MISSOULA — The Montana Forest Products Retention Round Table held one of their recurring monthly meetings on Friday, June 14, where they discussed diversifying products to keep the industry alive for the long haul.
The round table consists of a group of forest industry insiders who bring forward solutions to help retain the current forest production industry in Montana.
This month’s meeting focused on diversifying the forest products that the industry offers, in light of the closure of Roseburg Forest Products and the impending closure of Pyramid Mountain Lumber.
However, it is important to note that Pyramid is currently in serious talks with potential buyers.
The products that they focused on for expanding their industry were wood fiber insulation, bagged wood shavings, as well as biochar (as they described it, “fancy coal” from bio waste) and biofuels.
They hope that these products will be enticing to potential investors and companies as all of them offer a low carbon alternative to many existing products, often times cheaper too.
Getting these products into production comes with several hurdles, however.
“Biggest hurdles are just kinda some information gaps. You know, being able to know what the market size is, the production costs, so people have an idea of the investment that’s needed and the predictability of being able to sell the products," Montana Forest Owners Association President Dave Atkins said.
While a lot of the products seem to have a promising market waiting for them, the round table agreed that to get these products out there, policy changes on a federal level would likely be needed.
