Mainebiz

V O L . X X I I N O. V I I A P R I L 4 , 2 0 1 6 14 'The last, best chance' Dana Doran, executive director of the Professional Logging Contractors of Maine, says his organization represents more than 2,500 loggers and truckers who are responsible for 75% of the timber harvested from Maine's forests annually. He acknowledges the 10% to 15% estimate for logging job losses that he gave in November is probably a conservative estimate, given the closing of Covanta's two biomass power plants in March. "I'd say you are going to see an even greater per- centage in terms of employers going out of business," he says, noting that many contractors who purchased equipment in 2015 may fi nd it diffi cult to make the pay- ments due to the double-whammy of declining markets for pulp and paper and, now, biomass. e impact of losing biomass markets, he adds, extends beyond the loss of logging jobs and lost revenues for landowners. " e sawmills sell their residual wood waste to the biomass plants as fuel for generating electric- ity," he says. "If they don't have those biomass plants to sell to, it becomes a cost, not a source of revenue, because now all that wood waste has to be sent to the landfi ll for disposal." Doran says the Professional Logging of Maine has been lobbying lawmakers and the LePage administra- tion to support two measures designed to help logging contractors and Maine's struggling biomass industry: ¡ LD 1481, a bill that would extend to loggers and farmers the sales tax exemption now provided to commercial fi shermen on fuel purchases. If lawmak- ers approve the measure, estimated loss of revenue for the state's General Fund is pegged at $8.5 million in 2016-17, $10 million in 2017-18 and $10.9 million in 2018-19. For Cushman, who says he's now spend- ing $10,000 to $12,000 per week on fuel, the sales tax exemption would reduce his overhead costs by roughly $30,000 annually based on current prices. ¡ LD 1676, a bill that would direct the Maine Public Utilities Commission to secure contracts for new or existing renewable energy resources with the highest likelihood of providing in-state economic benefi ts such as permanent direct jobs, property taxes to municipalities, in-state purchases of goods and service and grid reliability benefi ts. Doran says the legislation is explicitly designed to give Maine's biomass power producers a chance to compete for short-term energy contracts that would buy them time to identify longer-term solutions. "Doing nothing means we may lose the biomass industry entirely," Doran says of the latter bill. " ere's too much to lose, not only for hundreds of workers and their communities, but also for the environment, our forests and the future energy security of Maine." e Legislature's Energy, Utilities and Technology Committee held a public hearing on LD 1676 on March 28. e 127 th Legislature has until its scheduled adjournment on April 20 to take action on the bills. What's at stake, Doran says, is nothing less than the future viability of Maine's biomass industry and the livelihoods of a signifi cant number of loggers. "You need a market and you need a workforce," he says. Kingsley agrees, saying: "Logging is a capital- intensive business. It takes $1 million or more to set up a logging crew. When people leave the logging industry, we're not talking about a couple of guys with chainsaws and a pickup truck." 'An unbelievable resource' At the Maine Custom Woodlands' logging site in Gray, a crane operator sorts harvested trees with as much dexterity as if he was picking up twigs by hand. e crane grabs, swivels and drops logs into various piles according to grade with speed and precision. Brushier tree-top sections are fed into a chipper that shoots chips into a box trailer parked alongside one of the log piles. Each of his 22 employees, Cushman says, has skills that aren't easily replaced — noting that it takes about 12 months to get someone trained fully on a particular piece of machinery. On average they make $50,000 to $60,000 per year. "You have $50,000 invested in each employee for every year they work for you," he says. Cushman notes that landowners also have a vested interest in supporting the state's biomass power indus- try and his ability to keep that skilled workforce busy year-round. If the state's biomass market collapses entirely, he says, landowners won't be able to thin their forests of the least valuable trees, or be assured that the broken branches and other unusable woody material isn't left behind on the forest fl oor after a logging oper- ation is fi nished, thereby increasing wildfi re risk and making it harder for new trees to take root and grow. But for all of the challenges facing the logging industry right now, Cushman's not ready to write off any segment of Maine's $8 billion wood products industry. "We have an unbelievable resource here in the state of Maine," he says. " e forest industry is always going to exist in Maine. It's just that it might not look the same as it did during the 1960s pulp and paper era." On a more personal level, Cushman says despite the economic challenges and uncertainties he loves what he does for a living. "It's a rush, juggling a lot of things at once. I love to be in the woods. I can't sit behind a desk," he says. "I'm not one of those guys old enough to retire. I've got to fi gure it out." J MC, Mainebiz senior writer, can be reached at @ . and @ JM » C O N T I N U E D F RO M P R E V I O U S PA G E P H O T O / JA M E S M C C A R T H Y Dana Doran, executive director of the Professional Logging Contractors of Maine, warns that the recent closing of pulp and paper mills in Maine, coupled with the shutdown of two of the state's six stand-alone biomass electricity plants, puts roughly 15% of his member company's 2,500 logging jobs at risk. Doing nothing means we may Doing nothing means we may Doing nothing means we may Doing nothing means we may Doing nothing means we may Doing nothing means we may Doing nothing means we may Doing nothing means we may Doing nothing means we may Doing nothing means we may Doing nothing means we may Doing nothing means we may Doing nothing means we may Doing nothing means we may lose the biomass industry entirely. lose the biomass industry entirely. lose the biomass industry entirely. lose the biomass industry entirely. lose the biomass industry entirely. lose the biomass industry entirely. lose the biomass industry entirely. lose the biomass industry entirely. lose the biomass industry entirely. lose the biomass industry entirely. lose the biomass industry entirely. lose the biomass industry entirely. lose the biomass industry entirely. There's too much to lose. — Dana Doran, executive director Professional Logging Contractors of Maine

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