Logging & Sawmilling Journal - January/February 2024

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January/February 2024

AN EXCITING FUTURE FOR LEDWIDGE SAWMILL with upgrades

DEALING WITH THE LOGGING AFTERMATH OF HURRICANE FIONA in Nova Scotia KEEPING THE HARVESTING LOCAL with regional logging group in Alberta WITH THIS ISSUE...

COUNCIL OF FOREST INDUSTRIES

Conference Preview

ON THE CUTTING EDGE OF INDUSTRY INNOVATION

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Please contact Urban Fredriksson for more information: 1-844-909-6164 (toll-free) 1-819-371-5562 (cell) urban@nordictraction.ca

www.nordictraction.ca The manufacturer of Clark Tracks and OFA

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FEATURES January/February 2024 Volume 55 • No. 1 Editor Paul MacDonald Contributing Editors Jim Stirling, Tony Kryzanowski George Fullerton Tech Update Editor Tony Kryzanowski Publisher/CEO Anthony Robinson • (778) 991-3500 E-Mail: arobinson@forestnet.com Associate Publisher Hannah Robinson • (778) 688-9127 E-mail: hannah@forestnet.com Social Media: Kaitlin Davidson Digital Marketing: Hannah Robinson Email: hannah@forestnet.com Subscription Enquiries (604) 990-9970 Fax: (705) 434-9052 E-mail: SubscribeLSJ@forestnet.com Design & Art Production Manager Sheila Ringdahl E-mail: artwork@forestnet.com Accounting Manager Shelina Jessa • (604) 731-1535 E-mail: accounting@forestnet.com Office P.O. Box 86670 North Vancouver, BC V7L 4L2 Phone: (604) 990-9970 Website: www.forestnet.com Subscriptions: Canada $58 a year; two years $70; three years, $85. Group accounts, six or more subscriptions, $25 per subscription per year. Outside Canada, $95 per year.

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Published January/February 2024 “We acknowledge the financial support of the Government of Canada” Logging & Sawmilling Journal is a member/associate member of the following industry organizations:

On the Cover: Ledwidge Lumber is building on their tremendous 80-year history and taking the sawmill operation, located in Enfield, Nova Scotia, toward an exciting future with state-of-the-art upgrades to milling processes. Yard equipment on the lumber side at Ledwidge includes several wheel loaders that handle lumber and chip/bark loading, including a new JCB 427 wheel loader, from A.L.P.A. Equipment, the JCB dealer for Atlantic Canada and eastern Quebec. Read all about the changes at the Ledwidge operation beginning on page 12 of this issue (Cover photo by George Fullerton).

4 Spotlight: Forest

industry needs railways to improve their service

An advocacy group, which includes the Alberta forest industry, is confronting Canadian railways over inconsistent, unpredictable and inequitable railcar service, especially to more remote communities.

8

Council of Forest Industries Conference Preview Logging and Sawmilling Journal takes a look at the issues that will be front and centre at the Council of Forest Industries (COFI) Conference coming up April 10-12, 2024 in Vancouver—the largest gathering of the forest sector in Western Canada.

12 An exciting future for Ledwidge sawmill

Nova Scotia’s Ledwidge Lumber is building on their 80-year history, and working towards an exciting future, with mill upgrades and new initiatives in engineered wood products and bio-fuel.

20 Excitement builds for

24

Included in this edition of The Edge, Canada’s leading publication on research in the forest industry, is a story from the Canadian Wood Fibre Centre (CWFC).

26

Living the sawmilling dream …

B.C.’s Lee White is living the small sawmilling dream, having recently upgraded to a new band mill with plans from YouTube sawmilling guru Matt Cremona.

32 Keeping the harvesting

local

Veteran Alberta logger Henry Schuurman is part of a group working hard to maintain local jobs through a unique timber logging organization.

36 Dealing with the aftermath of Fiona

Veteran Nova Scotia logging contractor Dana Day and his team are very ably harvesting windthrown timber—damaged by Hurricane Fiona—for Ledwidge Lumber, dealing with some very tangled timber.

46 The Last Word

Jim Stirling talks about figuring out which species of tree seedlings work best, and where, in British Columbia’s warming climate.

The excitement is truly building for the biggest heavy equipment event in the Maritime Provinces—the Atlantic Heavy Equipment Show, being held in March in Moncton, New Brunswick.

Logging & Sawmilling Journal - January/February 2024

DEPARTMENTS

Calendar...........................................6 Tech Update....................................40 Suppliernewsline............................44 Ad Index/Subscriptions..................45 Classifieds......................................45 3

spotlight

INDUSTRY

NEEDS RAILWAYS

to improve their service

An advocacy group, which includes the Alberta forest industry, is confronting Canadian railways over inconsistent, unpredictable and inequitable railcar service, especially to more remote communities.

By Tony Kryzanowski

R

Kelly Levis, Vice-President of Industrial Products at CN Rail, spoke recently at a forest industry conference, and noted that CN is spending upwards of $27 billion over the next two years, to deal with congestion on its railway network in Western Canada.

4

ecently, a new rail advocacy group from Alberta called the Community Rail Advocacy Alliance (CRAA), of which the Alberta Forest Products Association (AFPA) is a member, stated in an Opinion piece in the Edmonton Journal newspaper that “right now, 20 to 30 per cent of the railcars ordered to forestry mills do not show up.”

Brock Mulligan, Senior Vice-President at AFPA, says that at present, this situation has generally gotten better but the challenge has not gone away—and could easily take a step backward with changing market conditions. There is still an ongoing issue with inconsistent and unpredictable railcar delivery service.

“Poor service to remote areas is not something that our industry can tolerate from a viability standpoint,” he says. “It’s not that there is a perpetual shortage of boxcars. It’s that service can be inconsistent and unpredictable.

“Our view is that this system is critical infrastructure,” Mulligan added. “It’s like the electrical grid or healthcare. It’s a lifeline to communities and it can’t be

inconsistent. It has to work well all the time. That’s an ongoing challenge and they (railways) need to figure out how to solve it.”

He says that this is a huge challenge for the forest industry because delivery issues affect forest companies’ reputation with customers, impact costs when such alternatives as trucking and warehousing of product is considered, and ultimately impacts the viability of operations.

Inadequate rail service is not just a concern in Alberta, because as recently as last spring, issues with the timely delivery of railcars actually caused forest industry leaders like Canfor and Paper Excellence to slow down production.

Canfor reduced operating schedules at 11 sawmills in Western Canada for four weeks, blaming the “global supply chain slowdown.” The Paper Excellence pulp mill in Meadow Lake, Saskatchewan also slowed down production indefinitely because of what it said was a recurring lack of railway service.

At present, according to CN Rail, forest products represent 12 per cent of its overall business, broken down to 36 per cent lumber and panels, 56 per cent pulp and

Logging & Sawmilling Journal - January/February 2024

spotlight paper, and eight per cent wood pellets.

Forest products represent about four per cent, overall, of CP Rail’s business.

So, what’s to blame for this less than adequate railcar delivery service?

The CRAA blames not enough railcars, power and crews, as well as “unfair carallocation practices.”

Described as a “file with a lot of history of rawness,” the rail car situation has spurred the creation of organizations like the CRAA. One reason that the organization came together is that they felt as individuals, their concerns weren’t being heard by the federal government, the railways or regulators.

“The past several years have shown how fragile and vital our supply chains are,” Mulligan says. “We want to see significant investment in our railway network for strengthened infrastructure, rolling stock, and human resources to keep Alberta’s and Canada’s supply chains on track.”

Kelly Levis, Vice-President of Industrial Products at CN Rail and headquartered at the railway’s head office in Montreal, was the first presenter at AFPA’s annual conference this past fall. She also met face-

to-face earlier with CRAA members in Grande Prairie, Alberta. Mulligan says that the CRAA is encouraged by this first step toward better communication. Levis is ultimately responsible for the movement of industrial goods on the rail company’s network.

Once Levis took the podium at the AFPA event, it was as if she had read the CRAA’s Opinion piece line by line,

taking great pains to address each of the concerns, essentially asking those present to try to understand the reality of how the railway operates, while acknowledging that CN Rail has a congestion problem on its network in Western Canada.

Essentially, she reminded those present

Logging & Sawmilling Journal - January/February 2024

to page 6

5

spotlight from page 5 that the railway operates very much like a train and that their business model is almost entirely reactive, designed to function under ‘normal’ circumstances regardless of the level of demand and prices for products in the marketplace. As with a loaded freight train, it takes the railway a long time to stop, and pivot to respond to market demands.

“When lumber goes crazy, to $1600 per thousand board feet, we can’t keep up,” with railcar demand, she said, adding that, “we don’t turn on a dime, but our focus is to work on schedule…If we take on more than we can handle, everybody loses.”

To that end, she reported that CN Rail has improved what she called its ‘velocity’ over the past 18 months by between 12 to 15 per cent. This essentially is the speed of rotation of its forestry-based railcars to and from end points. Improved velocity means that the rail company has more cars available, as needed.

She said that CN Rail is not only focused on its velocity but also its capacity.

To that end and realizing that it has a congestion problem on the busiest stretch of its railway network in Western Canada, the company is spending upwards of $27 billion for 20 new siding projects, 300 locomotives, and 1600 replacement and new railcars over the next two years.

With more sidings, the railway will be able to better co-ordinate the transport of goods on stretches of its single-line

track where trains heading in opposite directions can pass more easily, and in theory, increase the speed at which goods are transported. Levis said that CN Rail has also added about 200 kilometres of double track since 2016.

That’s the good news. On the flip side, “it takes 9 to 12 months to get a locomotive and 12 months to get new boxcars.”

Staff levels at the railway is also an issue, and to that end, Levis indicated that CN Rail has gone on a hiring spree and its classes for both engineers and conductors are full. However, labour legislation enacted by the federal government is not doing the railway any favors and is actually working against train crews showing up for work.

For example, federal legislation regarding the number of sick days an employee can take without a doctor’s note is having a significant impact on staff scheduling.

What the legislation failed to consider is the number of sick days already negotiated under collective agreements. The federal legislation has added to the number of sick days already allowed under CN Rail’s collective agreements with its employees.

“What we found this past summer is that 50 per cent of the sick days (taken) were in the summer,” Levis said, with the biggest staffing challenges being on branch lines which many forest companies depend on.

There is also proposed federal legislation disallowing the use of replacement workers or managers in the event of a

strike which, if enacted, would shut down the entire railroad within 24 to 48 hours, she said.

Levis urged the forest industry to work with CN Rail to consider alternative methods of delivering their products to market.

For example, containers of goods from overseas transported by the railway are often transported back to their place of origin empty. It might be worth investigating if those empty containers can be filled with forest products on the return trip, and CN Rail is willing to work with individual companies to explore these types of outside-the-box solutions.

“I think the test for us is going to be how they perform when we have a really strong market for multiple commodities or a really cold winter,” says the AFPA’s Mulligan.

“How will they deal with the challenges?

We are encouraged that they are working toward more consistency, but we need to wait and see . . . we know that (right now) slower commodity markets are playing into less demand for railcars.”

CALENDAR

March 26-27

Canadian Woodlands Forum Spring Meeting, Moncton, NB 902-897-6961, www.cwfcof.org March 26-28

International Mass Timber Conference, Portland, OR

406-546-5977 www.masstimberconference.com March 27-28

Atlantic Heavy Equipment Show, Moncton, NB 506-649-0018, www.ahes.ca April 9-11

Montréal Wood Convention 2024, Montreal QC

418 650-6385 www.montrealwoodconvention.com

Dirty boots.

Fresh perspective.

April 10-12

Council of Forest Industries Annual Convention (COFI), Vancouver, BC 250-860-9663, www.cofi.org

Forestry is a challenging industry, with rapidly evolving operational, trade, environmental and regulatory requirements. That’s why it helps to have an advisor who is not afraid to get their boots dirty. With deep roots in the forestry sector, our advisors deliver a fresh perspective and advice to improve and streamline your operations.

Chris Duncan, CPA, CA, National Leader, Forestry and Forest Products 250.856.2443 | chris.duncan@mnp.ca

MNP.ca

April 10-12

IWPA's World of Wood Convention, San Diego, CA

703-820-6696, www.iwpawood.org April 30 / May 1

Ontario Forest Industries Assoc.

Annual Convention, Toronto, ON 416-368-6188, www.ofia.com

6

Logging & Sawmilling Journal - January/February 2024

COMACT HAS TURNED 100!

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Explore the stories behind Comact’s 100-year journey, the team’s pioneering spirit, and the visions that propel the company forward. Scan the QR code to learn about the festivities and find out why Comact’s history is just the beginning of the future of wood processing.

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industryevents

Forest fires, timber access among top topics to be discussed at COFI

There’s no shortage of topics to be discussed at the upcoming B.C. Council of Forest Industries (COFI) convention in April in Vancouver, but at the top of the list will be pressing issues such as forest fires and industry’s access to timber.

By Jim Stirling

S

omething familiar—and reliable— provides a sense of normalcy and reassurance when our planet and many of its inhabitants are in turmoil.

The British Columbia Council of Forest Industries (COFI) annual convention invites just such a response.

The 2024 edition of the COFI convention occupies its normal springtime slot.

8

It’s scheduled for Vancouver’s J.W. Marriott Parq Hotel April 10-12.

The convention is primarily a business event, easily the largest of its kind for the forest industry in western Canada. The nature and scope of the industry today is reflected in the range of its participants.

The forest industry communities at home and abroad are extensively represented through the participation of CEOs and other company executives. All levels of

government are involved in the event including representatives from the federal, provincial and First Nations governments.

They are the ones who collaborate to frame the policies directing the forest industry’s activities.

Those activities continue to promote the health of communities across the province and the representatives from all those government levels are eager participants in the COFI convention.

Logging & Sawmilling Journal - January/February 2024

industryevents

Because the forest industry underpins the economic and social fabric of B.C., the convention attracts delegates from academia and research organizations along with a host of services from banking to transportation.

The range and scope of the forest industry’s supply and services network is further reflected at the convention’s affiliated and always well-attended trade show. It’s become a hugely popular part of the convention experience. Apart from bringing qualified buyers and sellers together to talk the same language to each other, the trade show illustrates another important function of the COFI convention. It’s a social event: an annual highlight for the forest industry.

The convention’s speaker roster is always top notch and a who’s who of experts in their fields. They include government ministers and successful entrepreneurs drawn from the industry’s broad constellation of suppliers.

The theme around which the 2024 COFI convention is framed is: Branching Out: B.C. Forestry for a Changing World.

It represents a typically positive and for-

ward looking message. It resonates well in challenging times for the forest industry and the province.

“Our delegates will hear speakers on where British Columbia and our forest sector fit into a world that is facing changes from geopolitical tensions, innovation, connectivity and a continued focus on meeting global carbon reduction targets,” Linda Coady outlined to Logging and Sawmilling Journal. Coady is COFI’s president and CEO. “We will be discussing how the B.C. forest sector is branching out in new ways through mass timber, the bioeconomy and other value added ventures.” The background to these conversations is a context of change and complexity.

“We continue to face challenges—not only globally—but here at home, with increasing wildfire activity every year, a slowdown in available fibre for the primary manufacturing sector and the impact that has on the whole value chain as well as the communities in which we operate,” added Coady. “We will also be discussing with politicians and government leaders who help shape the policy environment in which we operate as well as conversations about partnerships and the important role of indigenous communities in shaping the forest sector in British Columbia.”

The increase in the numbers and severity of wildfires in B.C. Coady referred to is now part of the consciousness of people living in the interior of the province.

Residents have experienced wildfires first hand or can see their effects on regional landscapes and understand the prevailing drought conditions. The 2023 wildfire season was the most destructive in B.C.’s recorded history. Figures provided by the BC Wildfire Service, a government agency, show that between April 1 and October 31 more than 2.84 million hectares of forests and lands were burned by 2,245

wildfires at an estimated suppression cost of $817 million. The bald statistics are frightening enough, but they don’t reveal the whole story: the variety of longer term costs don’t show up in statistical columns.

“With the severity of the impact of wildfires growing not only in B.C. but across Canada and the United States, increasing understanding of the issues and how we can address them is critical,” noted Coady.

“For example, we know that for decades forest fire suppression has disturbed the natural forest.” But there are remedies. “We see a growing understanding of how sustainable forest management tools—forest practices such as thinning of dense forests, fuel treatments and cultural, controlled and prescribed burning—are essential to address the growth in frequency and severity of wildfires, keep communities safe and help mitigate increasing greenhouse gas emissions from out-of-control wildfires. We also see a growth in commitment across the province to put the resources into these measures,” she continued.

Coady assessed the health of B.C.’s primary forest industry going into 2024.

“There is no doubt we are facing challenges and a time of transition and I would say this transition is harder than most.” She pointed out forest industry analysts reckoned 111 sawmills and 17 veneer plants were operating in the province in 2005, feeding fibre to 16 pulp mills and eight paper mills. By 2023, there were just 64 sawmills still operating.

“And like the heart to a body, sawmills are the primary organ of the forest industry. Without them, there is less residual fibre for pulp and paper mills and the value-added sector.”

Logging & Sawmilling Journal - January/February 2024

to page 10 9

industryevents from page 9 As in any discussion about the forest industry there are many influencing factors to consider. “British Columbia has become a high cost operating jurisdiction for some time, which impacts forestry operations all across the province. An uneconomic and unreliable supply of fibre not only affects sawmills but all those in the integrated forest bioeconomy who rely on primary manufacturing to make higher value wood products.”

The web of interdependency extends further. “It also affects the people who use B.C. forest products, including the builders in Vancouver and Victoria which count on the B.C. forest industry to provide lowcarbon, solid wood products for the thousands of affordable homes our province needs to solve the housing crisis.”

Coady suggested a new and smarter path forward is needed in B.C. “This path forward includes sustainably managed forests that support B.C.’s biodiversity and ecosystem health, an industry that manufactures low carbon products that help meet our provincial and global emission targets and all the while providing

10

good jobs, advancing reconciliation with First Nations and playing a part in the fight against climate change.”

Access to a reliable and economic timber supply remains a challenge although the B.C. forest industry is not operating anywhere near its allowable levels. “Even allowing for the current market downturn as well as the impact of the pine beetle, fires and old growth deferrals, we are still harvesting well below a sustainable and allowable basis,” explained Coady.

“So today, our priority is to work together with the provincial government, First Nations, local communities and labour to address the current fibre supply shortage. To do so we need to improve the efficiency of current regulatory approval processes, including through BC Timber Sales, and increase the predictability of where companies are allowed to work on the land base.” She noted the province has made a commitment to address the issue.

Delegates to the COFI convention will be busy looking to the future but a spectre from the past still haunts them. The decades-long dispute with the imposition of duties on Canadian softwood lumber products entering the United States persists. It is

an old game with no apparent winners.

The most recent skirmish came in February when the U.S. Department of Commerce indicated its intention to raise current duties on Canadian softwood lumber. The move was roundly criticized by B.C., and Mary Ng, the federal Minister of Export Promotion, International Trade and Economic Development.

“Canada is disappointed that the United States continues to impose unwarranted and unjust duties on Canadian softwood lumber products,” said Ng. “These duties impact our innovative Canadian softwood industry. And with the significant current challenges in housing supply and affordability, these duties also harm U.S. consumers and businesses that need Canadian lumber.”

The Canadian softwood lumber producers have long suggested a bipartisan panel with the U.S. to hammer out a lasting solution. But the overtures have been consistently rebuked by the U.S. protectionist lobby.

For the latest information on the COFI convention agenda consult www.cofi.org

Logging & Sawmilling Journal - January/February 2024

eastcoastsawmilling

An exciting future for

Nova Scotia’s Ledwidge Lumber is building on their 80-year history, and working towards an exciting future, with mill upgrades and new initiatives in engineered wood products and bio-fuel.

By George Fullerton

L

in the mill yard, as well as road building in the forestry operations. Mark McGrath sits in the general manager position.

Ledwidge directly employs two harvest contractors. They are supported by the road building team at Ledwidge, which includes a 32-tonne Hyundai excavator, Cat D5 dozer, and road grader supported by a seasonal contract grader.

Forestry staff includes forest tech Rob

Trevor Allen Photography

edwidge Lumber is building on their 80-year history and taking the sawmill operation, located in Enfield, Nova Scotia, toward an exciting future with state-of-the-art upgrades to milling processes—and new projects directed to advanced engineered wood products and manufacturing bio-fuel from mill residues.

Founded by Laurie Ledwidge in 1943, the current management team includes Laurie’s sons: Doug in the position of President and Jim filling vice-president and woodlands manager positions. Jim and his wife Rose’s eldest daughter Kim serves as Financial Controller, while youngest daughter Cassie Tuple leads Human Resources and Communication. Their son Kyle manages the heavy equipment fleet

The Ledwidge Lumber management team: Kim Ledwidge, Mark McGrath, Cassie Tuple, Jim Ledwidge, Doug Ledwidge, and Kyle Ledwidge. As the last names indicate, all are Ledwidge Family members with the exception of Mark McGrath.

12

Logging & Sawmilling Journal - January/February 2024

eastcoastsawmilling

Lively, forester Ben Hennigar and wood buyer Shawn Tuple. The forestry team offers woodlot appraisal, forest management services and silviculture services.

Jim and Rose also manage Treeline Trucking, which operates one tractor trailer hauling logs, along with a half-dozen chip trailers hauled by hired power.

Current annual mill production is closing in on 75 million board feet annually.

Lumber is marketed about 30 per cent domestic and 70 per cent export, primarily into the eastern seaboard of the U.S. Lumber is brokered through Eacan Timber.

In recent decades, Ledwidge has dealt with numerous challenges, both economic and natural. The closure of the Northern Pulp mill drastically reduced the provincial market for pulp chips. In 2003, Hurricane Juan severely impacted their 25,000 acres of freehold woodland, and then, the following winter, a snow event dubbed White Juan impacted forest stands, harvest and transport.

In 2022, tropical depression Fiona swept across central and eastern Nova Scotia, resulting in severe rainfall and subsequent flooding and large scale windthrow.

Lumber from Ledwidge is marketed about 30 per cent domestic and 70 per cent export, primarily into the eastern seaboard of the U.S. On the lumber side at the mill, John Deere and Hyundai wheel loaders handle lumber and chip/bark loading, and a new JCB 427 wheel loader (top photo), from A.L.P.A. Equipment, the JCB dealer for Atlantic Canada and eastern Quebec, was recently getting a ‘try out’.

In the summer of 2023, a severe weather event dropped a summer’s worth of rain in a matter of a few hours, halting woodlands operations and wood flow. In addition to numerous road closures across the central portion of the province due to washouts, the event flooded roads to the mill, and damage to a bridge shut down

access to the mill for more than a week.

Additionally, two major forest fires through the summer of 2023 shrunk the wood basket, and slowed wood deliveries.

The closure of the Northern Pulp mill

At HewSaw, we are proud to be part of Ledwidge Lumber’s 80-year history and we look forward to working together in the future.

Abbotsford, BC | St-Romuald, QC

Logging & Sawmilling Journal - January/February 2024

to page 14

www.hewsaw.com info@hewsaw.com

13

eastcoastsawmilling from page 13 in 2020 resulted in the loss of a major pulp chip market for Ledwidge and other sawmills across Nova Scotia, as well as southern New Brunswick.

On the equipment side, primary processing at the mill is by a HewSaw R200 A.1, which was commissioned in 1997, and a HewSaw R200 1.1, which became operational in 2004 and was recently upgraded with new machine automation.

Ledwidge processes eight- and nine-foot spruce and balsam fir logs and the company considers the three Maritime provinces as their wood basket.

Ledwidge pays a distance transport bonus for high mileage shipping.

Sawmill updates in 2023 included a screw infeed from Austria-based Springer, and a new Nicholson A8 debarker, which works alongside an older Carbotech double rotor debarker.

Molnar Welding handled the installation of the new Springer screw infeed.

“Molnar was a comprehensive partner for the new infeed project, completing it with high quality work and meeting time schedules,” shared Cassie Tuple.

From the debarkers, logs are scanned with an Autolog True Shape 3D scanner which was installed in 2020. Logs greater than five-inch diameter are directed to two bins dedicated to the HewSaw R200 1.1, and smaller logs are sorted to four bins according to diameter class, which feed the HewSaw R200 A.1.

The HewSaw R200 1.1 is controlled to page 16

On the equipment side, primary processing at the mill is by a HewSaw R200 A.1, which was commissioned in 1997, and a HewSaw R200 1.1, which became operational in 2004 and was recently upgraded with new machine automation.

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Logging & Sawmilling Journal - January/February 2024

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eastcoastsawmilling

The new Nicholson A8 debarker at Ledwidge Lumber (above). A significant portion of the timber being fed into the mill these days from Nova Scotia is clean-up from the 2022 tropical depression Fiona, which devastated a swath of forest land across the central part of the province.

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from page 14 with a scan and set system with a flow of 23 logs per minute. The HewSaw R200 A.1 is batch fed with flow rate of 33 logs per minute.

On passing by the HewSaws, Tuple explained that their sawyer, Bussy Graham, has been sawing at Ledwidge for a very impressive 48 years. “He knows precisely what every log is going to saw out before it gets to the saws. We have many dedicated and long term employees—about a third of our employees have been with us for more than 20 years.”

Another recent upgrade was the addition of a new Autolog trimmer optimizer in 2022, which commands trim sizes for the Carbotech trim saw.

Trimmed lumber is sorted to a 63 bins system manufactured by Carbotech.

The stacker system is also of Carbotech manufacture.

Lumber drying is handled with two Wellons track load kilns, and two COE package load kilns with Wellons controls.

In December 2021, Ledwidge commissioned their fifth kiln, manufactured by MEC, bringing total capacity to 550,000 board feet. Boiler energy is generated by a Wellons and a FEI boiler, consuming planer shavings.

The planer mill is built around an A2012 Yates planer. Tilt hoist is Carbotech and lumber enters the planer wane up and the set takes a heavier cut off the top and a lighter cut off the bottom, in an effort to reduce wane and increase lumber grade.

Logging & Sawmilling Journal - January/February 2024

MACHINERY Co.

Drop Feed Chipper FEATURES: • Adjustable chip length • Full width knives • Swing-away anvil Rotor sizes: 32"Ø x 30"wide 48"Ø x 40"wide 60"Ø x 40"wide Processes: Lilypads / Trim Blocks / Chip overs

Feed rate is 130 to 140 lugs per minute.

Dressed lumber is automatically graded by the Autolog ProGrader installed in 2022. Graded lumber is ink stamped and assigned an individual serial number.

Remarking on the numerous production equipment upgrades made in the past few years, Tuple explained: “We had a long list of upgrades we wanted to get done in the mill, and when COVID caused the renovations, housing and DIY markets to drastically increase, we had the cash flow to make them happen. Some of the technology was becoming obsolete and updates were necessary.”

The mill upgrades were slowed due to supply chain hold ups, which challenged the upgrading process, but Tuple pointed out that employees embraced the projects. “Our employees are a loyal and passionate crew with many years of experience. They have truly shone through all of these changes and impressed us with their ability to adapt.

“Autolog has been fantastic in helping us to transition with the new ProGrader system, and the Nicholson debarker install was seamless,” she added. “The Springer Screw feeders have caused us some issues. Springer is designed and produced in Austria, and the size of our logs here on the east coast of Canada have presented challenges for the design. Springer has continued to assist to reduce skews and increase our piece count.”

Springer said it is grateful to Ledwidge for their belief in their equipment and for their tremendous support.

With over 150 screw systems installed around the world, companies are bound to encounter different log handling opportunities, says Springer. In the case of Ledwidge, with some smart controls and small mechanical modifications, Springer says they were able to overcome these log opportunities and deliver a successful product to Ledwidge. The company says it provides smart, simple, well-designed, high-quality solutions to eliminate backlog situations.

Yard equipment on the log side includes three Fuchs loaders along with a Prentice ATL model. On the lumber side, John Deere and Hyundai wheel loaders handle lumber and chip/bark loading while a new JCB 427 wheel loader, from A.L.P.A. Equipment, the JCB dealer for Atlantic Canada and eastern Quebec, was recently getting a ‘try out’.

While marketing high quality construction studs has been the primary revenue generator for Ledwidge for many decades, management is committed to seeking efficiencies and new products.

Ledwidge Lumber has entered into a joint venture with Vyterra Renewables, the Canadian subsidiary of Ensyn, to develop a biofuel plant adjacent to their sawmill. Ledwidge has achieved zoning approval to site the plant. The plant will consume mill residual fibre (white wood) to produce heating fuel.

“We have been on the lookout for innovative products to utilize our sawmill to page 18

Logging & Sawmilling Journal - January/February 2024

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eastcoastsawmilling from page 17 residuals for a long time,” shared Tuple.

“Vyterra’s biofuel process has been successful in Ontario, Quebec and in the U.S. for over 30 years, and when Vyterra came forward with a proposal for a partnership, we jumped at the opportunity.

“This will be the first decarbonization facility in Atlantic Canada to convert sawmill residues into low-carbon liquid fuels.

The markets for sawmill residuals such as bark, wood chips, and sawdust are variable, and there is an excess of these residual products, as well as low-grade wood that was once used as pulp wood in the province. This plant will provide a market for the residuals and will become a dependable, value-added solution for sawmill residuals and the biofuel produced will assist our province in reducing its carbon footprint.”

The commitment of Ledwidge to innovation and market development has led to another joint effort toward value add manufacturing, with Elmsdale Lumber Company, to build a mass timber manufacturing plant. Elmsdale is a long lumber mill, located just a few kilometres up the

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TransCanada highway from Enfield.

“We are continually seeking out ways to add value to our products and mass timber products are not built in Atlantic Canada as of yet,” says Tuple. “There is a very real opportunity to build mass timber products here, and supply construction projects requiring those products. There is a huge opportunity to incorporate mass timber in commercial and industrial construction.

“Wood is the only major building material that grows naturally and is renewable,” she added. “Wood products have the ability to store large amounts of carbon and as the building sector is a large contributor to greenhouse gas emissions, building with wood presents a great opportunity to mitigate climate change.”

Currently, samples of lumber produced at Ledwidge and Elmsdale are being scientifically tested for its suitability for application for mass timber. With approval of the lumber for mass timber use, the project will move forward and they will eventually see a mass timber manufacturing plant constructed in the region.

Ledwidge’s wood supply is from 300 producers across Nova Scotia, Prince

Edward Island and southern New Brunswick. A significant portion of the current wood supply generated from Nova Scotia is clean-up from the 2022 tropical depression Fiona, which devastated a swath of forest land across the central part of the province, from the Northumberland Strait to the Atlantic Coast.

“Currently, we have a long list of woodlot owners looking to have damaged stands salvaged,” says woodlands manager Jim Ledwidge. “A large percentage of Nova Scotia contractors are currently working on salvage and some New Brunswick contractors have come to help handle the salvage demand.”

He explained that the storm delivered circulating winds which threw trees in multiple directions, creating extra challenges for bunchers and harvesters.

While Mother Nature has presented multiple challenges for Nova Scotia sawmilling, Ledwidge Lumber is taking them in stride and aggressively building innovation into their production processes—and looking outside the box for new and innovative products to take them forward.

Logging & Sawmilling Journal - January/February 2024

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industryevents

Excitement builds for Atlantic Heavy Equipment Show

The excitement is truly building for the biggest heavy equipment event in the Maritime Provinces—the Atlantic Heavy Equipment Show, being held in March in Moncton, New Brunswick.

T

he Maritime Provinces’ largest showcase of heavy equipment machinery is set once again to move into the Moncton Coliseum, March 27 to 28, 2024, and the excitement about this major heavy equipment show is building.

With over 10,000 attendees at its previ-

ous edition in 2022, the Atlantic Heavy Equipment Show has proven its value to professionals looking to get inspired and expand their inventory. Attendees include key decision makers and purchasers, looking to upgrade their fleet and view the many pieces of equipment on the show floor.

“We are thrilled to continue the tradition of this show,” says National Show Manager, Mark Cusack, with Master Promotions. “With over 150 exhibitors already registered, this year will be bigger and better than we’ve seen in the past.”

The timing for the show looks to be solid as recent reports show there is a healthy number of capital projects on the go in the Atlantic Provinces. A report from the Atlantic Economic Council last year said that capital spending on major projects in Atlantic Canada was expected to increase by 13 per cent to nearly $15 billion in 2023, a 13 per cent increase from 2022.

A 2023 Major Projects Inventory identified 528 capital projects in various stages of development throughout Atlantic Canada, with a total potential investment value of $225 billion, representing an increase of 48 per cent.

Part of this is the ongoing investments

to page 22 20

Logging & Sawmilling Journal - January/February 2024

industryevents from page 20 required by the forest industry in the Maritimes, from the bush through to sawmills and pulp and paper operations. Forestry and forest products manufacturing contributes roughly $1.8 billion in economic activity to the Atlantic region and supports nearly 17,000 jobs.

There are also high profile capital projects, such as the White Rose offshore oil project in Newfoundland to clean energy projects in New Brunswick.

Much of the investment growth is due to the Atlantic region’s expanding population. Immigration and positive net migration from other provinces added more than 120,000 to its population over the last two years. Spending on large housing developments in Atlantic Canada was expected to be nearly $900 million higher in 2023 compared to 2019.

Those involved with all such projects are urged to attend the Atlantic Heavy Equipment Show. According to organizers, it will feature all the equipment, services, and technology to get the biggest jobs done with ease. Tons of big iron will be on display to showcase the industry’s leading

22

companies and newest products.

The Atlantic Heavy Equipment Show has a track record of more than 30 years, getting the job done for anyone looking for equipment and information about heavy equipment. Every two years, the show attracts thousands of eager buyers from across the region. From roadbuilding and construction to forestry and aggregates, the show captures the full scope of the heavy equipment industry.

“The Atlantic Heavy Equipment Show remains the biggest heavy equipment event in Atlantic Canada,” said Cusack.

Organizers certainly saw a successful turnout for the 2022 show, with 10,000 industry professionals filling the halls of the Moncton Coliseum, looking to upgrade their fleet and view the many pieces of equipment on the show floor.

“We heard many positive accolades from both exhibitors and attendees, which goes to show that everyone was happy to be able to reconnect again in person,” says show manager Mark Cusack.

Organizers say it is Atlantic Canada’s most comprehensive trade show—a must-

Logging & Sawmilling Journal - January/February 2024

industryevents attend event for anyone involved with heavy equipment.

For exhibitors, the show offers the opportunity to get in front of a qualified audience of 10,000+ industry professionals, representing the many users of heavy equipment across Atlantic Canada and beyond.

Covering over 200,000 square feet, this vast indoor and outdoor showcase features the very latest products, services and machines.

Booth spaces are available now, say organizers. The 2024 show website is now live at www.AHES.ca. Those interested in exhibiting at the show are encouraged to review the booth package and pricing options and purchase their space today, as exhibit space is in high demand and likely to sell out.

Online pre-registration is also available. Those who are interested in attending are encouraged to follow the event on Facebook and Instagram for the latest updates. For complete details on the Atlantic Heavy Equipment Show, visit www.AHES.ca.

Maskinen partners with SP Maskiner and Eco Log Maskinen has announced partnerships with SP Maskiner Canada-wide and Eco Log, reinforcing its position as a leading distributor of forestry products in Ontario, Quebec and the Maritime Provinces.

This collaboration brings together Maskinen’s industry expertise and SP Maskiner’s and Eco Log’s cutting-edge products to provide top-tier solutions to the Canadian forestry sector, says the company. Maskinen has entered into a strategic distribution partnership with SP Maskiner and Eco Log to bring their forestry products to the Canadian market. This partnership aims to combine SP Maskiner’s and Eco Log’s innovative technology and Maskinen’s extensive distribution network to deliver highquality forestry equipment and machinery across Canada.

SP Maskiner is a renowned manufacturer of forestry machinery, such as harvester heads, designed to enhance efficiency and sustainability in forestry operations. Through Maskinen’s distribution network, these state-of-the-art SP Maskiner products will be readily available to forestry professionals in Canada.

Eco Log is a leading provider of technology-driven forestry solutions, offering advanced forest management systems,

Logging & Sawmilling Journal - January/February 2024

data analytics tools, and environmental monitoring equipment. Through Maskinen’s distribution channels, Eco Log’s innovative products will be accessible to Canadian forestry companies, to help them optimize their operations and environmental stewardship.

With a strong presence and extensive experience in the Canadian forestry industry, Maskinen has established itself as one of the foremost distributors of forestry products in the country. By partnering with SP Maskiner and Eco Log, Maskinen reaffirms its commitment to providing the Canadian forestry sector with the latest technological advancements and reliable equipment.

The collaboration between Maskinen, SP Maskiner, and Eco Log marks a significant advancement in the distribution of forestry products in Canada, says the company. Through this partnership, forestry professionals can expect to access a comprehensive range of highquality machinery and technology, further enhancing the efficiency, sustainability, and productivity of forestry operations across the country.

Come and visit Maskinen at the Atlantic Heavy Equipment Show where the company will be exhibiting both SP Maskiner and Eco Log products.

23

The Forest and Afforestation Practices Inno another 25 years of novel applications aim

F

or the past 25 years, the Forest and Afforestation Practices Innovation Group of the Canadian Forest Service (CFS) and the Canadian Wood Fibre Centre (CWFC) has investigated innovations in forest operational practices.

The Group has had many partners since the program began in 1992, from the forest industry, provincial governments, and research organizations, to develop and demonstrate novel applied practices aimed at advancing forest resource production and effectiveness. Program activities have been driven by important issues of the day, both from an economic and ecological perspective, and have covered a wide range of topics from forest ecosystem management to intensive forest management and afforestation.

Projects have included such forest management practices as variable retention, mixedwood partial harvest systems, short rotation afforestation, high yield mixedwood development, bioenergy fibre production, carbon sequestration using trees to adapt to a changing climate, reforestation and precommercial thinning, and forest and afforestation revegetation and rehabilitation.

With most recent project activities taking place between 2000 and 2024, they include an impressive array of innovations that feature common site management ingredients throughout. Potential improved product values derived from different forest practices were an important consideration, along with related values such as diversity, risk reduction as it relates to natural impediments and hazards of the forest like wildfire, pests, and pathogens, while also taking into account the forest’s importance for human well being and natural cover.

In combination with the establishment of various applied research and demonstration sites, mainly related to mixedwoods and afforestation, numerous field tours, workshops and demonstrations were also delivered by CFS/CWFC over the past three decades.

Project #1 – Mixedwood by Design Project (2001) The CFS/CWFC Mixedwood by Design reforestation project was conducted in conjunction with Peace River Pulp (Daishowa-Marubeni at the time) and is situated in the Peace River area. Clearcut aspen stands were converted into mixedwood stands by design through intensive management, using the aspen’s natural suckering as the vegetation control, as well as using high speed horizontal bed site preparation techniques and mounding to selectively limit the aggressiveness of the aspen to establish white spruce and aspen mixes in both concentrated and even distribution designs. This site, installed in 2001, had spruce over 1.3 m. in height within 7 growing seasons, and they are over 6 m. today.

Project #2 – Fast-growing Mixedwood Demonstration Project (2002) This project featured the hybridization of the forest and afforestation intensive management practices, using fast-growing hybrid poplar in conjunction with white spruce to establish mixedwood plantations on natural forest sites situated on private land to enhance and maximize production, as well as multiple species values. The site was clearcut harvested in 1998 for aspen and poplar, followed by winter shear blading in 2001/2002, and final high speed horizontal bed mixing and secondary subsoil and/or elevated bed mixing to enhance the growing environment in spring 2002.

A trembling aspen/European aspen controlled cross 2-0 bareroot and Walker hybrid poplar 1-0 barerooted cutting were the fastgrowing hardwood species planted with local white spruce 412 container interplanted in various patterns. This project was conducted near Cynthia, Alberta in conjunction with Weyerhaeuser Company in Drayton Valley.

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Project #3 – Forest 2020 Project (2004/2005) The federal government installed several hundred demonstration sites under its Forest 2020 program. It essentially was a high yield afforestation plantation initiative to investigate carbon sequestration in Canada and an alternative source of wood fibre. The CFS/ CWFC established approximately 1,700 hectares across the Prairie provinces under this program, which focused on hybrid poplar and hybrid aspen planted with the intent of achieving eight times natural forest yields (13.6 cu m/ha MAI) from a fibre production perspective, while investigating the potential of these plantations for carbon sequestration. The goal was to reduce carbon emissions through the establishment of carbon sinks using trees growing at very high rates and distributed across the agriculture belt on bio-geoclimatic suitable sites, mostly within 200 kms of the transition zone between forest and agriculture in the Prairie provinces.

A national network of sites evolved from this program and they were managed and monitored by CFS/CWFC and its partners right through to full lifecycle.

Logging & Sawmilling Journal - January/February 2024

ovation Group of the CFS/CWFC completes med at addressing forest community issues Project #4 – Adaptive Mixedwood Project (2006) For this project, developers worked with established mature aspen stands with at least a 70 per cent stocked white spruce understorey.

The intent was to harvest the overstorey and protect the understorey, while maximizing volume and value on the site and maintaining the diversity of the mixture of the aspen/poplar and the white spruce. Some of the most productive forest stands in the Boreal Plains are in this type of forest complex. Research developers adapted and diversified their understorey protection techniques from using a concentrated wind buffer protection system to an even distribution technique. Initially, this approach left parallel undisturbed sections (5 m. wide) within the mixedwood stand (35 to 40 m. apart) to maintain wind protection and to protect the understorey from blowdown or desiccation. The new treatment involved a partial removal of all the overstorey aspen/poplar hardwood in an even distribution pattern that protects the spruce understorey, mimicking more of a commercial thinning type of design rather than a concentrated wind buffer understorey protection design. It uses even distribution of the understorey, basically stocked at about 25 per cent to 30 per cent of the overstorey. Completed in partnership with the University of Alberta, Ainsworth Engineering Canada LP, Alberta-Pacific Forest Industries Inc, Footner Forest Products Limited, Weyerhaeuser Company, Tolko Industries Limited, and the Mixedwood Management Association of Alberta, five sites were established across Alberta.

Project #5 – Biomass-for-Energy Supply Chain Development Project (2006>>) While the CWFC group was developing new afforestation practices, in particular high density very short rotation plantations, it became evident that new management and harvest/recovery practices would need to be developed to accommodate smaller, younger and less rigid biomass being produced. These very high density plantations (12,000 to 16,000 stems/ha) of primarily hybrid poplar and willow are on approximately three year rotations, with up to six entries into each plantation over their lifespans. The intent of the project was to access biomass as a renewable energy source within very short time frames, maximizing the timeline for multi-crop access and minimizing the time lag to access biomass at its maximum production on individual sites.

All established sites relied on coppice regeneration and were distributed across Canada in partnership with provincial colleagues, private landowners and investors, as well as forest industry/nurseries and university research collaborators at the University of Alberta, University of Guelph, University of Toronto and University of British Columbia.

Project #6 – Mountain Pine Beetle (MPB) Rehabilitation Project (2015) This project involved a variety of lodgepole pine-dominated stands north of Grande Prairie, Alberta near Spirit River impacted by active MPB. First, developers investigated the impact of the MPB on the stands. Of the affected stands selected, there was at least 60 per cent of the actual productive lodgepole pine lost on a total of 500 gross hectares of forest. The treatment design focused on the removal of active MPB-damaged trees and high risk trees of value to create an environment that maximizes the growth response of retained trees that had not been affected by the MPB, while also protecting hardwoods and other non-vulnerable species. Through the use of parallel, systematically spaced, machine corridors (5 m. wide) and retention strips (15 m. wide), feller bunchers and skidders were able to selectively remove the candidate trees and enable selective site preparation treatments (excavator mounted high speed mixers and mounders) to be completed in the corridors and retention strips. The volume removed was able to be recovered for saw material and oriented strandboard, as well as biomass for energy.

The project was completed with the planting of lodgepole and white spruce seedlings to re-establish a healthy crop in the understorey. The intended outcome is a combination of fire vulnerability reduction as well as pest impact reduction, trying to rehabilitate the stands to put them back on a trajectory of productivity and minimize vulnerability over the long term.

In January 2024, Tim Keddy, a key member of the CWFC Forest and Afforestation Practices Innovation Group, who was directly involved in the establishment and follow-up research of all of these sites, retired. His work effort and enthusiasm for the challenge of forest development in the Boreal Mixedwoods is greatly appreciated by his colleagues and the organization. Keddy contributed significantly in the operational aspects of design, layout and deployment of all the various techniques, technology development, and site treatments.

He also planned and collaboratively co-ordinated the delivery of tours, re-assessments, monitoring and management of the data, reporting, delivery of local and national presentations, and recently led the delivery of peer-reviewed publications produced by the Canadian Forest Service of Natural Resources Canada, focusing on short rotation woody crops.

CFS/CWFC thanks its partners from the forest industry across Canada and primarily from Alberta for all their long term contributions, commitment and collaboration, as ongoing efforts continue to advance this significant knowledge base and prepare and install ground fixtures and infrastructure to maximize the value of these legacy demonstration sites over the long term.

For more information, contact Derek Sidders at Derek.sidders@nrcan-rncan.gc.ca.

Logging & Sawmilling Journal - January/February 2024

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smallsawmilling

LIVING THE SAWMILLING DREAM… B.C.’s Lee White is living the small sawmilling dream, having recently upgraded to a new band mill with plans from sawmilling guru Matt Cremona.

Lee White is feeling on top of things now that his ambition of owning and operating a small sawmill is a reality.

By Paul MacDonald

L

ee White, the owner of B.C.’s Okanagan Sawmill and Kiln, has always wanted to own and operate a sawmill—and slowly and surely over the last couple of years, that ambition has become a reality.

Working with mostly urban hardwood from the Kelowna area, and using small sawmills, White has developed a steady business supplying local manufacturers of everything from charcuterie boards to furniture with finely grained wood slabs.

White has over 30 years of experience as a machinist. His career actually began in industrial machining at car maker Jaguar in Britain. After moving to Canada, and making a couple of stops in B.C., he moved to 10 acres about 20 minutes outside of Kelowna.

White’s interest in sawmills was initially piqued by watching videos on YouTube.

White and partner, Colleen, had worked to clean up their acreage, after they bought it.

“At the end of that, I was thinking I always wanted a sawmill. I should have a look and see how much they are, and if it’s worth buying one.”

The purchase numbers penciled out, and in 2019 he purchased his first sawmill, from Ontario-based forest equipment manufacturer, Woodland Mills. With a 22” wide cut capacity, the Woodland Mills HM130 machine enabled White to offer custom sawmill services, including live 26

edge and dimensional lumber production.

White did some no-cost marketing online, on Craigslist and Facebook Marketplace.

“It worked out well—I picked up some clients, and I was milling wood for them from time to time. It was not a huge amount of work, but over time it ended up paying for the sawmill, and we had positive cash flow coming in, which was awesome,” he explained.

The Woodland Mills sawmills have very reasonable price points, says White. “You can get a sawmill without a huge capital investment—for most people who have

an interest in sawmilling, it’s attainable.”

And they are super reliable, he added.

“Their quality is phenomenal, and their after-sales service is great. I can’t say enough good things about Woodland Mills.”

Seeing a need for larger slabs for furniture making, White built a larger custom sawmill in 2022, from scratch. It was a true labour of love, he notes, with it taking about two months to build, with all the welding and fabricating taking place on their acreage. With this new sawmill, he can now cut up to 6-foot-wide and 20-foot-long logs.

White believes it is the widest cut saw-

Logging & Sawmilling Journal - January/February 2024

smallsawmilling mill in Western Canada and only one of a handful this size in North America.

The new and improved sawmill was built from a plan.

Like some sawmillers, White is a fan, and watcher, of Minnesota-based small sawmiller Matt Cremona, on YouTube.

“I was in touch with Matt, and he put out a set of plans for his sawmill—and I bought the plans in 2022, then started buying the components, and then started building the mill.”

The extensive Matt Cremona plan—at 134 pages—contains all the details you need to build a wide slabber bandsaw mill capable of handling and cutting a 76” diameter log, with heavy duty build construction for smooth and stable cuts. The 30” wheels drive either a 1.5” or 2” blade.

The plan document includes parts lists and suppliers for each component, cut lists for breaking down full lengths of steel, and step by step assembly instructions. Each section also has informative write-ups covering things to consider and further information on the sawmill’s design. A listing of all components that would need to be modified if a sawmiller wants to change any of the cut capacities is also included.

Lee White’s new sawmilling set-up allows him to cut up to 6-foot-wide and 20-footlong logs. He works almost entirely with urban wood, cutting the logs into slabs for added-value customers.

“The plan is great—it’s super detailed,” says White. “Being a machinist, I appreciate the time and effort that went into the plans. Matt Cremona has done a fantastic job.” And the plans were very reasonably priced, he added.

“It was a bit of a learning curve,” says White, of the sawmill building process, with a laugh. “I’m really not a welder at all, but I’ve done some welding, and can put pieces together.”

The key, from his perspective, and

perhaps reflecting his machinist background, was that everything had to be square and level—period. The last thing he wanted to do was put a nice log on the mill carriage, and have it produce some wavy lumber due to it not being level.

“It was a challenge to build it because it was just me, but I was in no rush,” he

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smallsawmilling from page 27 says. Short of wiring it up (he had an electrician do that), it was an all Lee White mill construction build.

“I built the case, then started on the carriage, making sure that was level and that it rolled up and down nicely. I then started working on the saw head itself, putting on the band wheels.” Being a machinist, some of this work was familiar territory, he said.

White purchased the metal required from Metal Supermarket. “That worked out quite well because I had bought from them before, and know them.” The band wheels and a few other items were ordered from Cook’s Saw Mfg, in Alabama, and was shipped up to B.C. Other components, like the engine and VFDs, were sourced locally.

“I just went through it slowly, step by step, and took my time building it.”

He did make a couple of changes. The plan calls for the mill to be 20 feet long, meaning that once the equipment is all installed, you can cut to 16 feet.

“I bought 24 foot rails, so I can cut to 20 feet,” says White. “Matt’s plan called for a

28

10 hp motor, and I upgraded that to 15 hp.

Everything else is basically the same.”

White started doing some cutting towards the end of 2022, producing slabs and some dimensional lumber for local people looking to build sheds and leanto’s. Along the way, he’s had some very minor teething issues with the mill. “That was not surprising,” he said, noting that any new mill, small, medium or big, always needs some adjustments. “I was able to figure them out.”

Once he figured out the wrinkles in the new mill, he sold the Woodland Mills mill.

With the new mill, he was able to handle larger logs, some three and four feet wide. “That was great,” he says “I was getting customers who were saying, OK, we’ve got the slabs, let’s get them into the kiln—and we did not have one.” So any kiln drying initially had to be done off site.

So, next on the To Do List was the kiln part.

White says he built their kiln with furniture makers in mind. The kiln dramatically speeds up the drying time of wood slabs, to a couple of weeks.

Like many small sawmill operators,

White is extremely resourceful. The kiln is fabricated from a repurposed, insulated van body from a very generous neighbour. He framed and insulated the body, installed three fans for plenty of air flow and a heater and dehumidifier. The kiln is temperature controlled to ensure the slabs dry at an even temperature.

With the 18-foot x 6-foot x 5-foot kiln, Okanagan Sawmilling and Kiln is now more of a one-stop shop for customers.

Through the winter of 2022/2023, White did more cutting, and homework, developing contacts with local arborists and landscaping companies, to source more urban logs.

“I’ve now got several that contact me regularly about logs, but I’d like to get a few more,” he says.

The company pretty much works entirely with urban wood.

“Urban trees are being cut down all the time, or blown down, and 99 per cent of the time they go to the landfill, where they are usually chipped, which is good, or turned into compost. It does not go to waste.

Logging & Sawmilling Journal - January/February 2024

to page 30

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smallsawmilling from page 28 “But some of those urban trees have been around for a long time, and that seems like a waste—I thought they could be turned into a generational piece of furniture that might get passed down in a family, or something like that.”

And his customers are producing exactly that, and many other items.

White normally buys one or two logs at a go. “With the relationships I’ve built, the guys know what I’m looking for. They’ll often let me know they are going to cut a particular size/type of tree and ask me if I’m interested—and if I am, off I go with my trailer.” He has an 18-foot long trailer that can carry a total of 9500 pounds.

With a 10-acre site, he has a lot of room for log storage, so White says he is not super particular about the type of wood he buys. “I can move the logs around, with the space I have.”

With that kind of storage space, White will sometimes take whatever is on offer.

“I’m going to be picking up an oak log next week in Kelowna, with a 30-inch base,” he said. “It’s a nice size and I don’t have any oak at the moment. I’m always looking for wood that I don’t have.”

Almost all of the logs are cut into 2.5-inch-thick slabs. “Some of the smaller wood, I might do 1.5 inches for charcuterie boards or cutting boards. And if it’s really big, like four feet plus wide, I might do three inches thick.”

In terms of added value, White is happy to leave that to his customers. “I really just like to do the milling.”

White finds that online is a good way to market his products, and services.

“Most of our postings are Facebook Marketplace—it seems to get the most eyeballs, and the listings are free.”

White admits that it was a bit of a jump going from the smaller mill, cutting 22” logs, to a larger mill that can take a sixfoot log.

“You’re doing the same thing, but it’s different, if I can explain it that way,” he says.

He can mill 10 logs perfectly, and then the 11th log might get a little wave or have a little wobble. Wood, of course, being a natural material, each log is different. “It could be a different log, I might be pushing too hard, or not hard enough, is the band not tight enough or too tight? I keep a careful eye on things.”

This kind of sawmilling is very different from the large scale sawmilling that goes on at the high production B.C. Interior sawmills of a Canfor or West Fraser.

“You can cut through a log, and then all of a sudden, it starts twisting on you out of nowhere. There might be all this stress in the log, and you can’t tell that by looking at the outside of the log. It can be nice and steady until you hit an old branch in the middle of the log.” Or hit metal, which happens from time to time.

“I’d like it to happen less, but it does happen. You can look outside the log and there is nothing, and then you start cutting, and there is metal right in the centre of the log.”

White says he is still learning, and happily so. He was very comfortable cutting with the Woodland mill, and he looks forward to being very comfortable soon cutting with the new mill.

In terms of mobile equipment, he has

a John Deere 35 excavator to move logs and slabs around. “I can manoeuver logs around pretty well with that.” He plans to build some forks for the Deere, to move the slabs around easier.

The same neighbour who supplied the van for the kiln also has a good sized Kubota SVL65, that White borrows from time to time. White also has a big Clark IT70 forklift with a 10,000-pound capacity. “It’s nice to have for the really big logs,” he says.

“I pretty much have all that I need,” he says, “I’m pretty lucky in that sense.”

From here, he’d like to continue to build the business, but there is no panic.

“I’m more interested in building it slowly, and whatever money it generates, I’ll put it back in the business. And whatever I can afford to buy, I’ll buy, and if I can’t afford it, I won’t buy it.

If you have a lot of cash, and you just throw it at a problem, it does not necessarily solve it, he says. “If you don’t have the money to solve a problem, I think it makes you more creative, in a way—you look at other options to solve a problem.”

Some might call this MacGyvering.

If it gets busy enough, he might hire a person to help out on the saw. “But if that never happened, it would not bother me.

“I want to build the business, but I don’t want it to be a grind.”

And he’s intent on staying on the mill.

“I really enjoy the milling. I like putting a log on and never knowing what is going to be inside. You can open it up and it’s amazing. And you keep cutting, and every slab gets better and better. I really love that.”

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Albertalogging

Keeping the harvestin Veteran Alberta logger Henry Schuurman is part of a group working hard to maintain local jobs through a unique timber logging organization.

At 81-years-old, Henry Schuurman brings a wealth of experience to his logging operation, and he’s eager to share that should someone be interested in working to take over his operation one day.

By Tony Kryzanowski

L

ogging has provided countless hours of satisfaction and a good income for veteran Alberta logger, Henry Schuurman. He’d like to provide others with the same opportunity by drawing attention to an organization he leads called the Fort Assiniboine Local Deciduous Timber Committee (FALDTC).

Schuurman is president of this rather unique organization, whose members have been guaranteed an annual fixed amount of deciduous logging in an area two hours north of Edmonton.

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The agreement was established in 2002 between FALDTC and Millar Western Forest Products to supply some of the deciduous wood required for the company’s pulp mill in Whitecourt. That agreement is now with Canfor, which recently purchased Millar Western’s forest operations.

Locally known as the ‘Aspen Committee’, Schuurman says the organization was originally established to ensure long term local employment from the area’s resource, particularly since local residents had a long history of logging in this forest for decades under the provincial govern-

ment’s Commercial Timber Permit (CTP) program. Their fear was that the forest company would hire a large contractor from outside the area to log it once Millar Western had been allocated that wood supply for its pulp mill, resulting in a negative impact on the local job market and economy. They were strongly opposed to letting that happen.

The Aspen Committee has now been in place for a couple of decades and has served its purpose as a regular provider of local employment and income. The group earns between $7 million to $8 million in logging and trucking income annually

Logging & Sawmilling Journal - January/February 2024

Albertalogging

ng local while creating 3,000 to 3,500 man days of work, primarily for local residents. They often supplement their farm income with these jobs. Logging activity also deploys 30 to 35 pieces of equipment and trucks, and generates significant economic spinoff to local businesses.

But Schuurman’s concern now is complacency.

“This is an example of a mill and the community working together,” he says.

“The mill has been very supportive and co-operative. It has been a good working relationship. It would be a shame if the Committee went away because once it is gone, it will never come back.”

He worries that once its members lose interest or pass away, the Committee will dissolve and the opportunity will be lost.

It had eight original members and is now down to six. As a long time logger, now 81-years-old, and still logging actively as Schuurman Contracting, he understands the value of this agreement, and wants to do all he can to keep it intact by reminding others, particularly in the local community, of its existence.

Richard Aarsen, a retired local logger, sawmill owner and original Committee member, strongly believes that maintaining the FALDTC agreement is worthwhile, and credits both Committee members Jeanne Bozak and Schuurman for working hard to maintain interest in it.

“I still think that it’s pretty critical that we have—as a community—this access to the logging and hauling of this timber,” he says. “It provides a heck of a lot of employment in the local area. The work of logging and trucking employs a lot of local people over the winter.”

But what he’d like to see happen is the ability to bequeath Committee membership more widely. Right now, it can only be passed down to family members. He’d like changes made to the agreement so that membership can be passed on, but not sold, to anyone living in the geographic area who is serious about logging.

Committee member Jeanne Bozak and her husband were longtime loggers in that area near Fort Assiniboine.

“I believe very strongly that it is very easy for everything to be taken away and be given to the big companies and we have no say,” she says. So far, she says that Canfor is honouring this agreement.

Schuurman Contracting, logging near Fort Assiniboine, Alberta, provides local employment as part of its participation in the Fort Assiniboine Local Deciduous Timber Committee. Equipment operators often farm in the summer and log in the winter— logging provides valuable local employment and income for the local community.

In terms of keeping the Committee active and membership passed on, she believes it should be restricted to people, like a company employee or sub-contractor, who are logging the area so it stays with someone who has a connection to the Committee’s history and activities.

Schuurman agrees that membership changes are needed. But he would be the first to caution anyone entering the logging business that there is significant

risk involved. With over 50 years of experience, he has survived many ups and downs and sold off his logging fleet and built it back up a few times.

He mentions five characteristics that make for a potentially successful logging career. These attributes are: enjoying what you do, keeping it manageable, stepping

Logging & Sawmilling Journal - January/February 2024

to page 34 33

Albertalogging from page 33 back from time to time to rethink the whole thing, being prepared to take risks, and having a life partner who supports the venture.

While Schuurman is originally from the nearby community of Neerlandia, he has logged all over Alberta. Now living in Sundre, he maintains an office in Fort Assiniboine to oversee his logging operations as part of his membership in the Aspen Committee. Chad Kapler, as well as nephews Jason Schuurman and Lonnie Almost, look after day to day field operations during the season, which runs from mid-September to spring break-up.

Today, Schuurman Contracting logs about 80,000 cubic metres of both deciduous and conifer wood. But that is a far cry from the 500,000 cubic metres he and his partner, Mike Roberge, were harvesting annually in the 1990’s operating as Schuurman Enterprises Ltd. (SEL).

Schuurman’s career in logging reads a bit like the history of the forest industry in Alberta, having worked for 12 different companies over the past five decades, with many names that have come and gone on that list. Several employees have also gone on to start their own logging companies.

He was also at the centre of one of the most infamous industrial terrorism events to occur in Alberta, having had 13 pieces of equipment bombed in 1997 while working in the Water Valley area in the extreme southern area of the province.

The perpetrators were never found.

Freshly married to wife, Judy, in the early 1970s—a person Schuurman describes as an important voice of reason in managing the office and the business throughout his logging career—he established SEL and began working with his brother for Revelstoke in Nordegg, Alberta, and then later for AA Fisher in Rocky Mountain House.

“I’ve been logging in the bush since I was 16-years-old, starting in the mill and then as a hand faller,” says Schuurman.

“I also worked in construction, so it was construction in the summer time and in the bush in the winter time, as well as helping on the farm in spring and fall.”

In the 1980s, he partnered with employee Mike Roberge in SEL and they logged for Spray Lake Sawmills (SLS) in Cochrane, as well as Pelican in Drayton Valley, which was later bought out by Weyerhaeuser. The company achieved its highest annual volumes in the 1990s, typically harvesting 500,000 cubic metres for 34

As a veteran logger with 50 years of experience, Henry Schuurman says he has chosen equipment over the years based on what has worked well for other loggers.

The outfit harvests both hardwood and softwood in its cutblocks, producing both tree length and cut-to-length logs.

SLS, Sunpine Forest Products in Sundre, which is now owned by West Fraser, and Rocky Wood Preservers Ltd. (RWPL) in Rocky Mountain House. They also established a heavy duty repair shop in Sundre called 22 West Ltd., which they have sold to daughter and son-in-law, Valerie and Chris Newton. They spent a lot of time logging in the Alberta foothills, and Schuurman designed his fleet to include a Caterpillar 527 skidder with a swing boom, which he says worked well in soft and steep ground.

Between 2000 and 2010, SEL began slowing down and by 2012, stopped logging and sold most of its equipment.

However, Schuurman and Roberge weren’t finished yet as they established Schuurman Contracting and focused on smaller oilfield log salvage jobs for about three years.

Schuurman described himself as being semi-retired at that time, but agreed to help his nephew, Jason, for a year in 2013. That’s when he became involved in the Aspen Committee because that’s where his nephew was logging. Jason’s father was one of the original members of the Committee. Over the next decade, they expanded Schuurman Contracting’s operations to include Whitecourt, Fox Creek, Edson and Hinton, working for both Millar Western and West Fraser, and logging about 150,000 cubic metres per year.

But in 2022, the company downsized

again, and decided to focus its operations strictly within the area north of Fort Assiniboine, and reduce its volume to about 80,000 cubic metres per year.

At present, Schuurman Contracting’s fleet consists of a John Deere 903 feller buncher, a Timberjack 900F feller buncher, a John Deere 748G skidder, a John Deere 2054 carrier with a Waratah 622B processing head, and a Komatsu PC200 carrier with a Waratah 622B processing head. They also have a Caterpillar D7R dozer and John Deere 270 backhoe for roadbuilding and general construction use.

In terms of local employment, he subcontracts the services of another skidder through Brophy Contracting, operated by Tim Inden.

A delimber to delimb the aspen logs is supplied by Henry Nanninga, an 83-yearold resident of Neerlandia. Schuurman also hires a sub-contractor, Vanell Contracting, owned by Don Van Leeuwen, to load and transport his logs. The hardwood is delivered tree length, while the incidental conifer is processed and delivered cut-to-length.

Schuurman was back in the bush recently, although he’d like nothing more than to raise the profile of the Aspen Committee as well as pass the torch, including his extensive experience, on to someone younger who understands and is able to manage the inherent risk in this occupation.

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eastcoastlogging Dana Day (far right) with Rob Lively, who supervises harvest operations for Ledwidge Lumber, in front of Day’s Rottne forwarder.

DEALING WITH THE

AFTERMATH of Fiona

Nova Scotia logging contractor Dana Day and his team are very ably harvesting windthrown timber— damaged by Hurricane Fiona—for Ledwidge Lumber, dealing with some very tangled timber.

By George Fullerton

D

riving into Dana Day’s operation in Nova Scotia, anyone familiar with forest harvesting operations would have to be impressed with the orderly fashion, the top notch product separation, very uniform faces on product piles and the lack of forestry and machine maintenance product debris.

Even small diameter stems destined for pellets at the wood pellet mill at Musquodoboit are piled with a great deal of attention and care.

Day’s machine team, having clocked years of service, is clean and well maintained.

36

Logging & Sawmilling Journal - January/February 2024

eastcoastlogging Dana Day Ltd. has been harvesting for Ledwidge Lumber Ltd. since 2020. This past fall, the Day operation was working on a freehold Ledwidge block which had hosted the Canadian Woodlands Forum Demo show in 2008. Unfortunately, the block suffered significant windthrow as a result of Hurricane Fiona in September 2022, and the block was being harvested before the tipped trees became unusable for lumber.

Rob Lively supervises harvest operations for Ledwidge Lumber. Upon arrival at the Day harvest operation, Lively noted: “Dana and his crew are very particular about their work.

They work as a team and Dana in particular makes sure his wood is piled very neatly and products are clearly separated, so his truck can reach piles and operate efficiently.”

He added that Day’s team is focusing on working together so they achieve maximum efficiency.

Lively shared that 2023 had been a very wet summer, which challenged harvest operations for Ledwidge.

“Typically through the summer, we operate in regions which have finer soils, which have consistently provided good summer operating conditions. But this past summer was so wet that we were having challenges. We had to move earlier than normal back into this area which we typically consider fall and winter ground,” explained Lively.

The Ledwidge Lumber mill has an 80-year history operating in Enfield, Nova Scotia, just east of Halifax (please see the story on recent upgrades at the Ledwidge Lumber mill on page 12 of this issue). Ledwidge owns and operates on around 25,000 acres of land and relies on some 300 (private woodlot) wood producers across Nova Scotia, Prince Edward Island and southern New Brunswick for 70 per cent of the mill’s wood supply.

Lively’s responsibilities—along with company forester Ben Hennigar—are to engage private woodlot owners to arrange stumpage harvest agreements. Lively shared that following Hurricane Fiona, there has been a notable uptick in requests from woodlot owners across central Nova Scotia wanting to carry out windthrow salvage on their woodlots. A number of harvest contractors from New Brunswick have joined in the Nova Scotia salvage work.

Dana Day began his time in the forests as a youth, accompanying his father on weekends, travelling into a lumber camp to care for the horses. As a teenager, Day became a trail cutter on weekends and holidays from school. After high school, he worked as a trail cutter, with periodic work in construction. Day counts more than 50 years’ experience working in a wide range of forest harvesting.

Day took the opportunity to become a harvest contractor in 1978, when his employer Carl Gilroy announced he was down-

sizing his operation, and offered to sell him some harvesting gear (forwarder, skidder, Buckmaster pulp wood processor). As a contractor, Day established a relationship with the Scott Paper mill at Abercrombie Point.

As Scott Paper began mechanizing their harvest operations, Day initially purchased a Rottne double grip harvester, but soon traded it for a single grip harvester. With encouragement from Scott Paper, Day’s operation grew extensively, to two feller bunchers, four processors, three forwarders, and trucks and a skidder, operating on a double shift.

“I found operating double shifts very stressful,” he says.

“Frankly, I did not sleep well when my crew was operating. After a time, I announced to Scott Paper that I would cut back to operating as a single shift. The company was not at all happy with my decision, but in the end, I went to single shift and retained my employment, and enjoyed a much healthier lifestyle.”

In recent years, Day has trimmed his operation to three machines, operating single shift. Derek Ruggles operates a Timberking 721 with a Gilbert buncher head, Day’s son Matthew operates the Cat 521 with Log Max 7000 Extreme processing head and Day himself operates the sixteen-tonne Rottne forwarder.

Derek counts 24 years’ employment operating feller bunchers with Day, and Matthew has clocked nearly 30 years working in the family business.

Since 1980, Day’s wife Jeannie has handled bookkeeping, payroll and other business administration responsibilities. Reflecting on Jeannie’s contribution to the business, Day allowed that “she

Logging & Sawmilling Journal - January/February 2024

to page 38

37

eastcoastlogging from page 37

Dana Day’s operation, like most harvest operations in central Nova Scotia, faces the added challenge of lots of windthrow to deal with these days, after Hurricane Fiona hit the region.

38

has been my rock, and a critical partner in the business”.

Recognizing the neat log piles in the operation, Day pointed out that kind of attention does not go unnoticed by his trucker. “Bill Levering has been hauling wood from our operations for close to 20 years, and is reliable and great to work with. I can count on Bill to give extra effort to move wood if weather conditions become difficult.”

Rob Lively admires the Day Team, with each operator contributing to ensure a smooth and productive operation.

“Derek is a very well experienced buncher operator—and I think a key practice that makes the team productive is he gets out of the cab and walks the cut block daily to see the lay of the land, and look for anything that would challenge or impede operations.

“Then he formulates a plan for how he will proceed, all the time considering how best to position trees so that the processor and ultimately the forwarder can operate most efficiently,” said Lively.

“My experience is that lots of buncher and harvester operators don’t take the opportunity to walk through and familiarize themselves with the cut block, and simply stay in the seat and harvest—it’s not unusual that they find themselves facing an obstacle (water, slope, terrain) and have to find a way out, which costs time and ultimately productivity,” Lively added.

Derek Ruggles confirmed his habit of walking the block periodically, to see what challenges to travel and operating he might encounter.

“Maps and GPS are great, but it’s still necessary to get out and have a walk to see where we will operate,” says Ruggles.

“It’s the opportunity to plan a trail where I can operate, and also allow the processor to do his thing and place the piles so the forwarder can operate easily.”

When Day starts a new harvest block, Lively presents each operator with an Avenza geo-referenced PDF map of the block for their cell phone. The file shows roads, boundaries, water course buffers, wetlands and other significant features.

Additionally, the shape file of the block is uploaded to the buncher’s FPDAT system, which will map trails which have been harvested.

Day’s operation, like most harvest operations in central Nova Scotia, faces the added challenge of lots of windthrow to deal with. Increasingly, Nova Scotia is experiencing increased wind and precipitation events, which are having a major impact on the forest resource and forestry operations.

“I have seen blowdown right through my career—at one period working for Scott Paper, we chased blowdowns for two-and-a-half years, until the wood could no longer be utilized by the mill,” shared Ruggles.

“As far as operating the buncher in blowdown, we have to adapt sometimes to pull trees out of a tangle. Sometimes I track around and reach from the side rather than working up the slope. Most of the time, with the smaller trees, I can stand them up to cut them off. Larger trees over sixteen inches, I can’t stand up, and in those cases I rotate the head as much as possible to get the tree.

“Often, I will pick up big trees at the balance point, rather than the butt, to handle them into the pile. In bad areas, I do a lot of tracking around the tangles to bunch the blowdown, and it certainly lowers our production. When extracting stems from tangles you soon realize that spruce will bend a lot further than balsam fir. As long as tipped or downed spruce is green, it will still flex, where fir is more likely to break,” Ruggles explained.

While the Nova Scotia forest industry is seeing fewer feller bunchers in operations, with harvesters more common, Ruggles explained that bunchers provide some very important advantages over harvesters.

“A buncher is far superior to a harvester operating where there is a lot of unmerchantable stems to clear in order to get to the trees we are harvesting. The buncher is still a productive part of a good working team following it.”

Logging & Sawmilling Journal - January/February 2024

eastcoastlogging Rob Lively pointed out another advantage that bunchers provide when coming into a block by an over-grown truck road.

“When we start on one of those roads, we lead with the buncher which can very effectively remove that growth of bushes.

Once the bushes are cleared back, we can usually shape the surface up with a grader, and essentially we are ready to haul wood,” he explained, adding that using the buncher means they do not have to find a mulcher contractor to open up those closed inroads.

Day’s association with Northern Pulp (formerly Scott Paper) ended when the pulp mill shut down early in 2020.

“Northern was having challenges with pollution issues with the mill operation, and I was not entirely surprised when I received a call in late December 2019 that Northern’s woodland operations were ceased. I decided at the end of that call that I would take some time to decide what direction I would take my business.

“Through the remainder of that day, I had four calls asking me to consider coming to work for other companies.

However, Northern was committed to a number of stumpage contracts with land-

Bill Levering has been hauling wood from Dana Day’s operations for close to 20 years. Levering (above) had some predictably wet weather recently, loading studwood. owners, and the wood was designated to go through Ledwidge Lumber, and I agreed to continue to work on those contracts, and the association with Ledwidge was very agreeable for me.

“After a period with Ledwidge, I asked Rob Lively what if any long term plans Ledwidge had for me. He replied that the entire Ledwidge management team were

very happy with Dana Day Ltd and wanted me to continue working for Ledwidge.

“My association with Ledwidge has been very good,” he added. “I have a life plan that includes that I retire at age 70.

I’m closing in on that point fairly quickly, but I’m enjoying what I am doing, so I may extend that retirement deadline.”

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39

By Tony Kryzanowski

TECHUPDATE Recovery Optimization Tech JoeScan

JoeScan 3D laser scanners are made for sawmills. It has more than 5,000 scanners installed in sawmills all over the world and according to the company, their very first scanners are still running strong, over 20 years later.

JoeScan scanners are said to be simple and reliable. They are built to withstand the harsh conditions of a sawmill environment, including high levels of moisture, dust, and vibration. This means JoeScan scanners can continue to provide accurate measurements and reliable data even in the toughest conditions, says the company. A five-year warranty is included with every scan head.

JoeScan’s latest JS-50 models deliver fast and accurate scans throughout the modern optimized sawmill. They design each model to deliver the best results for specific machine centres.

From the bucking line to the carriage, end-dogger, gang, edger, and trimmer, JoeScan says that it can help to improve the recovery, grade, and value of every cut made. www.joescan.com

BID Group

Revolutionizing the wood processing industry, BID Group says that its Primary Breakdown Closed Loop system stands out as a game changer for optimal breakdown recovery thanks to its advanced automation capabilities.

Operating seamlessly, the Closed Loop system automatically makes real-time adjustments, alleviating the workload on team members and allowing them to focus on other critical tasks.

Leveraging data from existing Comact scanners, the system provides comprehensive information about the log’s shape, guaranteeing high accuracy.

A standout feature is the innovative Multi-offset Adjustment function, which accelerates adjustments and corrects offsets swiftly, promoting a more efficient workflow. The Pattern Deduction function sets a new standard for closed loop reaction time in defining cutting patterns, delivering what BID Group says is the fastest response on the market.

Moreover, the system automatically corrects offsets to cutting tools and infeed modules, instantly identifying mechanical breakdowns or problems. Real time dashboards display issues for prompt attention, minimizing fibre and value loss and ensuring uninterrupted production. www.bidgroup.ca 40

Inotech

The Inotech CCS offers four-side facing and sawing in just one pass. It is the result of 20 years of research and development and testing to what Inotech calls unmatched lumber quality and the best board surface quality achieved with a one-pass system. It also makes small log sawing profitable.

The company describes its CCS as the best designed small log one pass system, featuring sturdiness, durability and reduced maintenance.

It features 3D full optimization with infinite positioning and high speed production up to 700 feet per minute, while providing sharp corners and no tear out around knots.

It can handle log diameters from 3’’ up to 12’’ and sawing patterns from 1½’’ x 1½’’ up to 6” x 6’’.

The Inotech CCS also offers an integrated sawing box as well as limited and controlled curve sawing.

Among the CCS options are 3D full optimization with automatic log rotator and 2D scanning with mechanical log rotation.

Its heavy duty construction also makes it suitable for Southern U.S. application, with an option for big logs featuring profilers and two arbors for the gang saw. www.inotechcanada.com

USNR

Artificial intelligence (AI) is a buzzword found everywhere these days but USNR has been developing it for wood processing applications since 2012.

USNR’s AI-driven deep learning technology is proven in its sawmill grade optimizers, providing significant advances in solution accuracy and recovery that achieves a new level of defect detection, says the company. It makes lumber grading solutions more accurate and more profitable.

R&D scanning innovations like Bioluma, MillTrak, LASAR, and LPS/LPL sensors have produced some of the highest density scan data the industry has come to rely on. Sensor technology that adds vision data to laser profile measurements during the trimming process has led to systems that not only optimize for maximum recovery but also for maximum value. USNR encourages investigation of both its Bioluma sawmill edger and trimmer grade classification systems.

Logging & Sawmilling Journal - January/February 2024

techupdate The company has over 150 grade scanning systems installed and over 100 deep learning systems delivering results. Committed to superior customer service, USNR offers 24/7 support and training worldwide. www.usnr.com

LINCK

Accurate log rotation before the first processing step is decisive in achieving high value recovery. With its optimization software, LINCK uses 3D scanning data to generate a value-optimized cutting pattern and then determines the required angle for log rotation.

With Log Motion Control, LINCK presents a further step in the development of this technology. In addition to determining the log rotation angle, a MiCROTEC Truespin scanner is used where a camera records a characteristic pattern on the log surface and where the log position is transmitted to the LINCK Log Motion Control during the whole rotating process. The software determines the true log rotating position compared with the theoretical one. Any deviations will be compensated for by immediately adjusting the position of the rotating rollers.

The log rotation process is therefore under the full control of the LINCK Log Motion Control software. www.linck.com

Nicholson Manufacturing

Nicholson Manufacturing describes itself as at the forefront of log debarking and is embracing additive manufacturing to enhance mill operations.

Based in Sidney, B.C., this innovation leader has introduced MLX knife tips, embodying their commitment to quality and efficiency in the mill environment. These 3D-printed parts mark a significant leap in log processing, offering increased wear life and improved impact resistance from carbide breakage caused by rocks and other debris.

legacy as industry innovators but also underscores their commitment to efficiency and environmental stewardship. By integrating cutting edge technology into essential wear parts, Nicholson is setting new industry standards for durability and operational efficiency in lumber processing, ensuring their equipment lead in innovation and performance. www.nicholsonmfg.com

HALCO Software Systems

Most mills today have optimizers from primary breakdown through to planer grading. WSO from HALCO Software Systems helps users to “optimize their optimizers”.

WSO determines a mill’s optimal production mix and the optimizer parameters (including prices and penalty costs) to produce that mix.

WSO combines SAWSIM with linear programming optimization in a proprietary iterative technique.

WSO determines the operating plan that maximizes profit by considering: logs to be processed; market prices; sales mix constraints from committed orders (including home centre commitments) and open market opportunities; and, mill flow/bottlenecking machines.

Most mills run WSO weekly. WSO results are presented in a KPI report which becomes “the plan” to which everyone is working—management knows the plan, sales knows the production mix to expect, and the mill knows their production targets. Optimizer parameters are then entered to implement the plan.

WSO maximizes profit by resolving trade-offs between recovery, sales mix, and production rate. www.halcosoftware.com to page 42

Furthermore, Nicholson’s advancements promise reduced maintenance, as the frequency of debarker tip changes is significantly lowered. With the new parts designed to be more recyclable, Nicholson Manufacturing says that this pioneering shift not only cements the company’s Logging & Sawmilling Journal - January/February 2024

41

techupdate from page 41

Raptor Integration

The Raptor BoardScanner-Q transverse grading optimizer, with its unique point and click teaching method, makes it simple to train lumber defects into the AI module for classification.

The end camera software continues to analyze pith location at the end of the board.

The system now interpolates the “pith line” from known location to known location along the piece. This provides improved pith reference at each slice.

The software uses several pith models and predictive algorithms when calculating knot displacement in a more precise manner. This results in more high grade lumber packages exiting the mill. www.raptorint.ca

MiCROTEC

In October, MiCROTEC sat down with Blanca Forestry Products, a mill situated in the heart of Blanca, Colorado. Established in 2017 as part of a fire mitigation initiative, Blanca Forestry Products has embraced technology and innovation as core drivers of its operations. MiCROTEC began working with Blanca Forestry Products in 2020 with the installation of a Lucidyne scanner and the integrated QC Assist tool, leading to a remarkable transformation in the mill’s performance.

Rick Engebretsen, Mill Manager of Blanca Forestry Products, and his team saw a significant improvement in their operations following the integration of the Lucidyne scanner, says the company. This advanced technology, coupled with MiCROTEC’s grading support, resulted in substantial enhancements, notably in uptime, recovery rates, and reduced downtime. According to Julian Sanchez, a member of the Blanca Forestry Products team, “we have a more consistent board flow. Uptime has increased at least 20 per cent.” www.microtec.us.

MPM Engineering

MPM Engineering supplies cutting edge scanning and optimization systems. Its customizable design strategy incorporates 42

the latest scanning technology from leading manufacturers to continually enhance its optimization features to meet individualized specifications. MPM Engineering’s scope includes stem merchandizing, log sorting, log rotation, active turn control, cant breakdown, board edging, trimming and sorting.

Using 3D scan data, its optimizers detect and measure log characteristics including diameter, taper, sweep, crook, flare, pistol grip, nodal swells, catface and kinks. Its bucking optimizer grades and solves for the highest value logs in each stem, which can be later re-identified at the sawline by its log grading system.

Its edger and trimmer systems use scanner technologies including colour, laser intensity and scatter to detect features for more accurate optimal solutions.

Currently, MPM is working on enhanced transverse scanning using AI-based techniques for feature detection. MPM says that it is constantly pushing technology further to give its customers a competitive edge. www.mpmeng.com

Autolog

Autolog started its journey 35 years ago by offering industrial controls for sawmills and planer mills. The company says it has since become recognized worldwide as a pioneer in wood processing optimization. Today, the company offers solutions for every part of the sawmill and planer mill. Several of its products now use Artificial Intelligence (AI). In 2021, the company was acquired by Carbotech.

As for optimization, Autolog was the first supplier from Eastern Canada to offer a transverse optimizer. They became so popular that most of the sawmills in Eastern Canada and New England with a trimmer optimizer were powered by Autolog. Today the company can offer solutions with visual detection on trimmer lines in order to grade boards right at the sawmill using AI and its expertise to grade lumber in the planer mill thanks to the Prograder. In addition to these innovative products, Autolog can also optimize any brand of breakdown equipment. www.autolog.com

Logging & Sawmilling Journal - January/February 2024

SUPPLIERNEWSLINE Carbotech expands with acquisition of Sawquip

The Carbotech Group has announced the acquisition of Sawquip, which specializes in the design and manufacture of sawmill equipment for the primary and secondary breakdown of logs into lumber.

By integrating Sawquip’s products and services into its own, Carbotech Group said it is pursuing its expansion, and broadening the range of products it offers to customers.

This acquisition allows Carbotech Group to add on a new field of expertise, providing customers with innovative new solutions for lumber production, says the company. Sawquip’s products include log turners and optimized log infeeds, chipping canters, twin and quad circular saw modules, as well as optimized gangs for controlled shape sawing, among others.

To standardize procedures and presentation, Sawquip equipment will now be part of the Carbotech brand.

“Uniting Sawquip’s knowledge and products with our own will strengthen our expertise and allow us to expand our log solutions,” says Luc Houde, Executive Vice-President of the Carbotech Group.

Sawquip has 35 years of experience and is a North American pioneer in the manufacture of curve sawing equipment, having been among the first to offer this sawing technique to the industry. Its equipment will now be manufactured at Carbotech’s

By Tony Kryzanowski

facilities in Plessisville, Quebec.

To ensure continuity, Carbotech Group has also appointed Pierre Lafond, Carbotech’s Vice President, Operations, to lead the transition and integration. Lafond already has extensive experience in manufacturing equipment similar to that produced

by Sawquip. After-sales service and support will also be provided by Carbotech’s team.

“We are delighted to have concluded this transaction, which will undoubtedly result in a winning synergy that will drive Carbotech Group’s continued growth. On our end, this sale will allow us to devote 100 per cent of our resources to Cardinal’s development and activities,” said Pascal Labranche, President of the former Sawquip, and owner of Équipements Cardinal Inc. The Carbotech Group was born of Carbotech’s acquisition of Autolog. Along with their new plant in the southern U.S., the two specialists in their fields boast over 70 years of experience in comprehensive sawmill solutions for the wood industry. www.carbotech.ca www.autolog.com

BID Group unveils Comact-branded AI-powered linear resaw optimizer

BID Group has launched a brand new, groundbreaking innovation: the ResawExpert, a Comact-branded AI-powered linear resaw optimizer with vision.

The company says that this revolutionary technology will take wood transformation to a whole new level of precision, efficiency, and performance.

The Comact ResawExpert is described as a gamechanger, especially in hardwood and specialty processing workflows that require resawing.

Thanks to artificial intelligence, ResawExpert ensures every inch of raw material is used efficiently to maximize yield, significantly reduce waste, and generate superior products.

Key features of the Comact ResawExpert include: independent optimization and grading of all four product faces; rotation validation scanning; optimization of clear wood cuttings, NHLA cutting grades, or custom grades; and, quick and easy installation on an existing line.

Furthermore, the ResawExpert can be installed without any disruptions to current operations. It can be activated immediately once tuning is completed, says the company. www.bidgroup.ca

Tigercat ships 30,000th machine after 30 years in business

Tigercat Industries has built and shipped its 30,000th machine, just over 30 years into its existence.

From humble beginnings in 1992 when Tigercat had a single product, very little dealer representation, and produced just a 44

Logging & Sawmilling Journal - January/February 2024

classified handful of machines, the company has grown steadily, expanding both its production capacity and product breadth.

Tigercat debuted the 726 feller buncher in April 1992 at a forestry equipment show in Quitman, Georgia.

By 1995, Tigercat had two driveto-tree feller bunchers, two track feller bunchers, and two bunching shear models with distribution in Canada and the U.S. By 1997, Tigercat had a full product line to offer with the addition of a knuckleboom loader and the industry’s first successful, serial production hydrostatic skidder.

In 2000, Tigercat was well on its way to becoming a dominant player in steep slope harvesting applications, offering a six-wheel drive skidder and the L830 feller buncher. Both were destined to become flagship products for the company.

In addition, Tigercat entered the vegetation management sector with its first mulcher carrier. The range of carriers and attachments that have followed are crucial inputs to wildfire mitigation strategies in many regions globally, says the company.

In 2012, Tigercat had grown in 20 years from two employees to 1,000 employees and introduced the 880 logger,

the first in a series of versatile, forest duty swing machines.

Today, Tigercat says that it has the most complete full-tree product line-up in the industry, along with a growing range of CTL harvesters, forwarders and harvesting heads. Tigercat launched a new brand, TCi in 2022 and put the TCi badge on its first dozer, the 920.

In the last four years, the company has been developing a line of material processing products with two launches to date: the 6500 chipper and 6900 grinder.

This year will see a slew of new and exciting products introduced to the market, says the company.

Tigercat recently opened a new facility dedicated to the material processing product line and is currently building an additional facility. When complete, the company will have over 1.4 million square feet of manufacturing capacity.

That’s 130,000 square metres or 32 acres under roof. Over 160 dealer locations in 25 countries represent the Tigercat and TCi brands, along with an extensive factory support network. The company now employs over 2,000 workers. www.tigercat.com

AD INDEX ADVERTISER PAGE A.L.P.A. Equipment..................................15 Agri-Cover..................................................28 Atlantic Heavy Equipment Show.......39 Autolog CarboTech Group...................16 BID Group..................................................... 7 Brandt..........................................................27 Brunette Machinery................................17 COFI..............................................................11 Demo 2024................................................43 Gear Centre................................................37 Hargassner North America..................14 Heavy Equip. Repair/Tracbuster.........38 HewSaw......................................................13 ILA Conference and Trade Show........44 Inland Truck & Equipment....................29 John Deere.................................................35 Maskinen....................................................23 MNP................................................................ 6 MPM Engineering....................................41 New-Line Hose and Fittings................30 Nicholson..................................................... 5 Nordic Traction Group............................. 2 Olofsfors......................................................21 Ponsse.........................................................47 Samuel Strapping....................................18 Stihl Limited..............................................31 Tigercat.......................................................48 USNR............................................................19 VK North America....................................10 Wallingford's.............................................28 Wood-Mizer...............................................22

Logging & Sawmilling Journal - January/February 2024

45

thelastword

Figuring out which species of tree seedlings work best, and where, in British Columbia’s warming climate

By Jim Stirling

O

ut in the bush near Fort Babine, B.C. is a plot of recently planted tree seedlings. They are destined to be under unusual levels of scrutiny as they battle for survival and growth—if they grow at all. The odds are stacked against them.

The seedlings are trying to establish themselves in a hostile environment. They are competing with a host of faster growing forest plants for sunlight and moisture under drying conditions. The young trees will also face predation from other forest dwelling species and possible infestation from a variety of pathogens.

The Fort Babine site includes species not normally planted in that part of west central British Columbia. It is why the response and health of the surviving seedlings will attract more than the usual levels of interest. Spruce and pine seedlings are included in the Fort Babine sample plot as would be expected in central B.C. But they are joined by the seedlings of five other species not normally associated with planting programs in the region. The list includes Douglas fir; ponderosa pine; western larch; cedar and birch.

The Fort Babine plantation site initiative is being spearheaded by the B.C. Ministry of Forests with the support of a variety of forest industry partners. The hope is the Fort Babine plantation will become part of a chain across the province. The mixed species plantations are in direct response to B.C.’s warming climate.

The idea is the various Fort Babine’s across the province will in time produce a useful insight into which tree seedlings respond best, and where.

The interconnected implications of a warming climate have become more numerous. What’s not so easy to determine is what the cumulative effects will be across 46

time. Data drawn from multiple sources can help answer some of the questions.

The warming climate tosses a spanner into the works of conventional thinking.

Some of the old norms must be re-examined in light of increases in forest research in a warmer and more volatile growing environment for tree seedlings. What are the impacts on a tree’s growing cycle from the warming climate? And what happens to the traditional character of a species grown under warmer conditions?

A white spruce grown east of Prince George under long cold winter conditions develops a cellular structure making the wood manufactured from it ideal for construction compared, say, with a eucalyptus stud made from a fast maturing plantation-grown tree west of Punta Arenas, Chile. What effects will the warming climate have on the B.C. white spruce?

Recent research is indicating seedlings don’t need to be planted with seeds originating from the same geographic area. There’s been a shift in thinking.

The spruce and pine seedlings in the Fort Babine site are taken from different areas.

The driving factor is now thought to be a compatible climate type.

The timing of seedling planting is another variable entering the equation.

Spring is the traditional season for planting tree seedlings in B.C. It’s the time when troops of usually young people descend on small towns across the B.C. Interior and on Vancouver Island. Many of them are students trying to earn a grubstake for university and colleges across the country.

Research is now indicating that fall planting might be a more beneficial time to introduce tree seedlings to a new environment. It’s a grey area, south to north in a province with rising temperatures and precipitation extremes.

“We’re in the early stages here of putting these trials in,” explained Pamela Dykstra at the start of the Fort Babine experiment last spring. She is research lead, forest ecology interpretation, with the Ministry of Forests in Smithers, B.C. “What we have to do as time goes on is to create a more widespread network of trials in other areas of the province.” She added the project’s staff were becoming more involved with the needed collaborative process with its partners and fine tuning the trial management process. The trials are a small part of a broader process to learn how future forests in B.C. will respond to the warming climate.

The inclusion of birch in the species list at Fort Babine is significant. It’s the only hardwood species to be included. But birch has other attributes especially suited to the times: it acts as a natural forest fire inhibitor. Its thick bark helps slow a fire’s spread and its structure reduces “flaring”.

The devastation caused by forest fires in B.C. in recent years to people, infrastructure and ecosystems has been incalculable. Last year set yet another new record. There were 2,124 wildfires which burned 2.84 million hectares of forest land in B.C. between April 1 and October 31, 2023. The experts hold out little hope for any positive change in the trend in 2024 and beyond.

The Fort Babine style experiments are likely to reinforce one fact: trees are remarkably resilient organisms. They have the genetic ability to respond to changes in their growing environments. It gives rise to an important question. Will the forest industry and its decision makers demonstrate an equal ability to best plan the composition and health of future forest lands in B.C.?

Logging & Sawmilling Journal - January/February 2024