Value Adding Forest Products

[Gabe Ayers]

Phil,

That is a great post – thanks for your input.

Given that you have extensive experience in sourcing and building with the material you have locally harvested or salvaged or rescued from being wasted is important. Your experience is a wonderful example of common sense, vision and knowledge. The centralized supply systems are the child of cheap intensive energy and that energy is not going to be cheap forever or even available at all.

Addressing human needs from where humans are is culturally deep and empowering to ground level workers of restorative/sustainable forestry. Your work is another example of that actually being possible and in fact preferable in every regard.

The public must get beyond the concept that the best way is the cheapest way. That in itself is a long story beyond this post. It all depends on who’s doing the accounting….

The LEEDS green certified building scheme actually awards extra “green points” to locally sourced materials for construction, including that the products are sourced sustainably from the natural resource base. Our best jobs or greatest income (the same) are from Architects that prescribe the materials to be DRAFTWOOD community green certified forest products in their structures. These insightful designers not only relish the opportunity to have a unique and appropriate source for their building materials, they also actually make good choices about species and appropriate use. So there are folks that recognize that local is best, for food or fiber. I hope that approach continues to grow everywhere.

On your conclusive statement, Healing Harvest Forest Foundation was started in response to a Ford Foundation grant that was seeking to develop “replicable” community based sustainable forestry projects. So, it is our intention that every community have a HHFF type organization that trains more ground level workers in the skills to do the work of restorative forestry and inspire them, (through example) in the ethics of why this is best for everyone. You have obviously came to that understanding on your own.

Thanks for your post and good luck with your work. Let us know if we may help in any way.

http://www.draftwood.com

~

[Scott G]

Phil,
Are you a member of CFP? If not you need to be, it costs nothing to join. It is a marketing program for using local Colorado wood http://www.coloradoforestproducts.org/

Currently, ~90% of the wood we use in this State comes from out of State (Lynch & Mackes), or worse yet, from out of Country.

Resources that you have close to Ridgeway are Eric Sorensen who owns Delta Timber and Tim Reader at the CSFS District in Durango. Tim is the utilization & marketing forester for the State and a really good friend.

I am just about finished with a small/cabin office that is portable on skids and will be used at our County community forestry sort yards. It is made of 95% Colorado Wood, all beetle kill. D-logs and framing. The only thing that isn’t from this State is the sheathing and pressure treated deck/platform. When its done I’ll send some pics.

I will proudly be posting CFP logo & interpretive signs on it.

[PhilG]

Jason and Scott,
Thanks for the feed back, I have really learned alot from this forum and look forward to ramping up the horse logging as the snow melts. I did Join CFP 8 or 10 years ago, but I think they have me in the wrong catagory or something, I will update it, I also joined Colorado Proud, they have a cool logo also that we can use.
With all the renewed interest in the sustainable aspect of building hopefully I can make a go of the horse logging part of it like you all have.
Phil

[TaylorJohnson]

Thanks Carl , I just got to this post and seen your answer. I am not even sure when I asked the quetion but it has been a long time. Taylor Johnson

[pennstatepitt]

I don’t have any experience in this area yet, but I graduated from Cornell University this spring and while I was there I took some hort. classes. In one of them we went to the research orchards where they had piles of cedar posts for a new organic grape block since pressure treated posts are not permitted in organic. I asked if locust would work and the prof. said, “locust would be great, if we could get it.” Seems like there might be some opportunity there. The grape industry is growing fast in the Finger Lakes, NY area, as well as organic, especially around Ithaca. Once again, no experience, just a thought.

[Scott G]

PennState grad from Cornell? I’m so confused…

Talk to Tim K. aka LanceK or Jason R. aka Biological Woodsman. They have both been in black locust lately.

FYI, juniper also makes a pretty good naturally decay-resistant post.

Good luck,
Scott

[lancek]

Yea how many post do you need we can supply both locust and hedge wich would allso work well for your post And we have a pointer to !!

[pennstatepitt]

Sorry, I didn’t make myself clear I guess. I’m not looking for posts, I was just pointing out a potential market for them.

I started using the pennstatepitt handle before going to college, am a steelers and penn state football fan.

[near horse]

I agree that black locust can be a great tree to have in your stand. If I recall, they are also N-fixers, drought tolerant ….. and pretty easy to propagate. I would like to replant some of our old CRP ground to black locust – the problem is every critter loves to eat ’em.

These trees must have been considered of some value 100 yrs back because in this area (N. ID/E. WA) they were planted in groves and patches all over. Back in the “rain folllows the plow” era.

Does anyone know what their growth rate is like? So often, those fast growing trees end up being weak (not tight grained) and only good for pulp. Locust always seemed really tight so I assumed it was a slow grower.

Maybe it was on here that I read about something called “shipsmast locust” – if I remember right it was just a cultivar of black locust selected for straight trunk and limited branching. It was considered a premium product.

So, where to get some seedlings?

[Gabe Ayers]

Not sure if it is adapted to the west. It can be grown from scions or cuttings of the roots. There was a group up north called the Black Locust Initiative that used to promote the tree and they would use a power washer to blow the soil away from the roots on superior specimens and cut scions for propagation. Look them up see if they are still in existence.

We are working on orders for this “specialty wood” regularly. We price it the same or slightly less than Ipe.

[near horse]

When you say “not sure whether it’s adapted to the west”, do you mean black locust period or a certain cultivar (like what I was calling shipsmast)? Black locust (Robinia pseudoacacia – I think I got this right) does very well if you can keep gophers etc from scarfing up the roots and killing the young seedlings.

They also do sucker pretty well. Any info on how the growth rate affects the wood?

[Gabe Ayers]

Well, the issue is more about the cultural setting I think. Growing as a pioneer in a regenerating forest is a good setting for the growth of knot free wood at a reasonable growth rate. The summer growth is stronger, but the real issue is growing with cohorts that encourage straight stem development and a reasonable lifespan to create usable sized material. They do put out lots of sprouts sometimes and can be propagated with root cuttings or scions.

[jason glick]

Mofga is planning on a large addition to it’s fairground facility in the next couple of years and the LIF group has taken on the task of providing as much of the material as possible. so far it seems everyone with a stake in the project (board of directors, staff, archetect, etc.) is on board. we just sent 33mbf of pine logs (mostly lowgradefrom this winter’s harvest) down to a local mill to be milled into 1x then it will be sent to another local mill to be dried and planner milled into sheathing, interior and exterior. what i’m curious to here from all of you is a way to go about the rest of the material aquistion. the LIF folks alone won’t be able to do it all in the proposed time frame of a fall 2011 ground breaking, but there are a lot of woods workers around and plenty of material. we were thinking of making a decision tree that would help us make our way through all the possibilities.

within 25 miles 50 miles 100 miles, etc;
mofga woodlot,mofga member woodlot, local consolidation yard, local mills; animal powered, mechanical operations;
worst first, “sustainable harvest”, mixed value, highgrade, clearcut;

any thoughts or ideas on how to simplify or clearify something like this would be appreciated. cheers, jason

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