Logging & Sawmilling Journal - August/September 2017

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August/September 2017

Special Insert: CANADIAN MILL MAP

FIGHTING TO REDUCE forest fires and their impact MULTI-YEAR UPGRADE for Weyerhaeuser Princeton WITH THIS ISSUE… The Edge!

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FEATURES August/September 2017 Volume 48 • No. 5 Editor Paul MacDonald Contributing Editors Jim Stirling Tony Kryzanowski George Fullerton Tech Update Editor Tony Kryzanowski

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On the Cover:

The Princeton, B.C. sawmill of Weyerhaeuser Canada has seen some major equipment upgrades in the last few years—but there is more to come, as the sawmill continues its efforts to make operations more efficient, and reduce costs. The two-line sawmill in the B.C. Interior turns out upwards of 300 million board feet of SPF lumber annually, and is undergoing a multi-year upgrade (Cover photo by Paul MacDonald).

10 Combo mill upgrade project

The Gilbert Smith Forest Products sawmill in Barriere, B.C. recently completed a lumber grading/sorting project that combines the lumber flow from the mill and planer through the same system, which required a good amount of ingenuity and resourcefulness since it involved combining new and used equipment.

18 Alberta forest industry update

Just in time for the Alberta Forest Products Association AGM in Jasper, Logging and Sawmilling Journal takes a look at what’s going on in the Alberta forest industry, and how the industry is dealing with the duties on lumber going to the industry’s #1 customer: the U.S.

24 Great equipment fit in the Gaspé

A new Ponsse ScorpionKing harvester is proving to be a great fit for brothers Jean François and Steve Lemieux, and their harvesting operation in Quebec’s Gaspé Region.

30 Mill Maintenance

Automatic lubrication is the best defense against mill downtime, say Roland Lorenz and David McDougall, of the Beka Group.

36 Major upgrade for Weyerhaeuser Princeton

Weyerhaeuser’s Princeton, B.C. sawmill is in the midst of a major upgrade that includes the front end of the mill and primary breakdown equipment.

44 Three important

words in B.C. roadbuilding: diversify, diversify, diversify

B.C. roadbuilding outfit Black River Contracting does a fair amount of work for the forest industry, but company owner Kelly Sunderman finds it’s best to diversify their workload—and they may find themselves doing some work associated with the Kinder Morgan pipeline expansion, if it gets the go-ahead.

50 A Finnish focus in the forest

Ontario’s Shuniah Forest Products carries out logging the Finnish-Canadian family way, with a strong focus on their employees, teamwork—and their award-winning safety program.

61 The Edge

Included in this edition of The Edge, Canada’s leading publication on research in the forest industry, are stories from the Canadian Wood Fibre Centre, Alberta Innovates and Alberta Agriculture.

66 The Last Word

Jim Stirling says it’s now a bit of a waiting game for the smoke to clear in the B.C. Interior—and on a new softwood lumber agreement with the U.S.

DEPARTMENTS

Calendar............................................ 8 Tech Update.................................... 54 Suppliernewsline............................. 58 Classifieds....................................... 64 Ad Index / Subscriptions............ 64-65

Logging & Sawmilling Journal - August/September 2017

3

spotlight

Working to keep the risks of

CLIMATE WARMING at bay

Warming climates up the risk of forest fires, and one community forest, in Burns Lake, B.C., is implementing a fire mitigation project that will help protect the town’s forest industry—and social assets.

By Jim Stirling

F

orest fires in a warming climate have assumed new and potentially disastrous dimensions. Add swathes of dead pine trees into the landscape as is the case in many parts of the British Columbia Interior and the fire risk can dramatically increase.

Management of the Burns Lake Community Forest (BLCF), ever mindful of such wildfire danger, designed and implemented this summer a fire mitigation project to protect a range of forest industry and social assets. The project includes creating a fire break that incorporates a forest and landscape reassessment and rehabilitation process. When completed later this year, the project will help protect

4

from wildfire a sawmill, a re-man facility, a wood pellet manufacturing plant, a power line and a nearby highway. And the project should re-invigorate the remaining forest.

The BLCF sought additional funding for the fire mitigation project from the Forest Enhancement Society of B.C. The provincial government agency was formed in 2016 and is based in Kamloops, B.C. It was endowed with an initial $85 million budget and charged with advancing the environmental and resource stewardship of B.C.’s forests by preventing and mitigating the impact of wildfires, improving damaged forests and helping create jobs in rural areas. The Burns Lake area project proved a good fit with those objectives.

“The Forest Enhancement Society has several criteria for project funding suit-

ability with three key ones surrounding wildfire risk, wildlife habitat enhancement and fibre recovery,” outlined Frank Varga, general manager for the Burns Lake Community Forest. The project area south and east of Burns Lake village lies within the community forest boundaries. It is an area untouched by previous forest industry activity and is more than 200 metres wide and averaging six to eight kilometres long. Physically, the subject area is shaped a little like an upside down dog’s leg, described Varga. The forest cover is comprised primarily of aspen, dead pine and spruce.

The area’s forest fire risk rating is elevated by the proximity of the recently

Logging & Sawmilling Journal - August/September 2017

to page 6

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spotlight

from page 4 rebuilt Babine Forest Products sawmill, the adjacent Sheraton Custom Milling operation and a nearby wood pellet manufacturing plant owned by Pinnacle Renewable Energy Inc. A power transmission line also passes through part of the fire mitigation project area and Highway

16, the main east-west trans-provincial highway through central B.C. to the north coast is located just a handful of kilometres to the north. Varga said patches within the subject area have been identified for treatment; some to create a wildlife enhancement mosaic and others dedicated to wood fibre recovery.

The BLCF has been contributing to

the economy of the B.C. central interior village since 1998. It was one of the first four community forests in B.C. to be offered a pilot project licence by the provincial government. It was a five year agreement encompassing about 20,000 to page 8

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Logging & Sawmilling Journal - August/September 2017

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spotlight from page 6 hectares of Crown land around Burns Lake.

The BLCF became the first in B.C. to be offered a 25 year renewable forest tenure in 2004, to replace the pilot project agreement. Today partnership organizations within the BLCF remain the Burns Lake Band; the Office of the Wet’suwet’en Hereditary Chiefs and the Wet’suwet’en First Nation. The community forest maintains a close working relationship with the Ministry of Forests, Lands and Natural Resource Operations.

The BLCF’s activities are directed by a six member board comprised of local people.

The BLCF will have an AAC of around 220,000 cubic metres/year for the next four years. The enhanced cut is designed to help salvage remaining dead lodgepole pine trees for commodity lumber production while that use remains feasible. Other viable uses will be sought for the remaining material, added Varga.

The BLCF has recently embarked on a quest to earn Forest Stewardship Council accreditation for its forestry activities and products. Varga reckons an FSC certification will fit well as the BLCF strives

8

to expand its flexibility and diversify its markets. “The FSC places a high emphasis on what’s happening on the land base,” amplified Varga. Being a world renowned certifier can help open new market development doors.

“As the mountain pine beetle epidemic era winds down in the B.C. Interior, there’s a transition period where everyone will be looking for volume,” said Varga. To help create a timely and accurate view of the present resources within the 92,000 hectares of the BLCF, work continued this summer on a comprehensive timber supply review, he explained. This process involves a LIDAR aided examination of the BLCF’s operable land base. LIDAR is a remote, airborne sensing system that can collect fast, accurate terrain data. “We are collecting that data and moving it into a forest management model,” he explained.

As an area based tenure holder, this information will form the foundation for and a road map to a sustainable community forest, he believes. “We can help influence the future with detailed five, 10 and 15 year harvesting plans that can manage the land base for all the community’s values.”

CALENDAR September 27-29

Alberta Forest Products Association 75th AGM, Jasper, AB 780-452-2841 www.albertaforestproducts.ca October 4-5

Canada Woodworking West, Abbotsford, BC

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National Hardwood Lumber Assoc.

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108th Pacific Logging Congress Convention, Scottsdale, Arizona 503-383-6474 www.pacificloggingcongress.org November 8-10

NAWLA Traders Market, Chicago, IL 800-527-8258, www.nawla.org November 8-10

ExpoCorma 2017, Concepción, Chile

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Logging & Sawmilling Journal - August/September 2017

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millupgrade

Combo grading/sorting projec

The Gilbert Smith Forest Products sawmill in Barriere, B.C. recently completed a lumber grading/sorting project that combines the lumber flow from the mill and planer through the same system, which required a good amount of ingenuity and resourcefulness since it involved combining new and used equipment.

By Paul MacDonald

A

fter catching its breath after a major upgrade at the front end of the mill several years ago, the Gilbert Smith Forest Products sawmill in Barriere, B.C. launched another upgrade—but this time it’s towards the back of the sawmill.

The upgrade this time at this Western Red Cedar mill in the town of Barriere, about 70 kilometres north of Kamloops, in B.C’s Southern Interior, involves a lumber grading/sorting project that combines the lumber flow from the mill and planer through the same system.

Gilbert Smith FP is one of a small number of mid-sized independent sawmills left in B.C. As such, it doesn’t have access 10

to large amounts of funding for capital expenditures, like a West Fraser or Canfor operation. The mill, its management and employees take great pride in being resourceful. And as with the previous upgrade three years’ back, that resourcefulness was reflected in the careful and strategic purchase and installation of used mill equipment, and marrying it with select new equipment and process systems for this latest upgrade, completed earlier this year.

About 60 per cent of the additional equipment is used, and about 40 per cent is new. Tapping into the latest in technology, all of the controls and optimization equipment is new.

Greg Smith, President of Gilbert Smith FP, and a grandson of the founder of the

family-run company, explained that the 2014 upgrade prepared them well for doing this latest project.

“That upgrade really put us on a solid footing, to be confident enough to take on this size of project, which is quite a bit larger,” Smith said. “It also made it clear that one of the things we needed to do was improve the back end of the mill.”

Both projects position the Gilbert Smith FP mill to better get through the inevitable downturns in a cyclical industry.

Smith, who was assisted in managing the upgrade by project manager Chris Newton, said there were a lot of details, and moving parts, to the project. He noted it had different dynamics than the previous upgrade, in that they were assembling

Logging & Sawmilling Journal - August/September 2017

millupgrade

ct

the new and new-to-the-mill equipment involved in the middle of the millyard.

“We considered the lumber grading/ sorting project to almost be greenfield in the sense that we were able to separate it from the mill operation, and that it did not impact the mill,” said Smith. “The plan was to fit it around the planer building without interrupting any production.”

And the plan was successful in achieving that—but not without a huge number of logistical details coming together.

“We are talking about a whole new building, and a whole new line of equipment,” explained Newton. “But we kept the equipment separate until the very end, when we brought the new equipment over, broke the existing connections, and then routed the wood into the new set-up.”

Smith said that, big picture, the project reflected a complete philosophy change in the mill’s business model.

“What we were looking at is that we’re a one shift sawmill, and we run a two-shift planer. It started with that we have to do to page 12 Logging & Sawmilling Journal - August/September 2017

11

millupgrade from page 11 an upgrade to our planer, to get things in balance.”

He noted that they have always been a green lumber producer. Though they have a planer, they have no kiln capacity.

“We were basically utilizing the planer as a grading/sorting line,” said Smith.

Two of their markets are rough reman blanks, and a dressed, surfaced four side (S4S) green decking product. That rough reman market has been growing in recent years—the rough cedar product is of great appeal to their reman customers.

“The scenario was that we needed to run all this wood through the planer, and we needed to upgrade the planer because we can’t get enough wood through it. But we were not doing anything to the reman blanks other than trimming, grading and sorting.”

Smith heard of a mill elsewhere that had an optimized trimmer running both green and planed wood at the same time. “It sat at the back of my head, and I wondered, ‘why aren’t we doing that, in one pass’.”

Being in the B.C. Interior, Smith has

12

Key to the success of the upgrade project at the Gilbert Smith mill was the scheduling and coordinating that was being done, keeping the project on track, despite the severe weather they saw in the B.C. Interior this past winter. Another big achievement of the project is that it was done safely, with no lost time accidents. to do a lot of driving, and it was on one of these drives—“windshield time” as he describes it—that the solution came. It involved new equipment, a new transfer system and a new building. That night, he says, he went to the mill site and started measuring it for the new set-up.

The end result is that 70 per cent of their rough production, which had been going through the planer to get sorted and graded, now bypasses the planer. “We now run the planer more for specialty

items, such as decking for the home centres.” But the planed wood, and rough lumber, is still part of the same line. The two lines go through an upper or lower grading station, and then merge to go through the scanner optimizer together.

Smith said he toured sorting operations at a few mills, and he knew they had to come up with something creative. They picked up a used 24 foot, 70-bin sorter, and did some modifications to it. They used BID Construction to remove it from a

Logging & Sawmilling Journal - August/September 2017

mill operation in Prince George, B.C. BID acted as both a used equipment supplier, as well as a remover of equipment, for most of the used equipment on the project.

“We came up with a pretty ingenious way of cutting the 24-foot sorter apart, and making it a 16 foot sorter. We welded it together in a jig, and then hauled six overlapped bins at a time down on the tracks.”

Smith and Newton said they knew they needed to come up with a solution for handling the dressed cedar. “I had seen tray sorters and soft-drop sorters,” said Smith. “Tray sorters are the ultimate, but they take up a lot of space.” They also wanted to have side by side sorter systems. They ended up picking up a sling sorter out of Alberta. They added a couple of bins to the end, and now have a 41 bin sling sorter.

“So with the new system, we now have a combined 111 sorts, a big increase over the previous 30-bin system we had,” explained Smith.

“That means that all the rough lumber production direct from the sawmill can be trimmed and sorted to length, in multiple grades, all in one pass. And that gives us enough capacity so that when we have planer runs, we can handle the sorts for that with the bins in the sling sorter.”

The planer dressed product going in the sling sorter is from eight to 20 feet, and the regular sorter handles six to 16 foot product.

Among the new equipment making the new set-up possible is a wrap-around from Mill Tech Industries, and a star wheel

system and transfers from Machinage Piché Inc. The used Mill Tech unscrambler they had was stretched a bit by Salem Contracting, which also added a few more features. In addition to this, Salem was the main contractor for civil and mechanical work on the project.

Additional equipment included a Comact stacker sourced out of Mackenzie, B.C., a secondary hoist they got out of a Canfor operation in Quesnel and a backlog deck out of Prince George. The new equipment for the upgrade came principally from Machinage Piché Inc. and Mill Tech Industries.

The mill acted as prime contractor, with assistance, as noted, from Salem Contracting. Metal Structure Concepts (MSC) of Kelowna did the new building. Smith noted that extensive excavation was involved, and a lot of old sawmill debris was removed. Some 1700 loads of gravel went into the foundation of the new building.

Handling the electrical was Spark Industries, of Kamloops. A group of local fabricators, who really stepped up to the plate, said Smith, were also involved.

Helping to make all this equipment work, and the whole set-up come together, was consultant Bruce Grunert, of Techfor Services Ltd. “Bruce was taking what were essentially our rough drawings and moving them to a very detailed level,” says Smith. “He was working on doing the finer details, as to page 14

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millupgrade from page 13 we went along. Bruce was great at slotting in all the used equipment, and making sure it would work together.

“The big building blocks in the upgrade were fine—it was really the integration that was challenging,” added Smith. “It’s where you hand off wood that you can get glitches.” The glitches were minimal, says Smith. “Overall, it has now given us the flow we needed.”

The line is designed with a top speed of 105 lugs a minute, and they are now operating at about 70 lugs a minute. “So we have good upside,” says Smith.

Key to the entire project were the controls and optimization, which came from

Raptor Integration Inc., of Canoe, B.C. “We spent a lot of time discussing and reviewing what we wanted to do in optimization,” said Smith. “We’re a Western Red Cedar operation, and we’re high value. There is still not a bulletprooof vision scanning system for cedar—it’s not quite there yet.

“We did a review of what the graders were actually grading out and we ended up with a grade mark reader in front, and we’ve certainly been happy with that,” says Smith. “We cut a lot of small wood, that is really our bread and butter, and wane is usually the defect, so the geometric scanner works flawlessly with that.”

When it came time to pulling the whole new system together, they eased into it.

There was a belt that pivoted up and down that could direct flow into the new line or the old system. “We started using that, to see if things worked,” said Smith.

“It was a bit of a challenge before we completely cut the cord, and moved to the new system.” They started at around 50 per cent, and moved up from there.

Troubleshooting was tough during construction, since last winter was so severe in the B.C. Interior. “Sometimes we did not know if the problem was just related to the cold,” says Smith.

They started limited production in November 2016, but were still sorting out some issues—and it was tough to do with extended periods of -20 degree weather.

“Normally, we have a couple of days of cold weather, and then it moderates,” said Smith. “But it didn’t do that this past winter. The cold weather just stayed.”

Not that they had any control in this regard, but perhaps ramping things up in the cold weather wasn’t altogether a bad thing, says Smith.

“There was the pain of starting up in the cold weather, and we kind of had to take it on the chin for the start-up. But we now have a clear idea of our cold weather problems.

If we started up in the summer, we’d still have to find out how the line works in cold weather.”

He added that they now have a program of what they need to do, to address some of the cold weather issues. “We’re in a better position now, so in some ways the cold weather was helpful.”

Construction proceeded alongside regular operations. For the better part of a year, the mill was in full production while the new project came together.

“During the transition, we had the old sorter running, so we could put wood over to the new line, and still use the old sorter. We just gradually kept shifting more and more volume over to the new line.

“On the last construction weekend, we pretty much completely cut the cord on the sawmill side, and all the flow started coming over, and we started with the new set-up on the Monday.”

The project itself took about a year, from March 2016 to March 2017.

Key to it all was the scheduling to page 16

14

Logging & Sawmilling Journal - August/September 2017

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millupgrade from page 14 and co-ordinating that was being done, keeping the project on track, despite the weather. “It was very challenging to keep everything lined up, but we managed to keep to a very tight timeline,” said Smith.

Another big achievement of the project, he added, is that it was done safely, with no lost time accidents.

“We managed the flow of everything that came into the yard—the fact that the project was separate, and that we weren’t right inside the mill, made it easier. But everyone, from our people to the many contractors on site, did a very good job.”

With the additional equipment now in place, the mill is now working on increasing the capacity of its maintenance group.

“We are also making sure we are connected for online maintenance troubleshooting for the new equipment,” says Smith. “We have great access to bring Raptor online, so they can see exactly what is happening with our controls and optimization, and we can get the support we need.”

They are now getting to where they want to be, and the before and after

descriptions from Smith underscore just how big of a change there has been to the mill operation.

“Really what we were following before was the industry SPF standard: doing a rough product sort in the sawmill, piling it into a rough inventory yard, then putting it through green into the planer.

“But we were using that approach even though we don’t have dry kilns, and are a green cedar mill. So we had working capital tied up in inventory, and there could be some degradation due to weather, both in summer and winter. The model was to eliminate that, and produce lumber in one pass.

“Now, if we need to dress wood, we’ll take it and stack it under cover—and when we’re ready, we’ll do that run through the planer. So we’re only dressing the wood we need for those orders.”

The fall down grades don’t go through the planer. “The remanners we work with like that better, it gives them more wood to work with.”

The end result, says Smith, is they are giving customers exactly what they want, and are doing it more efficiently.

“What we are producing now is a finished product in one pass, graded, packaged and ready to go to the customer.”

Added to that are the benefits of optimization, and getting the maximum lumber value out of their high cost cedar logs.

And it also creates business opportunities, since the planer is no longer a bottleneck.

“We can take more product and use it to do more specialty programs, which did not fit in before. Now, we can look at doing 20,000 feet of this or that product, and we won’t interrupt the flow.”

Being flexible and creative with production will help position the mill well for the next downturn, when it inevitably comes, says Smith. The mill wants to produce a reasonably high volume of product, but also a variety of products.

They do not want to paint themselves in a corner of being a high volume, limited product option mill.

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industryreview

ALBERTA

FOREST INDUSTRY: firing on all cylinders The 75th anniversary of the Alberta Forest Products Association AGM and conference, being held in September in Jasper, finds the industry firing on all cylinders—but there are some concerns.

By Tony Kryzanowski

T

he revival of the American housing market, a favorable exchange rate on the Canadian dollar, and continued high demand for pulp and paper in Asia have Alberta’s forest industry now firing on all cylinders.

18

And there is significant investment underway in the province in both conventional production facilities and industries that supply ‘greener’ wood-based products.

Paul Whittaker, President and CEO of the Alberta Forest Products Association (AFPA), says that there has been about $2 billion of capital investment by companies

over the past five years, with the potential for another $2 billion over the next five years.

The American softwood lumber tariff notwithstanding, business has been good within all sectors of the province’s forest sector at a time when Albertans need better economic news, given the downturn

Logging & Sawmilling Journal - August/September 2017

industryreview The OSB mill will provide 175 direct jobs.

Also in that neck of the woods, West Fraser Timber is spending $55 million to modernize High Prairie Forest Products, which it acquired from Buchanan Forest Products in 2014. Construction is expected to be completed by spring of 2018, setting the sawmill in line to produce about 180 million board feet of dimensional lumber per year. At present,

the sawmill employs 120 workers.

Pulp and paper producers in Alberta are also doing well economically.

“An awful lot of our pulp ends up in China and has for many years. Those markets have been strong in demand but fluctuating in price,” says Whittaker.

“Paper is a challenging product market given the reduction in newsprint demand. to page 20

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F w or w m w o .s re pr i in nfo ge r r- ma m ti ic on ro te go c. to co m

that has hit the oil and gas sector. But an overall turnaround is in the offing, as the Conference Board of Canada reports that Alberta will lead Canadian GDP growth in 2017 at 3.3 percent, recovering from a fall in GDP by 3.8 percent between 2015 and 2016.

Alberta’s forest industry has played its part in that revival.

The latest figures from Alberta Economic Development and Trade show that in 2016, shipments of forest products reached a record $5.6 billion, and exports were $2.9 billion. This puts an exclamation point on a trend noted by the AFPA, which reported four consecutive years of growth from 2012 to 2015.

Now should there be a quick resolution to the softwood lumber dispute as Canada enters negotiations for a new and improved North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), then there will be plenty of smiles at this year’s AFPA conference slated for Jasper in late September.

There is already cause for celebration, as the AFPA is celebrating the 75th anniversary of its annual general meeting and conference.

Whittaker says that although the industry has been on a positive trajectory, there has been some “nervousness” particularly among softwood lumber producers because of trade irritants and because the United States is the industry’s largest trade partner. While softwood producers were liable to pay the duties, the buoyant market for softwood lumber south of the border and exchange rate has helped to soften the financial blow of the tariff. Once instituted, the tariff had no immediate impact on production or jobs in Alberta.

Panelboard manufacturers, particularly those producing oriented strandboard (OSB), are currently doing very well because of the number of American housing starts.

High Prairie in northern Alberta has become a nexus for capital spending as Tolko has plans to re-open its idled oriented strandboard (OSB) plant west of town. It closed in 2008 when American housing starts fell to what the company calls a “generational low”.

“We’re very happy to get this mill back up and running—it’s good news for our people and for northern Alberta,” says Brad Thorlakson, President and CEO at Tolko. “We are confident that current improvements in market conditions are sustainable and that customer demand for Tolko oriented strandboard products will remain strong.”

19

industryreview from page 19 That requires very nimble companies, and certainly Alberta Newsprint Company in Alberta has been able to do well in a very tough market.”

One area that the forest industry generally has been developing more is novel, greener wood products as part of an overall diversification strategy. There have been steps taken in this direction in Alberta, with B.C.-based Pinnacle Renew-

able Energy announcing its intention to build an $85 million wood pellet plant west of Edmonton near the community of Entwistle to take advantage of a significant waste stream of residuals that exists in the province. The plant will produce about 400,000 tonnes of wood pellets per year, with completion slated for fall, 2017.

Once completed, this plant will be the eighth wood pellet plant for Pinnacle, with seven others located in British Columbia.

Pinnacle joined the AFPA on July 1.

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Also, West Fraser, Tolko, and others are working with chemical and panelboard adhesive manufacturer, Hexion, to develop new bio-based phenolic formaldehyde panelboard adhesive and press technology featuring lignin as the main ‘bio’ component, with research and development taking place in Edmonton. Lignin is a byproduct of the pulping process. This research holds considerable promise for the marketing of lignin, with West Fraser in good position to take the lead with its $30 million, high quality lignin recovery plant located at its Hinton pulp mill.

Hexion’s goal is to eventually achieve a bio-based panelboard resin with up to 50 per cent lignin content. The market for adhesive resin in Western Canada alone is about 130,000 tonnes per year. Hexion plans to have both a new lignin-based resin and press technology to apply the resin available by next year.

Finally, Capital Power, with its threeunit, coal-fired Genesee power plant 70 kilometres west of Edmonton, capable of producing 1200 megwatts of power, has announced its intention to begin co-firing woody biomass with its coal in 2018.

Whittaker says that the priorities for Alberta’s forestry companies right now are secure access to fibre, good communication and constructive relationships with all government levels, and trade.

Security of supply is dependent on a number of factors, says Whittaker, including challenges like a mountain pine beetle infestation, a series of bad forest fires in a Forest Management Area, and potential changes in legislative or regulatory government policy.

The province is unique in Canada as it is the front in the battle against the beetle infestation that has devastated B.C.’s Interior forest industry, and is moving east.

The beetle has taken hold in areas like Grande Prairie and Hinton, with indications of beetle activity as far east as the transition zone between the lodgepole pine and jackpine forest.

“What happened in B.C. is an object lesson to us that you take it seriously and you carry on the fight,” says Whittaker, adding that it is a serious situation with one of the main challenges being that a prime corridor where the beetle is entering Alberta is through Jasper National Park. The AFPA continues to put the pressure on the federal government to ensure that they recognize just how serious a threat this is, and how important it is for

to page 22 20

Logging & Sawmilling Journal - August/September 2017

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industryreview

from page 20 them to support beetle control measures that are critical to maintain Alberta’s forestry sector.

Industry wants to maintain good communication and constructive relationships at the municipal level because its facilities provide considerable local employment

in small communities throughout the province, with the provincial government because industry activity takes place on Crown land, and with the federal government because of their role in negotiating trade agreements.

“Trade challenges are hugely important to us and it’s not just the softwood lumber situation, it’s also NAFTA,” says Whittaker.

Given the tone from the United States leading into NAFTA negotiations, he adds that the forest industry, with its desire to secure a new softwood lumber agreement and maintain trade channels, does not want to get caught in the middle of what might turn into a negative negotiating environment.

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Logging & Sawmilling Journal - August/September 2017

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Quebeclogging

A new Ponsse ScorpionKing harvester is proving to be a great fit for brothers Jean François and Steve Lemieux, and their harvesting operation in Quebec’s Gaspé Region.

GREAT A EQUIPMENT FIT in the

By George Fullerton

Gaspé

The Lemieux Brothers’ Wisent forwarder (pictured) now has new Ponsse company, with the operation’s new ScorpionKing harvester.

24

fter just a few weeks operating their new Ponsse ScorpionKing harvester, brothers Jean François and Steve Lemieux were convinced that they made the right decision in purchasing the machine.

The Lemieux Brothers—based in Causapscal, Quebec, in the heart of the Gaspé Region—made a deal on the Ponsse ScorpionKing with ALPA Equipment of Balmoral, New Brunswick, this past fall, trading in their Ponsse Fox harvester.

The ScorpionKing harvester, along with their Wisent forwarder, then went to work under contract to Coopérative forestière de La Matapédia, harvesting on Crown land in the eastern region of the Gaspé, with logs going to the Gaston Cellard sawmill at Pointe-À-La-Garde, Quebec, located on the Bay de Chaleur coast.

The work commute from their home in Causapscal to the harvest site is a two-hour drive, followed by a two-hour drive home, after their ten hour shift. Long days, indeed.

Jean François and Steve operate the ScorpionKing on opposite shifts. Shifts run from 4 p.m. to 2 a.m., and 6 a.m. to 4 p.m.

Both Jean François and Steve are members of the Forest Cooperative, and they received financial support from the Co-op, initially to purchase the Ponsse Fox four years ago, and more recently, for the ScorpionKing.

The Lemieux Brothers, in their midthirties, represent a generation of knowledgeable and ambitious harvest contractors who want to build a future in forest harvesting and resource management.

And having the right gear is an important element in achieving success in the highly competitive logging arena.

The Lemieux Brothers operated various kinds of forestry equipment for logging

Logging & Sawmilling Journal - August/September 2017

Quebeclogging

TAKE CONTROL

OF YOUR LOG SUPPLY Steve Lemieux (right) and ALPA Equipment sales rep Jasmin LeBlanc, with the new Ponsse ScorpionKing harvester. After just a few weeks operating their new ScorpionKing, brothers Steve and Jean François Lemieux were convinced they made the right decision in purchasing the machine. contractors in the Gaspé prior to establishing Les Enterprises Lemieux. They were attracted to the Ponsse brand with its reputation for operator comfort and production performance.

Despite their high degree of skill, knowledge, ambition and business skills, young entrepreneurs like the Lemieux’s face a very difficult challenge to obtain the financing necessary to purchase expensive harvesting gear.

Coopérative forestière de La Matapédia general manager Simon Roy came to their assistance with an offer to support financing for a one-third stake in the new ScorpionKing. The deal sees the Lemieux Brothers contracting for the Co-op, as the machine is paid down. At the end of the

financing period, the ownership of the ScorpionKing goes to the Lemieux.

Coopérative forestière de La Matapédia was established in 1994, and currently employs seventy-nine workers, seventy-two of which are members of the Cooperative. The Co-op provides forestry contract services to Crown forest and other forest industry operations, including mechanized commercial thinning, mechanized timber harvesting (200,000 cubic metres), manual timber harvesting, timber transport, technical supervision of forestry operations, forest road construction and maintenance, and forest biomass production. to page 26

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Quebeclogging from page 25

The ScorpionKing cab offers plenty of visibility for operators.

The Co-op also manages two subsidiaries. Bois CFM is a relatively small sawmill operation which manufactures pallet components. The second, Energy CFM, specializes in the production and sale of forest biomass for residential, industrial and institutional heating.

Another organization, Vision Biomass Quebec, was launched in 2015. This entity represents Co-ops like Coopérative forestière de La Matapédia, along with municipalities, industries, and environmental and rural development organizations. Their vision is to create 16,000 jobs through development of forest biomass heating to replace some 400 million litres (annually) of oil used to heat industrial facilities, municipal and institutional buildings throughout the province.

Co-op Matapedia is a member of La Fédération Québécoise des coopératives forestières (FQCF), which represents forest workers’ cooperatives throughout Quebec. The first co-operative syndicate was founded in Grande-Vallée in the Gaspé in

1938. The co-operatives contract to harvest and sell wood, and many of the coops also own a sawmill and are involved in other forestry related enterprises. In 1946, there were twenty-one forest worker cooperatives and that number grew to 167 individual co-ops in 1970. Today, some 60 forestry co-ops remain active.

Shortly after getting the machine, Les enterprises Lemieux were operating their new ScorpionKing and their Wisent forwarder on former Consolidated-Bathurst timber limits, doing primarily partial cut thinning on forest land that has been regenerated by a combination of balsam fir natural regeneration and fill-planted Norway spruce.

The Gaspé is a very rugged landscape on the remnants of the ancient Appalachian Mountain range. The landscape is cut by fast flowing streams and rivers which run either south to the Bay de Chaleur or north and east to the lower St. Lawrence River and the Gulf of St. Lawrence.

The steep slopes which were considered inoperable in the past today contain a good deal of high value timber, and with modern technology like the ScorpionKing teamed with the Wisent forwarder, these areas are now generating a good deal of wood supply.

It is in this steep and challenging terrain where the abilities of the ScorpionKing shine, according to the Lemieux Brothers.

The ScorpionKing offers advantages over the Fox, including increased power and traction, and an 11 metre reach with its H6 head.

The ScorpionKing shares the three section frame model with its less powerful Ponsse brother. The three oscillating frames allow the harvester cab to remain level in very uneven terrain, providing operator comfort and in turn greater productivity compared to other harvesters.

The double bogie design enhances the machine’s stability and provides traction on steep slopes.

Both models share a boom system that extends in a wishbone fashion from the base of the cab, and up over top of the cab, providing the operator with an unobstructed view of the worksite and a good deal of surrounding forest.

The ScorpionKing double bogie benefits from a patented weight shifting technology which makes the machine extremely stable, and provides the operator with a very high degree of comfort in rough terrain. to page 28

26

Logging & Sawmilling Journal - August/September 2017

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Quebeclogging from page 26

Equipped with the Ponsse H6 head, the ScorpionKing can work at a reach of 11 metres. The H6 has a maximum cutting diameter of 25.2 inches, which makes it a flexible head for either thinning or clearcut applications.

28

The ScorpionKing is powered by a six-cylinder Mercedes-Benz engine rated for 205 Kw. While the standard Scorpion functions with a single 210 cubic centimetre hydraulic pump, the ScorpionKing is fitted with two pumps rated at 145 and 190 cubic centimetres, providing the King model with greater dedicated oil flow to the head.

Equipped with the Ponsse H6 head, the ScorpionKing can work at a reach of 11 metres. The H6 has a maximum cutting diameter of 64 cm or 25.2 inches, which makes it a flexible head for either thinning or clearcut applications.

Jasmin LeBlanc, who represents ALPA throughout the Gaspé Region, explained that the primary advantage of the ScorpionKing, compared to the Fox, boils down to greater production. He pointed out that contractors recognize that higher production will provide their business with a stronger bottom line.

“The Fox is a great machine and the only mid-sized harvester with a double bogie,” he says. “The Fox has a four cylinder engine and has amazing fuel economy.

The ScorpionKing has more power with its six cylinder engine, and it burns a bit more fuel, but that power advantage allows it to produce a lot more wood.”

LeBlanc pointed out having a dedicated pump supplying the head means it can function and produce at its optimum capacity, regardless of other machine functions. He also noted the ScorpionKing’s computerized weight transfer system, which makes the machine very stable when harvesting even big trees. The increased power and stability also give the ScorpionKing an advantage compared to the Fox when operating on steep slopes.

The Gaspé Region weather—influenced by its adjacent marine environment—includes plenty of moisture and copious natural regeneration. The boreal forest is primarily balsam fir on better drained sites, and black spruce in wet sites.

The Lemieux Brothers were operating in a block which had been reforested, following its past harvest, by fill planting Norway spruce in balsam fir natural regeneration. The block was then tended with a pre-commercial thinning. They were doing a commercial thinning of the block, generating a mix of balsam fir and Norway spruce saw logs.

The Lemieux’s harvest block was a Crown block which is managed by BMMB (Bureau du mise en marché des bois).

The Norway spruce, unfortunately, is not graded similarly with native spruce species, due to its strength characteristics.

As a result, Norway spruce is not mixed and processed and sold in the same streams as native spruces.

As a consequence, logs were being directed to the Gaston Cellard Inc. sawmill located in Pointe-a-la-Garde, which has multiple markets for softwood in addition to construction grades.

The Gaston Cellard sawmill is a familyowned operation which sells lumber, both hardwood and softwood, into a variety of markets, including landscape and fencing products.

As a result of the closures of pulp mills in the Gaspé Region in the past number of years, no pulp wood was being produced from the Lemieux operation. The fledgling biomass industry in the region currently handles only a very small amount of low grade small diameter logs.

Asked for his impression of the new ScorpionKing, Jean François Lemieux commented: “We had heard people talking about how much performance the ScorpionKing delivered—and after seeing and working with it, I can confirm that what they said is true.”

Logging & Sawmilling Journal - August/September 2017

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millmaintenance

Automatic lubrication: the best defense against mill downtime

By Roland Lorenz and David McDougall

T

he battle against downtime is never-ending for sawmill managers. Unscheduled downtime is a worst-case scenario, costing mills in the neighborhood of $500 a minute. But the best defense against unplanned failures, regular lubrication service, is itself a costly effort. Safety dictates a complete shutdown anytime crews approach machinery to perform a grease service. In most manually greased mills, these service shutdowns occur several times daily. It’s for this reason that a growing number of mills are updating to automatic lubrication systems to keep their equipment up and running for more hours every day.

The largest challenge with traditional lubrication methods is simply getting

access to the grease points. To begin with, the complete line is cordoned off by safety fences. Safety regulations demand that no one crosses the fence while the equipment is running. Once it’s powered down, crews have to locate and connect to grease nipples that are often buried deep within a complex arrangement of machinery. Some equipment manufacturers are taking steps to make their zerks more accessible, but some awkward and hard to reach zerks are probably still the rule in many mills.

The size of the machinery in a large facility is another obstacle. Technicians will often have to bring in a ladder or an aerial lift, and will have to hook up safety harnesses before they can service a grease point. Elsewhere, they may have to crawl under the machine to do the job.

The mere number of service points

throughout the mill can also be daunting.

Along with saws and other cutting equipment, service is especially needed for carriers, sorting machines and transport chains. A typical sawmill or OSB plant will have up to 2,000 service points to cover.

Mobile equipment that manages the wood yard and loads the feed deck is also part of the process. Any bearing failure on any one machine will mean an unscheduled stoppage in production.

Finally, manual servicing for both mill machinery and mobile loaders is subject to simple errors. Zerks may be skipped or overlooked; service points may be undergreased (which is essentially the same as not greasing at all), or they may be overgreased, which creates spills leading to fire to page 32

The mere number of service points throughout a sawmill can be daunting. A typical sawmill will have up to 2,000 service point.

30

Logging & Sawmilling Journal - August/September 2017

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millmaintenance from page 30 hazards and to slip and fall liabilities.

Autolube systems are gaining popularity because they virtually eliminate all of those issues. Automatic lubrication solves mill accessibility and safety issues, while dramatically reducing service downtime on a daily basis. It can, in effect, increase the mill’s production capacity and order response cycle without the expense of expanding the facility.

But autolube also does more than just simplify grease servicing. The pump that powers the system is calibrated to deliver precise doses of grease or oil matched specifically to the machine. Dosing intervals are much more frequent than manual servicing can provide, ensuring consistent level or lubrication throughout the operating cycle. The grease film on the bearing is constantly serving its role as the wear surface for the bearing. The machine uses up grease instead of metal, so the life of the machine will be appreciably longer.

The pump never “forgets” a service point, and never delivers excess grease to spill on to the machine surface or onto the floor.

A key difference between automatic and manual lubrication is that autolube lubricates while the machine is operating.

As a result, all bearing and wear surfaces are covered equally. As outlined by Dave McDougall, Product Manager for BEKAWORLD LP, a machine that’s shut down doesn’t need to be greased; a machine needs grease while it’s running!

Along with continuous lubrication, today’s autolube systems also maintain a consistent watch on the status of mill

service points. Monitors and alarms are built into the lubrication circuits at every distribution block and every grease nipple, so maintenance staff are alerted immediately if any part of the machine is not getting the service it needs.

Upgrading a mill facility to automatic lubrication involves designing grease circuits to reach each zerk, installing the conduit and connecting all the fittings.

The “progressive” circuits from BEKAWORLD will also include a number of distribution blocks, which individually control the flow of lubricant to the branch circuits they feed. A lubrication pump supplies all of the lines in the circuit.

Proper installation is painstaking and, at first look, it’s a costly process threading and securing all the lines through the machinery, avoiding pinch points and completing each connection by hand.

Simple analysis shows, however, how quickly an autolube system can pay back

your investment.

An investment in autolube becomes affordable, firstly, with everyday savings in downtime and energy costs and then, in the longer term, by longer equipment life, improved competitiveness and the ability to stage your installation over multiple budget periods.

According to studies done by BEKAWORLD, downtime savings are easily the most significant and most immediate. As soon as the autolube system is activated, it can put an end to the daily routine of service shutdowns. The time mill employees once spent to power down, complete the greasing routine, recompress hydraulics and run up to speed again is now devoted to uninterrupted production time.

The increase in machine availability and throughput must be evaluated individually by each mill, but the potential is there to add thousands of dollars per day to your bottom line.

Consistent, in-motion lubrication means smoother operation for and a reduced draw on power to operate conveyors, chain drives and hydraulics. Research indicates that lower energy costs also begin to recover a mill’s autolube investment from day one.

Many mills take a prudent approach to bearing failures, replacing all bearings in the line at the same time whenever a single bearing drops out. With consistent, accurate lubrication, the mean time between bearing failures is greatly reduced.

A mill can save on part costs for replacement bearings, and save even more by reducing a major stoppage in production while the bearings are replaced. The same is true of chain drives and transports. Continuous cleaning and oiling with autolube to page 34

32

Logging & Sawmilling Journal - August/September 2017

millmaintenance from page 32 will reduce friction and wear on chains and slideways, so that means that their replacement intervals are also extended.

Consider that the cost to replace a drive is typically upwards of $2,500 for the parts alone, plus downtime and labour to install, and you can start to see the value of installing automatic lubrication instead almost immediately.

Additional benefits begin to appear downstream of the savings in operating costs. Less downtime and increased capacity make for a more reliable source for buyers, better equipped to meet just-intime needs of the customer. A more agile response to customer orders and lower operating costs create the opportunity to be more competitive and win new business with no other changes to your operation.

As mills consider their way forward, they’ll find that autolube systems are readily adaptable to their maintenance and capital budgets. BEKAWORLD can help to plan an upgrade in stages. A mill can deploy part of their lubrication solution now, and use the savings to cover the cost of expanding the autolube circuits later.

A number of choices are available to large facilities. For example, a BEKA-MAX complete progressive system uses one pump to feed all the lubrication circuits through its network of distributors and service points. However, it can be developed to begin small, by upgrading the machine or process that has the most

trouble with bearings dropping out, or the area that incurs the greatest downtime cost. When the next budget period arrives, the initial circuits may be extended to serve additional machines and carriers.

An alternative to this arrangement is a sectional system. It will resemble a progressive system, except sections of the mill equipment are isolated from each other. One pump serves each of the sections in sequence, so it is never required to supply the entire process at the same time. For example, in an OSB plant, one lube section might service the press, while a second circuit supports the feeder, and a third section serves the packaging line.

By treating each section separately, BEKAWORLD can scale down the size and cost of the system components accordingly.

Many of the advantages of a progressive system can be achieved without the use of a grease pump at all. A singlepoint lubrication system is designed and installed with the same grease lines, dis-

tribution blocks and service point connectors as a full autolube system. However, instead of a pump, a service technician pumps the grease in manually through a central grease nipple. This approach is especially useful when budgets are tight. A system of single-point circuits can be installed over time, and then pulled together with an automatic pump at a later date. In the interim, the single-point system will save time and simplify access to multiple grease service points in one stop. With the circuit’s central service point located outside of the equipment’s safety fence, technicians can perform their service rounds without interrupting production.

Ensuring safety is paramount in every sawmill. But this necessity is also a key factor in the daily downtime that limits the productivity of the mill. Automatic lubrication is a solution that keeps personnel out of harm’s way while it optimizes service intervals for machinery, reduces operating costs and increases throughput.

With experienced support from a qualified autolube vendor like BEKAWORLD, mills can plan for a complete, integrated automatic lubrication system that’s affordable now—and will earn dividends on every front in the long term. ___________________________________

About the authors

Roland Lorenz is a technical specialist in central lubrication solutions in forestry applications for the international BEKA group, including BEKAWORLD LP in the USA and Beka-Lube Products Inc. in Canada.

David McDougall is Product Manager in North America for both BEKAWORLD LP and Beka-Lube Products Inc. With engineering and manufacturing based in Germany, BEKA is a leading global brand for OEM and aftermarket lubrication technologies.

34

Logging & Sawmilling Journal - August/September 2017

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B.C.sawmilling

MAJOR UPGRADE for Weyerhaeuser Princeton

Weyerhaeuser’s Princeton, B.C. sawmill is in the midst of a major multi-year upgrade that includes the front end of the mill and primary breakdown equipment, all being done without shutting the mill down.

By Paul MacDonald

sawmill for Weyerhaeuser,” says John Cimbaro, mill maintenance superintendent. “When we looked at upgrading, we took a look at whether to go for a completely new mill, or if there was a scenario where we could do an upgrade in stages.”

The mill opted for option number

T

to make operations more efficient, and reduce costs.

The two-line sawmill in the B.C. Interior turns out upwards of 300 million board feet of SPF lumber annually, and is undergoing a multi-year upgrade.

“Princeton has always been an efficient

36

Logging & Sawmilling Journal - August/September 2017

he Princeton, B.C. sawmill of Weyerhaeuser Canada has seen some major equipment upgrades in the last few years—but there is more to come, as the sawmill continues its efforts

B.C.sawmilling

two. Mill management felt they could use the upgrade capital more efficiently by keeping and maintaining some of the equipment that does not need to be replaced—and there is a lot of good, solid equipment in the mill, explained Cimbaro.

The mill runs two 10-hour shifts a day, Monday to Thursday, and a 12-hour afternoon shift each day, Friday to Sunday.

And the upgrading is being done without shutting the mill down, so the crews have a very slim time window to work within, considering that schedule.

“It’s not like the mill is shut down Friday night, and we have until Monday morning,” says Cimbaro. “We have time windows of about 10 or 12 hours to do the work. But we have good teams on the

to page 38 Logging & Sawmilling Journal - August/September 2017

37

B.C.sawmilling from page 37 engineering, maintenance and operations sides, and they are now used to working in those short time windows.”

They started off by working on some of the infeed parts of the mill, with three new Wave feeders from Comact, for both short wood and tree length wood. “That allows us to be flexible, in terms of the wood coming in, so if there are some areas where it is beneficial for us to do full length logging, we can capture that vs. just doing short length,” said Cimbaro.

Up next was the mill building. One of the biggest hurdles they had was the mill building was an older timber frame structure, with a fairly low ceiling. It would have been difficult to install some of the newer equipment, which requires increased power, and drives that sit high.

“That structure was kind of limiting us to how we could improve the mill.”

The solution was a new steel building from Behlen Building Industries.

“We decided to actually build over top of the existing mill with the brand new building, with a building that would give us the height we need and for making maintenance functions more efficient.”

They also installed a system for making heating the building more efficient, with heat drawn from the upper portion of the building, and discharged into the basement. Cimbaro noted that they are very mindful of the dust situation, with all of their heating systems located outside the mill building.

“That has given us a brand new envelope for the equipment—and now we’re at the stage when we are starting to replace a lot of the primary breakdown equipment. It’s not a full line replacement,

because again some of the equipment we have is fine—it was built well, and is running well, and there is no need to replace it.”

Optimil is supplying the primary breakdown equipment upgrades.

“We are upgrading the areas of primary breakdown where we need to upgrade them, such as more horsepower, and putting top and bottom board profilers in front of the two new 10” vertical double arbor gangs, one for each line.”

When the primary breakdown upgrade is complete, it will give the mill much more flexibility on log handling.

They have a large log line, and a small

log line at Princeton. But at certain times of the year, they receive pretty much all large wood from the bush, at the mill.

“So we’re under-utilizing the small log line at times like that, and relying on the large log line to handle the majority of the throughput at the mill,” explains Cimbaro.

In the summer, however, the mill receives a lot of smaller wood, so the small log line is very busy, and the large log line, less so.

“We are adding a new Optimil balanced cut horizontal double arbor saw box to the

to page 40

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B.C.sawmilling from page 38 small line. We have made provisions to add a sideboard profiler in the future should the need arise to reduce the number of flitches coming to the existing board edger.

“With this upgrade, we will be able to have both lines run any size wood, so they are going to be very similar in terms of capacity and speed and wood diameter, with top and bottom profiling on both lines, so we can put more volume through the two lines and not overwhelm the edger.”

That way, they can fully capitalize on whatever size wood is coming into the mill, and not be limited with the log diameter.

A major goal, and it has been achieved

40

so far, is to do all the upgrades without shutting the mill down.

“There has been almost no downtime,” says Cimbaro. “For example, at the front end, with the Comact wave feeders, they were built around an existing quadrant feeder. So we started one wave feeder to offset the quad feeder, and once that feeder was up, we put in another wave feeder on the other side, that fed the second mill line. That allowed us to bypass the quad feeder, and demolish the quad feeder, and install the third Wave feeder where the quad feeder infeed had been.

“We did that all while the mill was running.”

With each aspect of the upgrade, crews have taken almost a “pit stop” kind of approach to doing the work, where the

work is well planned out, the equipment is there, the tools are all there—and they can just get in there and do the work, quickly and safely.

“There is no resource that we have to wait for,” says Cimbaro. “It is all there, ready to go, because they have to be finished by the time the next shift starts.”

A lot of the success of the project revolves around organizing and communications, he added.

“The shift on the weekend would be done at 3:30 in the morning, and we would have the mill until 3 p.m. the next afternoon.

“We would let operations know what work we were doing and what components we were moving or replacing, and they would have that area devoid of logs or lumber and the equipment cleaned.

All we had to do is go in there, lock out equipment, and go.”

Cimbaro noted that the mill worked closely with contractors to see that they had all that they needed in terms of equipment, such as lifts, cranes and telehandlers.

On the maintenance side, a lot of the crew was there to assist during equipment installs, which offers benefits. “The guys working with the new equipment were there so when we went to start things up, they were familiar with the equipment. The learning curve was minimal—they knew exactly how the equipment ran, and the start-ups were really non-events.”

Taking a phased approach to equipment upgrades also meant that the job was more manageable, and the crews they had became very familiar with the mill, said Cimbaro.

A handful of people were doing the work vs. the 60 or 70 workers that might be involved with a full-on short term mill upgrade. “Those six to eight guys doing the work are really familiar with our mill, our lock-out systems and our safety program. There wasn’t a lot of orientation required with each phase—they knew what had to be done, and were ready.”

Princeton mill staff toured a number of mill facilities in B.C. and Alberta as part of the process of determining what equipment to go for. But Cimbaro said the Princeton upgrade looks to be unique, in terms of their building approach.

“Like a lot of other people, we cherrypicked what we thought would work best for our situation—but in terms of the mill overbuilding, I don’t know if I’ve heard or seen someone approach it quite like how we did.”

Logging & Sawmilling Journal - August/September 2017

B.C.sawmilling For example, they had 10,000 pound columns being installed in the mill—while it was operating. “You’d see this huge column being lowered into the mill onto its foundation, and all the machinery working around it, and lumber flowing around it.”

In terms of the equipment, and what should go, and what should stay, the mill has some equipment that has stood the test of time—and continues to operate just fine. “We had Nicholson A7 debarkers installed in 1997, and I can’t say enough about them,” says Cimbaro.

“They are excellent, bulletproof debarkers. We’ve done some minor upgrades to them, but not a lot.”

In primary breakdown equipment, they have Kockums CanCar (now USNR) double length infeed and canting equipment. “They are an older design, but they have been really well maintained,” said Cimbaro.

In terms of line speeds, they will be faster, though Cimbaro says they had some specific goals there not necessarily related to speed. “It’s not going to be as to page 42

“Princeton has always been an efficient sawmill for Weyerhaeuser,” says John Cimbaro, mill maintenance superintendent (above). “When we looked at upgrading, we looked at whether to go for a completely new mill, or if there was a scenario where we could do an upgrade in stages.” The mill opted for option number two, which is now well in the works.

Logging & Sawmilling Journal - August/September 2017

41

B.C.sawmilling from page 41 fast as some of the lines we’ve seen out there. What we decided, early on, is to put in equipment that runs reliably and steady vs. equipment that runs very quickly, and we might have failures because of wear or damage.

“Our philosophy is to run the equipment at the speed that we need to run it.

But to run it with a minimum gap, and to carry out good maintenance.”

42

Weyerhaeuser Princeton partnered with several contractors and suppliers on the project. Bill Wolfe has worked with the mill on the design of a number of changes to the mill. They have also worked closely with suppliers Comact and Optimil. Kinetic Construction is doing a lot of mechanical work, and Summit Electrical is doing the electrical.

While the current focus is on primary breakdown equipment, Cimbaro noted there are also some “side projects”, such

as replacing their edger optimizer with a new MPM system. “That way both our trimmer and edger optimizer will be the same, and there will be some synergies that we can gain from that.”

MPM Engineering was a key partner, in terms of programming and optimization.

“One of the benefits of using MPM was that we are pretty close to their offices.

And in the past, we’ve been kind of a test site for MPM trying out new things, which has worked out really well.” He notes they were the first to get MPM’s new trimmer optimizer software. “We’ve done some work with them on log turning accuracy, which has delivered benefits.

There is a lot of good work that has come from our relationship with MPM.” Not to simplify it, but the Princeton mill project has been at times been similar to assembling a very, very large Lego set.

“It’s essentially that—but a very complicated Lego set,” said Cimbaro. “You are really swapping out pieces, but like everything, the devil is in the details. You can put in a piece, and take out a piece, but if the chuting on a conveyor is not right, you are going to have problems with that conveyor.

Logging & Sawmilling Journal - August/September 2017

B.C.sawmilling “It can be something as simple as that, so you need to have high attention to details. Most times, it goes right. But sometimes, it does not go right. But we have a good crew down there so that if it wasn’t right, it can be resolved really quickly.”

Everyone—mill employees, contractor crews—are all very aware of the costs of even a short shutdown. “All the guys on the maintenance, mechanical and operations side are cognizant of that, so it’s all hands on deck to make sure the new equipment works—and if there is anything that needs to be tweaked or modified, it’s done quickly.”

Cimbaro says they have a good variety of experienced, long term employees and people who are newer to the mill. Some have been at the mill for 20 or 30 years, others only a few years.

“So we’ve got some people who have been here a long time, and they have lots of mill knowledge and experience, and people who have been here a short time, and they bring in new ideas. It’s a really good mix.”

They have an excellent maintenance department, says Cimbaro, who is a veteran of working at a few mill operations in B.C.

There has been plenty of work done on the phased upgrade, but there is still a ways to go, notes Cimbaro.

“The front end of the mill is all done, with the wave feeders. Next will be the primary breakdown, and stacker, and then we’ll likely move on to the planer and kilns after that.

“If you look at where we were when we started this upgrade, and where we are going to end up, we’re going to essentially have pretty much a brand new mill at a fraction of the cost. At the same time, we’re also utilizing a lot of the equipment that was already here, and designed for the speeds that we need—it was running well, so there was no need to replace it.”

And though the mill will be running well after all the upgrades, further changes, as with all sawmills, are inevitable. And they’ve planned for that.

“We’ve left space in the mill for further equipment changes so, at some point down the road, whoever comes after me, if they want to make changes, they are not painted into a corner. There is space for those changes.”

Weyerhaeuser Princeton Upgrade:

Logging & Sawmilling Journal - August/September 2017

Contractors and Suppliers Wave Feeders: Comact Primary breakdown equipment: Optimil Machinery Trimmer optimization software: MPM Engineering Foundation and mechanical work: Kinetic Industries Ltd Building supply: Behlen Industries ltd Building erection: Norsteel Industries Structural engineering: Omega Engineering Geotechnical engineering: Geopacific Engineering Design and layout: W.E. Wolfe Design Ltd Overhead cranes and access system: Mussell Crane Ltd HVAC: Polar Air Ltd Fire protection: Mainstream Mechanical Ltd Concrete cutting: Westcoast Cutting and Coring Ltd Excavation contractor: Ted Coyne Construction ltd Electrical: Summit Electric Ltd

43

roadbuilding

Three important words in B.C. roadbuilding:

diversify, diversify, diversify B.C. roadbuilding outfit Black River Contracting does a fair amount of work for the forest industry, but company owner Kelly Sunderman finds it’s best to diversify their workload—and they may find themselves doing some work associated with the Kinder Morgan pipeline expansion, if it gets the go-ahead.

44

Logging & Sawmilling Journal - August/September 2017

roadbuilding

By Paul MacDonald

O

ne lesson that was learned during the economic downturn in the forest industry was the importance of diversification—in both customers and in the kind of work that you do.

That’s an approach that Kelly Sunderman of Black River Contracting Ltd, of Clearwater, B.C., applied to his business— but in advance of the downturn.

“We were primarily a road maintenance company when I got involved with the business,” he explained. “My fatherin-law started the business in the mid1980s, and had a couple of road graders for doing the road maintenance work.

“But I decided to diversify the business into logging, doing right-of-way clearing, and roadbuilding,” he says. “We needed to get away from doing just forest industry–related work, so we would not be as badly impacted when a downturn occurred.” And it did occur.

One of their biggest customers now is BC Hydro, whom they do new road construction for. And with the Kinder Morgan pipeline project recently getting the ok from the federal government, Sunderman is expecting there might be some clearing and roadbuilding work to come from that project (see sidebar story).

On the forest industry side, they do work for forest company Interfor, the B.C. Ministry of Forests, and some work for Canfor and West Fraser, from time to time.

Expanding and diversifying the workload has meant an increase in equipment for Black River Contracting at times, from the initial two graders. “Depending on what work we have on the go, we’ve had as many as six graders, though we have three graders now,” he says. The number of graders they have now reflects the milder winters they are seeing in the B.C. Interior, and that Black River’s contracts are won by bid, rather than being long term contracts.

“When I first got involved in the business, the winter was the busiest time for us, with the amount of snow we’d get,” Sunderman explained. “We used to do 70 per cent of our work in the winter, and 30 per cent in the summer. But that has now reversed.

“We’re no longer seeing the snow pack we used to have, and that’s one reason why we have fewer graders on the ground now.

In the winter, we used to have six graders and and we were busy. But now there is less snow, and it seems like the winters are warmer and shorter. Those kind of changes are part of us having to diversify.”

Though it has been opposed by the new NDP/Green government in B.C., the expansion of Kinder Morgan’s Trans Mountain oil pipeline, which runs from Alberta through to the B.C. Coast, could mean a fair amount of work for companies such as Black River Contracting.

Back in 2000, the two graders the company had were both Champion machines. “As far back as I can remember, my father-in-law was always a big Champion guy.”

The operation has since purchased a John Deere grader, and also they also run Deere and Cat excavators. They also have a gravel operation, where they have a Cat loader and Kenworth trucks. “We’re a bit all over the map, when it comes to equipment,” says Sunderman.

Most of the servicing is done by employees, often in the field.

“Just due to the nature of the business,

anyone who has been operating equipment for 10 or 20 years can turn a pretty good wrench, and do basic repairs,” says Sunderman. Their younger operators are more familiar with the computer technology on the machines, so it can make for a good balance between the traditional mechanical side and the technology side of the equipment.

“We have a full shop in Clearwater, and we’ve done complete rebuilds of the graders, and have lots of experience, to page 46

Pipeline expansion would mean work for loggers The expansion of Kinder Morgan’s Trans Mountain oil pipeline, which runs from Alberta through to the B.C. Coast, could mean a fair amount of work for companies such as Black River Contracting.

“We want to be able to help them out with the project, wherever we can,” says Kelly Sunderman, owner of Black River Contracting.

The original Trans Mountain Pipeline was built in 1953 and continues to operate today. Trans Mountain is proposing an expansion of this existing 1,150-kilometre pipeline between Strathcona County (near Edmonton), Alberta and Burnaby, B.C. The expansion would create a twinned pipeline increasing the nominal capacity of the system from 300,000 barrels per day to 890,000 barrels per day.

The expansion would add approximately 980 kilometres of new pipeline

and reactivate 193 kilometres of existing pipeline. To support the expanded pipeline, new facilities would include 12 new pump stations, 19 new tanks added to existing storage terminals, and three new berths at the Westridge Marine Terminal, in B.C. Routing of the proposed expansion will remain along the existing Trans Mountain Pipeline route where practical. Some 89 per cent of the new pipeline would parallel the existing pipeline system or linear infrastructure, minimizing environmental and community impacts.

The projected capital cost is approximately $6.8 billion, and 73 per cent of the proposed route will use the existing right-of-way, 16 per cent would follow other linear infrastructure such as Telus, BC Hydro or highways and 11 per cent would be new right-of-way.

Logging & Sawmilling Journal - August/September 2017

45

roadbuilding from page 45 particularly with the Champion and Volvo graders,” he added. “We can build a grader from the ground up with the equipment we have in our shop now.”

Sunderman notes that the Internet can be a great source of equipment parts.

“You have to shop around these days, and the Internet is a great tool for doing that.

It puts you in contact with people you did not even know existed, who have parts.”

It can connect with someone who just has a specific part, or someone who is parting out an entire piece of equipment.

“We just did a rebuild on one of our graders, and we sourced parts from all over Western Canada,” he says.

In recent years, Sunderman says they were running equipment a bit longer than he would have liked, but that was due to the milder winters, and the industry downturn.

“The last few years, I have been focusing on upgrading and renewing equipment, and getting late-model equipment.”

Their excavators are fairly new—all of the machines have less than 6,000 operating hours on them. And they have a fairly new grader, with about 4,000 hours on it.

“We’re trying to move to newer equipment now—and have upgraded our screening equipment in the gravel operation, too.”

The average age for their operators is in the 45 to 50 year-old range, which is a concern for them, like the rest of the industry.

“That’s something we’ve become more aware of,” says Sunderman. “I’ve made a concerted effort this year in particular to hire younger guys that we can kind of nurture and bring along. I like to bring them

on fairly green, when they are younger, in their early to mid-20s, and groom them, to see if they are interested in staying on in the industry.”

But they are a different workforce, with a different background and training, he says.

“The young guys coming out of school don’t really have the logging experience, where you are trained from the ground up. They go to operator schools, where they get equipment training for general and civic construction, rather than the training they need in the bush.”

Roadbuilding in B.C., with its varied geography, can be region specific, he notes.

“If you bring in a roadbuilder from the Kootenays vs. where we are, in the North Thompson, it’s way different terrain.

Where we are, you could be dealing with good material or it could be a lot of rock, and wet material. So we have to be really good at managing our job sites.

“If you are building road in another area, on Vancouver Island, for example, you have to be really good at building around rock, and blasting,” he added.

“The North Thompson is kind of a strange creature, when it comes to roadbuilding. Right now (late in the year), we’re rebuilding about nine kilometres of road and putting in two kilometres of new road. And it’s that time of year when you can basically only open up about half-akilometre at a time because if it snows or rains, it saturates the ground. But if it’s the middle of summer, we can go great guns because it’s really dry. But then fire danger ratings can get high.

“You have to be really aware of where your equipment is, and what your guys are doing. So you have to be careful how you manage your job site.”

With their varied experience, Black Creek Contracting takes on projects outside their base in the North Thompson region of the B.C. Interior. Last summer, they spent three months building road for BC Hydro in the Grand Forks/Christina Lake area, in southeastern B.C. 46

With their varied experience, though, Black Creek takes on projects outside their base in the North Thompson region. Last summer, they spent three months building road for BC Hydro in the Grand Forks/ Christina Lake area, in southeastern B.C. Sunderman noted they get into roadbuilding and road maintenance in some pretty high ground at times, with a lot of switchbacks.

“We do lots of road maintenance and construction for high lead logging operators.”

He says that’s one of the reasons why they added a John Deere six wheel drive grader to their equipment line-up, to deal with the steep ground in the winter.

When it comes to blasting for road, Sunderland is happy to leave that to the specialists, who in their case is Leaverite Drilling and Blasting, run by Larry Chenier. Leaverite has eight rubber-tired and track rock drills in its fleet, including Terex, Rockmaster, Montabert and Atlas Copco equipment.

“We’re not doing blasting on a day to day basis, and Larry and his guys have lots of experience,” says Sunderman. “Blasting is not a big enough part of our business to get into it, and it’s something that they specialize in.”

Black River Contracting used to have some of its own harvesting equipment, with a buncher and skidder, but they made the decision to sell that equipment, and sub this part of the work out, during the downturn.

“We had to make the decision about whether we wanted to get bigger into logging or smaller—at the time, there was a lot of bid work through BC Timber Sales, and prices were really going into the tank.

We’re just not big enough in terms of volume, so any harvesting work we have now is subbed out.

“My thinking is we want to be a road maintenance and construction company.

We want to be good at what we do, but we don’t want or need to do everything.”

Over the years, this area of the province has been impacted by the mountain pine beetle, and the operation saw a lot of work for BC Hydro, as a result. “BC Hydro was finding a lot of dead pine along their right-of-ways and hydro lines, so we did a lot of major tree falling for them.”

Sometimes this resulted in them moving operations around a fair bit, on short notice, but there is less of this now as the beetle trees have been harvested.

Sunderman says they are now more

Logging & Sawmilling Journal - August/September 2017

to page 48

roadbuilding from page 46 easily able to plan ahead work for several months.

He says that their efforts at building their reputation in road maintenance and roadbuilding are paying off, as customers view them as the “go to” guys for road work.

“We’ve built our brand,” he says. “And we’re building a reputation as a company that can do a number of different things.

With the roadbilding and our gravel pit,

that can go hand-in-hand, because the equipment can be interchangeable.”

They have a large gravel and screening operation in Clearwater.

“When we are doing road construction or maintenance projects in the bush, we can take equipment from the gravel operation to the bush, because it is all mobile. It’s a big advantage to be able to shift equipment around.”

Part of the diversification was to also get involved in low-bedding their own equip-

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ment, so it can be easily moved around.

“We want to be able to move our equipment quickly and respond to our clients,” says Sunderman. “We got into low-bedding primarily for our own equipment, but now we do it commercially, as well.”

With the forest industry being relatively healthy these days, Sunderman says they may decide to step up their activity in the industry. “The more a particular business can keep us busy, the happier I am to stay with it. But I always need to focus on diversification for us. That’s the lesson we’ve learned.”

Prior to joining Black River Contracting in 2000, Sunderman did not have a great deal of forest industry experience. In fact, his work experience was mostly on the financial side.

“I grew up around Clearwater, so I grew up around the logging industry, but did not have a lot of industry experience,” he says. His background in credit and finance certainly came in handy when things got tough during the industry downturn.

“Having a financial background can be extremely helpful, especially when the industry is going through lean times, and every buck counts. It helps when you know how to read the books.”

His background has been especially helpful in terms of costing out equipment.

“I’m able to look at my equipment and get a real understanding on a daily basis what my costs are vs. what I am making.

Years ago, I would be chasing business to get the work—but you really have to understand that you need to make X amount per hour or per cubic metre with your machine, to make a go of it.”

Each week, he runs a spreadsheet program on expenses so that, at the end of the month, there are no, or few, surprises on the cost side.

“That’s one of the reasons I don’t run equipment as much as I used to,” he says.

“There is a lot more to running the business than just being on the equipment. If I put in 50 hours a week running a machine, things would not be looked after in the office, or in other areas of the business.”

Sunderman still does a lot of the lowbedding work, though, and fills in on running the other equipment, as needed. “I really enjoy doing different things, rather than sitting in one seat all the time,” he says.

Thinking back to his time in the financial industry, Sunderman said it was interesting work, but not something he wanted to have as a career. “Even then, I couldn’t see myself driving a desk long term, that’s for sure,” he says, with a laugh.

Logging & Sawmilling Journal - August/September 2017

Ontariologging

A Finnish focus in the forest

The Shuniah Forest Products equipment line-up includes three Peterson DDC5000-G full tree chippers, as well as eight Kenworth chip trucks and 47’ Superior trailers.

Ontario’s Shuniah Forest Products carries out logging the Finnish-Canadian family way, with a strong focus on their employees, teamwork—and their award-winning safety program.

By Meg Parker

P

erched on the sparkling shores of Lake Superior overlooking the famous Sleeping Giant landmark, the city of Thunder Bay is surrounded by boreal forest and home to an active forestry industry.

It also happens to be home to the highest concentration and second-largest population of Finnish Canadians, including Mikko and Tyne Maunala and their eleven children. More than 50 years ago, three boys from the large Finnish family decided to follow their father’s footsteps

50

into the logging business. Having started working for their father at a young age peeling poplar, once they were older and starting families of their own, sons Marvin, Neil, and Paul decided to branch out into their own road construction business.

Neil and Marvin were the active partners in M&N Logging and with their growing families looked for opportunities to expand the business. With the help of Great Lakes Paper Company back in the 1970s, the brothers took up logging at Spruce River, up the Armstrong Highway in the municipality of Shuniah. From a cut-and-skid operation they went from

hiring contractors to current operations with 37 employees—and have been cutting wood there ever since.

In 1965, the company name changed to Shuniah Contracting and finally Shuniah Forest Products in 1983. Other business ventures with the brothers included Central Canada Equipment in 1979 and Woodland Tractor John Deere in 1985. All were very successful.

Eventually, Paul retired and Marvin sold the equipment business a few years ago and moved away. Neil retired at age 65 from running Shuniah in 2005, but he continued to consult on business ventures

Logging & Sawmilling Journal - August/September 2017

Ontariologging and sign the cheques for the workers right up until he passed away, in 2015.

Neil and his wife Erna had six children, and three of his sons took the reins of the business. Today, Howard is the general manager, Darrell is the accountant, and Gordon is the parts manager.

“Of course, their mother Erna is still behind the boys cracking the whip,” laughs John Venasky, part-time safety advisor with Shuniah, and former human resources and safety worker in the woodlands operation for Bowater Forest Products. “There’s even a road named after her. She was always very much involved in the company, too, with her husband.

We had a retirement party not long ago and with Neil gone, she came there to represent Shuniah, to congratulate the individual that was retiring. They had a little party right there down at the shop; they had all kinds of food and it was really well attended by all workers and the family of the retiree.

“That’s just the way Shuniah is,” says Venasky. “It’s always been like you’re part of the family. If the supervisors have to go to a meeting or something, the employees run the operation themselves. They’re very dedicated.”

Currently, the team of 37 employees includes five feller bencher operators, three processor operators, five to six grapple-skidder operators, nine truck drivers for gravel, road construction and chip haul, two loader operators, three mechanics, one grader operator and an assistant who also floats, two or three excavator and bulldozer operators working on road construction, and two supervisors. In winter, when there is no road construction work, some of the staff move into other positions. In this way, the company avoids seasonal layoffs and keeps all of their crew working.

The team works well together, notes Venasky. “They all talk with each other, and out in the field they plan what they’re going to do, how they’re going to skid, what they’re going to cut, and where they’re going. They’re knowledgeable; they’ll walk around to see what it’s like, or they’ll talk to somebody that knows about the area. They have their maps and they all work together like a team and set the wood down so the skidder operators are able to skid the wood efficiently.

“There’s no big difficulty if there’s any big hills—sometimes there’s pretty rough country. They set it all up, and work together on it. If one of the team thinks, ‘Maybe this should have been corrected,’ they all talk about it among themselves.

Plus coming home at the end of the day, they all ride together in different crew cabs supplied by the company, and they have some pretty good discussions,” adds Venasky.

The company produces 10-foot saw logs for the Resolute sawmill in Thunder Bay, and all types of chips, as required.

Stud lumber is sent out from the mill all across the globe.

The company owns numerous pieces of equipment, some of which is parked from time to time due to operational

changes, as their contract is strictly for cut-to-length.

“At Shuniah, we don’t get rid of any of the equipment,” says Venasky. “We have three mechanics and they keep the older pieces in good mechanical shape. We have a mechanic in the bush looking after the equipment and he’s very, very good at what he does. And we have a specialist in hydraulics at the shop and he does

Logging & Sawmilling Journal - August/September 2017

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51

Ontariologging from page 51 overhauls on equipment for bigger jobs you can’t do out in the field. Then we have another mechanic who looks after the trucks.”

Since the brothers were also partners in an equipment dealership, a majority of the 41 pieces of equipment are John Deere, including 11 skidders (models 748H, 648H, 648GIII, 648G, 748G, 648E, two 748GII, and three 748Es); four bunchers (models 903K, 953G, 853G, 693D); three CTL Processors (models 2554 Logger, 2054 Logger, 693C). The 2554 has a Waratah HTH622 head, the 2054 has a Waratah HTH620 head and the 693C has a Risley Slingshot head.

The equipment line-up also includes three excavators (John Deere models 790E, two 892DLCs); as well as one Hitachi EX330LC excavator, two Tigercat 853E bunchers, three Peterson DDC5000-G full tree chippers, and four Caterpiller bulldozers (D7R, three D7Gs), as well as eight Kenworth chip trucks and 47’ Superior trailers, and two Peterbilt self-loading log trucks with 47’ Superior and LBC trailers.

The company has also been involved with the local safety group for more than 15 years. Venasky also represents Shuniah on the Board of Directors for the Lakehead Regional Safety Council and enjoyed helping celebrate the company’s 2015 win of two provincial health and safety awards.

“The company is very much involved in the community that way, by belonging to these particular groups, including the safety group,” says Venasky. “We also send out newsletters every so often on the safety group and where we’re at. We put them in crew cabs and they go out to all employees. The latest one congratulated the staff for their participation in the Safe Workplace Ontario certification program, and helping the auditors complete all 23 elements of the safety audit.

“I’ve worked in other operations, but these individuals, they get along, they talk about things, and they see somebody not doing something right, they’ll just say, ‘Hey, Joe, don’t do it that way. That’s not the way to do it.’ That’s just the way they are. And that’s why today at Resolute, whenever they have people come in to do external audits, they always come to our operation first because they know things are being done properly, including

Since the family was involved in an equipment dealership, a majority of the 41 pieces of equipment at Shuniah Forest Products are John Deere, including three CTL processors (models 2554 Logger, 2054 Logger and a 693C). The 2554 has a Waratah HTH622 head, the 2054 has a Waratah HTH620 head and the 693C has a Risley Slingshot head. the environmental program; they know we’re meeting those criteria.

“Before he passed away, Neil used to come out early in the morning when the guys were leaving for the bush around ten to six in the morning; he’d be out there just coming to talk to them and give them

have the seniority as far as companies are concerned.”

In 2015, Shuniah was the proud recipient of the President’s Award from provincial health and safety association Workplace Safety North. “They were pretty excited about it,” says Venasky.

“Our supervisor, Dave Buchan, took the trophy around and showed it to all the employees, who were quite happy with it. We had a big meeting and showed the trophy to the people from Resolute, and had a little luncheon right in the shop. I had arranged for the newspaper and television station in Thunder Bay to be there.

We like to give credit where credit is due—and it’s to the employees, otherwise the award never would have been attained.

“There’s a lot of companies that have come and gone in the forest industry, and Shuniah is still here,” says Venasky. “Even though nowadays it’s very hard because of costs and everything else, they’re still hanging in there and still employing people. I’ve been with them now about 18 years. I work part-time and I could be retired, but I enjoy it and I enjoy the company. They’re a good bunch of people.”

Safety is a very high priority for Shuniah Forest Products.

The company’s John Venasky represents Shuniah on the Board of Directors for the Lakehead Regional Safety Council.

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their cheques. And he didn’t have to do that. That’s the type of person he was.

He’d get up early in the morning and come there to meet them. That’s why it is the way it is, and the people who run the operation know that they have the support of the family all the time, even if they’re not there.

“That’s why they’re so successful. Over the years, a lot of companies have come and gone, but they’re still there. I think they’re the oldest known company that’s still established with Resolute through all the different names changes, from Great Lakes and Bowater, right up to now. They

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TECHUPDATE

By Tony Kryzanowski

Debarkers Valon Kone

Valon Kone (VK) is one of the leading manufacturers of highspeed ring debarkers, and a global company that specializes in the development and production of rotor debarkers.

to meet species and piece count requirements from minimum log diameters of 65 mm (2.5”) to a maximum of 795 mm (31”).

The company’s debarkers get the job done on frozen logs, wavy logs, high value hardwood and high volume softwood logs, says USNR. www.usnr.com

Kadant Fuji King

VK’s extensive selection means that customers are sure to find a suitable machine for any debarking situation, regardless of wood type.

In North America, Valon Kone offers the Kodiak high-speed ring debarker. This model was specifically designed for the rugged North American market and offers exceptional uptime, debarking quality and low operating cost, says the company.

State of the art safety features are also incorporated to suit North American requirements. Recent improvements have concentrated on dust control to suit Class II, Div II requirements, increased feed speeds and increased uptime. Rotor designs now offer oil collection systems.

Valon Kone now also offers the Variable Flare Reducing rotor (VFR) for automatic variable flare reducing on all debarker diameter ranges. www.valonkone.com

Kadant Carmanah has been a leader in rotary debarking since first introducing the Fuji King debarker to North America 25 years ago.

The technology was initially developed to process fibre materials not suitable for ring or drum debarking. The ability to effectively process a wide range of species, shapes and sizes with varying moisture content and temperature elevated rotary debarking as a preferred choice by operators worldwide. Over 275 machines have been sold to oriented strandboard and pulpwood rooms, sawmills and pellet plants globally, many operating 24/7 in very tough conditions.

USNR

USNR’s modular CamShift debarking system can be delivered with or without flare reducing, and with one or two debarking rotors.

CamShift has three rotor size options for feed speeds up to 130 m/min (425 ft/min) with one debarking rotor, and up to 150 m/min (490 ft/min) with two debarking rotors.

The CamShift 600 offers both log releasing tools and tool pressure adjustment during operation. The manually adjusted flare reducer rotor is infinitely adjustable for reduced diameters to 560 mm (22”). The pull-out design makes for easy set up and tool changes. Variations accommodate minimum log length and top-end or butt-end feeding.

USNR also manufactures a full range of Cambio debarkers

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The Fuji King closed-bottom design differs from other rotary technologies, ensuring the highest fibre retention and reduced operational and maintenance costs, says the company. Bolt-on replaceable debarking blocks allow operators to quickly and cost effectively adjust the debarker’s aggressiveness to suit changes in wood conditions. This flexibility ensures that bark and fibre loss targets can be met year ‘round in all conditions. www.kadant.com

Logging & Sawmilling Journal - August/September 2017

to page 56

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Contact: Olofsfors Inc. Tel: (519) 754-2190 Fax: (519) 757-1100 Email: info@olofsfors.com

techupdate

Industrial Equipment Manufacturing

from page 54

DK-SPEC

The DK-SPEC debarker conversion is an excellent business decision, says the company. This is a key contributor to the production and optimization of wood product facilities. DK-SPEC’s rebuilt debarkers improve on mechanical reliability and speed at up to 400 ft/min.

Existing debarkers are rebuilt to new condition, the rotor is changed to new air bag technology and DK-SPEC can also convert to electric drive. Throughout the years, the company has successfully converted many 18”, 24” and 30” debarkers.

DK-SPEC is also said to be an excellent partner for debarker support. It has a large inventory of debarker parts and offers repair and overhaul service for debarker components and rotors. www.dkspec.com

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Industrial Equipment Manufacturing (IEM) developed and continues to lead rotary debarking with innovation and technical advancements. Their impressive timeline includes; original live floor open rotary debarker in 1993; high performance small footprint side discharge rotary debarkers in 2002; mechanical electric gates in 2006; individual controlled reversible rotors in 2008; the three largest single line continuous flow rotary debarkers in the world based on capacity in 2012 and 2013; fully portable diesel electric rotary debarker in 2014; two of the world’s largest side discharge rotary debarkers in 2015 and 2016; 12 m tubes (40’) in 2016; and circulation rolls in 2017.

IEM says its debarkers easily handle conventional and unconventional fibre sources, to provide its users with the most efficient advanced debarker platforms anywhere in the world. www.iem.ca

Logging & Sawmilling Journal - August/September 2017

Morbark

Morbark was founded in 1957 by sawmill operator Norval Morey to manufacture his patented portable pulp wood debarker, and the company’s commitment to the industry continues. It makes a full line of dependable, heavy duty debarkers.

Morbark says its multi-purpose debarkers will remove bark, nubs and knots from the densest hardwoods or the softest softwoods, as well as stringy-barked species like cedar or cypress, with ease.

In addition to providing high quality equipment, Morbark says its sawmill specialists can assist with mill layout while working with customers to create custom equipment to meet specialized needs. www.morbark.com

Salem Equipment

techupdate

Salem Equipment ring debarkers are offered in a full range of sizes for nearly every small or large log sawmill application.

Their updated product line now also includes a dual ring roll feed debarker for high speed operation. This is a great solution for softwood mills where throughput is critical.

Ring debarkers are offered in sizes 21”, 27”, 35” 43”, 50”, 60”, and 72”.

Configurations of five tool arms and six tool arms are available.

Feed rates up to 350 ft/m are available in single debarker ring applications. Higher feed rates are available with dual debarker ring application.

Debarkers are offered with either stationary or moveable ring with corresponding moveable or fixed feed chains. www.salemequip.com

Logging & Sawmilling Journal - August/September 2017

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SUPPLIERNEWSLINE Fogmaker offers water mist fire suppression system

Fogmaker is a leader in water mist fire suppression systems for heavy equipment. The company offers a high-pressure fire suppression system utilizing water mist, specifically developed for engine compartments.

Fogmaker’s suppression system has a unique extinguishing performance as it both cools down and chokes the fire at the same time as the foam additive effectively prevents the fire from re-igniting.

Water mist generated under high pressure through patented nozzles has superior extinguishing capabilities in engine compartments compared to traditional low-pressure foam or dry chemical systems, says the company. www.fogmakercanada.ca

Brunette introduces RTL Log Singulator

Brunette Machinery recently launched their newest log singulation technology, the patented Retract-to-Load (RTL) Log Singulator. With its patented pre-stage log positioning, robust design, heavy duty torque tube-drive assembly, and reinforced steps, the RTL Log Singulator has

already proven to reduce maintenance costs and will deliver tighter log gap control to mills, says the company.

One of the most unique aspects of Brunette’s RTL Log Singulator is the patented Retract-to-Load feature. At the park or pre-load position, the log sits right above 58

the conveyor and is ready to be dropped in. The reducer crank arm is sitting over the top of the stroke holding the log in position, creating a negative torque which reduces the load on the drive and increases the ability to close the gap between logs.

As the nose section retracts, the log is dropped into the conveyor, and another log takes its place in the queue at the Retract-to-Load pre-staging position. This reduces log gap, improves piece counts, and reduces maintenance costs on the log singulator, as well as the conveyors it feeds into.

With Brunette’s goal of reducing the overall maintenance costs of log singulation, the company has incorporated some key design features: • The extreme-duty torque-tube assembly has pre-machined endplates to eliminate alignment issues after a repair or replacement, and also has replaceable shafts should they ever be damaged by a failed bearing.

• Each roller assembly features two spherical roller bearings and is assembled in a removable support housing. This allows for simple replacement of the rollers without risking any alignment of the machine.

• Each step is made with ½” formed plate and reinforced with structural angles to create a robust shelf for both receiving and lifting logs.

Each RTL Log Singulator is custom built to suit the application’s needs. The RTL Log Singulator will fit within the same envelope as most existing log feeding devices currently being used by the industry. www.brunettemc.com

By Tony Kryzanowski Hewitt Equipment, Atlantic Tractors, Location Hewitt/Hewitt Rentals, Hewitt Material Handling, Montreal Hydraulique and SITECH QM. Founded in 1952, Hewitt has 45 branches across Eastern Canada and employs more than 2,000 people.

Hewitt is privately held.

Upon close of the acquisition, Toromont’s Caterpillar dealership will operate 120 branches in Nunavut, Manitoba, Ontario, Quebec, New Brunswick, Prince Edward Island, Nova Scotia and Newfoundland and Labrador, giving the company one of the largest sales territories in the Caterpillar dealer network. Toromont expects to maintain existing facilities, and under its decentralized business model, it says regional leadership will continue to run their businesses locally, empowered to make decisions in the best interests of their customers. www.toromontcat.com

Axis introduces rotator direction change kit for harvester/processors

Many logging contractors struggle with equipment operators who are trained to operate the head in a certain direction. This can mean the contractor has to change the direction by switching oil lines that are on the rotate motor. This can happen often as operators move from machine to machine.

Toromont Industries to acquire Hewitt Equipment Toromont Industries has entered into an agreement to acquire the businesses and net operating assets of the Hewitt Group of companies for $1.0177 billion.

Hewitt Equipment is the authorized Caterpillar dealer for Quebec, Western Labrador and the Maritimes, as well as the Caterpillar lift truck dealer for most of Ontario. Hewitt is also the MaK dealer for Quebec, the Maritimes and the Eastern seaboard of the United States, from Maine to Virginia.

Headquartered in Pointe-Claire, Quebec, Hewitt sells, rents and services the full line of Caterpillar and other products through its six operating business entities:

But Axis Forestry wanted contractors to be able to change the direction of the rotate motor on the head with an in-cab PLC, offering customers a package they can install themselves, easily and simply.

The new product is the Axis Forestry inline solenoid operated directional spool valve that will change the direction of the pilot oil. A PLC with visual indications is installed in the cab so the operator can depress a switch or touch a screen to switch the direction. www.axisforestry.com

Logging & Sawmilling Journal - August/September 2017

suppliernewsline WSM vertical grinders described as ultimate grinding machines

WSM vertical feed grinders offer a simple yet highly effective design to process a wide range of feedstock at rates up to 150 tonnes per hour. These rugged

grinders feature a heavy duty rotor with innovative disc and hammer configuration options that WSM says make its grinders the most efficient on the market. The optional pivot housing provides easy access to main wear components with all infeed components remaining in place.

Whatever the output requirements, WSM says it has the heavy duty vertical grinder to get the job done. From fine grinding of wood chips for pellet fuel or chipboard, to coarse grinding of bark or wood waste for mulch or biomass, WSM vertical grinders have the flexibility to provide the best solution for each application.

For a turnkey system, WSM’s complete biomass feedstock processing systems include bulk feeders, pre-screening and cleaning for low cost processing with reduced grinder wear and increased throughput, including all engineering and project management.

WSM says that its grinders and complete processing systems feature mill duty construction for dependable long term operation and optimal performance in the most demanding applications. www.westsalem.com

customers more pulling power and faster multi-functioning capabilities, says the company. The 648L, 748L, 848L, and 948L models offer the maximum horsepower for each size class, with the 300 horsepower 948L skidder boasting the highest horsepower on the market, says the company. Enhancements to the 648L and 748L improve pulling power during skidding activities, and the 848L and 948L have better multi-functioning capabilities for increased handling performance.

The L-Series skidders now feature a simplified engine after-treatment system. Redundant temperature sensors

have been removed, reducing harness complexity.

Another key improvement on the LSeries models is an extended boom reach option. Designed for steep or uneven terrain, the longer booms increase lift height and improve rearward and downward reach. The new booms also reduce interference with the arch and fenders during turning and contact of tongs on tires and fenders when rotating the grapple.

The L-Series skidders now offer a 17.5 square foot grapple option for all dual function models. www.johndeere.com

Albach Diamant 2000 chipper arrives in North America

The arrival of the Albach self-propelled mobile chipper is quickly revolutionizing the way North American biomass companies go about their business, says the company.

With travel speeds of 72 kilometres per to page 60

Upgrades to John Deere L-Series skidders increase power and performance John Deere has updated its full line of L-Series skidders. Deere says that the L-Series models now boast best-in-class horsepower, a more impressive power-toweight ratio, an improved engine aftertreatment system, and new grapple and boom options.

Most notable are the upgrades to the engines to increase horsepower, offering

Logging & Sawmilling Journal - August/September 2017

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suppliernewsline from page 59 hour, the Albach Diamant 2000 can be driven on highways from job to job, even hundreds of kilometres apart. Once at the tree stand, the full-time four-wheel drive allows the self-powered machine to navigate even rough terrain. One push of the

button by the operator will then convert the Diamant 2000 from transportation mode to chipping mode in 20 seconds, and the machine’s aggressive infeed can immediately begin handling and processing timber.

The Diamant 2000 allows a tight control on the chip sizing—from microchips to 2.5”—using a mechanically-driven rotor equipped with six blades. For the accurate placement of chips, the extended-angle chute can be swiveled up to 270 degrees and adjusted up and down by up to 10’.

The mobile chipper comes equipped with a Volvo engine and two speed transmission. It has a turning radius of 8.5 metres and a maximum output of 380 cubic metres.

The crane’s maximum reach is 10.1 metres and its maximum lift at maximum reach is one tonne. www.sennebogen-na.com

Tigercat extends market for D-series shovel loggers Tigercat has extended the release of the D-series shovel loggers to all markets.

The Tigercat FPT powered S855D and LS855D can be configured for Tier

Kadant acquires Nicholson Manufacturing and Valon Kone Kadant Inc has expanded its position in the forest products machinery market with its recent acquisition of the forest products business of NII FPG Company, which includes Nicholson Manufacturing and Valon Kone.

As global leaders in the design and manufacture of equipment used by sawmills, veneer mills, and other producers in the forest products industry, Kadant says that the addition of these two global brands adds breadth and depth to the company’s product offering to the forest products industry.

The business will be included in Kadant’s Wood Processing Segment which includes Kadant Carmanah Design, based in Surrey, B.C., a global leader in the supply of technology and equipment used in the manufacture

of strands for production of oriented strand board (OSB) and other engineered wood products. Nicholson and Valon Kone will continue to operate independently with their own sales, engineering, and manufacturing centres as they did prior to Kadant acquiring the business.

“We are pleased to complete this transaction and welcome our new colleagues to the Kadant family,” says Jonathan Painter, president and chief executive officer of Kadant. “Nicholson and Valon Kone provide world class products and service to their customers and we are proud to have them join the Kadant group.” www.kadant.com

2 or Tier 4f. Tigercat FPT engines offer improved reliability and lower long-term maintenance costs, says the company, and are fully supported by Tigercat and the Tigercat dealer network.

The S855D series shovel loggers are said to be a uniquely versatile solution for steep slope and sensitive site logging applications. The LS855D is a quick, nimble and powerful carrier—well suited to felling, pre-bunching and shovel logging on steep terrain, says the company.

The LS855D is commonly equipped with a feller director boom and the Tigercat 5195 directional felling head for felling and shovel logging.

The LS855D is equipped with Tigercat’s patented leveling system, providing exceptional stability in steep slope applications. It uses two massive hydraulic cylinders and heavy steel sections for a solution that is both simple and robust.

The unique geometry of the leveling system promotes balance, poise and stability on slopes. In addition, the ramped undercarriage allows the machines to easily drive up over rocks and stumps. www.tigercat.com

product development and contribute to strategic direction.

“The market for JoeScan’s products is strong,” says Joey Nelson, President and founder of JoeScan. “The company has grown considerably over the past few years. Jason brings a wealth of engineering and management experience to our team that will help accelerate JoeScan’s growth.”

Farmer started his career at Aculight where he led numerous technology development programs in solid state lasers and non-linear optics. The success of these programs led him to co-found a spinoff company, nLight, with colleagues from Aculight. At nLight, Farmer held a series of technical and management roles in R&D, product development and business unit management. He was instrumental in helping the company raise venture capital from leading firms and growing the company to over 400 employees. www.joescan.com

JoeScan appoints Vice President of Engineering

JoeScan Inc, a market leader in 3-D laser scanning technology, has announced the appointment of Jason Farmer as vicepresident of engineering. In his new role, Farmer will manage engineering, oversee 60

Logging & Sawmilling Journal - August/September 2017

August/September 2017

The Edge

Private woodlot fibre expected to play significant future supply role in Alberta

BY TONY KRYZANOWSKI

T

he demand for wood fibre is expected to grow significantly in Alberta over the next decade—and private woodlots will play a significant role in helping to fill that need.

Alberta woodlot owner and industry pioneer Pieter Van Der Schoot has been a long time promoter of private woodlots as a valuable part of the overall wood source supply chain.

However, he emphasizes the importance for landowners to do their homework and “be careful” when embarking upon a woodlot venture. It is important for landowners to have a realistic vision of what economic value they expect the woodlot to deliver, what impact the woodlot will have on their land value, the work involved in maintaining a healthy woodlot, and if wood fibre crops are grown for commercial harvest, what the landowner can realistically expect for income from it.

Van Der Schoot, past president of the Woodlot Association of Alberta and 1998 recipient of the Master Woodlot Stewardship Award, was speaking recently in Drayton Valley at a workshop hosted by the Canadian Wood Waste Recycling Business Group at the new Clean Energy Technology Centre (CETC).

The workshop covered a wide range of topics, including a presentation from cement producer Lafarge Canada about how it intends to use wood from many sources as an alternative to fossil fuels at its cement plant in Exshaw, Alberta.

The company is searching for 150,000 to 180,000 tonnes of alternative fuel material annually to provide 50 per cent of its thermal needs at the plant.

Toso Bozic, Bioenergy and Forestry Specialist with Alberta Agriculture and Forestry, says this is just one of many new

Pieter Van Der Schoot (above) has planted over 100,000 trees on his private woodlot near Breton, Alberta, providing a model for other potential woodlot owners. wood markets evolving for private woodlot owners in the province. Capital Power also has a well-advanced plan to generate 60 megawatts of power by co-firing wood with coal, as part of its strategy to discontinue coal-fired power production by 2030.

“We have over 3.6 million hectares of private forest in Alberta and it currently provides between two to three million tonnes of wood fibre to the forest industry,” says Bozic. “We are absolutely seeing a positive trend toward greater demand for wood fibre in the province, and I strongly urge all private woodlot owners to take particular notice of all the new wood supply sources opening up. We can help you identify potential customers and provide information on market values.”

With so much mature private wood currently available in the province, it is important for landowners to consider regular partial harvest of their woodlots as a FireSmarting strategy.

Van Der Schoot operates a 218 hectare woodlot near Breton, Alberta, and says that

he has planted well over 100,000 trees on the property over the many decades that he has lived there, and managed it. The woodlot, which includes two small brooks and 20 kilometres of trails, has become a popular field tour destination for forestry representatives, landowners, scientists and government officials, as it has evolved into a highly biodiverse setting, with multiple wood and environmental values.

When asked what motivated him to establish the woodlot, Van Der Schoot says his primary motivation was for the pleasure of doing it. However, he says that marketing the wood has been a constant source of frustration, and to this point, the province’s forest industry has not been willing to pay more for the wood than it has cost him to own and manage the woodlot. But forest companies are definitely interested in purchasing more private wood and with new wood market sources opening up, there may be better economic opportunities for private woodlot owners in future.

Van Der Schoot points out that owning a woodlot takes a bit of work to ensure that planted trees are free to grow without too much competition, but that a wellmanaged woodlot produces high quality wood fibre that is healthier and grows faster than trees in a natural forest.

“I’ve seen pine seedlings grow three feet in one year,” he says.

Logging & Sawmilling Journal - August/September 2017

Companies interested in potentially sourcing wood from Alberta’s many private woodlots or individuals wanting to learn more about establishing a woodlot can contact Toso Bozic at toso.bozic@ gov.ab.ca. He can also organize tours of Pieter Van Der Schoot’s woodlot, where Pieter can share his experiences with private woodlot management.

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The Edge

Alberta's SPARK 2017 Conference aims to spur commercialization of bioindustrial, GHG reduction technology

BY TONY KRYZANOWSKI

T

he province of Alberta wants to diversify its economy and reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions—and the SPARK 2017 conference slated for November 6-8 at Edmonton’s Shaw Conference Centre is part of the province’s larger strategy to achieve both these objectives.

The conference is intended to help accelerate commercialization of bioindustrial products and technologies and to advance technology that reduces greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions by bringing together innovators, buyers and enablers at a networking and technology exchange event.

Two of the province’s leading proponents mandated to lead these initiatives, Alberta Innovates (AI) and Emissions Reduction Alberta (ERA), have teamed up to host SPARK 2017. They are providing a supportive environment that connects innovators and researchers to people who can help them succeed.

“Alberta Innovates is working with ERA to accelerate development of new products and technologies that reduce industry’s environmental impact, generate jobs and build a diversified, lower carbon economy for Alberta,” says Laura Kilcrease, Alberta Innovates CEO, about SPARK 2017.

“Alberta is committed to supporting solutions that accelerate the transition to a future with lower greenhouse gas emissions,” said ERA CEO Steve MacDonald.

“Through SPARK, we are bringing the right people together—industry, government, technology developers, and funding organizations—to explore new opportunities to create and scale the technologies that Alberta, Canada and the world need.”

Alberta Innovates and the forest sector have made numerous, significant investments toward bioindustrial research, development and manufacturing of novel, wood-based bioproducts that add value to forest residues. Alberta

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Innovates funding has supported projects for the development of advanced building materials and biocomposites, a state-of-the-art lignin recovery plant and applications for lignin, the production of cellulose nanocrystals (CNC), and research into widespread applications for CNC. These bioproducts often also provide

GHG reduction benefits through their ability to substitute for conventional, petroleum-based products.

ERA, too, has funded a number of forestry projects. These are estimated to reduce GHG emissions by more than 600,000 tonnes by 2020, and more than 1.4 megatonnes by 2030.

ERA projects include funding to support a high efficiency evaporator project in Grande Prairie, Alberta, a biomethanation project at Slave Lake Pulp, and a project to use sawmill wood waste to replace coal at a major power generating facility.

Forest industry attendees should find plenty at SPARK 2017 to interest them.

The conference will feature an innovation showcase and networking opportunities. Forest sector representatives will have an opportunity to hear from and share ideas with attendees from other sectors such as agriculture, oil and gas, petrochemicals, power generation and other industrial enterprises.

SPARK 2017 will also feature the launch of the 2018 Cleantech Directions research report—including the release of a national survey of businesses working in clean technology—which will provide an outlook for both innovators and technology adopters.

Plenary sessions held at various times throughout the program will focus on three specific areas: Advancing Innova-

tion Around the World, What Does the Marketplace Want, and Where Money and Ideas Meet. Breakout sessions over two full days will focus on five streams: on the themes of Biological Resource Optimization, Opportunities for Innovators, Building and Financing Innovation, Growing a Clean Tech Business and Technical Abstract Presentations.

The plenary, titled What Does the Marketplace Want, will look at the clean tech challenges confronting Alberta’s biggest industry sectors, and how the research and innovation community can better understand and address market needs.

A session called Financing and Funding Models to Advance Innovation focuses on how innovators can access funding to optimize and commercialize technology once it has been proven at the demonstration scale. This could apply to several forest companies who have already partnered with research organizations to advance proven technology to this stage, or are considering collaboration but are looking for ways to accelerate advancement to full commercialization.

Jumping Over Gaps and Barriers to Adopt New Technologies addresses the pinch points or bottlenecks that slow the development and adoption of new technologies, and the solutions. Several forest companies are interested in developing the capability of manufacturing new wood-based biomaterials but they are struggling with how to integrate these processes into existing facilities. By attending this session, companies could discover new strategies to address this significant challenge.

Logging & Sawmilling Journal - August/September 2017

To register for SPARK2017, visit http:// spark2017.ca/.

For additional information contact Alberta Innovates Communications Specialist Julia Necheff at julia.necheff@ albertainnovates.ca.

The Edge

Mixed afforestation delivers multiple commerical and environmental values

BY TONY KRYZANOWSKI Note: this is the second in a three part series of stories

T

he Canadian Wood Fibre Centre (CWFC) presents the potential to not only enhance and supplement wood fibre supply through afforestation, but shows how to produce both a softwood and a hardwood crop on the same land base through the implementation of the mixed afforestation plantation pattern.

CWFC believes that afforestation, or the practice of planting fast-growing trees resilient to global warming on nonforested land, is one way that industry can address and mitigate the potential of a fibre supply disruption due to climate change, while creating the opportunity to claim carbon credits to help offset establishment costs.

It has developed several afforestation adaptation and mitigation opportunities— specifically high yield afforestation, mixed afforestation, and concentrated biomass afforestation—that establish a commercial wood fibre crop in about one-eighth the time frame of a natural forest.

Mixed afforestation, or the practice of planting native, shade tolerant, softwood species like white spruce or white pine between plantings of fast-growing hybrid poplar and aspen clones in an orchard style pattern, is an enhancement to CWFC’s high yield afforestation pattern.

“We started looking at incorporating native species into our single species, high yield afforestation pattern, with the primary objectives being to achieve multiple values, habitat enhancement, diversity, and risk management by having multiple species on the same land base in an era of changing climate,” says Derek Sidders, Program Manager at CWFC. While establishing a mixed afforestation plantation costs more compared to a plantation featuring a single species, there are multiple value-added benefits from growing more fibre from the same land base.

In this scenario, considerably more trees are planted compared to the high yield afforestation pattern where up to 1600 hardwood cuttings exclusively are planted in about 2.5 X 2.5 metre spacing. By adding the tolerant softwood species between the hardwood plantings, this increases the

CWFC’s mixed afforestation plantation design makes it possible to produce two highly valuable commercial wood crops on the same land base, with nearly twice as many trees as just a hardwood high yield afforestation plantation. number of plantings per hectare to about 2800, taking into consideration the establishment of machine corridors for harvesting, or nearly twice as many.

The poplar or aspen act as an excellent nurse species to the tolerant softwoods, providing both nutrients through their leaf litter and protection from weather events, while still allowing 50 to 70 per cent of sunlight to reach the softwood seedling in the understorey.

There are two ways to establish a mixed afforestation plantation. One is to plant the softwood seedlings at the same time as the hardwood cuttings, alternating between a hardwood cutting and softwood seedling as the plantation is being established. The second is to make a second entry into the plantation three to four years after the hardwood cuttings are planted, to plant the softwood seedlings in the space between the rows of hardwood stems.

In terms of vegetation management, if both species are planted at the same time, mechanical vegetation control is handled in the same way as with a high yield afforestation plantation, with passive cultivation for vegetation management taking place within three to five weeks, straddling the plantings with disks or cultivating shoes. Multiple entries are made throughout the initial growing season to help the trees establish their root systems.

When the tolerant softwoods are planted later, typically there is enough crown closure from the hardwood species so that

no further mechanical vegetation control is required. The softwoods simply occupy, grow and mature in the space between the rows of hardwood stems.

There is a significant difference in the rotation cycle between a high yield afforestation plantation and mixed afforestation plantation. In the former scenario, because the hybrid hardwood clones mature in 12 to 20 years, the plantation can be re-established after harvesting with another hardwood crop in the space between the rows of the previous planting. In the latter scenario, the hardwood crop is harvested as usual within 12 to 20 years, but rather than being replanted, the tolerant softwood species in the understorey takes over, which converts the site to a softwood plantation, just as it would in nature.

Sidders says that it is possible to begin harvesting sawlogs measuring 20 metres high and 20 centimeters in diameter from mixed afforestation plantations within 55 to 60 years.

The CWFC has already demonstrated successful mixed plantations involving white spruce and white pine in the understorey in both Alberta and Ontario.

For more information about how to successfully establish and manage a mixed afforestation plantation, contact Derek Sidders at derek.sidders@canada.ca.

Logging & Sawmilling Journal - August/September 2017

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thelastword

Waiting for the smoke to clear in the B.C. Interior—and on softwood lumber

By Jim Stirling

I

t’s been a watershed spring and summer for the forest industry in the British Columbia Interior. Wildfires and their impacts dominated the headlines for weeks and continue to have thousands of residents living in a state of high alert.

Residents of Southern Interior communities from Princeton to Ashcroft and Cache Creek and up through the Cariboo to Clinton, 100 Mile House and Williams Lake—and many rural outposts in between—were forced from their homes, properties and jobs to await their fates in cities like Kamloops and Prince George.

At least 71 homes had been reported lost.

It’s a moving target but in early August, the B.C. Wildfire Service said 860 fires had burned about 4,730 square miles of forest lands in B.C. since April 1. August is traditionally the hottest and driest month of the wildfire season.

Widespread and persistent smoke from the wildfires is a health concern for some and an additional problem for the thousands of firefighters and support staff trying to establish fires’ perimeters to better plot containment strategies. In early August, nearly 4,000 people were actively involved in the firefighting efforts, with locals joining trained expert personnel from across Canada and as far away as Mexico.

Suggestions are already circulating about how to mitigate a warming climate’s effects on forest fuels in the future.

New B.C. Premier John Horgan has indicated basing a strategy on the Filmon report, prepared after the 2004 Kelowna forest fires. The report recommended making fire management considerations an integral part of the province’s land use planning processes.

The forest industry’s regional knowledge, manpower and equipment have proven invaluable allies on the fire lines.

Logging crews and their equipment have cut or enlarged fire breaks around sawmills and around communities at risk.

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In the Cariboo, West Fraser Timber and Tolko Industries were forced to suspend operations in July. West Fraser alone had about 1,000 people off work due to closure of its operations around its mills at Chasm—near 70 Mile House—and in 100 Mile House and Williams Lake. The sheer numbers and extreme volatility of many of the forest fires also interrupted rail freight service in the regions, power supplies and necessitated highway closures. Highway 97, the main route north, was closed to through traffic for a couple of weeks.

It’s too soon to ascertain the damage incurred by the fires on the forest resource itself. Clearly, significant volumes of timber have been lost to the region’s working forests. The timing could hardly be worse. The aftermath of the mountain pine beetle epidemic is already constraining available timber supply in many areas of the Interior. The situation may also hasten the possibility for more permanent sawmill closures and production curtailments in the Interior. Lumber prices to the U.S. jumped by about eight per cent, partly in response to the curtailment of lumber production in the Cariboo.

The political smoke (and mirrors) surrounding Canada’s access to the U.S. lumber market has, like the wildfires, ballooned this summer. The state of negotiations between the two countries on a new softwood lumber deal have been fertile ground for rumours and speculation. Persistent among them has been the desire to settle the lumber dispute before negotiations begin on re-assembling NAFTA. That exercise was scheduled to begin its first round August 16.

According to the most recent information, the two countries have agreed to a market share split in the range of the U.S. supplying 70 per cent of its domestic market and Canada 30 per cent. One of the reported hindrances was what happens when the U.S lumber market is robust, as it presently is. Should it be

Canadian softwood producers which fill the gap above the 30 per cent basic line market share or should the gap be filled by offshore lumber manufacturers? It’s probably too simplistic to suggest allowing the dynamics of an unfettered market to function in such scenarios, By the time this is read, two things should be clearer. If there’s a framework for a solid deal agreed to by Canada and the U.S., more details of how it’s crafted should be available. If there is no deal and the NAFTA talks proceed when planned, a softwood lumber agreement could be shuffled aside. But that latter scenario would also create an elephant in the NAFTA negotiating arena.

Chapter 19 is the name for the NAFTA’s dispute settlement process.

The Americans would like it scrapped, or certainly considerably revised from its present form. Canada has found the Chapter 19 process very useful in the past softwood lumber disputes. Under Chapter 19, bi-national panels arbitrate the legitimacy of a country’s decision to impose duties or anti-dumping measures on imports and not the U.S. courts.

In discussions prior to the NAFTA renegotiation process, Canada has made it clear an acceptable dispute settlement process should remain on the table. “As our ambassador said just last week to the Americans,” recalled Prime Minister Justin Trudeau in comments in late July, “a fair dispute resolution system is essential for any trade deal that Canada signs on to and we expect that that will continue to be the case in any re-negotiated NAFTA, that we will continue to have a fair dispute resolution system.”

Like the other issues swirling around the B.C. Interior forest industry this summer, it’s going to take time for the smoke to clear.

Logging & Sawmilling Journal - August/September 2017

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