There are at least two companies awaiting the outcome as the U.S. Forest Service considers bids for a 10-year stewardship contract for forest restoration across 300,000 acres of Arizona’s national forest. One is Arizona Forest Restoration Products, which hopes to build an oriented strand board (OSB) facility, and another is Pioneer Forest Products, a company looking to convert the timber into non-commodity, high value lumber, panels, furniture, cabinetry, specialty components and energy producing products. If either should be awarded the contract, they intend to build their new facilities in the City of Winslow, bringing hundreds of new jobs to the area.
It is expected that the contract award will be announced by the end of this year. Once the contract is issued it will set into motion the first stage of the Four Forest Restoration Initiative (4FRI), a ground-breaking and nationally-recognized project designed to clean up Arizona’s four northern Ponderosa Pine forests and have private industry, not the government, pay for it.
The first phase of 4FRI will open an initial 750,000-acre swath of the Kaibab and Coconino forests to industries that will harvest the smaller diameter trees responsible for cluttering the four forests. It is believed these small diameter trees are the primary cause for the devastation of the Wallow and Rodeo-Chediski fires that have cost tens of millions of dollars to fight.
If Pioneer Forest Products is awarded the contract, Company Director Michael Cooley explained that there are several locations in Winslow that the company is considering. “Winslow is a central area to the project with its road access and railway. We’re currently looking at three locations in the area. The site will be from 350 to 500 acres based on the final location selection,” he said.
The operation would consist of a multi-step facility with state-of-the-art technology culminated from a close look at facilities in Europe and Scandinavia. Cooley estimates that in full operation there will be 125 truckloads of lumber coming to the mill on a daily basis, with 55 to 40 containers going out.
Cooley, who has been in the lumber industry for 35 years, explained, “Juvenile pine stability is limited, but if you cut it, dry it, then engineer it into panels it becomes stable. It becomes good, high value product. Once the lumber is converted, the market becomes global, not just in the U.S.”
According to Director Marlin Johnson, the company will not feel the downturn of the construction economy that may be experienced by an OSB plant, since its product will be used primarily as furnishings and for remodeling, not just for construction. In addition, the larger logs cut at the site will be sold off to existing sawmills in the region, promoting local industry already in place.
Original documentation provided by Cooley shows that during the construction phase of the mill an estimated 250 full-time employees would be needed for the sawmill and finger-jointing operation, and the biomass conversion plant, which is expected to last over a year. The company estimates approximately 160 full-time employees would be needed for the logging and hauling jobs. In the manufacturing facility where edge-glued panels, doors, door jambs, cupboard doors and furniture parts will be built, an estimated 245 employees would be needed. Biomass removal and processing would mean an additional 57 jobs for a total of approximately 462 permanent full-time jobs. In a recent discussion with Cooley, he stated that recent calculations have increased the number of jobs from those figures by 15 to 20 percent.
He explained that if the company receives the contract, it would be working closely with the Northern Arizona Vocational Institute of Technology (NAVIT) and Northland Pioneer College to provide training for the jobs that will be available. With training, Cooley estimates that the average pay for working at the mill would be from $30,000 to $33,000 annually.
Cooley, who also owns a sawmill in Heber and has been actively involved with the 4FRI, hopes his company will set the example for the nation regarding forest restoration as environmentalists and the logging industry work together to restore Arizona forests.
“What’s taking place in Arizona is unprecedented. The 4FRI has never been duplicated. Washington is looking at Arizona and this true collaborative effort. If we’re awarded this contract, it will be amazing to put Arizona on the map for forestry with fine quality products,” he said.
