Biomass Recovery it just makes sense to keep things simple. That has definite-ly been the case for Pine Star Logging in Prince George, British Columba, which has gone from a full-scale stump to dump logging operation to a two-man show that produces wood fibre for a major wood pellet production facility. “We made the switch in 2008,” recalls Keith Brandner, manager of Pine Star, which is owned by Keith’s family and operated by Keith and his brother Neal. “Pacific BioEn-ergy, which operates a large pellet plant in Prince George, put out RFPs (requests for proposals) for the plant’s fibre supply. We were successful in our bid, so we sold most of our logging gear and invested in a new grinder and loader in late 2008.” Pine Star was started in 1986 by Keith’s and Neal’s father, Ray Brandner, and the boys grew up logging for Canadian Forest Products Ltd. (Canfor), which has a num-ber of solid wood and pulp and paper op-erations in the region. At one point, they were harvesting approximately 300,000 cubic metres annually for Canfor. But with amalgamations and changes with the province’s major licensees, the Brandners had already made a conscious decision to make changes to their business by the fall of 2004, when they sold their contracts and moved to harvesting wood on a small business scale. “Things were changing in the logging business, and we really saw bioenergy as the beginning of a brand new industry be-cause what was once considered waste now had new value,” explains Keith. “We made this significant investment because we saw a future in bioenergy, and the portability of our operation means we can go wherever we need to and harvest what has previously been left behind on the forest floor.” INVESTING FOR THE FUTURE The investment Keith refers to was about $750,000, which bought Pine Star a brand new Bandit Beast 3680 grinder from local dealer Brandt Tractor and a Madill 1800 loader for feeding the grinder. They kept a Caterpillar D6 dozer from their previous operations, which they use for clearing blocks and roads as needed. Log trucks have been replaced by contract chip trucks, which haul the fibre from the bush to the Pacific BioEnergy plant. “It’s a really simple operation,” adds Keith. “I run the Bandit and Neal runs the Madill. We produce about 200 ODT (oven dried tonnes) of fibre per day in a 10-to 12-hour shift, and we do that five days a week. And if one of us has to be away for some reason, we have some regular guys that can fill in.” As for the trucking side of things, Keith says they schedule the trucks at set in-tervals to minimize waiting time for the truckers in the woods. Pine Star contracts the trucking to Excel Transportation Inc. in Prince George, which has a fleet of 53-foot walking-floor trailers. Right now, the brothers are working about an hour from Prince George, so they have six trucks transporting two loads each per day. CanadianBIOMASS 7
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