2016 Forest Products

2016

Maine

Forest

Products Industry

A Special Advertising Section of the Bangor Daily News • Friday, October 21, 2016

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FOREST PRODUCTS • Bangor Daily News Special Advertising Section • October 21, 2016

2016 Economic impact of Maine’s forest products industry estimated at $8.5 billion

BY MAINE FOREST PRODUCTS COUNCIL

Despite some tumultuous years, Maine’s forest products industry will contribute an estimated $8.5 billion to the economy statewide in 2016 and support 33,538 jobs, according to a new economic impact study by the University of Maine.

About one of every 24 jobs in Maine are associated with the forest products industry and about $1 of every $20 of Maine’s GDP. “Those numbers communicate how important the industry is to the state,” said Mindy Crandall, assistant professor of Forest Management and Economics, who conducted the research with Ph.D. candidate James Anderson III. Their report, Economic contribution of Maine’s forest products industry 2014 and

2016 (estimated), was requested by the Maine Forest Products Council (MFPC), completed June 20 and presented at the MFPC annual meeting Sept. 19 in Orono and Bangor. The research takes into account mill closures in 2014, 2015 and January through May of 2016.

Crandall presented the findings to about 100 MFPC members and guests.

MFPC also released its second edition of Maine’s Forest Economy, which contains the economic impact research, additional industry facts and figures, and essays on current issues by industry leaders and UMaine experts.

“This research shows that Maine is still a great place for a forest industry,” said Patrick Strauch, MFPC executive

director. “The global economy is evolving rapidly and there are clearly many challenges ahead, but the forest products industry is reinventing itself to meet them.”

The MFPC annual meeting also showcased one of the most exciting new uses of wood – cross-laminated timber (CLT). Steve Shaler, director of UMaine’s School of Forest Resources, assembled a panel of experts to discuss opportunities for projects and manufacturing in Maine, including Ricky McLain, technical director of Woodworks; Casey Malmquist, president of SmartLam of Columbia Falls, MT, one of only two CLT manufacturers in the U.S.; Matt Tonello, project executive for Consigli Construction; architect and Jeff

PHOTO CREDIT| BDN

Easterling, president of the Northeast Lumber Manufacturers Association.

“Cross-laminated timber is being used to construct ever higher tall buildings around the world,” Shaler said.

“CLT is an opportunity that needs to be looked at in Maine.”

FOREST PRODUCTS • Bangor Daily News Special Advertising Section • October 21, 2016

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FOREST PRODUCTS • Bangor Daily News Special Advertising Section • October 21, 2016

MaineForestProductsCouncilnames2016awardwinners

The Maine Forest Products Council announced its awards for “the best of 2016” at its recent conference, including:

ALBERT D. NUTTING AWARD –

Don Tardie of Ashland, who retired as managing director of the Maine Woods Co. in 2013, received the Albert

D. Nutting Award “in recognition of his leadership and innovation in the forest industry, his passion for strategic planning, and his accomplishments as a forester, business manager and conservationist.” The award has been presented annually since 1990 to a remarkable group of individuals, each of them truly unique, but with a common commitment

to Maine and its forest industry.

ABBY HOLMAN PUBLIC SERVICE AWARD –

Dave Struble of Pittston, state entomologist at the Maine Forest Service, received the Abby Holman Public Service Award “in recognition of his leadership, effective outreach,

and strong determination to insure a well-researched response to the impending spruce budworm infestation and also in honor of his exemplary career, which has been devoted to the protection and stewardship of Maine’s forests.” The Holman award recognizes outstanding service on behalf of Maine’s forest products industry.

www.w 2 wsvc .co m

155 Robertson Blvd., Brewer, Maine 04412 Tel. 207-989-2435

FOREST PRODUCTS • Bangor Daily News Special Advertising Section • October 21, 2016

OUTSTANDING FORESTER –

Mike Dann of Dixmont, who worked for Seven Islands Land Co. for 36 years, was named Outstanding Forester “in recognition of an exceptional career in forestland stewardship, serving both small and large landowners in the State of Maine, and his dedication to promoting silviculture, research, education and the implementation of sound forest practices.

and the ability to adapt to and embrace change in challenging times.”

The MFPC Board of Directors also elected its new officers, who serve for two-year terms: President Jim Contino of Verso; Secretary Mark Doty of Weyerhaeuser and Treasurer John Gray, retired from Chadbourne Tree Farms.

OUTSTANDING LOGGER –

William A. Day Jr. and Sons of Porter was chosen as Outstanding Logger “in recognition of exemplary performance on the ground and a commitment to meeting the management objectives of family forests owners through innovation, diversification

PHOTO CREDIT| BDN

Top row, left to right, MFPC award winners Don Tardie, Dave Struble, Mike Dann (lower row, L-R) Brian, Scott, and Brent Day.

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FOREST PRODUCTS • Bangor Daily News Special Advertising Section • October 21, 2016

McCormack honored with 2016 Austin Wilkins Award

BY ROBERTA SCRUGGS MAINE FOREST PRODUCTS COUNCIL

The only person surprised – stunned really – that Max McCormack of Unity received this year’s prestigious Austin H. Wilkins Forest Stewardship Award was McCormack himself.

“When Sherry Huber called me about this I was, in fact, speechless,” he told a crowd of friends and colleagues at the Blaine House.

“I think she had to ask if I was still on the line. And it has given me cause to reflect more than any other event in my career on how it happened and where I’ve been.”

Huber, executive director of the Maine TREE Foundation, couldn’t help smiling when she described his reaction to the news at the award ceremony on Sept. 8.

“Max was – I won’t say horrified – I think he was very pleasantly surprised and had no idea that this honor would come his way,” she said. “But he certainly deserves it.”

The Austin H. Wilkins Forest Stewardship Award was created by the Maine TREE Foundation and is the only award in Maine that recognizes stewardship of the working forest. When Wilkins received the first award in 2004, McCormack was on the committee that chose him.

“So this has come full circle and it’s pretty nice,” Huber said.

McCormack, who graduated from the University of Maine in 1956, is celebrating 60 years as a forester. He earned both his master’s in silviculture (1959) and his doctorate (1963) from Duke University. After teaching silviculture at Southern Illinois University and the University of Vermont, he returned to UMaine in 1976 as research professor and leader of the Cooperative Forest Research Unit.

He’s well known for his innovative research, well-crafted studies and adherence to objective analysis and is widely credited with helping lead the

recovery of the Maine spruce-fir forests after the last spruce budworm infestation in the 1970s to the mid 1980s.

McCormack also touched the lives of countless UMaine students, including Patrick Strauch, executive director of the Maine Forest Products Council.

“Max has always been an important mentor to me,” Strauch said. “Without his support I would not have been able to redeem my rambunctious early college record by becoming one of his respected graduate students, focused on learning from his skills as a silviculturist.”

McCormack retired from UMaine in 1997 and was named professor emeritus in 1998, but he hasn’t stopped trying to improve Maine’s forests. He serves on the state’s panel of experts for Outcome Based Forestry and on the Forester Licensing Board. He works with the Society of American Foresters and the University of Maine Cooperative Forestry Research Unit.

He’s also a member of many other organizations, including MFPC and SWOAM, where he writes a regular newsletter column on Practical Silviculture.

In October, he’s going on an American Forestry Foundation tour to Germany, where he’s also been a guest professor at the universities of Goettingen and Freiburg.

“I don’t know how I can say the word retirement and your name in the same vein,” Maine State Forester Doug Denico joked at the award ceremony, “because if anybody can tell me when you stopped working and went into retirement it’s a miracle because no one could recognize it. You’ve kept on working tirelessly and you’ve given of yourself unbelievably.”

Denico spoke about McCormack’s many publications and the awards he’s received “from everybody who really matters.” He had special praise for McCormack’s efforts – “brilliant in concept and execution”– to help Maine’s forest products industry learn to use

FOREST PRODUCTS • Bangor Daily News Special Advertising Section • October 21, 2016

herbicides safely and effectively.

“You got us up to speed so we could look the public in the eye and say, ‘We know how to do this safely,’” Denico said. “All the things you did made herbiciding a viable tool, but without you I don’t know how we would have squeaked through. So thank you for that big step up that we got.”

Denico told McCormack that he needs no monument or granite statue to be remembered because “you have something much better than that. It’s a living monument that you’ve got. If you know anything about forestry and you fly from Calais to the Quebec border or you go from Bingham to the Big 20 and you look down, you’re going to see Max McCormack – the influence that you’ve had on the industry – right below you, everywhere you go. I think that’s wonderful to have that kind of a living memorial for yourself.

It’s there and it will continue to be there.”

As Gov. Paul LePage presented the Austin Wilkins Award to McCormack, he said, “Congratulations to you for the fine work you’ve done, not only in the research,

but for the people of the State of Maine, for the landowners and for the future of the industry in the State of Maine.”

McCormack’s acceptance speech was short, clearly heartfelt and passed on the credit for his career to the “people who had an influence and who kicked me in the butt and sent me down a line in the right direction. Any achievements that I’ve accomplished that put me up here this morning are just purely my efforts to carry out what was delivered along the way by faculty, by friends. Many of you are here in this room.”

He added that when he first arrived in Maine by train, “I didn’t realize it at that moment, but I stepped on a magic carpet that’s carried me right up to the doorstop this morning. And it’s been a tremendous ride.”

McCormack ended with a prayer that he translated from German in the 1970s, calling it “an appeal from the forest to all of us – mankind. And it’s stuck with me ever since I read it for the first time and understood it. And it goes like this.”

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Iamthewarmthofyourhomeoncold winternights, The protectiveshadein theburningsummersun, Iprovidehabitatforwild creatures andprotectionforwatersheds.

Iamtheroofframeofyourhouseand thedoorto yourhome, Wood fortoolhandlesandshipbuilding.

Thetable youdineonandthe bedyousleepin.

Iamthewoodofyourcradle andofyour casket.

Iamthebreadofgoodness,the flowerof beauty.

Hear myprayerusemewisely.

PHOTO CREDIT | Ron

Lovaglio

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FOREST PRODUCTS • Bangor Daily News Special Advertising Section • October 21, 2016

Maine trees could one day fuel military jets

BY CHRISTOPHER BURNS BDN STAFF

PHOTO CREDIT | BDN

KC-135 tanker planes like this one at the 101st Refueling Wing in Bangor may one day carry fuel made from trees.

For the last decade, there has been a concerted push in the U.S. to replace petroleum-based fuel with plant-based biofuels in order to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and the nation’s reliance on foreign oil.

The alternative fuel revolution has so far belonged to corn, but efforts to develop a woodbased biofuel, particularly jet fuel, from Maine’s abundant timberland got a boost last month when the U.S. Department of Defense announced a $3.3 million investment into ongoing research at the University of Maine. This infusion comes as part of federal measures to help Maine’s flagging economy after a spate of mill closures.

This new investment from the federal government can potentially give the university’s Forest Bioproducts Research Institute the support it needs to “scale up” the production of biofuel for demonstration purposes to test it for commercial use, according to Jake Ward, the university’s vice president of innovation and economic development.

It’s been a slow transition from the laboratory to the gas pump for wood-based, or cellulosic, biofuel. The challenge that cellulosic biofuel faces in dislodging corn’s grip on production is that a low price for a barrel of oil coupled with high startup costs make it an expensive industry in which to invest.

see from forest to fuel Page10

FOREST PRODUCTS • Bangor Daily News Special Advertising Section • October 21, 2016

Acadia Insurance to Distribute more than $ 600,000 in Premium Dividends to Eligible PLC Safety Group Members WESTBROOK, Maine - Acadia Insurance, a W. R. Berkley Company®, has announced that it will pay approximately $621,206 in premium dividends to eligible policyholder members of the Professional Logging Contractors of Maine (PLC) Safety Group. Since 1999, Acadia has distributed over $6.5 million in premium dividends to eligible participants of this safety group.

Founded by Acadia Insurance and the PLC, the PLC Safety Group dividend program rewards logging companies and sole proprietors for having a safe workplace by refunding a portion of their insurance premium if certain measures are met by the entire safety group. In addition, Acadia Insurance, in coordination with the PLC, provides risk management and mitigation expertise to members to help ensure the long-term sustainability of the logging industry in Maine.

The longstanding relationship between Acadia and the PLC rewards participating Members by returning a portion of their premiums to eligible group members when the group meets or exceeds established target loss ratios.

“We are proud to support Maine loggers who represent a key industry in the state of Maine and provide an opportunity to return premium to qualifying members,” stated Jonathan Becker, Regional Vice President, Maine Branch Manager, Acadia Insurance. “This insurance program has been in place for more than 18 years, and we are committed to serving the logging community for many more.”

PLC Executive Director Dana Doran said the dividend program has been a great benefit to PLC members, and the relationship with Acadia is a valued one for the organization.

“Safety is a critical issue in today’s professional logging industry both in terms of worker well-be-

ing and loss prevention, and incentives like the Acadia dividend serve as a reminder of this to our members and a motivator that is helping Maine’s logging industry operate more safely and profitably,” Doran said. “PLC has focused tremendous effort on improving logging safety in recent years and those efforts are resulting in lower risks and lower costs for members.”

Loss ratios for the PLC Safety Group have declined from 53 percent in 2012 to 33 percent in 2015. The focus on safety has driven attendance at the annual PLC Safety Trainings up from 268 in 2013 to a record 561 workers from 60 companies this spring.

For more information about the Professional Logging Contractors of Maine Safety Group, please contact Kim Farquhar, Marketing Director, Acadia Insurance, at kimberly.farquhar@acadia-ins.com

PHOTO CREDIT | ACADIA INSURANCE

2016 PLC Safety Training.

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FOREST PRODUCTS • Bangor Daily News Special Advertising Section • October 21, 2016

From forest to fuel trees could fuel military jets from Page 8 At a time when demand for paper and other traditional uses of the forests have been declining, researchers in the Forest Bioproducts Research Institute have found new ways to put the Maine woods to work.

At the university’s pilot plant on the former Old Town mill campus, cellulose is extracted from wood before the pulping process. That allows a tree from the Maine woods to be used to make chemicals, plastics and, yes, biofuel. The university helped pioneer the process through which the cellulose from wood is then converted into biofuel.

It’s not just cars and trucks that could be powered by the Maine woods. For the past few years, the university has been exploring the potential for wood to power jets. The Department of Defense’s

recent investment could advance that research to develop wood into jet fuel.

Aviation is a promising market for wood-based biofuel because jets need the relatively light, compact energy of liquid fuel. Electric batteries can power cars but are too heavy for use in jets. Other renewables such as the solar panels that powered Solar Impulse 2 in a fuel-free flight across the globe between March 2015 and July 2016 likely won’t find commercial applications for some time.

“One day we might get electric cars that won’t need much gasoline, but planes are always going to need jet fuel,” Hemant Pendse, director of the Forest Bioproducts Research Institute, said in a 2010 interview with Bangor Metro magazine. “And that’s a huge, huge market, and right now it only comes from petroleum.”

Federal energy law calls for cellulosic ethanol, such as that derived from wood, to play a vital role in the nation’s energy future. Ethanol in the U.S. is almost exclusively made from corn, which accounts for about 95 percent of production, and sugarcane, which accounts for about 5 percent. The U.S. produced roughly 13.3 billion gallons of ethanol in 2013, of which only 810,000 gallons came from cellulosic sources.

Cellulosic ethanol, though, has advantages over its corn-based competitor. Unlike ethanol made from corn, cellulosic fuel is made from largely inedible material, so there isn’t a competition between food and fuel. (An estimated 38 percent of the 2013 U.S. corn crop was used to produce ethanol.) Corn also requires more labor and other resources, such as fertilizer, pesticides and fuel, to raise it for eventual use as fuel.

In addition, when measured from forest to fuel tank, the greenhouse gas emissions from ethanol made from cellulose are significantly less than emissions (in this case, from field to fuel tank) from ethanol made from corn.

And wood already is poised to power jet fleets across the country before the decade is out. Red Rock Biofuels, a Coloradobased energy company, plans to begin construction of a biorefinery this year in Lakeview, Oregon. It is expected to annually turn 140,000 dry tons of wood – mostly tree tops and limbs – sourced from within a 50-mile radius of the plant into 12 million gallons of jet fuel.

The company will sell 3 million gallons a year between 2017 and 2024 to FedEx to fuel its jet fleet. Southwest Airlines also will purchase 3 million gallons of jet fuel a year from the biorefinery. Low

FOREST PRODUCTS • Bangor Daily News Special Advertising Section • October 21, 2016

gas prices, high uncertainty With an annual appetite of about 5 billion gallons of fuel, the Department of Defense is the largest energy consumer in the country. The purchasing power of the military could jump-start demand for alternative fuels, such as Maine-made cellulosic biofuel, and military support could eventually make the fuels more cost-competitive.

The U.S. Navy, for instance, aims to source 50 percent of its energy from alternative fuels -- including nuclear power, renewables and biofuels -- by 2020.

Currently, the Navy gets about 17 percent of its energy from alternative fuels, according to the U.S.Energy Information Administration. But this includes no biofuel.

The support from the federal government “helps us commercialize and learn how to make biofuels cheaper,” UMaine

economist Jonathan Rubin said.

Maine, with an abundant supply of wood, could support at least one modestsized biorefinery to produce cellulosic biofuel and jet fuel, according to Rubin.

Rubin, along with fellow UMaine economist Sharon Klein and economics graduate students Binod Neupane and Stephanie Whalley, published a study in a recent issue of the Journal of the Transportation Research Board that estimated that 3.9 million dry tons of wood are available for biofuel production.

Not all of that wood, however, would realistically be available to a biorefinery. Hauling costs for wood are high, so a biorefinery would need to source its feedstock from within a smaller geographic area. A biorefinery based at the former Old Town mill, for example, could sustainably harvest from within a 50-mile

uy Stum B & g n i z

radius between 650,000 and 735,000 dry tons of wood for biofuel production.

“Costs are significant for transportation of biomass,” Rubin said. “You really have to look at how much is biologically available on a sustainable harvest basis in, say, a 100-mile radius.”

A fundamental challenge cellulosic biofuel has to overcome in the short term before it can leap into commercialization is a prolonged slump in the price of oil.

Crude oil prices have fallen from nearly $100 a barrel in 2014 to $41.16 this year, and prices are forecast to remain low into 2017, according to the Energy Information Administration. It’s a fact of life with which even the proposed biorefinery in Oregon has to grapple.

Unless the price of oil rises closer to $100 a barrel, low oil prices will be a barrier to cellulosic biofuels’ inclusion in

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the Department of Defense’s energy portfolio. Despite its stated goal of reducing its consumption of petroleum-based fuel, the Department of Defense between 2007 and 2014 purchased just 2 million gallons of alternative fuels for about $58.6 million, according to a 2015 Government Accountability Office report. Over the same period, it bought 32 billion gallons of petroleumbased fuels for about $107 billion.

What alternative fuels the Department of Defense has purchased have been used only for demonstration purposes.

Federal law requires the department to consider whether the cost of alternative fuels is competitive with conventional fuels, slowing their adoption by the military.

“It’s a challenging world to produce a biofuel with gasoline at just over $2 a gallon,” Rubin said.

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FOREST PRODUCTS • Bangor Daily News Special Advertising Section • October 21, 2016

PLCreleasesloggingeconomicimpactstudy AUGUSTA – The Professional Logging Contractors (PLC) of Maine released results of the state’s first of its kind comprehensive study of the economic impact of Maine logging on Sept. 15, showing the industry contributed an estimated $882 million to the state economy in 2014.

The study, conducted with the University of Maine and Farm Credit East, revealed logging supported more than 7,300 jobs in the Maine economy in 2014, including more than 4,600 direct logging jobs and additional jobs in industries including trucking.

Without loggers the entire forest products industry and the timber value chain upon which hundreds of workers and their communities depend would collapse, the study found.

“This study reinforces the importance and value of a strong logging workforce in Maine, not only to the economy, but to all the many industries and communities here

in the state that depend on Maine wood,” PLC Executive Director Dana Doran, said.

“It also reveals that this is an industry facing large challenges in markets and costs that threaten not only loggers, but the entire forest economic value chain that depends on loggers.”

To better understand the nature of the harvesting industry in Maine, analysts combined a traditional input-output (IMPLAN) analysis with primary data gathered from approximately 60 percent of the member companies of the PLC. The study details estimates of the economic impact of logging in the state of Maine for 2014 developed through both the IMPLAN analysis as well as a survey delivered to members of the PLC in the fall of 2015.

The survey requested employment, harvest, and equipment outlay information for 2013 and 2014. Survey implementation and financial investment analysis was done by Farm Credit East, with assistance from the

PLC. IMPLAN and survey results were analyzed by researchers at the University of Maine.

The study showed the average annual wage for workers employed by logging firms rose from $30,751 in 2004 to $42,795 in 2014. Worker wages and proprietor income for 2014 exceeded $296 million.

Over that same 10-year period, the study showed the numbers of logging firms and workers have remained relatively stable in recent years.

Survey respondents reported an average of 22 employees per firm; 12 in the woods, two in the office, six in trucking, and two mechanics.

The study showed a clear move to mechanization in the industry: Fully 63 percent of surveyed firms were identified as whole tree harvesting operations, and another 26 percent as cut-to-length harvesting operations. Only 11 percent

w e r e identified as conventional hand crews using chain saws.

The study revealed most firms surveyed trucked all or the majority of timber harvested themselves, while 24 percent relied on outside sources contracted for trucking. The study estimated logging supports approximately 750 trucking jobs in Maine.

The study also showed logging is an expensive industry; average capital expenditures per firm were $626,000 per year.

The value of timber sales in 2014 was estimated at $493 million.

Maine’s loggers are a vital part of the state’s forest products sector, which is worth an estimated $8.5 billion annually.

FOREST PRODUCTS • Bangor Daily News Special Advertising Section • October 21, 2016

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FOREST PRODUCTS • Bangor Daily News Special Advertising Section • October 21, 2016

PLCraisesrecord $117,000forChildren’s MiracleNet.Hospitals

PHOTO CREDIT | PLC

Members of the Madden family, PLC’s largest extended logging family, are honored for their many contributions to Log A Load for Maine Kids. The family has been a strong supporter of the effort since PLC first began sponsoring it in 1996.

LINCOLN – The Professional Logging Contractors (PLC) of Maine raised a record $81,105 at the 20 th Annual Log A Load for Maine Kids Golf Tournament Friday, Sept. 16 th at JATO Highlands Golf Course.

The tournament, which benefits Children’s Miracle Network (CMN) hospitals in Maine, exceeded the previous all-time record of $65,875 set in 2015.

Combined with funds raised at the PLC’s annual meeting, the tournament’s success means PLC has raised more than $117,000 for CMN hospitals in 2016, dramatically exceeding its goal of $100,000 for the year.

“We continue to be astounded by the generosity of those who make this tournament a success every year,” Dana Doran, Executive Director of the PLC, said.

“After 20 years of raising money to support

the Log A Load for Kids program, and during what is arguably the most challenging time for loggers in the history of their occupation, this result and the funds raised at our annual meeting truly shows how strong compassion for Maine kids is throughout the logging and forest products industry no matter what challenges they are faced with.”

The PLC has been the sponsor of the Log A Load program in Maine since 1996, when the golf tournament began.

The PLC and the Eastern Maine Healthcare Systems (EMHS) Foundation have raised more than $800,000 since 1996 for children in Maine. Donations have gone to support research and training, purchase equipment, and pay for uncompensated care, all in support of the mission to save and improve the lives of as many children as possible.

FOREST PRODUCTS • Bangor Daily News Special Advertising Section • October 21, 2016

The South Carolina Forestry Association started the Log A Load for Kids program in 1988. Originally, the concept was for loggers, wood-supplying businesses, and other industry supporters in various states including Maine to donate the value of a load of logs to their local Children’s Miracle Network Hospitals. Today, Log A Load funds impact more than 60 Children’s Miracle Network Hospitals across North America. Hospitals utilize the funds based on what they need the most. Funds are often used to purchase lifesaving equipment, support therapy programs and provide charitable care.

Nationally, Log A Load for Kids has raised more than $46 million dollars over the last 28 years, and the program is a national leader in CMN fundraising.

For more information, please visit www.logaload.org.

Participants gather for the start of the 20th Annual Log A Load for Maine Kids Golf Tournament.

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PHOTO CREDIT | PLC

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FOREST PRODUCTS • Bangor Daily News Special Advertising Section • October 21, 2016

Maineforestworkerscreateoutdoorclassroomtoaidindustry

BY ROBERTA SCRUGGS MAINE FOREST PRODUCTS COUNCIL

It was like a barn raising – only without the barn. Over three days this summer, volunteers from across Maine’s forest community helped create an outdoor classroom pavilion for the Maine TREE Foundation at the Holt Research Forest in Arrowsic.

“Maine TREE is excited about the opportunity to bring teachers, students and the community into closer contact with the research, data and hands-on experience at our own Holt Forest,” said Sherry Huber, executive director.

“We are especially grateful to University of Maine resident scientist Jack Witham, Maine SFI Director Patrick Sirois and all the volunteers who pitched in and to those who donated materials to make our Outdoor Classroom a reality over this past summer.” (See list below) Al Cowperthwaite, director of North Maine Woods, drove four hours on August 30 to bring a high-quality outhouse to the site. He then had the skill to back his truck and the outhouse down a very narrow road – more like a

path really – into the woods behind the worksite. He got plenty of good-natured advice from his fellow volunteers along the way.

“We may have had too many cooks at the beginning,” joked Kevin McCarthy, “but once we got focused we really were able to accomplish a lot together.”

McCarthy is a member of the Outreach Committee of the SFI Implementation Committee (SIC), and also president of the TREE Foundation Board.

He and the rest of the crew worked hard, but also enjoyed the collaboration with old and new friends.

“It’s a very diverse group of people and they’re all volunteers – nobody had to be there,” McCarthy said. “We have fun, but we were there because it’s a great project.”

The first day of work was June 23, said Mike St. Peter, executive director of Certified Logging Professionals, who came from Jackman to help. CLP Board members brought their equipment and UMaine students also pitched in to clear trees from the site of the outdoor classroom, access road and off-road parking area.

“CLP instructor John Cullen incorporated di-

rectional felling instruction with the students while clearing an area for the classroom,” St. Peter said. “Education played a part in the actual construction of the project. The day went well with a safe and productive crew, great weather, and no ticks! All merchantable wood was salvaged and skilled directional felling resulted in no damage to adjoining residual stand.”

For more than three decades, scientists from the University of Maine have been studying the tract of oak-pine forest, which was offered to the university for research by William and Winifred Holt. Their family endowed the Holt Woodland Research Foundation and donated funds to the university for its long-term forest ecosystem study until 2014, when the foundation merged with the Maine TREE Foundation.

The 100-acre study area, dominated by oak and pine, is within a tract of nearly 300 acres. Wetlands, primarily salt marsh, make up an additional 50 acres, Witham said. The property is bordered by the Back River, an estuarine branch of the Kennebec River, on the east. Sewell Pond, the only Great Pond on Arrowsic Island, and Route 127 form the

western boundary. The property is bisected by Old Stage Road with the eastern portion as the principal land base used for research.

The SIC Outreach Committee thought building the outdoor classroom “was a worthwhile project to do and we wanted to be part of it,” Sirois said. “We’ve done similar projects with Habitat for Humanity in the past and we have sort of a trained crew who shows up when we take on one of these projects.”

Sirois also had a special interest in the project because he worked on the research forest at the beginning.

“We cut this woodlot for the research project,” Sirois said. “We harvested 50 acres out of the 100 acre research area. There were 2 ½ acre lots organized like a checkerboard and they randomly selected the blocks that they wanted to harvest versus the ones that were the controls. So for me it was fun to come back.”

The forest research plan emphasized two major goals, Witham said, to monitor long-term changes in the forest’s plant and animal populations and to document the effect of forest

FOREST PRODUCTS • Bangor Daily News Special Advertising Section • October 21, 2016

management on these populations.

“We did about a 40 percent removal and we’ve really been studying the response of those canopy gaps that we created by the harvest and what’s grown in,” he said. “It’s all natural regeneration. No tree planting at all.

The pine is regenerating incredibly well; red maple is doing well. Red oak is very difficult to regenerate. The deer seem to munch it all up.”

Many groups have visited the research forest for educational programs, including landowners, natural resource professionals, foresters, loggers, and wildlife people, but the outdoor classroom will expand educational outreach.

“We’ve always thought it would be nice to have a place under cover,” Witham said. “This will enable Project Learning Tree workshops here and we’ve been setting up some meetings with some of the local schools. Teachers from Georgetown already have been here to do a workshop.”

McCarthy, who was working on Sept. 2, when the outdoor classroom was completed, is excited about the new opportunities for teaching children and adults about Maine’s forests.

“I think it’s got tremendous potential,” he said, “and the next step will be to promote its use.”

Link to “A Long-Term Study of an Oak Pine Forest Ecosystem: A Brief Overview of the Holt Research Forest.” — http://digitalcommons.library.umaine.edu/aes_miscpubs/15/ Volunteers: Pat Sirois, Dave Griswold, Jack Witham, Al Kimble, Scott Pease, Tim Richards, Gordon Gamble, Kevin Doran, Al Cowperthwaite, John Starrett, Kevin McCarthy, John Cullen, Mike St. Peter, Erik Carlson and Steve Laweryson. UMaine students Ethan Hill, Ryan Karroll, and Todd Douglass helped with the clearing as did Clarke Cooper, a UMaine employee at the Holt Forest for the summer.

Materials for the Outdoor Classroom Pavilion were donated by Hancock Lumber, Huber Engineered Woods, Viking Lumber and Mainely Trusses. Support also was received from Maine Forest Service Project Canopy, the Maine Timberlands Charitable Trust, the Elmina Sewall Foundation and the Morton-Kelly Charitable Trust. Robbins Construction of Arrowsic loaned the staging that made the job much easier.

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FOREST PRODUCTS • Bangor Daily News Special Advertising Section • October 21, 2016

Baileyvillemillinvestmentofferslessonstomodernizeforestindustry

BY GOV. PAUL LEPAGE PRESS RELEASE AUG. 31, 2016

Today in Baileyville, a place far from the concerns of the media or southern Maine politicians, St[f]. Croix Tissue is holding a ribbon-cutting event to celebrate the completion of two new tissue machines and the start of their official operation.

IGIC, the company that invested heavily in our state, as well as the workers, contractors and officials in my administration who have been working to achieve this accomplishment should be proud of their hard work and the jobs they have brought to Washington County.

The opportunists who are showing up for a photo opportunity should learn the lessons of what led to this day, the challenges the company faces and how it is instructive for the entire forest-products industry. We must understand what encouraged a company to make this initial $120 million investment in Maine, we must address the high-cost issues facing the industry and we must build on these factors to create an economic environment for additional job creation in our state.

It was not a politician’s comments that led to the decision nearly four years ago to make the investment, and the witty banter today will not lead to additional investment. If we truly listen to the economic message of IGIC and implement the pro-growth strategies for which I have been advocating, we can successfully modernize Maine’s forest-products industry.

Nearly six years ago, when IGIC purchased

the mill, the company saw a long-term cases for the location in Washington opportunity in converting it from a costly County were being called into question, pulp mill to an internationally competitive and the project was in jeopardy. facility. First, the plan The basic problem has would require creating an been that our regional integrated tissue facility and pipeline infrastructure has a shift from a pulp market not grown to feed our increasing that was in decline to a tissue consumption of natural gas, product that has shown and we must manage our stable long-term growth. forests more effectively.

The company was new to Although the price reduction Maine, but it was attracted to of oil and imported gas has the facility because of the helped the energy situation, tremendous wood supply and this is most likely temporary the hydropower production Gov. Paul LePage and masks our vulnerability on site, as well as the potential to domestic pipeline constraints. for accessing the low-cost of natural gas in It must be solved together or will not have the region. In addition, local and state future ribbon cuttings for new energyofficials were very welcoming to this intensive manufacturing in New England. new investor.

Woodland had a long-term investment In fact, I traveled twice to China to plan in place to stomach the spikes in meet personally with the investors. Our energy and wood costs, while the more productive meetings and the relationship vulnerable Maine mills have closed we developed were an integral part of their doors. their decision to invest in Maine.

Despite being the most heavily forested The process from the initial purchase state in the nation, Maine’s wood costs have in 2010 to today’s ribbon-cutting has had been among the most costly in the world. challenges. At the groundbreaking of This is unconscionable, and it is the direct this project two years ago, company officials result of failed public policy. One policy area raised alarm to me that the competitiveness that needs reform is the Tree Growth of the facility was not meeting expectations. Program, which must be fixed to ensure Wood costs were out of control. Natural that woodlot owners are actually contributing gas prices were spiking in New England, to our forest-products industry as originally despite our state being close to some of intended -- especially in southern Maine the most abundant natural gas supplies where timber harvesting has decreased. in the world. Two of the major business I am open to all serious proposals of reform.

The company also is experiencing unanticipated federal regulatory costs.

In a testament to the history of this industry, the hydro dams that power the mill are so old they predate federal hydropower laws and allow the facility to avoid federal bureaucracy. However, because of a congressional mistake decades ago, the upstream minor storage facilities that manage the water flow were not specifically exempted -- even though they also were constructed in the 19th century.

Instead of trying to help the facility, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission has turned a small mistake into a barrier that will cost the company millions of dollars.

We cannot take investments like IGIC’s for granted. Investment goes where it is appreciated -- not just on celebratory days like today but also how we help them every day on the difficult issues of navigating federal bureaucracy, unforeseen spikes in input costs and the next challenge that surely will confront a competitive industry. We took our forest-products industry for granted for decades, and we watched as the big investments flowed into other states and countries.

My advice to those speaking at the ribbon-cutting today: After the speeches and the ceremony, when the cameras are away, sit down with the company and ask what they need to keep them in Maine. Then go do it.

FOREST PRODUCTS • Bangor Daily News Special Advertising Section • October 21, 2016

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Forestry cluster makes pitch to grow industry

BY BDN STAFF

EAST MILLINOCKET – Three members of the Aroostook Partnership’s Forest Products Industry[j] Cluster made a pitch for growing the forest economy of the state to the Economic Development Assessment Team (EDAT), which was in northern Maine recently.

Partnership President Bob Dorsey; Dana Saucier, a forest products consultant; and Don Tardie, a retired mill manager presented to the EDAT in East Millinocket. Responding to a plea from Maine’s congressional delegation, the U.S. Department of Commerce is investigating how to boost the state’s beleaguered forest-products industry and communities that depend on it.

The department dispatched the EDAT on a three-day tour of Maine mills, forestry operations and communities suffering because of the recent spate of mill closings.

“We wanted to let the assessment team know about what is happening with the

forest economy of northern Maine,” Dorsey states and countries competition-wise, along said. “We wanted to impart some of the good with providing funds to hire a forest things that are happening up here with engineering consulting company to conduct investment, diversification and research geospatial forest resource inventory analysis and development being commercialized.[k] to supplement the survey currently But we also being used. wanted to Finally, “Wewantedtolettheassessmentteamknowaboutwhatis highlight it in light of could be a lot happeningwiththeforesteconomyofnorthernMaine.’We Maine’s lack better if of an existing wantedtoimpartsomeofthegoodthingsthatarehappening economic deMaine had a plan, lower up here with investment, diversification and research and velopment e n e r g y platform, the BOB DORSEY group recprices and a development beingcommercialized.” more secure ommended workforce. The state also has to do more to providing funds to enable an outside encourage investment to start a new plant or consulting company to perform a thorough a new project.” objective study and analysis of successful Dorsey said specific recommendations states who are excelling in attracting from the cluster members included assisting investment capital, businesses to locate in Maine by providing funds to conduct a their state and have increased jobs within benchmarking study to highlight where the their state while growing their already Maine industry sits relative to other forested embedded companies.

“From the feedback received following our presentation, I believe all three of us, Bob, Don and I, interacted with several of the EDAT federal representatives who were eager to provide additional information and showed interest in assisting us from their particular department standpoint,” said Saucier. “I believe our message was heard and internalized.”

“State government will be key in moving the agenda along,” added Tardie. “Absent state input and management, a big question as to who, what and how this process will be implemented exists.”

More than 30 forest products industry representatives, bankers, educators, economic and workforce development officials and others make up the Northern Forest Products Industry Cluster. The cluster was formed with the goals of increasing value added processing (current and potential), create jobs and grow the forest economy of Aroostook and Maine.

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FOREST PRODUCTS • Bangor Daily News Special Advertising Section • October 21, 2016

BY DANA DORAN EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR OF THE PLC OF MAINE

The Professional Logging Contractors (PLC) of Maine will continue working to preserve forest [g] access in the Katahdin Region for Maine’s hardworking loggers following the announcement that President Barack Obama has signed an executive order creating a national monument there.

The President signed the order creating the Katahdin Woods and Waters National Monument Aug. 24, a day after landowner Roxanne Quimby’s Elliotsville Plantation Inc. (EPI) transferred 87,563 acres of her property in Maine to the federal government following decades of controversy and strong opposition from the region’s forest products industry.

While we are disappointed with the decision to proceed with establishment of a national monument in the Katahdin Region, we will focus our efforts on ensuring that this decision does not cost jobs in Maine’s logging industry. Maine loggers need reliable and safe access to the area’s

working forests and the PLC will work closely with our Congressional delegation, the communities surrounding the proposed monument and the U.S. National Park Service to address the very real access and road safety issues this monument creates.

The PLC has opposed the creation of a national monument or park in Maine’s north woods due to negative effects it will have on the logging industry. The establishment of the monument is expected to have an immediate chilling effect on future investment in the region’s forest products industry. As the monument is developed, safety issues surrounding logging trucks sharing roads with tourists are expected to arise, and limits on access through and around the monument’s borders are expected to hinder logging operations across the region.

Some of these risks and potential losses have even been substantiated by EPI’s own studies.

According to a 2015 wood flow study commissioned by EPI, “It is hard to believe

that given en a National Park scenario that the part of this responsible management. private land nd along the park would remain in Maine’s loggers are a vital part of the timber production.” This would jeopardize the state’s forest products sector, which is worth livelihoods of over 50 PLC members’ businesses an estimated $8 billion annually. located within a 60-mile radius of Millinocket and Dana Doran is the executive director of the over 1,000 of their employees. These jobs will not Professional Logging Contractors of Maine. To learn be replaced in number or salary by the jobs that more about the PLC go to www.maineloggers.com. “may” be created in a national monument scenario.

Maine loggers working in the Katahdin Region supply the raw material not only for pulp and paper mills, but biomass electric facilities, sawmills, wood pellet plants, and producers of plywood and fiberboard in Maine and beyond.

Supporters of the monument may be under the illusion that the parcel donated to the federal government, as well as the surrounding land, is a pristine wilderness of old growth trees and undisturbed acres. In fact, most of the region has been a working forest for generations. The beauty people see there today is a result of PHOTO CREDIT | BDN responsible forest management and logging. Doran addresses a group interested in training to use Far from destroying the forests, loggers are logging equipment at a gathering in Millinocket.

FOREST PRODUCTS • Bangor Daily News Special Advertising Section • October 21, 2016

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80paperindustryjobscreatedinDownEastmillexpansion

BY BILL TROTTER BDN STAFF

BAILEYVILLE, Maine — Rolls of tissue were passed around the dozens of people gathered outside the local pulp mill Wednesday, Aug. 31, but not because anybody was upset.

The atmosphere[h] was festive as the crowd celebrated the formal opening of the St. Croix Tissue mill adjacent to Woodland Pulp.

The expansion of the facility into the tissue market was hailed Wednesday by officials as a breath of fresh air in Washington County, long one of the more economically challenged areas of Maine, and in the state’s troubled pulp and paper industry, which has seen the closure of several mills in the past few years.

“The pulp and paper industry doesn’t get many opportunities like this,” Marco L’Italien, vice president of mill owner International Grand Investment Corp., told the crowd.

The opening of the St. Croix Tissue facility and its two machines — one of which began production in March and the other earlier

in August — has created 80 new jobs at a manufacturing site that lost hundreds over the years as paper production in Maine has dwindled.

“That [represents] about a $6 million annual payroll,” Scott Beal, spokesman for Woodland Pulp, said.

That is in addition to the 320 people — and the $25 million in wages they earn each year — who already work on the pulp production side.

Beal said the $150 million expansion project, which was announced in March 2014, is expected to result in 126 metric tons of tissue being manufactured annually in Baileyville.

L’Italien said the mill’s output is estimated to be enough to supply 5 million people each year with tissue products — about the same number of people who live in Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont and Canada’s

Maritimes Provinces.

St. Croix Tissue will produce a range of products, from paper napkins and towels to bathroom and facial tissue, for national and international markets, according to its website.

Gov. Paul LePage, who visited the new tissue mill Tuesday, released a statement Wednesday, saying that “opportunists” who showed up for the cameras on Wednesday should take the time to learn about the specific challenges facing Maine’s forest products industry. He said energy costs remain too high and that public policy needs to be adjusted to reduce the cost of timber in Maine.

“We cannot take investments like [International Grand Investment Corp.’s] for granted,” LePage wrote. “Investment goes where it is appreciated — not just on celebratory days like today but also how we

help them every day on the difficult issues of navigating federal bureaucracy, unforeseen spikes in input costs and the next challenge that surely will confront a competitive industry.”

Members of Maine’s congressional delegation who attended Wednesday’s event struck a more upbeat tone with their remarks.

Sen. Susan Collins said that, despite upheaval in the industry and the mill closures in much of the state, the expansion in Baileyville shows that Mainers still can have careers in making pulp and paper. And, she added, the expertise and dedication that the mill workers bring to their jobs will help ensure its success.

“There is still a bright future for the forest products industry right here in the great state of Maine,” Collins said.

Sen. Angus King praised LePage for making two trips to China to help convince International Grand Investment Corp. to make the $150 million investment in bringing tissue manufacturing to Baileyville. He said the investment will help sustain the economy

see Down East mill Page 22

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FOREST PRODUCTS • Bangor Daily News Special Advertising Section • October 21, 2016

Down East mill from Page 21 of Washington County for decades to come.

“This is going to make a difference for another generation,” King said.

Rep. Bruce Poliquin, who grew up in the Waterville area, noted that many of the mills that employed his relatives when he was young are no more. He echoed some of LePage’s concerns, saying

that electricity costs need to be reduced, the availability of natural gas needs to be expanded in Maine, and regulations need to be fair and predictable to help make the state’s business climate more competitive.

“Government can’t create jobs,” Poliquin said. “Government can help our job creators create jobs.”

Advice for taking on the challenges facing forest industries

BY LLOYD IRLAND FOREST PRODUCTS INDUSTRY CONSULTANT

PHOTO CREDIT | BDN The

mill in Baileyville.

things out of solid wood, of course, uses different materials and machines, but many generic issues, such as “just in time” and lean manufacturing, apply widely. We should not fence off the wood sector from Maine’s manufacturing economy.

The forest industries in Maine and the Northeast have faced unprecedented challenges. Paper[i] mill shutdowns have occurred that would not normally WE CAN’T DEREGULATE OUR WAY OUT accompany a national economic recovery. OF THIS. Last week, a federal Economic Development Land use rules, air and water emissions controls Assessment Team visited Maine. If they or forest practice regulations did not cause the were to ask my advice, here are some problems we are facing. Still, we need improved things I’d ask them to consider: regulatory systems to improve predictability, WOOD PRODUCTS MANUFACTUR- clarity and timeliness of decisions. But the current ING IS MANUFACTURING. administration in Augusta has worked hard to earn Over decades, our view has been far too the distrust of environmental advocates and others, narrow, built on the assumption that there is so that even modest and reasonable suggestions something exceptional about wood products generate howls of protest. Many firms have been manufacturing. I call this “wood products frustrated by NIMBY barriers raised at local levels exceptionalism.” It is hurting us. Making -- Augusta or Washington cannot fix this.

FOREST PRODUCTS • Bangor Daily News Special Advertising Section • October 21, 2016

WE CAN’T TRADE BARRIER OUR WAY OUT OF THIS.

Journal of Forestry outline the severe contractions in U.S. demand for paper and wood Trade conflicts are first and foremost a products. Together, they depict a restrained symptom of static or declining markets and U.S. demand outlook at least in the near term. of absolute cost differences. Manufacturers I think the authors have it right, so let’s avoid who depend heavily on protection against policies that bet against them. imports are in a chronic position of BE HONEST ABOUT MAINE’S STRENGTHS instability. The battle never ends.

AND LIMITATIONS. WE CAN’T R&D OUR WAY OUT OF THIS. Putting some analytical clarity onto Maine’s We can’t afford new technology in the strengths and weaknesses will be a key task. Vague abstract. We need technologies that are sentimental mush is not needed. Some advantages cost-effective and that solve a manufacturer important in the past have now vanished. The or customer problem today without relying on world does not owe us jobs, tax revenues and subsidized end use markets. In the past, there prosperity because of our large stock of biomass. has been plenty of “R” but not enough “D.” Global forest-based industries are undergoing IN THE LONG RUN, WE CAN’T TAX BREAK serious restructuring. But I never predicted the OUR WAY OUT OF THIS. market downturn of the mid-2000s, the gigantic Virtually every new business development or strides that enabled China to outpace U.S. paper expansion nowadays is accompanied by a big tax production by 2008, or the collapse of the Soviet break or government grant. Communities are Union. All of us so-called “experts” completely desperately giving away their tax base to attract a missed the unprecedented decline in usage of few jobs. And then residents protest that property newsprint and printing and writing paper. taxes are too high. How will roads and services be THE CRITICAL ASSET IS PEOPLE, paid for if we give away tax revenues in advance? NOT TREES. THE NATIONAL ECONOMY WILL NOT Of all the assets often mentioned, the critical GROW OUR WAY OUT OF THIS. one is people. There are people ready and willing Two articles in the July 2016 issue of the to work hard to get ahead. Finding young people

interested in careers in manufacturing or in building new small businesses will be difficult.

But look at all the young people entering the craft beer and brewpub industry. Why couldn’t this start to happen in wood products?

Training will be important. But it will need to be more carefully planned and strategically implemented and more tightly linked with employers. In today’s high production logging machines, it takes six months for a good operator to learn it to the point that they can earn a return for the owner.

A trade journal clipping in my files quotes a Finnish executive: “Finland needs the forest industry. The forest industry does not need Finland.” That statement seems applicable to Maine. The government cannot make the forest industry need Maine. Only hard work by Maine people, landowners, entrepreneurs, landowners, trade groups and individual companies can make this happen, all supported by sensible public policies and well-targeted information and well-designed training and R&D programs.

Lloyd C. Irland, a forest products industry consultant, is president of The Irland Group based in Wayne.

“Of all the assets often mentioned, the critical one is people. There are people ready and willing to work hard to get ahead.”

2016

Maine

Forest

Products Industry

2016 Maine Forest Products Industry is published by the BDN. Designer: Josie Davis

A Special Advertising Section of the Bangor Daily News • Friday, October 21, 2016

advertising@bangordailynews.com 207.990.8105

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FOREST PRODUCTS • Bangor Daily News Special Advertising Section • October 21, 2016