Yesterday my wife and I hosted a Forestry Tour for our county. This is a monthly partnership between the Maine Forest Service, the Waldo County Soil and Water Conservation District, and participating landowners. The goal is to get active landowners to explain what they are doing on their land and why. For us, we focused on three things, trying to stay away from walks in the woods lookingat big trees. Trust me,we have big trees,but we wanted the tour to be informative, so we talked about: 1) A computerized forest inventory program I made to get more out of my forestry plan 2) Our micro-log forwarder 3) The decision to clear forest into farmland In total we had about 12 people, a mix of young to old with a few young kids from Unity College and the Forestry Club, several foresters, a few private land owners, and some environmentalists. Overall it went really good. I really got grilled by the foresters on how I came up with my rates of growth and losses, at first them understanding how I came up with the assumptions. There was not much discussion on the micro-forwarder just because it pretty much is what is is and self-explanatory. Then as the talk got into clearing land and why...and thus spun into markets in Maine, the conversation got really interesting. It went really well and I think people got a lot out of it. We we are glad we hosted it in any event and hope to do so again.
When you have time, fill us in on the Maine markets conversation. I was very interested in your posts over on the Wood Market board about your experiences selling or not selling lumber/pulpwood. I'm not a property owner in Jackman, ME anymore, but I still care.
We got into that some yesterday, but there was a tree farmer there that went to the University of Maine I think, and I was pretty hard on them. They have a forestry products research station there, but rather then focus on new forest products that could be made from paper, they focused on exotic stuff like wood derived gasoline that we just do not have infrastructure for at the moment...and products so odd ball that no one dares invest in it, so we fund them 100 million dollars every year and get closed paper mills in return. I told them the University of Maine should have their land grant title eliminated and give it to Unity College...or any college...that takes things a bit more seriously and has something to show for 100 million a year. Needless to say that was not well received, but to me it makes sense. I have no problem giving money for research when there is results, but no results...it is like paying $10,000 for a wood boiler that would not heat your house. Why would you continue to pay $10,000 a year in firewood and still be cold? I did tell them a few odd-ball ideas I had like burning wood for the ash and using it as fertilizer, but why that would not work, and my idea for producing biochar from waste wood and selling that, but again why that would not work. So I have, and still am trying to think of a way to get rid of some of my wood through my own unique marketing, but coming up short. As you know, the problem in Maine is, not that we do not have markets, it is that we have TOO MUCH WOOD! The paper companies were ideal because they consume 2100-800 cords of wood per day. Close down a dozen of them and it is easy to see where what market is left gets flooded. They claim the paper mill in Woodland could stop delivery of wood and last 1-1/2 years on what it has in the yard. The only reason I do well is the paper mill by me is new and has a few new products. One is antibacterial paper...think of the implications of that...band aids that need no neosporin, or wipe your hands in a public bathroom without the owner springing for antibiotic hand sanitize. They also are building a new paper machine to make Amazon cardboard for shipping. I think Amazon has something like a million acres of land in Maine so all this just makes sense.
That is a pretty hot topic here because wood is actually imported. There is a trainload a day of round wood coming out of New Brunswick Canada, and the local paper mill also gets a few train loads of chips high grade chips that comes from Sweden. I am not sure how true this is, but when we asked how they could cut wood over in Sweden and ship it across the Atlantic, unload it in Portsmouth NH, then haul it by train to the paper mill all for less money then we can produce wood in the State, we were told it was because of a Government deal and that we owe a lot of national debt to Sweden. I looked it up and found that we owe some debt to Sweden, but it is not as high as other countries, so I don't know, but that was what we were told. The state did look into selling some of our wood over in Europe, but blaming diseases they refused to buy it.
We currently have biomass generation, and a local sawmill...and by that I mean only a few miles down the road...is building two new biomass power plants. My daughter goes to school with the owner's Granddaughter so we see each other at school functions and have talked a lot about this. In any case our power company here (Central Maine Power) is so screwed up that they said any plant over 5 megawatts had to pay for all all new lines back to the substation. The cost was so high that it was too costly to do. However it was NOT that the current transmission lines could not handle the juice, it was that CMP wanted them replaced at someone else's cost. So the sawmill built (2) 5 megawatt biomass power plants instead to get around it! A lot of people around here are super excited, but I am not rushing to glory just yet. Because Maine's biggest industry is forest products, and the loss of paper mills has been devastating; the state has is subsidizing biomass power generation. In fact they have been for 2 years and have 2 more years to go. Now in our county our state Senator happens to be the head of the senate and I asked him blankly what is going to happen, and he said there is no way the state can afford to fund that past its current 4 year term. Assuming that is true, a lot of people are in for a rude awakening in 2 years time. While having a local place to get rid of biomass wood is great, they are located 5 miles from where two major natural gas pipe lines converge from out of New Brunswick Canada. Myself, I think the sawmill is taking current biomass grant money, building the boilers, but as soon as the subsidy money is gone, they will dig a trench to the pumping station located right in the same town as them and convert the boilers from burning biomass to burning cheap natural gas. This is a major sawmill, producing about a million board feet per day, so they already have their own boiler utilizing wood waste, so the these two boilers will kick power out onto the grid, but it is not that hard to convert from biomass to natural gas. Some say I am wrong, and I might be,but in my experience in farming, subsidies are never long term; as soon as the government money goes, so does the practice it was intended to stimulate. In other words, subsidies just delay the inevitable. Already logging equipment here is being sold really cheap and is everywhere, but in 2 years I predict it will be even worse.
This feels a bit iffy but is an interesting read Despite setbacks and questions, a company pursues new multimillion-dollar markets for Maine wood
First, Kudos for hosting and stimulating the conversation - I think everyone (attendees, organizers, and host) comes away from these with food for thought. That 100 million dollar brush you paint them with is pretty broad. I suspect the 100 million is for the whole UMaine system (multiple campuses, multiple departments, broad "clientele" needs). That said, the issue cuts across many of those depts (e.g., a classmate started there in chemical engineering, which was geared toward the paper industry). Still, they are chasing money every day, and have probably felt the decline in the paper industry, too. I see many similar, frustrating issues on the ag side (animal science researchers studying human cancer, for example). Hard, frustrating questions, and likely no one simple solution.
Interesting topic. We have a similar program here in Oregon. I like learning what other tree farm owners do with their places. I'd like to hear more about your "micro-log forwarder" and your computerized forest inventory program. Sad there are too few markets in Maine. That makes it tough to figure out how to get the most value out of the trees. We have fortunate to have numerous markets to choose from. I probably take it for granted.
