
But federal grants and research from the Forest Products Laboratory in Madison, Wis., in league with private enterprise have begun to change that dynamic.
One such company is Porterbilt of Hamilton, owned by Ron Porter.
Starting in the early 1980s, Porterbilt started making deck railings for log homes along with posts and poles, once the company's staple.
Two decades later, the company manufactures trusses out of trees too thin or cracked to be milled into two-by-fours.
Instead of riding the ups and downs of the seasonal agriculture industry, as post and pole outfits do, Porter's shop works steadily all year making high-end products for the log home industry. Porterbilt also built the trusses for the public library in Darby, as well as the kiosk at Travelers' Rest State Park in Lolo.
"It's economics. It's better than building fence posts and rails. A lot better," Porter said.
And patrons of the Darby library love their "Sistine Chapel of small-diameter round wood," said Ted Almgren, a library trustee.
The library showcases innovative technology by using engineered beams and trusses made from wood thinned out of nearby national forests. The building cost nearly $900,000, but opened free of debt thanks to Forest Service grants and some aggressive fundraising.
"It's beautiful, and it's paid for," said Almgren.
Reporter Robert Struckman can be reached at 523-5262 or at rstruckman@missoulian.com
|
 |
 |
Add your comment now! Write your comment in the form below.
(Email address is for verification only. If you'd like to email a story, look for the link above)