An award-winning Lakehead University researcher says the forestry sector needs to shift gears into value-added products and better promote itself as something more than a “sunset industry.”
Dr. Mathew Leitch was recently given the James M. Kitz Award by the Canadian Institute of Forestry for his years of forestry-related research. He received his award at the Boreal Conference in Cochrane in early October.
The award is given for forest practitioners who make outstanding contributions to the industry over their career.
He says Canada’s forest industry will emerge from its down-cycle stronger than ever with a more diverse product base that’s not so reliant on producing two-by-fours.
“We can’t base our entire industry on it anymore,” says Leitch, who studied value-added forestry in Australia for nine years. “The commodity industry has done well for Canada since the beginning, but now we’re seeing competition from southern hemisphere countries where trees grow very fast.
“We just need to realize there’s certain things we can’t compete at anymore.”
Much of his research in the value-added market involves using undervalued species like tamarack, black ash and birch.
“The most common use for birch up here is firewood,” says Leitch. While black ash has valuable hardwood qualities
similar to oak.
But most of these woods haven’t been inventoried because lumber companies tend to cut around them or use them for low-value uses. Leitch says the sooner the forest industry and government recognizes the value of these species and develops a regeneration strategy, the better off new value-added industries will be in the long run.
Holders of sustainable forest licences (SFL) have voluminous amounts of wood on their properties but don’t utilize it all, he says. Many companies are just “set in their ways” producing dimensional lumber rather than value-added products.
He says small companies are making the shift, but bigger producers are financially hampered to invest in new capital projects.
An expert in tree biochemistry, Leitch works with value-added enterprises in northwestern Ontario by testing the mechanical properties of strength andhardness of their new flooring, decking and docking products before it heads to market.
Leitch, who arrived at Lakehead three years ago, is helping to revitalize the campus’ wood science faculty by building up the university’s research capacity to better serve the value-added sector.
If there’s been a silver lining in this industry slump, he says it’s been in the operating efficiencies produced and the
consideration of using wood waste for non-traditional products such as biofuels or bioenergy.
He says Canada’s strength lies in the high quality of wood fibre. Foreign competitors can out-compete Canada in low and medium-grade papers, but they can’t produce high-grade paper.
Some producers like Thunder Bay’s Buchanan Forest Products have invested in MSR (Machine Stress Rating) machines to test their two-by-fours for strength capabilities and sell them to truss and joist manufacturers at a much higher value.
“It’s a simple thing but companies can shift into it without having to redo their entire operations.”
He says government loans to prop up industry have worked to some degree, but some companies he’s familiar with find better rates at the bank.
“Giving out government loans isn’t going to fix the real underlying problems. If they really want to make a change, do something about the price of electricity and the cost of lumber. Ontario has the highest wood costs in North America, and among the highest in the world.”
When the industry does turn around, Leitch says anticipates a serious labour shortage fueled by the public perception that the forestry is dying. That’s kept young people away from forest-related jobs.
“There’s more jobs than you can shake a stick at in the industry.” In next few years, there will be huge vacancies in government ministry positions because of retirement and not enough university grads to fill them.
Despite the warnings of their high school counselors, Leitch finds getting students interested in forestry careers isn’t really a tough sell once you talk to them at university recruitment fairs.
