Logging & Sawmilling Journal - September/October 2021

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September/October 2021

WESTERVELT opts for turnkey approach with new mill

UPGRADE AT TOLKO LAKEVIEW delivers flexibility ONTARIO’S DEVLIN TIMBER Upgrading the family logging operation WITH THIS ISSUE...

ON THE CUTTING EDGE OF INDUSTRY INNOVATION

TECH UPDATE: Gearing up with chainsaws and related equipment

September/October 2021 Volume 52 • No. 5 Editor Paul MacDonald Contributing Editors Jim Stirling, Tony Kryzanowski George Fullerton Tech Update Editor Tony Kryzanowski Publisher/CEO Anthony Robinson • (604) 990-9970 E-Mail: arobinson@forestnet.com

FEATURES

Social Media: Kaitlin Davidson Digital Marketing: Diane Mettler Email: digitalmarketing@forestnet.com

On the Cover: The last 18 months have been challenging times, with sawmills looking to meet record-high lumber demand.

And for a few firms that were expanding, such as The Westervelt Company, they faced the challenge of how to go about building a new sawmill at a time of COVID. But the company was able to meet that challenge, and in fact were able to finish building their new sawmill ahead of schedule, thanks in part to its project partners, such as B.C.-based BID Group, who built the new mill on a turnkey basis.

Read all about the project beginning on page 14 of this issue (Cover photo courtesy of The Westervelt Company).

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After a period of exponential growth, and then a slowdown, a big question lingers about the beetle situation in British Columbia—what’s coming next?

ISSN 0226-7572. Back copies from 1996 onward are available through our website www.forestnet.com Publications Mail Agreement No. 40064045 Return undeliverable Canadian addresses to CIRCULATION DEPT. PO Box 86670 Stn Main North Vancouver BC V7L 4L2 e-mail: SubscribeLSJ@forestnet.com POSTMASTER: Send US address changes to LSJ Publishing Ltd., PO Box 610, Edmonds, WA 98020-0610 Published September/October 2021 Printed in Canada on 20% recycled paper.

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4

Spotlight: What’s next with the beetle in B.C.?

8 A more flexible

Lakeview sawmill

Tolko Industries’ Lakeview sawmill in B.C. has completed an upgrade that will result in increased flexibility, while working with a changing wood basket.

14 Delivering the

goods—ahead of schedule The Westervelt Company was able to build its brand new sawmill ahead of schedule, thanks in part to its project partners, such as B.C.-based BID Group, who built the new mill on a turnkey basis.

20 Upgrading the family logging operation

Ontario’s Devlin Timber has a proud history—with the fourth generation of the Devlin family now working for the company—and has recently upgraded operations with the addition of new Kenworth trucks that are helping it tackle long hauls in northwestern Ontario.

30 Five tips on how to

properly maintain your log loader undercarriage

Contractors can extend undercarriage life on their log loaders by following some routine maintenance procedures.

34 Tech Update:

We take a look at chainsaws, bars and chainsaw safety equipment in this issue’s Tech Update.

38

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 (CWFC) and FPInnovations.

42 The Last Word

Jim Stirling says there seems to be a misplaced calm in B.C.’s forest industry as the winter log harvesting season approaches, as there is no lack of concerns.

DEPARTMENTS

Calendar...........................................6 Suppliernewsline............................40 Ad Index.........................................41 Classifieds......................................41 Subscriptions.................................41

Logging & Sawmilling Journal - September/October 2021

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spotlight

What’s next with the beetle in B.C.?

After a period of exponential growth, and then a slowdown, a big question lingers about the beetle situation in British Columbia—what’s coming next?

By Jim Stirling

T

he beetle watch in the forests of the British Columbia Interior is at a critical stage.

After a period of sustained and exponential growth, the rate of spread seems

to have reached a hiatus in the last few months. The question now is, what’s next? The brief slowdown might reflect that a peak has been reached. But the opposite can just as easily be the case with beetle population numbers merely pausing for a new surge in growth. Experience

with the mountain pine beetle epidemic taught that growth in the infestation rate was irreversible once it reached a certain critical point.

Most tree species native to the forests of B.C. have at least one forest beetle or pest with which to contend. The mountain pine beetle has removed much of B.C.’s adult pine population and many younger trees in Crown forests. The latest growth spurt in beetle numbers infesting other commercial species has been identified in spruce beetle populations, in Douglas fir bark beetles and Western balsam bark beetle numbers.

Beetle numbers can increase dramatically under suitable climatic and ground conditions, and quickly put otherwise healthy tree populations under stress.

Interpretation of B.C. government air and ground data shows about 7,631 hectares of forest land in the province was impacted by the spruce beetle in 2013.

Seven years later, in 2020, the comparable figure had mushroomed to more than to page 6

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from page 4 500,000 hectares. During that relatively short time, the spruce beetle outbreak had become the most significant in B.C. since the 1980s.

“The spruce beetle is being closely monitored by the province,” reported the Ministry of Forests, Lands, Natural Resource Operations and Rural Development to the Logging & Sawmilling Journal in a recent statement. “Although the attack area decreased last year in the main outbreak area of Omineca (in north central B.C.), the area across the province is still holding steady.”

The ministry noted spruce beetles are a natural part of the historical disturbance pattern in spruce ecosystems: they can even help drive diversification within the ecosystem. “It is difficult to predict exactly where these outbreaks will occur and how large they will become. This is why our monitoring program is so important each year and why our focus is on sharing information and working with stakeholders when populations increase and attack standing healthy trees.”

The boost in spruce, Douglas fir and balsam beetle populations in B.C. is a shared phenomenon. It follows a now familiar pattern of events and circumstances that have helped rewrite B.C.s recent forest history. The warming and more erratic climate patterns is a recurring theme within them. The reality underpins the mountain pine beetle epidemic which the B.C. forests ministry estimates destroyed a staggering 18 million hectares of provincial forest land.

If that wasn’t a devastating enough toll on tomorrow’s forests, there was a punctuation to be added. In 2017 and 2018, the B.C. Interior experienced its worst two years of lands lost to wild fires since records began. In 2018, a provincial 6

record of 2,117 forest fires consumed 1,354,284 hectares, eclipsing the previous year’s forest fire season record. The 2017 forest fire season was the worst on record for the central interior region. A provincial state of emergency was declared and lasted from July 7 to September 17. This past summer’s wild fires also took their toll—through to Sept. 1, the BC Wildfire Service responded to 1,562 wildfires that had burned more than 865,000 hectares.

The net result of those natural disasters has been an immediate shortage of fibre, especially that most suitable for the production of commodity lumber, and a proportional increase in costs. Other factors including continuing industry consolidation and reorganization—along with the imposition of contested duties on Canadian lumber entering the U.S. market—have compounded the B.C. forest industry’s woes. All that makes what happens in the near term with beetle populations additionally critical.

The B.C. Ministry of Forests has adopted initiatives to coordinate its response to the growth of beetle populations in the province. In the summer of 2020, Diane Nicholls, the provincial chief forester, presented updated guidelines for forest managers directing harvesting operations on land impacted by growth in beetle populations. “In stating my expectations regarding relative harvesting priority, I have carefully weighed the loss of short term salvage opportunities with the need to maintain future harvest opportunities and non-timber values provided by our forests,” she explained by way of context.

Essentially, she continued, the priority stands for harvesting should contain dead, dying and damaged timber, with the priority to those stands with greater than 50 per cent mortality.

“There’s a significant number of live trees in the understory of a spruce stand,”

explained John Pousette, director of the Provincial Bark Beetle Response, whose duties include coordinating provincial response efforts to the beetle threats. “We want to make sure we’re prioritizing the stands as the most dead trees and not necessarily taking those stands that will re-build and recover,” he said.

Pousette added that clearcutting is no longer the only answer to mitigating a beetle infestation.

Beetle mitigation techniques are also being prescribed and applied on a micro scale in the region. For example, the city of Prince George and the provincial government teamed up in efforts to help reduce the spread of the spruce beetle within city boundaries. Pouches containing an anti-aggregate pheromone were attached to healthy spruce trees to discourage other beetles from infecting the tree. Trap trees containing spruce beetles were also used and burned in the Prince George area as part of forest fire prevention strategies around the city’s periphery.

But the next step to be played out on the regional stage will most likely depend on how and where beetle numbers trend after the beetle flights in the summers of 2021 and 2022.

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DEMO International Equipment Show, Ottawa/Gatineau (888) 454-7469 www.demointernational.com

Logging & Sawmilling Journal - September/October 2021

BCmillprofile Tolko’s new Lakeview sawmill is designed to be a highly competitive operation with a different and smaller footprint than the mill it replaces. It has two main production lines compared with three before.

A more flexible

Lakeview sawmill Tolko Industries’ Lakeview sawmill in B.C. has completed an upgrade that will result in increased flexibility, while working with a changing wood basket.

By Jim Stirling

D

iversification, flexibility and sustainability have become buzz words for the forest industry of the 2020s in British Columbia’s Interior region.

The descriptive words have been aptly applied at various times to earlier incarnations of the Lakeview sawmill, a fixture at Williams Lake in B.C.’s Cariboo country since the 1950s.

The latest version of the Lakeview mill emerged in 2019 after a fire-enforced period of re-designing and upgrading by its owner Tolko Industries Ltd., another

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Logging & Sawmilling Journal - September/October 2021

BCmillprofile

veteran performer in the B.C. Interior forestry community.

The new Lakeview mill tackles an additional challenge this time around. It has to demonstrate diversification, flexibility and sustainability while adjusting to a differently structured wood basket. Further than that, the revitalized Lakeview sawmill must accomplish that within the high cost operating area that the Interior of B.C. has become.

And the mill is increasing its range of quality wood products and delivering them into keenly competitive international wood products markets. A tall order perhaps, but so far, so good, for the new Lakeview.

“The mill is consistently operating at our expected performance level,” reported Jason Favel, plant manager at

Tolko’s Lakeview division at the end of the second quarter of 2021.

The Lakeview sawmill became part of the Tolko family of companies in 2004.

Lakeview and its sister operation, the Soda Creek stud mill, also located in Williams Lake, were part of the Riverside Forest Products assets acquired by Tolko that year.

Fast forward to 2017 and what evolved into a pivotal year for Williams Lake and Tolko. The local and regional forest industries were immersed in tumultuous times.

The longer term effects of the mountain pine beetle epidemic were coming home to roost. Sawmills were stricken by shutdowns and closures, many of which proved permanent, causing chaos to page 10

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BCmillprofile

The upgrade will help Tolko Lakeview to better accommodate the increasing volumes of dry belt fir coming into the mill. from page 9 and consternation in the region’s many forestry-dependent communities. Suitable fibre was in shorter supply and prices rose as a result. And then the surrounding forests caught fire. The forest fires burned furiously from July into September, further impacting future timber supply prospects.

But fate hadn’t finished with TolkoLakeview. On a cold November evening in 2017, a section of the Lakeview mill caught fire. The flames were soon doused, but the impacts from what happened were much longer lasting. The mill closed

10

down while its future was analyzed and the rumour mill flourished.

Changing timber types in the Cariboo had contributed to the region’s woes. But it was changes to the forests’ composition now—and into the future—that helped influence Tolko’s management decision to upgrade its Lakeview mill.

For many years, Lakeview’s logging contractors had been concentrating on salvaging lodgepole pine, like the majority of other sawmills in the Cariboo. The wood was degenerating in quality, and increasing in costs to harvest and process as the beetle epidemic ran its course.

Now the mature and over-mature pine are gone and the remaining forests are changing. The shift is on to harvesting more green timber with an increasing component in the Cariboo of dry belt fir, explained plant manager Favel.

“We’re positioned very well, with a favourable future timber supply, and that was one of the key things in making the rebuild decision.”

It was good news for Tolko’s workers and the city of Williams Lake which hadn’t recently garnered many positive headlines.

The new Lakeview is designed to be a highly competitive operation with a different and smaller footprint than the mill it replaces. It has two main production lines compared with three before. The old wooden Lakeview which was witness to many changes in its era has been retired and replaced with a steel fabricated framework and a concrete basement.

Colony Construction Corporation of Surrey, B.C., provided the steel building.

Access and lighting have been revitalized. Tolko purchased LED lighting from

Logging & Sawmilling Journal - September/October 2021

to page 12

140

SOLD

BCmillprofile from page 10 electrical supplier E. B. Horsman & Son, through the BC Hydro incentive plan.

Favel says the upgraded Lakeview has a design capacity of 245 million board feet annually.

Each of the mill’s two new lines is equipped with a Springer/Microtec screwfeeder system. The screw infeed technology is designed to accumulate, singulate, align and accelerate production logs. “The

12

log handling systems have provided reliable and consistent gapping for both our 22-inch barker and the 10-inch canter line,” said Favel. The 22-inch debarker is a ValonKone Kodiak machine with a dual ring configuration, with a 35-inch Nicholson debarker on the other side.

The mill upgrade provided the ideal opportunity to thoroughly examine the mill’s existing Optimil reman canter line and repair and rejuvenate its components as deemed necessary.

“The canter sections were upgraded to capture the benefits of Optimil’s new feedroll and positioning system, as well as the upgraded chip head designs,” pointed out Favel. “They are all performing exceptionally well.”

The upgrades will help Lakeview to better accommodate the increasing volumes of dry belt fir coming into the mill.

A key part of the upgrade is the addition of a new USNR edger line. One of the line’s features is USNR’s new BioVision scanning system.

“Our USNR Vision scanning system has been very reliable and it has given us the ability to make better decisions around shake and splits, reducing the amount of low grade being made,” Favel added.

The edger line was typically operating at speeds of 1200 feet per minute.

“There was a big focus in the mill on dealing with byproducts and residuals,” continued Favel. “A lot of attention went into that.”

The attention to dust control and management measures began in the upgraded mill’s basic design with its 20-foot high ceilings and improved access throughout.

There are fewer conveyor systems in the upgraded mill, and those there have been better routed. The new dust collection systems were tailored to fit the mill’s new machine centres.

A single point lock-out system with improved sight lines was introduced into the mill to simplify and improve the process.

The safety record during the mill upgrade process was exemplary despite all the primary contractors and subs coming and going with their equipment.

The familiarization and staff training with Lakeview’s new product flow and machinery also proceeded smoothly and safely. That was achieved by design. “Both hourly and staff in all departments have worked together to make the operation an extremely safe and efficient manufacturing facility,” commended Favel. Accountability was apportioned among staff for specific operational sections within the sawmill. “This has created engagement in all areas of the mill.”

The benefits have been maintained as the new Lakeview settled smoothly into regular production mode.

“I believe all our Tolko employees and the different contractors played a significant role throughout this rebuild.

However, both Rory McCaig, our project manager, and Duane Doucette from International Quest Engineering were instrumental in the success of this project,” concluded Favel.

Logging & Sawmilling Journal - September/October 2021

millprofile

Delivering the goods —ahead of schedule

The new equipment at Westervelt’s Thomasville mill starts outside, in the millyard, with a Kone radial single-bite crane.

The Westervelt Company was able to build its brand new sawmill ahead of schedule, thanks in part to its project partners, such as B.C.-based BID Group, who built the new mill on a turnkey basis.

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Logging & Sawmilling Journal - September/October 2021

By Paul MacDonald

I

t’s been somewhat of an erratic last 18 months for the North American forest industry.

Very early in the COVID-19 pandemic, in spring 2020, there were fears that housing construction, and demand for lumber, was possibly going to collapse.

And then the exact opposite happened, with demand spiking, and lumber prices hitting all-time record levels.

That said, sawmills and forest companies have had to re-work operations, and figure out how to meet all the necessary COVID protocols during this period.

And for a few firms that were expanding, such as Tuscaloosa, Alabama-based The Westervelt Company, they faced the challenge of how to go about building a new sawmill at a time of COVID. In the case of Westervelt, they had started work on a new, state-of-the-art sawmill in southern Alabama.

Not only was the company able to meet that challenge, they actually lost no time during construction—and were able to finish building the Thomasville, Alabama sawmill ahead of schedule, thanks

millprofile in part to its project partners, such as B.C.-based BID Group, who built the new mill on a turnkey basis.

This past January, they started production from the new facility, meaning that in less than two-years’ time, the mill went from being an idea and strategy to a fully operational facility, with the shipment of the first load of lumber. The Thomasville mill will produce 250 million board feet annually.

The Alabama location takes advantage of the proximity of Westervelt’s timberland and existing customer base. The mill is fully staffed with a workforce of 125, as the second shift started up in the second quarter of this year.

The U.S. Southeast is one of the few regions in North America that is seeing a fair bit of sawmill construction activity.

A number of new mills have been built in the area in the last few years, to take advantage of a good supply of timber.

Large forestry areas, like British Columbia, whose forest resource is fully committed, are struggling to maintain the mills they currently have—and have, in fact, seen significant mill closures over the last decade. But the U.S. southeast is blessed with abundant, and available, forest resources.

In the mill itself, most of the lumber manufacturing equipment is from BID Group companies, including the reception deck, OLI canter line, and profilers, all of it from Comact. The mill has a Comact TrimExpert system, Comact sorter and a Comact GradExpert system.

For example, Westervelt’s home state, Alabama, has the third-largest commercial forestland base in the U.S. with nearly 23 million acres, according to the Economic Development Partnership of Alabama. The state’s timberland area has increased by 1.3 million acres in the past 30 years and timber expansion outpaces removals by 37 percent.

These numbers were all positive for

Westervelt when it made the decision to go ahead and build the new Thomasville sawmill, in the southwest part of the state. In addition, the company manages approximately 520,000 acres of forest land in five southeastern states, including Alabama, so it knows the region, and

Logging & Sawmilling Journal - September/October 2021

to page 16

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millprofile

This past January, Westervelt started production from the new facility, meaning that in less than two-years’ time, the mill went from being an idea and strategy to a fully operational facility, with the shipment of the first load of lumber. from page 15 the state, well. The company, now being managed by the fourth generation of family leadership, has deep roots in the state, having set up there in 1927.

The new sawmill complements the company’s existing mill in Moundville, Alabama, some 135 kilometres to the north, which is the second-largest southern yellow pine production facility in

the United States. The Moundville mill opened in 1997, and serves customers across the U.S., as will the new Thomasville mill.

In commenting on the new facility, Westervelt Vice President and General Manager of Wood Products Joe Patton said: “This has been a challenging year of construction, dealing with the impact of the COVID-19 virus. We have been very fortunate to work with the BID Group that

shared our safety concerns and processes so we could safely complete the mill on time.”

In an interview, mill manager Steve Metz explained that Westervelt fully explored its options when both deciding on the location of the new mill, and the equipment that was going to go in it.

Bryan Martin, engineering manager at the company and leading the Westervelt team, toured a number of sawmill facilities, and the team subsequently worked closely with the BID Group on the design of the new mill.

“Under Bryan and Joe Patton’s leadership, and with the depth of knowledge of the Moundville mill team, they were really able to set us up to be successful with the new mill,” said Metz. In addition to BID Group’s expertise, Westervelt has a tremendous amount of sawmill knowledge and savvy with its Moundville staff, says Metz. “We were able to utilize a lot of internal resources.”

Metz said that the company’s goal with the new mill was straightforward. “Our overall objective was to build a very technologically advanced mill, keep our costs low, and produce what customers expect in terms of quality.” Production sizes at

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Logging & Sawmilling Journal - September/October 2021

the mill range from 2 by 4s through to 2 by 12s. They are working with Southern Yellow Pine, much of it coming from Westervelt-owned forests, with timber sizes up to a 20-inch butt.

Before any construction started, a fair bit of pre-site work had to be done on the 300-acre site. Some two million cubic yards of dirt was moved, to make the site level. “We had to work the site quite a bit to get the flat site we needed for the mill.”

The equipment starts outside, in the millyard, with a Kone radial single-bite crane. In the mill itself, most of the lumber manufacturing equipment is from BID Group companies, including the reception deck, OLI canter line, and profilers, all of it from Comact. The mill has a Comact TrimExpert system, Comact sorter, MoCo Engineering & Fabrication stacker, and DelTech continuous dry kilns. It also has a Miller planer and a Comact GradExpert system. The mill has three strapping lines, with Signode strappers that are fed from Comact dry stackers.

Metz said the turnkey approach with the BID Group worked well for Westervelt.

“It has been, and continues to be, a very positive experience,” he said. “Very early on, Westervelt and BID Group formed one team to oversee this project.

And BID has since done an outstanding job, right through to start-up. It doesn’t matter what piece of equipment, we have one BID contact to work through issues with, and it has been very successful.”

In addition to the equipment built into the mill, BID Group also worked with local contractors and suppliers on the project. “They reached out to local contractors to be able to manufacture some parts to make the mill even better,” says Metz.

On the analytics side, Westervelt is also putting its mill data to work with the BID Group’s OPER8 IIot Solution. Applying the

combined power of PTC and Rockwell, OPER8 is a cloud-based IIoT operating solution that seamlessly connects products, plants, systems, and machines to enable companies to harness the wealth of data that is generated. OPER8 transforms this data into productive business results, using powerful industrial applications with advanced analytics.

Metz talked about the benefits of building a greenfield mill, and having a blank slate to work with—design-wise— rather than having to work around an existing operation, as with an upgrade. “We did not have to work around anything, like you would with an existing sawmill.”

That said, COVID had a major impact on construction of the project, he added, in several different ways.

“One of the reasons the company selected BID Group for the project was that our values around safety and people are very closely aligned,” said Metz. “There is nothing more important than making sure everyone can work safely, and be healthy, on site.

“BID project manager Rick Weiler jumped on the situation very early on, with precautions that matched up with the way we felt about taking care of people,” said Metz.

And Westervelt and BID committed to not allowing COVID transmission happen on the site. The construction site was divided into 10 different zones, each with different facilities. And each contractor worked on their own with, for example, different start times, and different lunch times, from other contractors.

“That way nobody was outside of their group, they were not interacting, and worst case, we would have lost a small piece of the construction site, but not lost to page 18

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millprofile from page 17 the whole construction site, if we had a COVID case. But because of that forethought and planning at the beginning, we did not have a single case of COVID transmitted at the site.

“We take great pride in that,” added Metz.

In terms of overseeing construction, the members of the combined Westervelt/ BID Group team met frequently before COVID. Much of the communication and subsequent meetings were done virtually, by computer.

“We had to do things differently, but it all worked, in terms of understanding how things were coming together on the project,” said Metz.

As the project moved along, and moved towards completion, the original plan called for the new Thomasville staff to receive training at the Moundville mill.

But when that was no longer possible, due to COVID, a six-week training program was put together, with the help of the city of Thomasville.

“We were able to get our first shift of almost 70 people on board, in terms of training them in a COVID-safe way,

Before any construction started on the Thomasville sawmill, a fair bit of pre-site work had to be done on the 300-acre site. Some two million cubic yards of dirt was moved, to make the site level. using training materials our supervisors and superintendents put together on sawmilling, and importantly, all the safety processes. For six weeks, we were full time teachers.”

The new employees were then brought to the site for start-up, which happened to coincide with the height of COVID transmission—but it was still a successful start-up, says Metz. “We’re really proud of every single person at the site for the tenacity it took to do the right things, and the successful start- up we had. You couldn’t have asked for a more challenging situation, but we started on schedule, and are producing lumber ahead of plan.”

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With greenfield mills, there is always the period of time when you are transitioning from construction to operations mode, which can be challenging even in non-COVID times. “We had finished construction of the sawmill, and we were doing trial runs but the kilns and planer were still under construction,” explained Metz. “We had to be very intentional about how to cordon things off, with one side in operation, and the other still in construction.”

But, he added, there is that satisfying time when you take a deep breath, and the whole operation starts up. “We came out of the gate pretty good, with all the support we had from Westervelt Moundville and the BID Group.”

Metz credited his colleagues from the Moundville sawmill, a 90-minute drive up state highway 25 from Thomasville, for their help with the project.

“The experience and knowledge from the Moundville people has been very helpful—they had had a big impact on the design of the mill and procurement of wood—and I still call Tommy Clemmons, the mill manager in Moundville, just to talk over things.”

There is absolutely no doubt that a company has to have the right high-tech equipment in place to have a productive, and successful sawmill.

But Metz says it is also important to have the right people in place—management and staff.

“The challenge is building the right team for a new mill. You can easily buy the equipment to build a new mill, but the magic ingredient is having the right people, the culture, and the teamwork, and having the smarts to operate in a way that maximizes safety, productivity and the quality of the equipment that goes into that mill.”

And Metz is confident that ingredient is there—and now at work—every day, at Westervelt Thomasville.

Logging & Sawmilling Journal - September/October 2021

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UPGRADING Ontariologging

the family logging operation Ontario’s Devlin Timber has a proud history—with the fourth generation of the Devlin family now working for the company—and has recently upgraded operations with the addition of new Kenworth trucks that are helping it tackle long hauls in northwestern Ontario.

By Nathan Medcalf

D

evlin Timber Company (1992) Limited, based out of Kenora, Ontario, is a fourth-generation logging company that cuts and hauls timber for several forestry companies in the area— and it has a long and proud history.

“We harvest off the Kenora Forest—about 50,000 metres from our own license and approximately 20,000 from other licenses,” says Howie Adams, one of the company’s four owners.

The other Devlin Timber owners are Carla Devlin-Scott (granddaughter of the founder of the company), Mark Scott (her husband) and John Shodin.

Devlin Timber employs about 15 fulltime employees plus they have four subcontractors (owner-operators) that cut and skid and delimb and slash all of the wood.

The company has a rich history. Devlin Timber was incorporated in 1939, in Rennie, Manitoba by John Devlin. Devlin came to Canada in 1903 from Northern Ireland, and first settled in Saskatchewan doing farming, and even opened a butcher shop. He later moved to Manitoba, spending time farming in many small towns before purchasing a farm in Rennie and moving there in 1936.

The land around Rennie was not suited for agriculture, with too many swamps and low wet areas, so Devlin started a

Funding from the Ontario government recently helped Devlin Timber purchase logging trucks that will enhance its log hauling service in the region. The company purchased three Kenworth T800 logging trucks, to upgrade three of their older logging trucks.

20

Logging & Sawmilling Journal - September/October 2021

sawmill and began to saw railway ties, lumber and lathes—thus Devlin Timber began. They cut the wood for their mill, and also delivered some to a Kenora mill.

The company had a contract with the City of Winnipeg to supply firewood to heat their boilers. Devlin was known to be a very clever businessman.

Ben and Joe Devlin worked for their father starting at a very young age. Ben was driving a logging truck to Kenora in 1952, delivering wood to the mill there at the age of 17. During the winter of 1953, Ben and his helper Karl delivered over one million cubic feet of lumber to the McArthur Falls hydroelectric plant that was then under construction, making two trips a day.

Ontariologging When their father John died in 1954, Ben and Joe took over the company. Ben, who is Carla’s father, was only 18 and his brother Joe was 19 at the time. Logging was very different during these times— trees were cut down with Swede saws and axes, and horses were used to haul the wood to the road. Chainsaws came in 1955, which helped make the cutting of trees easier.

In 1957, the brothers moved the company across the Manitoba/Ontario border.

They operated sawmills at Rush Bay and Shoal Lake, and they started to increase the amount of pulpwood they cut and delivered to the Mando paper mill, later a Boise Cascade mill.

Ben married his wife Jean in 1957 and had three daughters and six grandsons.

One grandson, Ben, is now working for the company—loading wood in the bush.

Joe married his wife Lucy in 1957 and had one son and one daughter and seven grandchildren.

The two brothers—Ben and Joe—were two very different people, says Carla.

However, despite being different personalities, they got along and ran the business well together.

Ben and Joe have always been involved in the community and supported many organizations over the years. The four new owners also like to get involved in the community; recently they made a $10,000 donation to the Kenora Rotary Club for their new Splash Park.

One of Devlin Timber’s four owners, Carla Devlin-Scott, believes that the company’s success comes from having the owners looking after different parts of the operations.

“We also have a really great work force with employees that have been with us for many years,” she says.

In 1989, Carla’s Uncle Joe was diagnosed with cancer, so the two brothers decided to sell the company. A buyer was found from Winnipeg, but a year later, the company was in bad shape. It became insolvent.

Once a receiver was appointed, the management who had worked at the company got together to purchase back the company. They founded Devlin Timber Company (1992) Limited and took over the company from the receiver on January 1, 1993.

Over the years, the company has made investments in its log hauling equipment.

The Ontario government recently promised the company $268,010 to help purchase logging trucks that will enhance log hauling service in the region. The total cost of the three new logging trucks was $536,019. Of the money received from

the government, $160,806 is repayable.

“Our government is committed to creating good jobs and helping local economies grow,” said Greg Rickford, Ontario’s Minister of Energy, Mines, Northern Development and Indigenous Affairs. “This investment retains jobs in the region.”

Devlin Timber purchased three 2019 Kenworth T800 logging trucks, to upgrade three of their older logging trucks that were no longer reliable for longer hauls, and have since been sold. The new trucks are now more reliable, efficient, safe and more environmentally friendly.

The company has a fleet of five Kenworth trucks, and they are busy.

“Right now, we are hauling wood about a 600-kilometre round trip to Ear Falls, and about a 200-kilometre round trip to Kenora,” says Howie Adams.

The company has a fondness for Kenworth Trucks. They have always purchased Kenworth since the four owners bought the company.

“These are our 13th, 14th and 15th Kenworth trucks,” says Howie.

John Shodin does all of the company’s equipment purchases and mechanical repairs. He reports that the availability of parts, and service, is excellent out of the Inland Kenworth truck dealer based out of Winnipeg—two reasons for continuing to purchase Kenworth trucks. Also, the trucks hold up well in what can be some tough work conditions.

Features that make Kenworth T800 trucks durable include a frame built of continuous straight rail constructed of heat-treated steel, heavy-duty cross members, thick bulkhead-type doors that hang on continuous stainless-steel piano hinges, and huckbolts that hold with six times the clamping force of normal rivets, resulting in a cab that’s strong, durable and more rattle-free, says the company.

to page 22 21

Ontariologging from page 21 With its 48.5-inch set-back front axle, the T800 enables more weight to be transferred to the front end, thereby increasing payload. The truck’s 1,780-square-inch cross-flow radiator can cool high horsepower engines running full power at low speeds, even when hauling heavy loads, says the company. Other productivity gaining features include a multi-function steering wheel, multiplexed instrumentation and wireless communication systems.

The truck’s narrow, sloped hood provides good visibility, both in front of the truck and to the right-hand side.

The equipment used by the sub-contractors in Devlin Timber’s logging operations includes a 2015 Madill 2250C feller buncher, for harvesting. The trees are skidded by a John Deere 848H grapple machine, and then delimbed by a Timberjack 735 equipped with a Denharco 4400 delimber attachment, and are cutto-length by a Hood 24000 slasher and, finally loaded onto trailers by a Hyundai HX220L High Walker excavator equipped with a wood grapple.

Where they log, the Kenora Forest, is run by the Miisun Integrated Resource Management Company, which has an evergreen management agreement for the Kenora Forest with Miitigoog, and is a 100 per cent First Nations owned company, also based in Kenora.

Devlin Timber has been around for 82 years—they are one of the oldest companies harvesting in the Kenora Forest today.

The total logging experience of the company’s four owners is double that. Carla has been working at the company for 39 years, and her husband Mark has been working for the company for 35 years.

Howie has been working at the company for 41 years, and John has been working at the company for 52 years.

The four owners have different roles to play at Devlin Timber.

John “Jack” started with the company in 1969 at the age of 19 as a truck driver and then operated various pieces of logging equipment. In 1977, he became the bush mechanic servicing the equipment.

Currently, Jack runs the repair shop and supervises the mechanic and truck drivers.

He is also responsible for purchasing new equipment.

Mark started with the company in 1986 as a bulldozer operator building bush roads. Now he is a logging foreman, supervising the cut and skid crews, slashing and delimbing. Mark locates all the 22

Devlin Timber employs about 15 fulltime employees plus they have four subcontractors (owner-operators) that cut and skid and delimb and slash all of the wood. bush roads, and lays out all the cutting blocks and plans for the yearly cutting locations. He also ensures that all safety and environmental polices are followed including keeping the company’s Safe Workplace Ontario certification up to date.

Howie co-ordinates and oversees all company operations including road and bridge construction and cut and haul operations. He also has the tough job of negotiating all their wood contracts, while still having time to run the backhoe and building bush roads. He began working for the company in 1980 as a logging foreman, supervising the cut and skid crews, delimbing and slashing.

Carla started working for Devlin Timber full-time in 1982 as an Office Clerk.

Prior to this, she had worked part-time in the summer in the parts department where the company sold Timberjack parts and Jonsered chainsaws. Today, Carla is responsible for completing all the day-today accounting functions including preparing monthly financials and managing the cash flow. She is also responsible for negotiating and signing all financial documents with banks and leasing companies.

“I really think that the company’s success comes from having four owners looking after different parts of the operations—it’s teamwork that keeps us running,” Carla says. “We also have a really great workforce with employees that have been with us for many years. My Uncle Joe always said you are only as good as

the people that you have working for you.”

Times have changed over the years, and new equipment has replaced the old.

They once had crews cutting trees with chainsaws and now have feller bunchers.

The delimbing was done by hand with a chainsaw, and today they are using a delimber. Change is good and has made the operation safer, says Carla.

Experience is a kind way of saying people are getting old. And, as the owners get older, they will be looking to possibly sell the company, if a suitable buyer can be found.

“One of our company’s biggest challenges, as well as the industry as a whole, is retaining people,” says Howie. “A fourth generation isn’t stepping up to take the helm and it is hard to sell a business such as ours. Who is going to invest in something that goes up and down?

“Carla’s son, Ben, has been working with the company since 2016,” Howie added.

Ben loads the wood trucks in the bush, piles brush and helps building road or in the shop when he is not loading trucks, says Carla. “He is the fourth generation to work for the company and is our youngest employee, but I don’t see him taking over the company.”

“Working for a logging company is not a great money maker—but it is a good living,” summarizes Howie.

Logging & Sawmilling Journal - September/October 2021

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millprofile

Low grade

WOOD

= high grade benefits

Seaton Forest Products has a focus on utilizing low grade wood at its mill operation in the B.C. Interior, and it’s generating some high grade benefits from fibre that no one else wants—dry, decadent balsam.

By Jim Stirling

S

eaton Forest Products is a venture focused on utilizing low grade wood— but it’s generating a raft of high grade benefits. The small sawmilling company located near Witset (Moricetown) in the Bulkley Valley region of west central

British Columbia punches well above its weight.

Like all good entrepreneurs, the principals behind Seaton Forest Products were hoping to find practical uses for regionally sourced fibre that no else was using. In the case of Kirsteen Laing (the administrator) and Andy Thompson (manager) with

Seaton, they found it in the form of dry, decadent balsam. The fibre type now comprises about 80 per cent of their wood basket with the balance in dry pine and spruce. The desiccated wood is riddled with cracks and checks. Those defects spell expensive headaches with minimal returns for the large scale dimension lumber

Like all good entrepreneurs, the principals behind B.C.’s Seaton Forest Products were hoping to find practical uses for regionally sourced fibre that no else was using: dry, decadent balsam. The fibre type now comprises about 80 per cent of their wood basket with the balance in dry pine and spruce.

24 24

Logging & Sawmilling Journal - September/October 2021

millprofile producing mills which dominate the B.C. Interior. So it’s been left in the forest. But when manufactured into cants, the discarded wood is in demand for the options it presents to sectors of the construction materials market in China.

Now, with the assistance of supportive partners, the mill is providing benefits on several levels. It is helping clean up the surrounding forests and making them safer, reducing the carbon impact from the abandoned timber—and creating needed employment for First Nations and others. Additionally, Seaton is also finding a home for the residual wood chips produced through the cant manufacturing process. About 50 per cent of the product is converted to cants, the rest into chips.

“The result is 100 per cent utilization of our fibre,” says Laing. “And that’s pretty sweet.” Indeed: especially when it’s achieved using fibre the rest of the industry deemed disposable.

Seaton Forest Products represents more than the object lesson in utilization. For Thompson, the cant mill represents a long time wish fulfilled. “I always wanted to

to page 26

The balsam that forms most of the wood diet for Seaton Forest Products can be riddled with cracks and checks. Those defects spell expensive headaches with minimal returns for the large scale dimension lumber producing mills which dominate the B.C. Interior. But it’s a different story when the timber is manufactured into cants.

25

millprofile from page 25 own a sawmill ever since I first worked in B.C. in 1973,” he explains. “It was in the blood.”

Thompson’s determination to achieve his ownership goal was tested on an earlier occasion. But a tragic fire on a frigid night in Fort St. James, B.C. left that dream in embers. The timing this time around has also proved more fortuitous for Laing. A graduate forester from the University of British Columbia, Laing has travelled widely, as well as working as a forestry consultant in the B.C. Interior.

She was at the point of wanting a new challenge that would keep her busy and utilize her forest industry skills, Laing explains.

“We began work on the mill in June 2015 and it was operational in 2016,” recalls Laing. “We built the operation from scratch as a cant mill because that was we have got the logs for,” adds Thompson.

The mill was also designed along the KISS principle: keeping it simple without sacrificing efficiency and a measure of versatility.

The plant is designed to produce about 80,000 cubic metres annually.

The round dry logs are converted into squared cants on two lines in the mill.

The material 15 inches and smaller in diameter is reduced on a double scragg system, with the 16-inch diameter and up logs directed through a headrig side. The first scragg was manufactured by Mainland Elworthy, while Thompson describes the second scragg as a “Heinz 57”. The quality control and recovery decisions are made by two sawyers between the two scragg passes. “Those two have been with us all the way and do an excellent job,” says Thompson. An Exco headrig makes four passes to square the cants on the large log side.

Seaton Forest Products has forged a successful partnership, on the equipment-side.

This has resulted in equipment success in its millyard, in the form of John Deere mobile equipment, supplied and supported by the Brandt Group. “Our John Deere yard equipment has been super reliable,” says mill manager Andy Thompson (above), with a Deere fork lift.

The operation produces cants up to 16 feet in length, making them compatible for B-train truck transportation. A conveyor from the mill feeds the operation’s 72 inch CAE chipper. “It’s like a small whole log chipper,” describes Thompson. Four to five loads of chips a day are trucked the 30 kilometres or so to the Pinnacle Renewable Energy/West Fraser Timber Company’s joint venture industrial wood pellet manufacturing plant in Smithers, B.C. (see Logging and Sawmilling Journal’s May 2019 issue).

Seaton Forest Products isn’t in the logging business, but is a purchaser of logs suitable for its cant making operations.

“We buy suitable logs from logging contractors, from West Fraser Timber, through BC Timber Sales, woodlot licence holders and community forests,” outlines Laing.

Seaton usually employs around 20 to 24 people, 70 to 80 per cent of whom are from local First Nation communities

and that’s a source of pride for Laing and Thompson. It’s also a boon to the local area economy where employment options are extremely limited. Seaton is able to offer steady employment and an opportunity to learn valuable skills in a very hands-on working environment.

Seaton Forest Products’ ability to turn “wasted” wood into viable products, reduce carbon emissions and create jobs mostly for aboriginal workers attracted the interest of the Forest Enhancement Society of B.C. (FESBC). The FESBC, with the support of the federal government, invested $2.5 million in Seaton Forest Products in 2018 to support a threeand-a-half-year long project. Essentially what the funding allows is for Seaton to go further afield than it could otherwise afford to do in search of its dry, decadent

to page 28

Seaton usually employs around 20 to 24 people, 70 to 80 per cent of whom are from local First Nations communities and that’s a source of pride for the company. It’s also a boon to the local economy where employment options are extremely limited.

26

Logging & Sawmilling Journal - September/October 2021

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millprofile

Seaton Forest Products and its initiatives have attracted the interest of the Forest Enhancement Society of B.C. (FESBC). The FESBC, with the support of the federal government, invested $2.5 million in Seaton Forest Products which allows the company to go further afield than it could otherwise afford, in search of its dry, decadent wood fibre source. from page 26 wood fibre source. It means spreading the benefits further. More wood that no one else wants is removed from the bush so it doesn’t end up being burned, releasing carbon into the atmosphere, or simply being left on site where it becomes a wildfire liability. The funding also helps sustain the employment opportunities Seaton Forest Products is able to offer.

The FESBC has been very effective in supporting projects around the province that fit its mandate. The B.C. government has invested $238 million in FESBC, of which $237.6 million has been allocated

for 269 forest enhancement projects as of March 2021. The society says it has empowered local people who want to do local projects that contribute to the achievement of climate change goals and enhance B.C.’s forests through: wildfire risk mitigation; accelerated ecological recovery after wildfires; wildlife habitat enhancement; and increased utilization of forest fibre.

Seaton Forest Products has forged another successful partnership. This one has resulted in four equipment keys to success in its millyard “Our John Deere yard equipment has been super reliable,’ credits Thompson. “It comes down to a

simple fact: we have to ship our products to our customers in a timely fashion to stay in business—and these John Deere machines allow us to do just that,” he adds. The company’s John Deere foot soldiers are: a Deere 624K RTF200 forklift; a Deere 724K loader with a 10-yard chip bucket; a Deere 644K loader with a log grapple and a Deere 2656 G log loader.

The John Deere equipment was supplied and is supported by the Brandt Group, which has a John Deere dealership in nearby Smithers.

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Logging & Sawmilling Journal - September/October 2021

equipmentmaintenance

FIVE TIPS on how to properly maintain

your log loader undercarriage Contractors can extend undercarriage life on their log loaders by following some routine maintenance procedures.

L

og loader tracked undercarriages consist of many moving components.

Maintaining them is important for the undercarriage to function properly. If the undercarriage is not maintained, it can cost you time, money and decrease the track’s lifespan.

Follow these five tips and you can get better performance and life out of your log loader’s undercarriage, says Aaron Kleingartner, product and dealer marketing manager, Doosan Infracore North America.

Keep the undercarriage clean

At the end of each workday, operators should clean out dirt, sticks and other debris that may lead to undercarriage buildup. Regardless of the application, if the undercarriage is dirty, clean it. If the undercarriage is not cleaned, the faster it will lead to premature wear on components. This is especially true in colder climates.

“If operators neglect to clean the undercarriage and are working in a colder climate, the mud and other debris could freeze,” Kleingartner says. “Once that material freezes, it can start to rub on the bolts, move undercarriage components, loosen track guides and seize up the rollers, leading to potential premature wear and then failure later on. Cleaning the undercarriage helps prevent unnecessary downtime.”

Also, debris can add extra weight to the undercarriage, thus reducing fuel economy. Use shovels and pressure washers to help clean the undercarriage. Many manufacturer’s undercarriages are designed for easier track carriage cleanout, helping debris fall to the ground rather than become packed in the undercarriage.

Routinely inspect the undercarriage

It’s important to complete a full undercarriage inspection for excessive or uneven wear, as well as look for damaged or missing components. According to Kleingartner, if the machine is being used to page 32 30

Logging & Sawmilling Journal - September/October 2021

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equipmentmaintenance equipment maintenance from page 30 in harsh applications or other challenging conditions, like driving over stumps, the undercarriage may need to be inspected more frequently.

Inspect the following items on a routine basis: • Drive motor • Drive sprockets • Idlers and rollers • Rock guards • Track bolts • Track chains • Track shoes • Track tension During a routine machine walk-around inspection, operators should inspect the tracks to see if any components look out of place. If so, this could indicate a loose track pad or possibly a broken track pin.

In addition, they should inspect the rollers, idlers and drives for oil leakage. These oil leaks could indicate a failed seal which could lead to a major failure in the rollers, idlers or track drive motors.

Always follow your manufacturer’s Operation and Maintenance Manual for proper undercarriage maintenance.

Follow basic practices

Certain jobsite tasks can create more wear on log loader tracks and undercarriages than other applications, so it is important that operators adhere to the manufacturer’s recommended operating procedures.

According to Kleingartner, some tips that can help minimize log loader track and undercarriage wear include: • Make wider turns: Sharp turns or pivoting the machine can lead to accelerated wear and increase the potential for de-tracking.

• Minimize time on slopes: Constant operation on a slope or hill in one direction can accelerate wear. However, many forestry applications require slope or hillside work, so when moving the machine up or down a hill, make sure

that the drive motor is in the correct position to reduce track wear. According to Kleingartner, the drive motor should be facing the back of the machine for easy maneuverability up a slope or hill.

• Reduce unnecessary spinning: Train your operators to make wide, less aggressive turns. Track spinning can lead to accelerated wear and decrease productivity.

• Alternate turning direction: Alternating a log loader’s turning direction can extend undercarriage life.

• Select the correct shoe width: Choose the proper shoe width by considering the weight of the machine, application and geographical location. For instance, if your machines are working in B.C., it may be beneficial to use narrower shoes because they are better suited for hard soil and rocky conditions. However, wide shoes may be needed in some areas, because they work well in soft underfoot conditions.

• Pick the correct grouser: Consider the application before choosing the number of grousers per shoe. A single or double grouser may work well in forestry applications but may not work well in other applications. Typically, the higher number of grousers the track has, the more contact the track will have with the ground, vibration is reduced and the longer it will last when working in more abrasive conditions.

Maintain proper track tension

Incorrect track tension may lead to increased track wear, so it is important to adhere to the proper tension. As a general rule, when your operators are working in soft, muddy conditions, it is recommended to run the tracks slightly looser.

“If steel tracks are too tight or too loose, it can quickly accelerate wear,” Kleingartner says. “A loose track could 32

cause the tracks to de-track.”

Kleingartner advises referring to your manufacturer’s Operation and Maintenance Manual for correct log loader tracktensioning procedures.

Adhere to proper loading procedures

Your log loader operators should follow basic operating procedures—outlined in your manufacturer’s Operation and Maintenance Manual—to minimize excessive wear and track degradation. Improper operating procedures can cause stress to the track shoes and track links.

The log loader undercarriage consists of expensive components. Adhere to these five undercarriage maintenance tips and maintain proper track outlined in your manufacturer’s Operation and Maintenance Manual, to help keep your overall cost of ownership down and extend the life of your tracks.

About Aaron Kleingartner Aaron Kleingartner is the product and dealer marketing manager for Doosan Infracore North America, LLC, headquartered in Suwanee, Georgia. Kleingartner has 18 years of product development, analytics and strategic marketing experience with Doosan.

About Doosan Infracore North America, LLC Doosan Infracore North America, LLC, headquartered in Suwanee, Georgia, markets the Doosan brand of products that includes crawler excavators, wheel excavators, mini excavators, wheel loaders, articulated dump trucks, material handlers, log loaders and attachments. With more than 160 equipment dealer locations in North America, Doosan is known for its dedication to service and customer uptime, and durable, reliable products, says the company. na.DoosanEquipment.com.

Logging & Sawmilling Journal - September/October 2021

TECHUPDATE

By Tony Kryzanowski

Chainsaws, Bars and Safety Accessories Oregon Products

Over the last 74 years, Oregon Products has built a legacy of innovation. That legacy traces back to its founder, Joe Cox, who was inspired by nature, the timber beetle larva, specifically, to design the modern-day saw chain. His design revolutionized the industry and continues to drive it today, says the company.

around the world, says the company. In addition to adding its most powerful ¾” bar to the line up, Olofsfors/Iggesund Forest introduces the brand new Blue Line Vyking slasher bar. Specially designed for ground saws, the Vyking slasher bar has proven to be a reliable and productive saw bar in all conditions, says the company. www.iggesundforest.com, www.olofsfors.com

Husqvarna

Husqvarna is taking the next step in offering best-in-class cutting systems with the launch of the new Husqvarna X-TOUGH LIGHT lightweight bars through its partnership with Sugihara/ Diatop Co Ltd, a praised and recognized manufacturer of chainsaw bars.

Made for everyday professional forestry and tree care work, the new Husqvarna X-TOUGH LIGHT bars offer a combination of lightweight, durability and cutting performance.

Husqvarna X-TOUGH LIGHT benefits from a solid, lightweight body with hard resin inserts that reduce weight, making it easy to maneuver. Additionally, the hard resin inserts make the bars robust, ensuring high productivity and improved straightness in the cuts. The three-rivet RSN mount and an optimized oil hole help Since 1947, Oregon Products has become a precision cutting powerhouse with a portfolio of products that help professionals take on the toughest cuts. Its saw chains are created with a proven grind technology resulting in a burr-free cutting edge, consistent surface finish and even-shot peening that ensures a clean, quality cut.

Beyond chain, Oregon manufactures guide bars, harvester and grapple saws, sprockets, log splitters and more. One product that gets a lot of air time among woodcutters is SpeedCut (shown). SpeedCut requires less power, offers more efficiency and delivers faster cutting performance, ultimately making quick work of everything from cleaning up trees to cutting firewood, says the company. www.oregonproducts.com

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Olofsfors and Iggesund Forest are excited to introduce the Blue Line .404” with an Open End mounting system. The Open End system makes changing bars even quicker and dramatically reduces bar maintenance time.

The company’s most powerful ¾” bar to date, the new Vyking series can handle any and all conditions. It features an advanced metal alloy, HD power tip for optimal performance and lifetime, and revolutionary endurance rails with a 60-degree rail angle. All these benefits reduce downtime and increase productivity.

The Blue Line series continues to change the forest industry

34

provide reliability and performance during long workdays. These features, along with the rail hardness of the new bars, results in longer maintenance intervals. Also, the sprocket nose adds to the high performance of Husqvarna X-TOUGH LIGHT and the new premium design provides a distinct appearance.

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HAIX

For a tough, yet comfortable, chainsaw boot, the HAIX Protector Ultra Lime Green fits the bill.

These boots offer exceptional stability on any kind of uneven terrain and are built for comfort. The lime green suede upper works in conjunction with the reflective material at the heel and ankle for increased visibility near the chainsaw both day and night. The boot also features a soft close fitting sleeve at the top of the boot that prevents flying

Logging & Sawmilling Journal - September/October 2021

techupdate wood chips and debris from getting inside and causing irritation.

The suede upper offers double stitched construction with minimal seaming to yield a longer wearing, more durable boot and less risk of seam failure out in the field. The two zone lacing of the upper allows individual adjustment of the upper and lower lace areas for a customized fit, while the roller ball style eyelets make the adjustment quick and easy. www.haixusa.com

chainsaw,” says John Allen, product manager for Stihl Inc. “And with time-saving features like the simplified carburetor design for easy manual adjustment, a stop switch that automatically returns to the run position reducing the risk of flooding the engine and captive bar nuts to eliminate the risk of losing bar nuts on the forest floor, these saws are designed to work for you.” www.stihl.ca

Stihl

Since 1955, Cannon Bar Works has manufactured saw chain guide bars for the worldwide forest industry where only the highest quality bar stands a chance of longevity. Cannon started with one bar—the SuperBar—a chainsaw bar truly made for professionals and grew their offerings from there.

Most recently, Cannon has introduced the Cannon DuraLite SuperBar. The DuraLite SuperBar is made from a virtually completed SuperBar. After the bar has been grooved and the

Professionals can find the durability, dependability and performance they need in the Stihl MS 881 MAGNUM and MS 881 R MAGNUM chain saws, says the company. With an updated engine design, these models have the same power as the previous model while using less fuel and reducing exhaust emissions,

Cannon Bar Works

saving time and money while also being better for the environment. As the most powerful saws in the Stihl line up, the MS 881 MAGNUM and MS 881 R MAGNUM are built for the most demanding tasks, including logging, thinning and land clearing.

“For the largest, toughest and most demanding jobs, professionals can find the performance they need in the MS 881

Logging & Sawmilling Journal - September/October 2021

to page 36

35

techupdate from page 35 rails have been flame-hardened, weight is eliminated by milling out pockets on either side of the SuperBar, leaving a steel core in the centre for strength. The centre section is then perforated with holes and Cannon then uses a special adhesive which not only bonds the steel to two flexible aluminum inserts, one on each side of the bar, but also creates a chemical bond or weld between the two inserts. The new DuraLite SuperBar remains ridged, durable, and tough and has the same quality characteristics as the traditional SuperBar, but weighs up to 25 per cent less. www.cannonbar.com

TriLink Saw Chain

TriLink believes that quality is the key to success. It carries a complete line of low kickback and professional full chisel saw chain, guide bars, cutting accessories, and safety items.

The company’s low kickback saw chain has been tested, approved, and listed

by Underwriters Laboratories to meet all ANSI B175.1 requirements. Highlighting its saw chain line are the titanium-coated, full-chisel chains that cut 20 per cent faster than semi-chisel chain. Additionally, TriLink offers a 3/8” low profile full chisel chain providing faster, smooth cutting in clean conditions.

As a global leader in the saw chain industry, it has built a reputation focusing the company on providing the best quality, value, and service in the industry. TriLink Saw Chain says it is your link to quality. www.trilinksawchain.com

GB

For decades GB says that it has continued to be a leader in manufacturing only the best and toughest bar available.

GB Group PTY Ltd., located in Victoria, Australia, concluded a new agreement with Wallingford’s Inc in 2015 to be the exclusive distributor in the U.S. of GB harvester and slasher bars.

Wallingford’s Inc. has been serving the logging community since 1975 and says it is committed to supplying only the absolute best products to their customers.

36

A unique blend of titanium and alloy steel on GB bars yields the ultra-high strength material which ensures trouble free performance in all cutting conditions. This military grade, bulletproof steel is the strongest steel available and is uniquely manufactured to withstand the harshest of conditions. Operators all across the world continue to find ultimate satisfaction in GB bars, says the company. www.wallingfords.com

Echo

The Echo CS-7310P chainsaw has a high-power 73.5 cc 2-stroke commercial grade engine.

It features a three-point spring vibration reduction system for operator comfort. The air injection air cleaner uses centrifugal force to separate the dust and debris from air, resulting in longer air filter life. It comes equipped with an aluminum handle with

rubber grip for strength and comfort, and chrome-plated cylinder for long engine life. The magnesium crankcase and sprocket cover delivers strength and is lightweight.

The pleated air filter with a large surface area ensures a steady flow of clean air to the carburetor. www.echo.ca

JK Boots

JK Boots’ great Inlander Boot, built by hand with the finest American sourced leather, is capable of withstanding the gnarliest conditions and roughest terrain, says the company. Its unique stitcheddown construction provides all-day durability and support, to keep you moving even after the job is done. Family-owned and operated, JK Boots has been dedicated to producing high quality boots for the last 30 years. All of its boots are 100 per cent made in America, at their flagship store right in the heart of Spokane, Washington.

Customers will find the fit, service, and craftsmanship of the boots are second to none, it says. The family is proud to serve hardworking men and women around the globe, by transforming the way they walk, work, and live life. Customers are requested to visit the company website or one of its stores in Spokane, Boise, or Redding to get a pair of custom boots. It's time to get boots that match your intensity, says JK Boots. www.jkboots.com

Logging & Sawmilling Journal - September/October 2021

THE

ON THE CUTTING EDGE OF INDUSTRY INNOVATION

R

New geosynthetics design online tool for unpaved roads

oads built over weak soils reduce allowable truck payloads, inhibit vehicle traction, pose a safety hazard, and lead to higher road maintenance costs over time. Critically weak road sections also reduce transportation efficiency, thus limiting access to fibre.

To address this challenge, FPInnovations has just released an online tool for its members, FPGeoDesign, that is based on FPInnovations’ previously published Geosynthetics Design Guide: Reinforcement Solutions for Unpaved Roads.

FPGeoDesign is used to determine the required thickness of compacted aggregate when geosynthetic reinforcement is used, and to make a comparative analysis between a reinforced section and an unreinforced section. The nature and properties of the subgrade soil and aggregate base course materials, as well as the expected traffic, are the main inputs to the tool. Different geosynthetic reinforcement options can be compared amongst each through simplified cost analyses. Several types of geosynthetics can be compared side by side.

For more information, please contact Francis Bober, Researcher, Transportation and Infrastructure at FPInnovations.

How to access FPGeoDesign (FPInnovations’ members only) 1. Send a request by email to Giuseppe Costanzo at Giuseppe.Costanzo@fpinnovations.ca.

2. On your mobile device, install the Microsoft Authenticator app for Android (Google Play) or for iPhone (App Store), which is used to verify your online identity quickly and securely.

The app is mandatory to access FPGeoDesign.

3. You will soon receive an email from Giuseppe Costanzo asking you to accept an invitation to access an FPInnovations application. This email is legitimate and is part of the registration process to access the FPInnovations member portal.

4. Once your registration is completed, go to https://fpgeodesign.fpinnovations.ca/ and log in with multi-factor authentication using Microsoft authenticator.

38

Logging & Sawmilling Journal - September/October 2021

Practical measuring and monitoring of high yield afforestation for natural climate solution opportunities

By Tony Kryzanowski

T

rees can be part of a natural climate change solution because of their ability to sequester a substantial amount of carbon. But the question is how to determine and validate exactly how much carbon individual trees and plantations sequester.

The Canadian Wood Fibre Centre (CWFC) of Natural Resources Canada in co-operation with soil scientists at the Canadian Forest Service present this handy reference guide to calculate carbon sequestration on both an individual tree and area basis.

For individual trees, it is first important to calculate the stem tree volume. Take a diameter measurement at 1.3 metres up the stem, diameter breast height (DBH), followed by a measurement of total tree height. These measures should then be applied to a known formula for a specific species to calculate a total above ground stem volume measurement in cubic metres. An algorithm is then applied to the stem volume to incorporate below ground stump and root volume (~35 to 42 per cent) and tops and branches (~30 to 37 per cent) to deliver a total cubic metre measurement.

Next, this measurement is applied against the mean dry weight of the tree based on sample analysis of local trees or averages by species. For example, the dry weight of hybrid poplar according to samples analyzed by CWFC for Prairie-suitable hybrid poplar clones is .382 grams per cubic centimetre, or 382 kilograms per cubic metre.

Using hybrid poplar again as an example, that cubic metre with a density of 382 kilograms of dry weight per cubic metre yields approximately 45 to 50 per cent carbon. The yield depends on the hybrid poplar clone or tree species (most common species in Canada are in this range), site location and climate. By applying the kilogram density per cubic metre against the carbon units of approximately 45 per cent, it is possible to calculate the kilograms per cubic metre of actual carbon.

It is now important to convert the

amount of sequestered carbon into carbon dioxide equivalent because it is an escalating greenhouse gas of concern.

That is achieved by multiplying calculated carbon mass content in the individual tree by 3.667, a factor related to the molecular weight of CO2. Carbon has an atomic mass of 12 and oxygen has an atomic mass of 16, totaling 44 for CO2. This equates to 3.667 kilograms of CO2 per kilogram of carbon.

As a reference, the CWFC has determined that one tonne of sequestered carbon dioxide is equivalent to a 27 centimetre DBH hybrid poplar measuring 27 metres tall.

Therefore, the formula to convert the mass of a hybrid poplar to its potential for carbon and carbon dioxide sequestration is volume in cubic metres multiplied by dry weight in kilograms multiplied by 45 per cent and then multiplied by 3.667.

Using one cubic metre of stem volume as an example, applying the calculations in the previous paragraphs to hybrid poplar equates to ~1 tonne of CO2.

As a reference, the CWFC has determined that one tonne of sequestered carbon dioxide is equivalent to a 27 centimetre DBH hybrid poplar measuring 27 metres tall.

“We have created a reference sheet that shows diameters, heights and stems per hectare and how that translates to total carbon tonnes sequestered per hectare,” says Derek Sidders, Program Manager, Technology Transfer and Development at CWFC. To calculate the amount of sequestered carbon within an area, let’s consider a plot of a certain dimension within a hectare, which is 10,000 square metres or 2.471 acres. CWFC’s sample plots are

typically clusters of 100 square metre circular plots with a radius of 5.64 metres.

Considered as a percentage of a full hectare, it is possible to calculate total carbon and carbon dioxide equivalent in tonnes per hectare.

Now it is important to consider growth rate which represents incremental carbon sequestration potential per year. For a typical moderate to high intensity managed hybrid poplar afforestation plantation, the growth rate is 12 to 20 cubic metres of growth per hectare per year over the tree’s lifespan at 100 per cent stocking.

“Afforestation plantations mature usually in sixteen to twenty-five years and so it is possible to accrue anywhere from 12 to 22 carbon dioxide tonnes per hectare per year,” says Sidders, “which is a significant value when applied at the present $30 per tonne of carbon dioxide equivalent, and shortly, $50 per tonne.”

He adds that by using this simple method, it is possible for landowners and investors to track carbon stocks or to understand total carbon dioxide sequestration potential of individual trees, taking the whole tree above and below ground into consideration.

In addition to functioning as an excellent medium for carbon sequestration, afforested or reforested trees obviously have additional value at maturity for solid wood products, bioenergy, or a variety of bioproducts as opposed to releasing the carbon into the atmosphere through onsite burning or natural decay. ** The calculations above represent a case scenario for Canadian Prairie-suitable hybrid poplar and are an indication of the maximum or gross units produced by these plantations in all woody parts of the trees. Fractionate the trees by component (stem, tops and branches, stump and roots), to get an estimate of the relative units associated with each.

For more information about this afforestation carbon dioxide sequestration measuring and monitoring method, contact Derek Sidders at derek.sidders@nrcanrncan.gc.ca.

Logging & Sawmilling Journal - September/October 2021

39

SUPPLIERNEWSLINE Tigercat introduces LSX870D shovel logger

Note: In the July/August issue of Logging and Sawmilling Journal, we erred in showing a photo of the Tigercat 875E logger instead of the LSX870D shovel logger with this item. We apologize for this error. Below is a reprint of the item, along with the correct photo.

Tigercat has raised the bar again with the introduction of the LSX870D shovel logger, says the company.

Based on the popular LX870D series track carrier platform, the machine is designed for extreme duty steep slope logging. With the choice of attachments including the new Tigercat BG13 grapple with a live heel boom or the SC08 shovel clam grapple, the LSX870D is suited to pre-bunching and shovel logging in challenging terrain.

New John Deere/Hitachi arrangement

the three Deere-Hitachi factories. These locations will discontinue production of Hitachi-branded excavators. John Deere will continue to offer a full portfolio of excavators through a supply agreement with Hitachi.

John Deere’s marketing arrangement for Hitachi-branded construction excavators and mining equipment in the Americas will end and Hitachi will assume distribution and support for these products. www.johndeere.com

John Deere says it has agreed with Hitachi Construction Machinery to end the Deere-Hitachi joint venture manufacturing and marketing agreements.

Instead, John Deere and Hitachi will enter into new license and supply agreements which will allow John Deere to continue to source, manufacture, and distribute the current lineup of Deerebranded excavators in the Americas.

As a result of the new agreements, the following changes will go into effect at the end of next February, contingent upon regulatory approval.

John Deere will acquire the Deere-Hitachi joint-venture factories in Kernersville, North Carolina; Indaiatuba, Brazil; and Langley, British Columbia.

John Deere will continue to manufacture Deere-branded construction and forestry excavators currently produced at 40

The addition of the LSX870D to the Tigercat lineup provides a higher power, closed loop drive alternative to the LS855E. Where the LS855E provides higher swing speed and lower ground pressure, the LSX870D allows for improved multifunctioning ability and quicker, more responsive travel speed, says Tigercat. The Tigercat FPT C87 engine supplies 245 kW (330 hp),

Peter Rayner takes dual role with Strongco

Equipment dealer Strongco Corporation, a Nors Group company, has appointed Peter Rayner to the roles of VicePresident and Chief Financial Officer.

He joined Strongco in 2014 as the Director of Finance and has been responsible for the general accounting, statutory financial reporting, accounts payable, accounts receivables and credit management functions. Prior to Strongco, Rayner held financial management roles with public and private companies in the technology, consumer products, and chemical

By Tony Kryzanowski

which combined with the dedicated attachment pump, provides plenty of multifunctioning power.

Tigercat’s leveling track machines use innovative technologies and systems optimized for a wide range of steep slope applications including shovel logging, felling and harvesting. Tigercat’s super-duty leveling undercarriage is longer and wider, providing exceptional stability on steep slopes. The patented leveling design uses two massive hydraulic cylinders and heavy steel sections for a solution that is simple, robust and reliable. Unlike competing systems, the Tigercat leveling system leans into the hill when leveling to the side, which further improves machine stability and operator comfort. www.tigercat.com

and metal refining industries.

“Together with his strong background and experience in financial management, we are confident in Peter’s ability to successfully move into this role,” says Oliver Nachevski, President and Chief Executive Officer for Strongco. www.strongco.com

New President at Forests Ontario

Steve Hounsell has stepped down as President and Chair of Forests Ontario, though he will remain on the Board of the not-for-profit organization. Malcolm Cockwell, Managing Director of Haliburton Forest, has been selected by the Board of Directors as the new President.

Also, Board member Christine Leduc will become Vice-President of the Board of Forests Ontario.

Hounsell served as Forests Ontario Director and President and Chair for 13 years and is well-known and lauded for his efforts in the battle against both climate change and biodiversity loss, says the organization.

As Managing Director of Haliburton Forest, a multi-use private land stewardship company responsible for more than 40,000 hectares in central Ontario, Cockwell, a Registered Professional Forester, is also Haliburton Forest’s representative at the Ontario Forest Industries Association.

Leduc is a Woodlands Operations Su-

Logging & Sawmilling Journal - September/October 2021

classified pervisor at Eacom’s Timmins sawmill. She has held policy positions in the office of the Ontario Minister of Natural Resources and Forestry and at the Ontario Forest Industries Association. www.forestsontario.ca

Barko Hydraulics achieves safety milestone Barko Hydraulics develops, manufactures and distributes innovative heavy equipment solutions for the forest industry, and it recently achieved a safety milestone: two years of injury-free work at its manufacturing facility in Superior, Wisconsin.

“At the end of the day, our employees

#

and their safety come first,” says Justin Rupar, President of Barko. “Our employees work with some of the most powerful machines in the industry. Recognizing two years of injury-free work at our facility highlights Barko’s commitment to safety in the workplace, as well as our employees’ sense of responsibility to one another. We are very proud of our team.”

Understanding what it takes to tackle the most challenging jobs, he adds that Barko’s hardworking team of professionals is committed to providing long-lasting machines that meet the industry’s toughest demands.

With over 55 years of experience developing and manufacturing high-quality, innovative forestry equipment, the Barko team has produced over 25,000 of the most durable and reliable machines for the forestry, vegetation management and material handling industries. Barko builds every piece of equipment with rugged components suitable for the most demanding jobs in the industry, from harvesting to loading to land clearing, says the company. www.barko.com

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Logging & Sawmilling Journal - September/October 2021

41

thelastword

Misplaced calm in B.C.’s forest industry?

By Jim Stirling

A

n aura of calm envelops British Columbia’s interior forest industry as the winter log harvesting season approaches.

It seems misplaced. There is no lack of concerns. It is true the region is well accustomed to riding the peaks and valleys of an export-reliant forest sector.

And perhaps that apparent calmness is attributable to familiarity: several of the issues confronting the industry represent the usual suspects.

For example, friction remains with the United States’ insistence on imposing duties on Canadian softwood imports into the U.S. Regulatory agencies routinely rule in Canada’s favour but in the meantime the duties are an additional financial imposition.

As of this writing, the B.C. government has been mute in releasing details of promised changes to forest policy in the province, which could influence everything from forest land use and tenure reform to stumpage rates. The government’s inertia leaves the forest industry in limbo and inhibits its planning.

An additional concern this time around is the COVID-19 pandemic. It refuses to abate. The disease is demonstrating a stubborn resilience by sprouting ever more virulent strains and capitalizing on vaccination rate discrepancies, especially those between rich and poor countries. The reaction to COVID-19 in B.C. has been more of the lurching knee-jerk variety than a coordinated and controlled response.

The disease has infiltrated all facets of the economy. Links in international supply chains have become unreliable or are missing altogether. Markets are understandably skittish but the volatility being demonstrated on a regular basis is unprecedented.

Just take a look at recent commodity lumber prices in the U.S. for an example.

From an all time, and astounding, high of U.S. $1,706 per thousand board feet in May to below U.S. $500 board feet before the end of August. As for the anticipated lumber price in the first and second

quarters of 2022, just pick a number. The futures market predicts a steady upward lumber price trend into the U.S. $760 range by Q2 of 2022. The planned U.S. investment in infrastructure represents one positive indicator. It is reasonable to assume that building materials including lumber will benefit.

But the dramatic decline in lumber prices coupled with the B.C. Interior’s status as a high cost lumber producing region has already re-introduced a familiar foe.

Conifex Timber was among the first regional lumber producers to announce a production curtailment beginning with two weeks at its Mackenzie sawmill in north central B.C. “A combination of record high delivered wood costs and the

the related provincial state of emergency and government-mandated curtailments of all forest harvesting activities are expected to have a significant impact on Interfor’s operations in the next several weeks or more,” warned Andrew Horahan, senior vice-president of western operations. “This is an active situation and we are closely monitoring the implications for our operations.”

Production curtailments—be they attributable to gyrating lumber markets or wildfires—have become operational realities in B.C. Record-setting high temperatures in June had the population fearing the worst and a repeat of the 2017 and 2018 wildfire seasons. So far, that hasn’t happened.

To September 7, 2021 the BC Wildfire Service listed 1579 fires since April 1, with 211 wildfires burning and 25 of them rated as active. The area lost to wildfires in B.C. was 866,828 hectares.

For Interfor, the forest fires affecting their operations commandeered the attentions of 250 Interfor staff, their contractors and 90 pieces of contractor-owned heavy equipment to assist the BC Wildfire Service.

All the latest changes and challenges facing the B.C. Interior forest industry come as the sector is attempting to rationalize its operations in the post-lodgepole pine beetle epidemic era. It’s very much a work in progress. Sawmill owners know what they would like to do to fully prepare their production facilities for a new set of operating conditions. Implementing them is an exercise in economics. A competitive price structure is first needed to support capital investment. And it is capital investment that’s required to retool sawmills to fit a different type of feedstock.

A similar situation faces the logging contractors. The mills will be directing them to harvest different wood types under changed operating circumstances.

Maybe that apparent calmness within the B.C. interior forest industry is actually a quiet desperation.

Production curtailments—be they attributable to gyrating lumber markets or wildfires—have become operational realities in B.C.

42

unprecedented collapse in lumber prices has necessitated a temporary curtailment for two weeks,” announced Ken Shields, Conifex’s CEO. “We regret the impact this may have on our employees, their families and the community.”

Canfor Corp., took a different tack to address similar problems. “Due to challenging market conditions, we are implementing reduced operating schedules at our B.C. sawmills that will remain in place until demand and pricing meaningfully improve,” explained Stephen Mackie, Canfor’s vice-president, North America, in a statement. “We recognize the impacts that volatile lumber markets have on our employees, contractors and communities and we will make efforts to mitigate the negative effects.”

Interfor cited log supply issues and wildfires as contributors to a 50 million board feet production decrease during August 2021. The company also predicted continuing disruptions in production through at least the third quarter.

“The wildfires in the B.C. Interior and

Logging & Sawmilling Journal - September/October 2021

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