October 8, 1975 (8 pages)

_ Brunswick sol Sawdust has always been an embarrassment in the lumber business. Every day saw mills produce tons of it. They can’t ignore it because within a few months their entire ; operation would be buried in sawdust. For years the only way to dispose of sawdust, bark and other waste products, that make up 50 percent of every log milled, was burning. There are a number of reasons why mill owners have never been quite‘satisfied with this solution to their sawdust problems. First it makes the neighbors hard to live with. When wash comes down off the line smelling like a forest fire, the local mill boss is bound to hear about it. Spurred by environmentalists, government agencies have also begun to take a dim view of sawdust burning. Laws have been passed which prohibit burning in some areas and have given some mills only a limited amount of time to find another disposal method. Perhaps dearest to the lumber company is a third reason. If a useful product can be developed for the 50 percent of logs that cannot be made into boards there is going to be added profits. Spearheading the local lumberman in a search for waste wood uses is the. Yuba River Lumber Co. of Grass Valley. The company has for the past two years had a Special Products Division. ‘Under the supervision of Don Ellis, head of Special Products, a great deal of progress has already been made. On Aug. 1 the company was able to shutdown their last functioning sawdust burner and they are helping other local mills shut their’s down too. According to Ellis, most of the experimentation done so far has been in the area of ‘‘soil amendments.” By the addition of chemicals and the proper bacteria, sawdust can be used to enrich soil for plant growth, Ellis said. With research carried out by Yuba River and the help of a number of. California universities a formula for soil amendments was found. Various types of amendments are now being oduced at the company’s facilities on Barr Meadows Road. Sawdust is being brought there for treatment from the Brunswick and Lausmann mills on Bennett Street as well as from mills in Marysville and Camptonville. The finished product is not just junk that Yuba River is trying to get rid of, Ellis explains. The soil amendments have been designed to work with poor soil. In clay they break down the soils -tendency to glob together and smother the roots. Nitrogen can be released uniformly. Sandy soil can also be made usable by the addition of a_ soil amendment. Soil amendments of many types are made and stored separately by Yuba River. The type of amendment depends upon which tree the sawdust came from and what chemicals are used in treatment, according to Ellis. Cedar and fir trees have proven to . be the most suitable for soil amendments, he said. The bark of the trees is also used in making amendments and potting soil for house plartts. Soil amendments production have not resulted in a large profit for Yuba River so far, Ellis said. Since their. use. , . " is not widespread, as yet, the company.’ has huge stockpiles of both sawdust ran October 8, 1975 Wed., The Nevada County Nugget 5 ution THE SMOKE BELCHING sawdust burner at Yuba River Lumber Company's Brunswick Mill has been eliminated which has helped reduce pollution at the mill. Photo above is the old burner. and soil amendments. . Ellis could not give an estimate: of what the development-had cost or howmuch has been made through sales. He did indicate that the initial costs for experimentation, tins of new equipment, shipment and extra personnel far outstripped the profits. _ “Eventually we hope to make money,’’ Ellis said. Yuba River’s Special Products Division is also making use of other waste products that were going up in smoke a few years ago. Bark stripped by the mills is now being shipped all over the country for use as decoration. If the bark is not suitable for this purpose it is ground up for use in soil amendments and potting soil. A number of uses have been found for waste wood chips and shavings. Shavings, when green, are shipped for use. in animal pens. Among Yuba River’s customers is the world’s largest turkey farm along with a number of chicken, sheep and horse hes, The shavings can now also be sent to a'particle board plant in Rocklin that : opened in March. Paper mills also provide a market for the larger chips of wood. Much of the local wood chip goes to a plant in Antioch. Experimentation at Yuba River is going on now to find more uses for byproducts, Ellis said: The most hopeful at this time is a cattle feed made from sawdust, he said. Because pine sawdust, which accounts for much of the Yuba River stockpile, is not suitable for soil amendments Ellis hopes that they will soon be able to feed it to cows. The sawdust has been treated with chemicals which break down’ the hardest materials and make it digestible to animals with more than one stomach, according to Ellis. The experiments are far enough along for Ellis to think “‘maybe it’s cattle feed” every time he pulls out a handful of the treated sawdust for testing. As far as sawdust ever being used as food by humans, Ellis isn’t too hopeful. We couldn’t digest it even with the fiber broken down, he said. “Some of the extracts from wood are good for people but it can’t be digested in the true form,’’ he said. He said that it isn’t ,worth the trouble for the lumber company because once they have gone to the expense of getting out all usable extracts they would still be stuck with the bulk material. That is their problem to begin with. A future possibility for the Special Products Division is production of methyl] alcohol to be used in gasoline, Ellis said. “Although it would be to expensive now,” he said, “rising gasoline prices might make it worthwhile in the future.” “Wood alcohol” has been around for a long time and has caused blindness for a lot of people unfortunate enough to drink it. “If only it was ethyl alcohol,” Ellis muses, ‘“Then we could make bourbon out of it and our problems would be over.” ‘DON ELLIS, head of Yuba River Lumber Con:zuny's ‘Special Products Division’' checks sawdust before’ it is prepared for ‘packaging for use in ‘ ‘soil. anidndments. 43 i ee

_ Brunswick sol Sawdust has always been an embarrassment in the lumber business. Every day saw mills produce tons of it. They can’t ignore it because within a few months their entire ; operation would be buried in sawdust. For years the only way to dispose of sawdust, bark and other waste products, that make up 50 percent of every log milled, was burning. There are a number of reasons why mill owners have never been quite‘satisfied with this solution to their sawdust problems. First it makes the neighbors hard to live with. When wash comes down off the line smelling like a forest fire, the local mill boss is bound to hear about it. Spurred by environmentalists, government agencies have also begun to take a dim view of sawdust burning. Laws have been passed which prohibit burning in some areas and have given some mills only a limited amount of time to find another disposal method. Perhaps dearest to the lumber company is a third reason. If a useful product can be developed for the 50 percent of logs that cannot be made into boards there is going to be added profits. Spearheading the local lumberman in a search for waste wood uses is the. Yuba River Lumber Co. of Grass Valley. The company has for the past two years had a Special Products Division. ‘Under the supervision of Don Ellis, head of Special Products, a great deal of progress has already been made. On Aug. 1 the company was able to shutdown their last functioning sawdust burner and they are helping other local mills shut their’s down too. According to Ellis, most of the experimentation done so far has been in the area of ‘‘soil amendments.” By the addition of chemicals and the proper bacteria, sawdust can be used to enrich soil for plant growth, Ellis said. With research carried out by Yuba River and the help of a number of. California universities a formula for soil amendments was found. Various types of amendments are now being oduced at the company’s facilities on Barr Meadows Road. Sawdust is being brought there for treatment from the Brunswick and Lausmann mills on Bennett Street as well as from mills in Marysville and Camptonville. The finished product is not just junk that Yuba River is trying to get rid of, Ellis explains. The soil amendments have been designed to work with poor soil. In clay they break down the soils -tendency to glob together and smother the roots. Nitrogen can be released uniformly. Sandy soil can also be made usable by the addition of a_ soil amendment. Soil amendments of many types are made and stored separately by Yuba River. The type of amendment depends upon which tree the sawdust came from and what chemicals are used in treatment, according to Ellis. Cedar and fir trees have proven to . be the most suitable for soil amendments, he said. The bark of the trees is also used in making amendments and potting soil for house plartts. Soil amendments production have not resulted in a large profit for Yuba River so far, Ellis said. Since their. use. , . " is not widespread, as yet, the company.’ has huge stockpiles of both sawdust ran

October 8, 1975 Wed., The Nevada County Nugget 5 ution THE SMOKE BELCHING sawdust burner at Yuba River Lumber Company's Brunswick Mill has been eliminated which has helped reduce pollution at the mill. Photo above is the old burner. and soil amendments. . Ellis could not give an estimate: of what the development-had cost or howmuch has been made through sales. He did indicate that the initial costs for experimentation, tins of new equipment, shipment and extra personnel far outstripped the profits. _ “Eventually we hope to make money,’’ Ellis said. Yuba River’s Special Products Division is also making use of other waste products that were going up in smoke a few years ago. Bark stripped by the mills is now being shipped all over the country for use as decoration. If the bark is not suitable for this purpose it is ground up for use in soil amendments and potting soil. A number of uses have been found for waste wood chips and shavings. Shavings, when green, are shipped for use. in animal pens. Among Yuba River’s customers is the world’s largest turkey farm along with a number of chicken, sheep and horse hes, The shavings can now also be sent to a'particle board plant in Rocklin that : opened in March. Paper mills also provide a market for the larger chips of wood. Much of the local wood chip goes to a plant in Antioch. Experimentation at Yuba River is going on now to find more uses for byproducts, Ellis said: The most hopeful at this time is a cattle feed made from sawdust, he said. Because pine sawdust, which accounts for much of the Yuba River stockpile, is not suitable for soil amendments Ellis hopes that they will soon be able to feed it to cows. The sawdust has been treated with chemicals which break down’ the hardest materials and make it digestible to animals with more than one stomach, according to Ellis. The experiments are far enough along for Ellis to think “‘maybe it’s cattle feed” every time he pulls out a handful of the treated sawdust for testing. As far as sawdust ever being used as food by humans, Ellis isn’t too hopeful. We couldn’t digest it even with the fiber broken down, he said. “Some of the extracts from wood are good for people but it can’t be digested in the true form,’’ he said. He said that it isn’t ,worth the trouble for the lumber company because once they have gone to the expense of getting out all usable extracts they would still be stuck with the bulk material. That is their problem to begin with. A future possibility for the Special Products Division is production of methyl] alcohol to be used in gasoline, Ellis said. “Although it would be to expensive now,” he said, “rising gasoline prices might make it worthwhile in the future.” “Wood alcohol” has been around for a long time and has caused blindness for a lot of people unfortunate enough to drink it. “If only it was ethyl alcohol,” Ellis muses, ‘“Then we could make bourbon out of it and our problems would be over.” ‘DON ELLIS, head of Yuba River Lumber Con:zuny's ‘Special Products Division’' checks sawdust before’ it is prepared for ‘packaging for use in ‘ ‘soil. anidndments. 43 i ee