Recycling efforts reduce fire hazard

Fuel reduction is one of those eco-concepts that doesn't receive a whole lot of publicity.

"It makes the woods healthier," said Rachel Olsgaard, director of operations for Flathead Wood Recycling, a business on five acres of commercially zoned land adjacent to the Flathead County Landfill. "It gives the trees more air and reduces fire hazards."

And reducing fire hazards is a primary goal of fuel reduction - decreasing the risk of wildfires by reducing the amount of flammable materials in potential fire areas.

One way this can be accomplished is by picking up dead trees and brush and by thinning wooded lands.

Flathead Wood Recycling will accept that material, grind it up into 4-inch wood chips and then sell it to various companies such as Plum Creek Manufacturing and Smurfit-Stone Container to use as a fuel source.

The chips - referred to in the trade as "hog fuel" - then are burned in a boiler heater.

"This is very efficient and it can be a huge savings," Olsgaard said.

"Wood chips are inexpensive. They're about $13 per ton."

Flathead Wood Recyling encourages local residents to drop off grass, leaves, chips, residential brush and manure at no charge. The cost of commercial drop-offs is $25 a ton.

"Our next big purchase is a sales," Olsgaard said, laughing.

Travis Gray, the owner of Flathead Wood Recycling, said that the business has been a long time in the making. The expense of purchasing the necessary equipment was spread across many years, because wood recycling is not a cheap business.

"Our grinder alone cost $250,000," Gray said. "And then we've got four Bobcats - the workhorses of our operation - in addition to our excavators and dump trucks.

"But I think that recycling is the way of the world today and that the U.S. is way behind the rest of the world."

Doing business as T.B. Gray Inc. - a company he continues to operate - Gray has been landscaping and clearing since 1991.

He has built mountain-biking trails on Big Mountain and horse trails in Whitefish Hills.

People often call and ask him to "come clean up our forest," he said. Among brush, stumps and trees, he typically collects 10 tons an acre. The grinder then reduces the volume of collections by about 90 percent.

"We do low-impact cleanup," Olsgaard said.

"T.B. Gray is our bread and butter for now," Gray said. "When we clear a heavily wooded area for someone, we charge approximately $2,000 an acre."

As for Flathead Wood Recycling, Gray said that the money there was not in the wood chips, but, rather, in tipping fees - the amount charged commercial businesses to dump.

"We're in a good area for this because of all the contractors and the local growth and clearing," Olsgaard said.

Because operating the grinder costs $300 an hour, the machine is not used that frequently- perhaps only once every couple of months. During June, the company had a one-time contract with the Flathead County Landfill to grind 1,000 tons of brush and stumps.

Flathead Wood Recycling also retails landscaper needs such as topsoil, mulches and three-way mix.

Up ahead, the company is interested in developing an expertise in composting. Nowadays, employees are making small quantities of it for testing purposes.

They're a hardy bunch over there at Flathead Wood Recycling.

The company is open seven days a week, and employees repair their own equipment, fearlessly experiment with new products and passionately support recycling.