Into The Woods

It's Not For Everyone

Many magazines and newsletters say they cater to biomass, but they fall short of actually stepping into the woods where the biomass action begins with heavy-duty chipping and grinding operations. But how can you cover the biomass industry if you don’t visit the in-woods jobs and talk to their owners, just as you would visit a wood pellet plant or a biomass power generation plant and interview those managers? To us, it’s all part of the same chain of supply, and all of it should be thoroughly addressed.

And so we send our editors into the woods, wearing the appropriate safety gear mind you. Two of the stories they recently came back with are based in Oregon and Georgia.

Lane Forest Products has been grinding hog fuel and other residue byproducts at its site in Eugene since the early 1990s. It went in-woods with grinding operations five years ago and has expanded to four Peterson grinders. A big customer is the relatively new Seneca Sustainable Energy CHP facility in Eugene. Working Weyerhaeuser land when Wood Bioenergy visited, the grinder on site ran with chipper bits, as Lane FP prefers the cutting action over pulverizing. The Lane operations have been used as research demonstration jobs for biomass utilization and biofuels conversion.

Lane Forest Products also offers compost, soil, landscaping materials and bagged wood stove fuel pellets, so if one market is down, there’s usually another one on the upswing.

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From Left: Rich Donnell, Editor-in-Chief; Jay Donnell, Associate Editor; Dan Shell, Western Editor; Jessica Johnson, Associate Editor; David Abbott, Senior Associate Editor; David (DK) Knight, Co-Publisher/Executive Editor

If you’ve been associated with the Southern U.S. logging industry for some years, you know the name Deck Trevitt. His innovations in logging and his leadership roles gained him logger of the year honors in Georgia twice and national logger of the year from Timber Harvesting magazine. Several years ago he grew tired of daily logging activities and bowed out, but now he’s back, initially running a conventional job heavy to sawlog production, but as of late adding a chipper to the lineup, taking advantage of several fuel chip markets in his home state.

Trevitt’s new operation is called Woodland Improvements, which reports to his longtime timber management and procurement operation called Quality Forest Products. The chipping job is the first of his career, and the early returns are good.

Also in this issue you’ll note the coverage of the Mid-Atlantic Logging & Biomass Expo, held in North Carolina in September. Eight—count them eight—chipper and grinder manufacturers exhibited at the event held in the heart of fuel and pellet chips country.

One final note: The importance of in-woods operations to the entire wood bioenergy scene has prompted the Wood Bioenergy Conference & Expo to incorporate more of this discussion into the biennial event that also focuses on wood pellets production and biomass power generation. The event will be held April 5-6 at the Omni Hotel at CNN Center in Atlanta. Fiber procurement personnel, chips contractors and obviously chipper, grinder and accessories suppliers are encouraged to attend. (www.woodbioenergyshow.com)