Friday Afternoon and Evening, August 23, 2002
Friday afternoon teachers toured the Columbia Forest Products veneer mill at Rutherglen, followed by a hardwood forest management tour on Klocks Road with staff from both the Nipissing Sustainable Forest License, and the Ministry of Natural Resources. The Klocks Road tour allowed teachers to learn about planning, values identification and protection, tree marking, forest operations and harvesting.
Dinner was a traditional lumberjack dinner at Myrt's Restaurant.
Click on the thumbnail photos for larger versions. Hold your cursor over the thumbnail to read the photo caption. More photos are available in our scrapbook.
Veneer Mill
Columbia Forest Products is the largest manufacturer of rotary hardwood veneer in North America. They specialize in Northern Appalachian hardwoods, producing veneers from 1/28" to 1/42" in thickness for both domestic and export markets.
At their Rutherglen Mill, Columbia Forest Products employs 330 full-time employees to process over 200,000 logs per year. Thanks to modern mill technology, over 99% of the wood is used - either as veneer, fuel, or to make crates - almost no wood is wasted.
Birch, red oak, maple, ash, poplar, cherry and other species of fancy veneer are supplied throughout the decorative plywood, furniture, cabinetry, door and profile-wrap industries.
Klocks Road Forest Management Tour
The Klocks Road area between Mattawa and Algonquin Park is part of the Nipissing Forest. The Nipissing Forest extends over 11,932 square kilometers and has a permanent population of approximately 86,000. The total managed productive land base is approximately 578,000 hectares.
At this site, teachers learned about silvicultural systems. On the Nipissing Forest three silvicultural systems are used: hardwood selection/shelterwood, pine shelterwood, and clear-cut with standards. One of the first stands we visited was a 44-year old stand planted in 1958 with 40,000 white spruce, 25,000 red pine, and 15,000 white pine. About 3,100 hectares have been pre-commercially thinned from this stand. Further along at our second stop, we saw how tree marking was practiced in a red and white pine stand prescribed for shelterwood and selection harvesting.
At another stop, teachers got to see for themselves natural red and white pine regeneration in a shelterwood harvest area. Teachers were given the assignment of counting regeneration seedlings to determine the number of seedlings per hectare.
At the harvesting stop, teachers witnessed a harvesting operation by Hec Clothier & Sons. Hec Clothier & Sons have been harvesting in the area since 1960. On the tour they demonstrated a Feller Buncher machine being used to harvest Aspen in a clear-cut system of harvest. After harvesting the area will be replanted with white pine.
The Nipissing Forest is managed by Nipissing Forest Resources Management Inc. which was issued a Sustainable Forest License for the Nipissing Forest by the Ontario Minister of Natural Resources. NFRM is a partnership of five local forest industries: Tembec Industries, Grant Forest Products, Goulard Lumber, R. Fryer Forest Products, and Hec Clouthier & Sons in addition to eleven other independent operators.
The Nipissing Forest is managed by Nipissing Forest Resources Management Inc. which was issued a Sustainable Forest License for the Nipissing Forest by the Ontario Minister of Natural Resources. NFRM is a partnership of five local forest industries: Tembec Industries, Grant Forest Products, Goulard Lumber, R. Fryer Forest Products, and Hec Clouthier & Sons in addition to eleven other independent operators.
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