Every fibre has a home The false controversy facing Nova Scotia t has been easy to be led down the path of debate and discussion in Nova Scotia, enticed by the opportunity to provide an opinion on the fibre controversy playing out in the media. Rarely a week goes by without an editorial or a social media comment posted exclaiming the idea that quality sawlogs are making their way into hammermills and biomass boilers from Port Hawkes-bury to the Musquodoboit Valley. Claims spread like wildfire that high-quality fibre is being used where low-quality fibre belongs, getting pressed and burned for use in biomass operations. So when I had the opportunity to look first-hand at what was happening in Nova Scotia, I couldn’t resist the tempta-tion to address the fibre issue.From my observations taken from a few days trav-elling through the biomass operations and woodlands of central Nova Scotia, there is simply no evidence of a fibre controversy. On the site of the Scotia Atlantic Bio-mass pellet plant (see page 10 for our feature story), stacks of deadwood and low-value timber are plentiful, but the high-value logs are non-existent. They do not find themselves in the yard at Scotia Atlantic, as contractors look to the area’s sawmills to purchase the high-value fibre cut alongside the wood earmarked for pel-let production. No place was that more clearly seen than in the forest to the east of Stewiacke, where a lengthy network of roadside piles showed the vast value chain of the freshly-cut logs. Along the road sat nine stacks, each designated for the various sawmills, pulp mills, and biomass operations that the Volume 15 No. 3 Editor -Andrew Macklin (905) 713-4358 [email protected] Editor -Andrew Snook (905) 713-4301 [email protected] Contributors -Bill Strauss, Gordon Murray, Gabrielle Bauer Editorial Director/Group Publisher -Scott Jamieson (519) 429-3966 ext 244 [email protected] Market Production Manager Josée Crevier Ph: (514) 425-0025 Fax: (514) 425-0068 [email protected] National Sales Manager Ross Anderson Ph: (519) 429-5188 Fax: (519) 429-3094 [email protected] Quebec Sales Josée Crevier Ph: (514) 425-0025 Fax: (514) 425-0068 [email protected] Western Sales Manager Tim Shaddick [email protected] Ph: (604) 264-1158 Fax: (604) 264-1367 Director of Soul/COO -Sue Fredericks Media Designer -Alison Keba Canadian Biomass is published six times a year: February, April, June, August, October, and December. Published and printed by Annex Business Media. Printed in Canada ISSN 2290-3097 Circulation Carol Nixon e-mail: [email protected] P.O. Box 51058 Pincourt, QC J7V 9T3 Subscription Rates: Canada -1 Yr $49.50; 2 Yr $87.50; 3 Yr $118.50 Single Copy -$9.00 (Canadian prices do not include applicable taxes) USA – 1 Yr $60 US; Foreign – 1 Yr $77 US Occasionally, Canadian Biomass magazine will mail information on behalf of industry-related groups whose products and services we believe may be of interest to you. If you prefer not to receive this information, please contact our circulation department in any of the four ways listed above. No part of the editorial content of this publication may be reprinted without the publisher’ s written permission ©2015 Annex Business Media, All rights reserved. Opinions expressed in this magazine are not necessarily those of the editor or publisher. No liability is assumed for errors or omissions. All advertising is subject to the publisher’ s approval. Such approval does not imply any endorsement of the products or services advertised. Publisher reserves the right to refuse advertising that does not meet the standards of the publication. www.canadianbiomassmagazine.ca I pile was destined for. Each pile a different quality of log, a different species of wood, and a different quality of fibre ready to be picked up and taken to the mill. At the centre of the Nova Scotia con-troversy, the Nova Scotia Power biomass boiler at Port Hawkesbury Paper, a similar scene was within sight. On one portion of the site, pulp logs were stacked for paper production, while a separate portion of the property is designated for logs to be chipped for the biomass boiler. At a glance, the high-value logs con-cerning so many citizens in the province were nowhere to be seen. The reason why high-quality sawlogs could not be found at the biomass oper-ations is simple… money. In an industry where the bottom line has shrunk and the contractor population greatly reduced, the demand for quality lumber and the need to maximize the value of every tree cut means that every fibre finds its home… where it belongs. The financial reality facing logging con-tractors is simple: a pulp log is worth ap-proximately 30 per cent more than a bio-mass log, and a high-quality sawlog can be worth as much as 300 per cent more. So while there may be the odd minor example, where a sawlog finds its way into the wrong stack and onto the truck des-tined for a biomass operation, the fibre controversy playing out in Nova Scotia is, for the most part, completely unfounded. • 4 Canadian BIOMASS MAY/JUNE 2015
Canadian Biomass May-June 2015: Page 4
