Europe tour spurs forester’s interest in biomass

To Slovenia, to be specific.

Parker, who is the Oregon State University Extension Service forester in Baker County, participated in the weeklong conference of the International Union of Forest Research at Bled, Slovenia.

But that was only part of his journey.

Before the conference Parker also toured forests in Austria and Hungary.

He returned with ideas on how the Europeans are working to become more energy independent and tips on safety.

And one experience that left him stunned.

Parker said that in the first part of the 20th century the Slovenes heavily logged their forests, leaving areas looking more like deserts.

Then, about 100 years ago, a group of Slovenes set out to fix this problem. They walked through the forest, dug holes and planted millions of trees.

“I never thought it possible to recreate a forest,” Parker said.

But he said the people weren’t satisfied with planting a new forest.

“They are trying to figure out how to reintegrate the native oak,” he said.

Oak trees will take several hundred years longer to grow and establish themselves in a forest environment.

Slovenia forests are almost all privately owned, mostly by families, Parker said.

Over the course of several generations many forests have been split up among heirs.

“You have these small woodland areas that aren’t really productive,” Parker said.

The same problem has plagued Slovenia’s agriculture industry — more than 70 percent of the country’s food is imported.

Slovenia has, however, found a way to create cheaper forest products.

“They are trying to work out a forest product industry. One interesting idea is they make charcoal the old-fashioned way,” he said.

He detailed the method, which starts with stacking wood around a large circle with a hole in the center. The wood is covered with dirt so air can’t escape, and hot coals are dumped down the hole.

As the wood burns, the dirt filters through and charcoal is the end product. Parker said this is a cheap and efficient way to make charcoal.

“They were really excited to get the community together to manage local resources,” he said.

During one of the tours Parker attended, Slovene officials gave a safety presentation.

“They took a stick and hoisted it up a tree. Underneath was a watermelon with a hard hat on. When the stick came down it bounced off the hard hat. Without the hard hat on it crushed the melon open,” he said.

He said it didn’t matter the size, “if you are out working on trees and a limb falls, you’ll either be dead or wish you were.”

Parker said the highlight of his trip came a week before the conference.

He met with a friend and together they toured the forest industries of Austria and Hungary.

Austria has a goal to be completely energy independent by 2020.

“One thing I was particularly interested in was biomass,” he said.

The Austrian biomass industry has produced cheaper and energy-efficient methods to heat buildings — chopping trees into chips that are burned in furnaces.

“It really doesn’t matter how big or how small. There are some larger logs and what looks like small branches,” he said.

The chips are put in stalls for drying. In the stalls the chips sit on a grate. From underneath the grate blowers push air that speeds the drying.

“The process only takes a couple of days,” Parker said.

Companies install furnaces and wood chip storage areas in homes and buildings.

Trucks deliver the chips to buyers.

“This is a really effective use of forest products, the whole process is relatively cheap,” Parker said. “It is a genuine idea from the ground up.”

He said all the companies involved pitch in money, and the program is gaining interest throughout the region.

“There are multiple companies involved, all using the same logo design,” he said. “They are in the process of producing the world’s best furnaces.”

The furnaces require very little maintenance. Parker said they would have an inspection every six months to a year.

“You might have to empty the ashes out once every few months, but the maintenance is really low on these,” he said.

The furnaces don’t require manual loading of the chips, either. A hopper automatically replenishes the furnace.

Parker said the Austrian biomass industry required several years of work, and at first many companies hesitated to participate.

Parker plans to bring these ideas to a meeting of Baker County private forest owners later this month.

“We could look into using this model, part of the model, or any of it,” he said.