|
|
Foresters Log Douglas-fir Reflections in
the floor
Collaborative Forest Restoration Program Grant Proposal, for Douglas Fir Floors douglas fir wood floors flooring plank moulding molding Circular Sawn Strip Wood Flooring Old Wood Forrest Old Wood products.
Forester’s Log: Douglas-fir Reflections in
the Floor
©Mary Stuever, January 2010
The
Forester’s Log is a monthly column published in newspapers and
magazines primarily in the American west. Stuever is a forester in
the American Southwest. She can be reached at sse@nmia.com.
My first summer as a Philmont Ranger, back in the late 1970’s, I
led twelve different groups of Boy Scouts through the forests of
the Ute Creek drainage toward Baldy Mountain. Picking up the
Douglas fir floor boards at the sawmill, I casually asked about
their origin. “Those came from Patrick Griego and were cut off
the Philmont.” When
they named the logger I knew the stand. I had stood out there in
the snow not far from Ute Creek the year before with the same man.
Just a forester doing her job, making sure the logging was meeting
goals of creating healthier forests. Now a few boards from that
project will complete the remodel of my son’s bedroom.
The
wood flooring mill in Las Vegas, New Mexico is a hub of activity.
Shift change, the fresh crew will work until midnight, on an order
for wood floor tiles generating ten news jobs in the otherwise
drooping small town economy. The approximately four inch by six
inch wood blocks can be cut from small trees, the kind of trees
that most often need to be cut out of the forest.
“Good
forestry means having the appropriate forest industry that
supports the appropriate forest practices that promote the
healthiest forest.” The speaker of this mouthful is David Old,
owner of Old Wood LLC, but whose web-site is www.douglasfirfloors.com
because to the flooring industry “Old Wood” refers to the
business of recycling ancient wooden floors. David Old is more
concerned with making great floors from new wood.
No
new comer to the wood business, Old bought his first mill in the
70’s when he was in his early 20’s. “I was twenty-two when I
inherited the family ranch,” he explained referring to the 2800
acre mountain property above Pecos, New Mexico.”I tried cattle
for a few years, but it seemed that the forest needed attention,
and so I made a stab at trying to make a living as a logger.”
Over the years, Old’s energies bounced between various sawmill
ownerships and a passion for aircraft. Operating both fixed-wing
and helicopters, Old’s aviation company helped the forest in
other ways, including fire fighting support.
In
2000, the Viveash Fire burned a significant piece of the Viveash
Ranch. “Where did you lose forest?” I innocently asked, but
wasn’t at all surprised by the answer: “wherever we had not
yet harvested.” The ensuing salvage operation lured Old away
from aviation and back into the wood business full-time.
Recognizing the need to create forest industry focused on the
by-products of forest health practices, Old set up the flooring
mill in Las Vegas. Today the operation employs twenty local
workers and markets flooring material around the globe.
Utilization
of small diameter wood doesn’t stop with flooring. Old
engineered a wood-drying kiln powered by a wood-burning biomass
generator. “This is a radiator from an old “GM” plant,” he
proudly taps the contraption that is blowing hot air into the
Quonset hut structure. “The challenge we have this time of year
is that we are bringing frozen logs in here and getting them up to
150 degrees (Fahrenheit).”
Caressing
the cold cants that were moved into the kiln that day, I can
easily imagine them as logs, lying in the snow like those
Douglas-fir logs I saw last winter by Ute Meadows. Now, with luck,
I will admire the beauty of these kiln-dried tongue and groove
Douglas-fir flooring boards for decades to come. The gift of being
a forester, is in truly understanding the beauty of the forest
from where her home originated.
Many thanks and sincerely,
David J. Old
(888) 545-9663
djold@earthlink.net
www.douglasfirfloors.com
425 DeBibb Industrial
Las Vegas NM 87701
BACK
TO THE TOP
|
