Minnesota's forests can handle the increased demand from a major expansion of the Blandin paper mill in Grand Rapids, a DNR environmental review has found.
The Minnesota Department of Natural Resources on Monday released the environmental review of the proposed $800 million project.
It would be the largest single expansion of the state's timber industry.
A new papermaking machine would replace an outdated machine and would increase paper production at the mill from 450,000 tons to 760,000 tons annually. The mill produces glossy paper for publications like Time Magazine.
To make all that extra paper, the mill's consumption of trees would more than double, from 197,000 cords annually to 400,000 cords.
But the 800-page DNR report found the increase would have little or no effect on the health of the state's forests or the animals that live there.
Permits for the project -- named Thunderhawk after the Grand Rapids high school nickname -- could be approved by May with construction to begin later this year, DNR officials said.
But Blandin's parent company, Finnish paper giant UPM-Kymmene, has not made a final decision on whether to build. That decision is expected when permits are approved, said Rebecca Theim, company spokeswoman in Chicago.
"UPM is a global company evaluating a lot of projects around the world, and this is just one of them," she said. The company will approve the expansion only if global paper economics warrant the investment, she noted.
The mill expansion would add 23 jobs, the company and DNR report. But the modernization effort would help preserve the mill's current 525 jobs, supporters say.
The expansion would bump tree-cutting in the state from about 3.675 million cords per year to about 3.875 million, still within the limits that state guidelines say is sustainable.
"Relative to the overall statewide timber harvest, the net addition is relatively small," said Bill Johnson, the DNR planner who compiled the environmental report. "There is an effect, but it's a small one and it can be easily mitigated."
The report expresses concern, however, that the increased Blandin appetite for trees will push the industry's demand for Minnesota aspen, or popple, trees near capacity. The 2002 aspen harvest of 2.21 million cords is close to the state's sustainable harvest of 2.42 million cords, the DNR report notes.
The Blandin expansion would add about 100,000 cords annually. "The fact that the statewide harvest is nearing the maximum sustainable level of aspen harvest is a source of concern," the report noted.
Because paper mills and waferboard plants want more aspen than is often available in Minnesota, prices for the once-lowly tree species have skyrocketed in recent years. And Minnesota, once an exporter of cut trees, now imports about 600,000 cords annually from Canada, Wisconsin, Michigan and abroad. Much of that is aspen.
As more mills expand and use more aspen, experts have for years predicted a period of aspen shortage in Minnesota. That shortage is being compounded as some public lands are switched from aspen management to managing for more pines, fir, birch and older-growth trees.
"The supply of aspen from public land isn't going any higher," Johnson noted. Most of the increase for the Blandin expansion will have to come from private lands, the report notes.
But Alan Ek, a forestry expert at the University of Minnesota, said the wood products marketplace is adapting rapidly to aspen issues. While Minnesota aspen prices are high and supply squeezed, mills are using alternatives, such as other species and far-away suppliers.
"The marketplace is much smarter now. Instead of going out 150 miles for wood, it's going out 600 miles," Ek said. "A lot of the smaller operators (mills) have consolidated or closed shop. And the bigger players know how to get what they need."
The DNR report foresees little effect on forest wildlife, mostly because the added tree-cutting probably will occur whether or not the Blandin expansion goes forward.
"For mammals, reptiles and amphibians occurring in Minnesota's forests, little or no adverse effect is projected," the report notes.
The project also won't adversely affect most forest birds, the report notes, although it will contribute to a trend under which 35 percent of all forest bird species are below their historic population levels.
In December 2004, the DNR announced it would focus the environmental review on the mill's expanding appetite for trees from Minnesota forests. Issues of air and water pollution and water use were reviewed but were less critical, regulators noted.
Several environmental groups have argued that the increase in paper mill and board plant capacity in Minnesota during the past 15 years has put too much pressure on the state's forests, with trees cut in some areas at a rate that damages bird and wildlife populations and that threatens long-term ecological health.
But forestry experts note that, while some mills have expanded, several have closed. Overall cutting of trees in Minnesota has actually declined, from about 4 million cords in 1995 to about 3.65 million in 2002, the most recent year for which data is available.Duluth News Tribune
