Lesson 5 Wood Production and Technology

In the 1980s and 1990s, use of wood became a major issue for the Company. Previous research showed that up to 50% of harvested wood ended as landfill waste and much sellable timber remained on the forest floor. Application of new technologies, however, greatly reduced this problem. For example, wood technology made it possible to produce panelboard called aspenite from aspen trees, which had previously been regarded as a weed species.

As the new century began, trading became common between industry partners. For example, although the Company was not in the business of producing panelboard, it could extract value from aspen trees by sending them to strandboard mills in exchange for conifer wood chips that were useful in making pulp.

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