From the Albuquerque Journal, By Wren Propp
LAS VEGAS, N.M.- Ralph Barela used his hands to brush away a layer of wood chips from one of the huge heaps that dot his Barela Timber Management Yard west of here. The wood chips provide so much insulation, there was a crust of well-preserved snow a couple of inches down from the surface of the chips.
"That's how people used to keep blocks of ice for weeks and weeks," Barela said recently. "They'd take chips and sawdust and cover it over."
Barela, Pecos-area lumberman David Old and newcomer manufacturer Colleen Cayes, among others, are exploring new ways to capitalize on what the Las Vegas-area forests have plenty of: small-diameter trees.
Trees 6- to 8-inches in diameter or less are considered small diameter. In northern New Mexico, small diameter trees add up to 2.1 billion board feet of lumber, according to current estimates.
Called the "wood cluster," the collaborative, commercial effort is focused on rejuvenating the area's wood-centric legacy. Small, locally run, logging operations and sawmills have virtually died out, Old said.
Member of the cluster are looking for ways to increase the value of wood chips, mulch, small-diameter poles and other products to increase the bottom line in their businesses and increase the number of jobs in the area.
Armed with a $50,000 grant from the New Mexico Rural Development Council, supported by the Las Vegas/San Miguel Economic Development Inc. and aided with direction from the Idea Group of Santa Fe, members of the "wood cluster" would like to build on the businesses they've already got and bring in more.
The likelihood that a wood-burning, electricity-generating biomass plant will open in Raton - one that would require tons and tons of wood scraps- is also a bright spot on the horizon, Barela said.
David Cohen, who is involved in launching the biomass plant, said the group has an air permit, preliminary engineering drawings and an option to lease 70 acres at Raton's industrial park. But there are still power-purchase agreements to hammer out.
Representatives of the wood cluster have already started talking to the U.S. Forest Service about becoming part of that agency's "coordinated resource offering protocol"- a forest-thinning program also known as CROP- said Darien Cabral of the Idea Group.
The words "forest thinning" quickly get the attention of both environmentalists and those concerned with preventing wildfires in the choked Las Vegas-area Gallinas Watershed, said Luis Ortiz, executive director of the Las Vegas/San Miguel Economic Development Corp.
The impact of the work of the wood cluster will be the subject of public forums open to environmentalists, foresters, the federal government, New Mexico Highlands University officials and private businesses, including Hispanic landowners.
"That's one way we'll be getting everybody to communicate with each other," Ortiz said.
Joel Scheinberg, vice president of the Las Vegas/San Miguel EDC, sees a synergy among the "wood cluster" companies that is likely to keep them moving forward. BTU Building Material, a local company, also is involved in the cluster.
But there are also some challenges ahead. For example, Scheinberg, Ortiz and others are concerned that workers' compensation rates for loggers are too high and prevent smaller companies from getting involved in the industry.
To Barela and Old, Colleen Cayes and her plan to make bricks out of wood fiber and portland cement in Las Vegas play a major role in the wood cluster. Cayes, a 20-year veteran of manufacturing, moved to New Mexico a year ago with the idea that the blocks would be a perfect product for New Mexico.
"We have an excess of wood chips," she said. The blocks, using scrap wood, have been made in Europe for the past 20 years and are popular in parts of the United States because of their "green" characteristics. The blocks contain no toxic chemicals, and their manufacture doesn't produce toxic waste. They are high in alkaline so they don't grow mold and don't rot, are durable against heat and provide energy savings, she said.
The blocks cost 3 percent more than other building materials, but builders see savings in energy costs over time, she said. "It's similar to organic food - you pay a little more for it, but your body does better for it," she said.
About 10 houses in Santa Fe have been built with the blocks. She believes she will be the only maker and distributor of the blocks in the West.
When Las Vegans heard about her interest in opening a factory, they were primarily concerned that making the blocks would require a lot of water.
"There's minimal water involved," she said. She's planning to begin production in April and ship the first blocks in May. She's looking to hire 15 employees in March, to start. Her company, Healthy Buildings Wood Chip Block LLC, is looking for a temporary location in Las Vegas, until the "wood cluster" has been able to settle at the old Medite plant location.
The "wood cluster" members have been eyeing the old plant's concrete slab as a location for a wood supply clearinghouse, Old said.
Cayes estimates that she would be using a semi-tractor truck load of woodchips during the first month of production. Ultimately, she hopes to be using 12 similar loads a month.
Old moved into an empty, 12-year-old building last October at the Dee Bibbs Industrial Park. His company, Old World LLC, includes the production of Douglas fir floors and the distribution of Wood-Mizer sawmills.
Before the Viveash Fire in 2000, Old had planned to earn his living on logging hundreds of acres of Douglas fir on his family's Viveash Ranch near Pecos. He had completed half the task before the fire; the wildfire turned to ash much of what he had planned to log for the next 20 years. Now Old serves as president for the "wood cluster" while manufacturing floors one job at a time. He had a long-term interest in working with small-diameter trees, even though like most, traditional manufacturers, he mostly uses large-diameter trees.
"I've been trying to get a grant for years for small diameters, nobody did anything," he said. Inspired by the "wood cluster," he's hoping he and his employees can develop narrow flats of flooring from small-diameter Douglas firs.
He provided new floors for the nearby, historic Montezuma Castle and sent stacks and stacks of old-fashioned Douglas fir flooring for the reconstruction of an opera house in the republic of Georgia, a former Soviet state. His company employs six to 10 people with an average scale of $11 to $12 an hour, he said.
Making floors takes skill and judgment; employees need to examine a piece of wood and determine if it will fit well with the rest of the floor, he said.
The work of the "wood cluster" is just one aspect of what Las Vegas could offer to a larger audience. New Mexico Highlands University offers three different forestry-based educational programs that aren't getting enough attention, he said.
"Give people the knowledge and the tools, not just to whack down the forest, and teach them a good job," he said.
On a wet day last week, Barela pointed to the various shades he's experimenting with to make his mulch more attractive. From dark red to the lightest yellow, the huge heaps of mulch create a weird landscape at his yard.
He's looking for a range of colors that will please a wide range of landscapers who are looking for new ideas to sell to their customers.
Currently, his sawmill and logging operation provide latillas and vigas for the Southwest adobe building industry, but he's hoping for much more. If the wares offered by the "wood cluster" grow, then his products- like several grades of mulch- could become popular and profitable, too.
Barela's yard includes several heaps of organic compost developed from wood chips and sawdust and dirt swept from the yard. He offers his wood chips to people with barn animals, and he asks them to bring back the soiled chips and manure to add to the compost.
Barela easily found a handful of worms burrowed in the compost with a sweep of his hand. "See? They love it," he said. He is working with the city of Las Vegas to thin the city's portion of the tree-choked Gallinas Watershed and said the number of products that could be made from the trees could be increased exponentially as the "wood cluster" gains strength.
"We want to take what we have in our forest, spend some time with it, and make it into a much more valuable product," he said.
