WVFA Mountain State Forestry Fall 2020

I N D U S T R Y N E W S www.wvfa.org Fall 2020 |  West Virginia Forestry Association Mountain State Forestry 11 By Jordan R. Thompson, Curt C. Hassler, and Joseph F. McNeel – West Virginia University Appalachian Hardwood Center THE APPALACHIAN HARDWOOD CENTER (AHC) at West Virginia University has, since 2005, conducted over 60 mill studies at sawmills in six states to help sawmills better understand their log grades, lumber grade yields, and pricing of hardwood logs. In the course of these studies, the AHC became aware that mills had created their own de facto systems, unique to each individual mill or company. While these mill specific systems could vary considerably in how logs were graded/classified, certain commonalities were evident, specifically species, scaling diameter, and number of clear faces. Certain nuances in assigning a grade were applied by mills, with no consistency between mills and could include, among others, log length, position in the tree (butt or upper log), and log end conditions. The purpose of this article is to document how the hardwood industry, in the absence of a standardized, industry-wide log grading system, conducts grading and scaling operations for hardwood logs in the Appalachian region. Additionally, primary wood product producers in the Appalachian region were surveyed to determine procurement strategies and identify grading and scaling measurement protocols that could be used in the development of a regional hardwood log grading and scaling system. Contact information for prospective mill contacts was developed from Appalachian Hardwood Manufacturers, Inc. (AHMI) member company mailing list. AHMI member data included primary wood product producers from nine (9) states, including Ohio, New York, West Virginia, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, Virginia, North Carolina, Maryland, and Kentucky. The second source was from state forestry agencies in the Appalachian region that provided contact information for non- AHMI member companies in the same nine states. The combined nine-state list was finally adjusted to include only those wood-products producers that actively grade hardwood sawlogs. Thus, only primary wood product producers and log buyers were included in the study. Once the lists were finalized, a total of 1,085 records of wood product producers from both AHMI and non-AHMI member companies were identified. The AHMI member list contained 45 records of hardwood primary wood product producers and the non-AHMI member companies list contained 1,040 records, to which the survey was mailed. Seven mills reported no longer being in business and six reported not being primary wood product producers. A total of 111 surveys were returned because of invalid addresses. From this information, we estimated that the survey reached 961 primary wood product producers. The total number of responses was 135, with only 110 surveys considered useable for comparative statistical analysis purposes. A total of 21 survey responses were from members of AHMI and 89 survey responses came from the non-AHMI member population. Pennsylvania had the greatest number of completed surveys (19) and represented 17.3% of the total number of responses produced. A total of 14 responses were provided by mills in Virginia, followed closely by Kentucky and West Virginia with 13 responses each. In total, mills from these four states provided almost 60% of the total survey response (Fig. 1). Figure 1: Number and percent of useable survey responses by state. AN ASSESSMENT OF THE CURRENT Log Grading, Scaling, and Procurement Practices IN THE APPALACHIAN HARDWOOD INDUSTRY NA refers to 12 survey responses (10.9%) that did not identify a state location. KY MD NC NY OH PA TN VA WV NA Survery Responses Percent Response 20 18 16 14 12 10 8 6 4 2 0 11.8 2.7 10.9 4.5 7.3 17.3 10.0 12.7 11.8 10.9