By Linda Whitmore
The timber industry has been the backbone of Santiam Canyon’s economy since the region was settled. Through the years, environmentally conscientious practices have created financial stability for successful wood-products companies and brought about new “green” processes.
“We’ve always thought our industry was the most green out there,” said Rob Freres, executive vice president of Freres Lumber Co., in Lyons and Mill City. “Trees are renewable,” he said, pointing out that wood producers grow far more trees than they harvest. Also, “the industry as a whole produces half its own energy,” and has for 60 years or more.
Freres Lumber Co. – primarily a producer of veneer and plywood, with a small division for cut lumber – is an example of a firm that has practices in place to recycle and reuse materials as well as to garner more product from its raw resources.
A year ago Freres made a giant leap into furthering ecological and economical practices by installing a biomass power-cogeneration plant that produces enough electricity to supply more than 7,000 homes, as well as creating steam power for its own operations.
In the company’s 86 years, a number of conservation practices have been put into operation but developing the power plant “was our most lengthy, most expensive and most complicated project,” Freres said.
The 18-month-long process was completed primarily through the work of employees at Freres Lumber Co.
“We used as much in-house labor as we could,” Freres said of the building of the truck dump, fuel storage building, walkways and more.
The boiler-driven generator was installed by Wellins Co., of Tualatin. The result became the subsidiary, Evergreen Biopower LLC., a 10-megawatt cogeneration facility.
The plant works 24-hours a day, seven days a week. On weekdays, 30 percent of the energy it produces goes toward making steam to power plywood production. The remaining 70 percent of the electricity is sent into the power grid. On weekends, 100 percent of the electricity produced goes for public use.
Fuel for the generator comes from mill residue and “urban wood” – pallets, trimmings from the logging industry, even Christmas trees; and lumber ends from home-building – diverting this waste from going into landfills. The plant consumes 360 tons of renewable woody biomass each day.
A 100,000-pound per hour wood boiler creates steam power that heats Freres Lumber Co.’s two veneer driers and for heat-conditioning of veneer blocks used to produce plywood.
Using the facility to create energy for Freres’ operations replaced 2 million therms of natural gas and eliminated the high cost of this fuel.
The project is part of the company’s many conservation practices that have been in place for years.
In 1994, the company received the Oregon Family Business of the Year Award for its leadership role in the wood products industry and the family’s contributions to the community.
By the 1990s, the mills had PCB’s removed from its capacitors and asbestos was eliminated. Solid-waste disposal was reduced 90 percent through the paving of the log-scaling area, which allowed for bark recovery.
A scrubbing system had been installed to eliminate air particulate from veneer dryer emissions. Fuel tank containments had been built and there was a storm-water discharge plan in operation.
Even before the development of the power plant, energy efficiency was enhanced by replacing all the lighting in the plywood plant with low-energy lights.
Freres’ fleet of trucks that is used to deliver logs, veneer, plywood, lumber and chips to customers – and the chip vans’ return with biomass for the power plant – has tractors that are equipped with fuel-efficient and air pollution-controlled engines.
The company’s loggers have received Oregon Professional Logging certification for using best management practices in the woods. Freres’ timberlands are certified as sustainably managed. The company promotes forest health through biodiversity by planting a mix of trees on its land.
Waste management programs include recycling wood, water, oil, paper products, rubber and solvents.
“Sustaining our natural resources is Freres Lumber Co. Inc.’s first objective,” according to the Governor’s Sustainability Award documents.
To protect the environment, Freres mills put water-control plans in place before they were required. There are processes to capture air pollutants, control dust and eliminate discharge.
This emphasis on conservation has been “a way of life to sustain our business, family and community long before it was popular.”
And the company plans to continue in this mode into the future.
“We never quit updating our plants, we plan to continue to invest in them,” Freres said.
