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Friday 04/25/2008
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Business :: Conference
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Innovative Forestry Tech & Equipment Workshop
9:00 AM Fort Missoula
Description:
THE FUTURE OF FORESTRY ON VIEW AT FORT MISSOULA
Friday - April 25 Forest Products Industry Workshop
Saturday - For the general public
Businesspeople and members of the public are about to get a close look at new ways to gather woody biomass—and to convert it into energy.
These new technologies will be discussed and displayed at the Innovative Forestry Technology and Equipment Workshop taking place Saturday and Sunday, April 25 and 26, at Fort Missoula, in Missoula, Montana.
The workshop will be produced by TimberBuySell.com and the Smallwood Utilization Network, which are divisions of the Montana Community Development Corporation; the U.S. Forest Service’s Southern Research Station will be the major sponsor and provide funding.
The two-day event will feature demonstrations by 20 exhibitors. The public is invited to attend on Saturday, when activities will also include Forestry Day at Fort Missoula, complete with exhibitions and competitions involving traditional logging skills.
Organizer Craig Rawlings of TimberBuySell.com anticipates a crowd. “We launched the event last year expecting 10 or so participants from the forestry sector; instead we got 85,” said Rawlings. “This year’s attendance should be even higher because of the accelerating interest in woody biomass.”
According to co-organizer Bob Rummer, there are both problems and opportunities to be found in woody biomass, which consists mostly of branches and treetops. “Today’s overgrown forests require more thinning,” explains Rummer, Director of the Forest Service’s Southern Station. “However, budget cuts mean that thinning projects now have to pay for themselves.” On the other hand, fossil fuel prices are rising, and that makes woody biomass an attractive energy alternative—but only if it can be cost-effectively handled. “Hence a demand for innovative equipment” concludes Rummer.
The demand is being met by international corporations and local entrepreneurs. Montana resident Craig Thomas will be demonstrating patented, stackable containers that can be rolled off the beds of hooklift-equipped trucks. Thomas’s distinctive yellow-green units allow contractors to get closer to the cutting site, thereby collecting material that might otherwise get burned.
Thomas keeps track of his trucks and containers with equipment from the German forestry company Cambium-Forstbetriebe, which will be displaying an RFID system that allows trucks, containers, and even trees to transmit information about their location.
Also on display will be the Real-Time Inventory (RTI) system, from Landmark Systems. The RTI system allows foresters to map their inventory and then upload and share the information on an enterprise-wide basis.
Nearby, John Deere Forestry will be exhibiting its Energy WoodHarvester, which compresses treetops and branches into dense 10-foot “logs.”
Rawlings of TimberBuySell.com explains that this year, the workshop includes not just equipment that gets biomass out of the woods, but also equipment that converts it into either products or energy.
The Wood-Mizer Company made its name in portable sawmills, but this year is introducing the Bio-Mizer, a worksite heater that burns fine sawdust with virtually smoke-free efficiency.
Rawlings Manufacturing will be demonstrating its Wood Hog, which grinds waste wood into mulch or boiler fuel. Also on hand will be a major customer for boiler fuel: the Fuels for Schools and Beyond program, a partnership of several federal and state organizations.
Workshop goers can also view a high-tech, wood-fueled power plant that’s been squeezed onto a 40-foot trailer. Developed by the University of Montana in collaboration with the U.S. Department of Agriculture and Community Power Corporation, the off-the-grid system gasifies wood chips and uses the resulting fuel to produce 20 kilowatts of power and 200,000 Btu/hr of heat.
Age Group: 18+
Venue: Fort Missoula
Address: Historical Museum at Fort Missoula
Phone: 406-529-3353
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