Stoltze: Tradition and future
Congratulations to F.H. Stoltze Land and Lumber Co. for a remarkable 100 years of survival in the volatile wood products industry, and for a huge helping of perseverance in pursuing development of a new co-generation plant at the sawmill west of Columbia Falls.
The company recently marked its centennial with a dedication ceremony for the co-gen plant, an endeavor that was even more ambitious when it was taken up by the company several years ago. At the time, Stoltze managers were looking to build a plant capable of generating 20 megawatts of power, a load far too excessive for Flathead Electric Cooperative to handle.
But to the credit of the co-op and Stoltze and a number of partners in business and government who pressed forward, the project was revised to build a 2.5 megawatt plant that will be able to power 2,500 homes. That’s still impressive and worthy of the effort, because the co-gen plant is an innovative way to help ensure survival of the company for many years to come.
Because Stoltze will be selling all the power it generates to the co-op, the plant will effectively provide an additional revenue stream for the newly diversified company.
And there is the side benefit of making productive and efficient use of wood waste. When the Smurfit-Stone container mill closed several years ago, folks in the wood products business rightly wondered what to do with pulp wood that used to be sold to the Frenchtown mill. Now for Stoltze at least, the co-gen plant will be the destination of wood waste, including slash that would otherwise be burned on logging sites, causing far more pollution than it will when it’s burned in the plant’s efficient furnace that will be fully fitted with pollution control equipment.
This still is timber country, and it truly is important that Northwest Montana maintain wood processing infrastructure rather than see further mill closures. Stoltze has gone a long way in keeping its infrastructure operational, and we hope the company can do it for another 100 years.