Burnt logs at the Arrow yard in Kamloops (Image credit - CFJC Today)

By Michael Reeve

SCORCHED LOGS

Burned logs getting second life as pulp and hog fuel thanks to FESBC investment

Sep 12, 2023 | 4:17 PM

KAMLOOPS — Earlier this year, the province of B.C. announced $50 million in funding for the Forest Enhancement Society of British Columbia. The money was for forest enhancement through fibre utilization and wildfire risk reduction.

Tuesday (Sept. 12) in Kamloops, the society announced that 42 new projects have been funded to help with the delivery of economic forest fibre to pulp and pellet mills.

“The logs behind us, as of about a year ago they wouldn’t have been used. They would have been burned in the bush and left behind,” said Regional Manager with Arrow, Kevin Gayfer.

The burned logs come from remains of forest fire sites across British Columbia. Thanks to funding from the society, the logs can now be fully utilized.

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“We have been able to utilize probably about 200,000 cubic metres of this type of wood,” stated Gayfer. “And we are using it for chips now which was never done in the past. It goes into the energy system for hog, so it’s ground up for hog material and makes clean energy over at the Kruger Pulp Mill. And the chip product goes to make pulp which goes into various products.”

The burned and rotten logs are considered bio-logs. That now-successful program, funded through the enhancement society, is how this entire project came to be.

“There was always concern for the chip quality and these fire-affected logs wouldn’t make a good enough chip and it would affect the quality of pulp,” added Arrow’s Greg Kilba.

Along with helping clear the burned timber out of the forest, with assists with climate goals and wildfire risk reduction.

“It allows the forest to be then silviculturally treated and then come back as a green, vibrant forest, producing oxygen, reducing carbon in our atmosphere,” said Fibre Manager at Kruger, Tom Hoffman.

It’s also helping to create jobs in a tough fibre market.

“In B.C. in general, there is a fibre shortage, so as the forest transition from just a sawmill industry, its transitioned to a bio-economy as well. We are trying to utilize the forest better and make more jobs. Every load of logs that comes in here in this format, or load of grind that we grind up creates a job-and-a-half,” added Gayfer.

Thousands of days of work have been created through the program, which is a partnership with the Simpcw First Nation and their resource group.

“We are ensuring the long-term sustainability of our forests. We are ensuring long-term jobs and really generating a long-term economy and that is going to be sustainable,” said Paul Donald, CEO Simpcw Resources Group.