Today I had the privilege of going to Zavisha's sawmill in Hines creek. It was amazing to see that what the local folk would call a "small" mill being the bigger than the large sawmill back home at Herons Creek.
I was shown around the mill by Ashley Zavisha who told me they store around 80,000m3 of lumber but actually cut about 110,000m3 per year. The lumber they typically cut is white spruce, lodgepole pine and some black spruce. Sadly one of the problems facing the mill industry is of course the market but also pine beetle attack. Pine beetle as Mark wrote earlier is a real problem facing the Alberta forestry industry.
Anyway back to the mill, I was shown around the small log mill where they primarily cut decking boards, there is another part of the mill which cuts larger logs that cater for scaffolding and house frames. The most common cut in the larger area is 8 by 8. After being shown around the mill I was then taken or to meet one of Zavisha's contracted foresters named Rudy.
Rudy took myself and Ashley out to see some areas that they planted 18 months ago which looked a lot like eucalyptus that is 3 months old. I also was shown the affect of pine beetle in the region and was told about the measures forestry companies are taking to slow down the spread.
For lunch I was taken to Rudy's house where his wife, Lulu cooked a nice chicken and corn soup followed by a chocolate muffin. It was soooo yummy!
So thank you to Ashley, Rudy and the crew at Zavisha's mill for a great day out and I'm sure there is plenty of ideas that I'll take back to Australia.
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