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August 5, 2004 Problem Statement: To establish a market-based strategy for development of a wood producers co-operative entity which would add value to raw logs and to wood waste and to supply wood products manufacturers located within the Greenville Business Incubator or the Greenville Industrial Park with a dependable supply of wood fiber. The Town of Greenville continues to seek means by which to attract business start-ups and existing business expansion within its Industrial Park and Business Incubator. This pursuit is an on-going attempt to diversify and therefore strengthen both the jobs base and the economic / tax base of the community. Greenville serves as a separate labor market and is a primary service center in a geographically isolated location. Investment of new technology within the forest products fields can succeed in Greenville due to the following:
Development of Strategy: Development of a proposed wood & wood products cooperative association which would encourage job growth in wood products manufacturing utilizing value-added processes. This proposal is for funding of a market feasibility study and a development plan for a wood & wood products cooperative association in Greenville, Maine. The concept for the cooperative is for primary producers of forest products, and secondary producers of wood waste to join together in the collection, processing, and eventual sale of their products. For primary producers, this would be done through agreements to dedicate a portion of their stumpage to a common log yard where the highest, best use of the material would be decided and the product shipped accordingly. A high portion of this product would be utilized by the cooperative to produce value-added products, such as wood flour for wood-plastic extrusion processes. Lower-grade wood waste could be captured by the local bio-mass power generation company. The wood material collected in the cooperative's “yard” would be made available to start-up and on-going companies within the Greenville Business Incubator and within the Greenville Industrial Park. The cost of the products would be negotiated between the purchasing companies and the cooperative. The value to the landowner would be a higher sale price for their timber. The value to the Greenville wood products manufacturers would be a constant, dependable supply of wood. A possible additional component of this arrangement would a connected chain of custody for Sustainable Forestry Initiative (SFI) or Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) certified “green” wood products from the certified sustainable managed forests to the final producers of retail wood products. The cooperative association would work to identify and access such “green” markets. In the past, wood products manufacturing companies seeking to locate in Greenville have found difficulty accessing raw wood fiber due to competition within the market for the limited supply of cut and hauled timber. There is sufficient wood to be cut, and there is sufficient wood cut and being shipped as raw logs to Canada from this region. The challenge is to access this timber locally and/or to divert some of the timber which is being sent to Canada. When this is accomplished, a significant barrier to investment in wood products manufacturing, especially the commercialization of wood composites product patents, will be removed. An example is the manufacture of wood-plastic composite materials. Currently, the State of Maine has a very successful wood-plastic composite company operating in Biddeford. This company – Correct Deck - utilizes over 100,000 pounds of wood flour weekly as part of its production of wood-plastic composite decking. To produce wood flour, typically sawdust must be dried and pulverized. Depending upon moisture content, it takes roughly 200,000 lbs. of raw sawdust to make 100,000 lbs. of wood flour. Not factoring the cost of pulverizing and drying the sawdust, the value of a pound of wood flour is roughly 4 times that of a pound of sawdust. Currently, no company in the State of Maine produces wood flour – Correct Deck must import all of its wood flour from companies in Massachusetts and Quebec, Canada. We believe that a co-operative association of primary wood producers and secondary wood waste producers in the greater Greenville area could supply sufficient wood fiber to operate a successful wood flour production facility. If this were to occur, not only would wood products producers of primary and secondary materials have a means to add value to their commodity, but Greenville would attract wood-plastic extrusion companies to its Incubator Facility as it would be the home to the sole production site of wood flour within the State of Maine. The Town of Greenville is currently working with the University of Maine's Advanced Engineered Wood Composites (AEWC) Center to develop a wood-plastic box beam for use in the Town's reconstruction of its Junction Wharf. This new technology might be commercialized in the Greenville Business Incubator if basic materials such as wood flour were made available here. This could result in the establishment of a new wood-plastic extrusion company start-up, which would add new jobs to our labor market and ultimately reduce the unemployment rate. A secondary benefit would be resistance to the conversion of low-grade timberlands from productive forestry to secondary home development. If new markets for low grade wood emerge from the establishment of this cooperative, landowners will have reason to re-consider their land conversion intentions. Added stability to the base of productive forestland will indirectly encourage investment in forest products manufacturing regionally and statewide. Project Leverage In addition to this secondary grant source, the Town of Greenville, the Piscataquis County Economic Development Council, and the University of Maine's AEWC all will commit staff time to this project, the total value of which will be at least $2,525 (see attached chart). Citizen Participation |