landing. “Anything over six hours, we really have to look at,” says Edeburn. On lands that Tembec or its contractors are logging, a major consideration is the mixed value of the wood. Sawlogs need to account for 50 per cent of the volume. And the pulp market has to be strong enough to be able to make the pulpwood worthwhile. Both agree that simply shunting the pulp- wood into hog fuel would not make a log- ging venture viable. ing. “Anything over six hours, we really have to look at,” says Edeburn. On lands that Tembec or its contractors are logging, a major consideration is the mixed value of the wood. Sawlogs need to account for 50 per cent of the volume. And the pulp market has to be strong enough to be able to make the pulpwood worthwhile. Both agree that simply shunting the pulp- wood into hog fuel would not make a log- ging venture viable. 2007 2007 allowed Tembec to go into ecosystem restoration areas. Tembec has obtained non- renewable forest licenses for some of these areas, and they are a biomass bonus for the company, says Dureski. The additional fibre accrued did not come off the company’s an- nual allowable cut. Dureski is particularly proud of areas known as Airport Pasture (logged by Prai- rie Holdings) and Deacon Hills (logged by HX Logging). These are part of a restoration e suppression had choked out traditional grass- land used by wildlife and cattle for grazing. Airport Pasture has been returned to open pas- ture, and Deacon Hills is now open forest that will be logged selectively in the future. Work- ing these areas has contributed to Tembec’s knowledge of how to best recover biomass. The most effective means of biomass recov- ery is to centralize the piles as much as pos- sible, rather than dot them along the roadside, says Dureski. He knows that this is added work. He states that maybe in the future, con- tractors will have to pay a nominal amount of yarding on the biomass on this kind of restora- tion work, rather than just on pulpwood and sawlogs. These lower bottomlands, which were once ”Sweden is the leading and most developed market for the slash and residue business.” G. Melin, President Swedish Bioenergy Association large swaths of grassland habitat, are also home to the American badger, an endangered species, says Dureski. A staff biologist had identified the active dens by marking trees. That served the feller buncher, says Dureski, but there was concern that the skidders, working during spring, would compact the grounds where the mothers and their kittens were burrowed. So the trees around the burrows were stumped up to six feet, forming a guard and alerting the skidder operator. This also has downstream benefits, allowing the easy location of the dens for other purposes such as monitoring and during grassland burning. Dureski maintains that the deployment of a mechanical harvesting crew on these lands makes better economic sense than sending in a hand crew to take down trees and slash the area manually. A mechanical crew can do up to five acres a day, he estimates. As well, the skidder can run over many of the smaller trees and prevent their growth. “Once you remove the canopy, the younger ones will spring up again,” he says. Fires afterward can prevent tree growth and rid the area of old grass. Once the sawmills re-start, Mercer doesn’t 3–6 JUNE 2009 IN THE FOREST · NEWS · MEETINGS · MACHINES DEMO · TECHNOLOGY · BIOENERGY · ECONOMICS www.elmia.se/wood Your contact in Canada: Peter Robichaud, Canadian Woodlands Forum, tel: 902 897-2568, e-mail: [email protected] count out the use of bush biomass, but says that “sawmills will always have priority” be- cause the company is performing a waste dis- posal service to them. But he cautions that there is growing competition for sawmill waste, and more sawmills are now trying to use their waste to run dry kilns. “Sawdust and shavings, which used to be considered a waste product for sawmills, are now being considered valuable. Sawmills are generating energy from them and they are trading the chips for hog fuel. So the supply of what was waste wood at mills is shrinking,” says Mercer. “We will be grinding forever.” • 28 CanadianBIOMASS MARCH 2009 New at Elmia Wood 2009: June 2: Pre-Show Conference on harvesting residues and slash business.
Canadian Biomass March 2009: Page 28
