FORESTRY FOCUS:  Chip Mills

by Jim Willis

February 28, 2001  

Over the past five years, there has been a huge controversy over the construction and operation of so-called chip mills in a number of southeastern states, including Virginia.  Critics have charged that they are depleting the forest resource.  Proponents argue that the plants provide jobs and effectively improve utilization of the forest resource.  In my programs and meetings, I’m frequently asked, “What about these chip mills?”  This week, we want to try to answer some of the questions “about these chip mills”.

First things first.  A chip mill in and of itself is neither environmentally friendly nor unfriendly.  There are no noxious fumes or toxious by-products.  The mill is simply a manufacturing operation which turns wood or tree stems into chips.  The wood chips may then be sent to pulp mills or reconstituted wood plants (chip board, flake board, oriented strand board).  Pulp is used to make the paper that each of us use so frequently (the average American now consumes about 750 pounds per year).  Oriented strand board, flake board, and chip board goes into new houses and remodeling projects. 

Second, chipping operations (mills) are nothing new.  They have been associated with pulp mills for over 75 years.  For nearly 40 years, virtually every decent-sized sawmill has also had an on-site chipper to convert scrap pieces of lumber and slabs to chips.  Resulting chips are sold to pulp mills.  This reduces waste and eliminates the need for burning such material.  What is new is the construction of chip mills away from the site of the pulp mill.  The controversy arises over what type of wood or trees will be used in the mills.  Critics contend that young, immature trees will be ground into chips leaving no sawtimber-sized trees for the future.  Fortunately, this is not the case. 

If you look at the back end of trucks of wood being delivered to local chip mills you will observe that for the most part, the wood is crooked, hollow, limby material that can not now and never can grow into sawlogs.  An occasional good, young tree might be included to finish out a load if there was not enough pulpwood at the loading area.  However, only a fool of a logger would cut any significant amount of present or potential sawlogs into pulpwood because the delivered value for pulpwood is less than 50% of sawlogs.  What is being cut into chip wood is cull trees and top portions of stems which have already been harvested for sawlogs.  This reduces waste and increases the forest landowners’ profits.  Profitable forestry reduces the temptation to convert timber land to farm land, which annually produces five to ten times more sediment and pollution per acre than the even the worst timbering operations.

An examination of timber resource data supports the low potential for chip mill over-cutting.  When the last statewide Virginia forest survey was done in 1992, annual timber growth in southwestern Virginia exceeded harvest by 529,000 cords (A cord is a pile of wood 4 feet high, 4 feet wide, and 8 feet long.).  This is enough wood to feed 3 normal chip mills.  A more recently completed 1999 forest survey in Eastern Tennessee (27 counties) showed that annual growth exceeds removals by enough to support an extra ten new chip mills.  In both states, much of the standing timber is low quality material which needs to be replaced to improve the health and vigor of the forest.

Some have suggested that chip mills encourage the conversion of timberland to subdivisions or pasture land?  There are no studies to help us conclude whether they do or do not.  However, most landowners who do clear their timberland, have decided that their potential timber returns are too low or too far in the future.  A moratorium on chip mill operation would certainly not improve returns or shorten the time between harvests.  Only more markets (including chip mills) for a variety of species, ages, and sizes can do that.