C10 - The Terrace Standard, Wednesday, May 7, 1997 al — Bet — Feel — Sale — lL el Race ee INATIO! Lee eee ee eee! Lots of hustle paves a way for steady business ONE GUY, one saw, a lot of elbow grease — and the satisfaction of working for yourself. ‘It’s the dream more out- of-work loggers are turning to these days, and Ron Mould has proved it can work. In his backyard in the Kit- selas band’s Gitaus subdivi- sion, [Mould runs a portable band saw mill he bought last summer with a business Joan from 16/37 Community Futures. A high-lead logger who’s worked in the bush for 26 years with various local contractors, Mould said the instability of the industry was getting to him. “I found working five months a year wasn’t feed- ing my family in the way they deserved to be fed,” Mould said. “The bush wasn’t getting any better. So [ felt I had to go off and explore a few av- enues myself instead of relying on someone else’s company to keep bread and butter on my table.’’ Other loggers like Percy Gavronsky set up on Hwy 16 West — are turing in the same direction, and Mould thinks it’s a trend that will continue. “They're scared,” he said. ‘‘There’s lots of. people wondering what they’re going to do.”’ If anyone wants to sec how it’s done, Mould’s op- eralion —- under the name Big Smoke Enterprises — is a case study, Before buying his saw mill, be had already been cutting pickets for fences and chipping alder and other trees for smokehouse chips. Now armed with ithe mill, he roves logging landings looking for salvagable wood. “T’s all based on sal- vage,”’ he says. *‘What’s junk to other people is a dol- lar to me.”” He is also called out to remove blowdown wood or timber from land to be cleared for development or pasture. Mould quickly cuts a deal with whoever has wood to offer him. “It’s money in my pocket and money in theirs,’’ he says. A four-foot chunk of tim- ber that someone else might buck up for firewood means picnic table legs or fence pickets to Mould, The cut up wood he either sells or uses to build every- thing from fences to out- buildings for people. And now Mould has plans for further expansion. He hopes to buy a ma- chine to press sawdust into pressed fireplace logs, And he’s building out- buildings to aliow him to carry on operations in the winter. During the winter heli cut 4641 Lazelle Ave. Terrace R.J.A. Forestry Ltd. Professional & Technical Services in Resource Management Resource Planning Services Road Design & CAO Drafting Operational Supervising & Scaling Post Harvesting Fieldwork & Administration Phone 635-2625 FAX: 635-6592 ° ROAD BUILDING ¢ WATER LINES ¢ SEWER LINES ¢ GEN. CONTRACTING ° EXCAVATING | * LOGGING ° DRILLING & BLASTING » CLEARING » HAULING CALL JOHN OR [AN BLACK OWNER - OPERATOR BONDED GENERAL CONTRACTOR 25 Years Experience 638-8354 FAX: 638-0898 ‘ 5124 McConnell Avenue, Terrace HAVE SAW, WILL CUT, Ron Mould says paople seem eager to buy from one- man operations like himself. He’s been running his portable sawmill since iast summer and is succeeding in paying the bills. his lumber and prepare it for assembly into sun decks, fencing, gazebos and picnic tables. The packages will be ready to go for the spring market, he says. backyard is a pile of lumber that Mould says can quickly turn into an old-style native longhouse when a buyer with a chequebook shows up. ; So far Mould is running a “lm feeding my family and | haven't come at all close to missing a paymeni. What more can you ask?” A higher end product he’s get planned is a cedar wine bottle .gift box that he al- ready has lined up to distrib- ute to several bridal salons actoss the province. In another comer of the one-man operation, but says he hopes to be in a posilion to hire more employees by winter. Lack of market is not a worry for Mould. The good response Mould and Gavronsky are getting secms to signal that people are very interested both in buying a local product and supporting a guy who’s gone solo to feed his family. But Mould hasn't waited for business to come to him. He knocked on doors across town ~— targeting homes that had fences or outbuildings in disrepair — and handed out 300 business cards. He got plenty of orders out of it, and now finds him- self’ working pretty well seven days a week. “Youve got to hustle,” he says. ‘‘Nothing comes free.” “ButI'm feeding my fam- ily and [ haven’t come at all close to missing a payment. What more can you ask?’? WEEK! Lee ee Value added key to future TWO YEARS ago Keith Spencer of Vanderboof Speciality Wood Products was asked to speak at a Creston wood forum on value-added products. His speech was well received but more important was that Spencer was given a vision that made him the driving force behind the Northern Wood Forum. The forum, with the theme Touch Wood, is a multi- event conference, exhibition, juried show and student competition to be held in Williams Lake beginning tomorrow and lasting until the weekend. “That Creston forum got me going,’’ says Spencer. “There are few people who understand the potential in value-added and how to develop the industry. There is a conflict aver timber rights and what is best for tenure holders, with the public unaware for the most part of what is going on. There is a necessity to get public in- volvement, to expose them to the value-added sector. The wood forum is a way to do that.’’ The shift toward more value-added, and not neces- sarily less of any other manufacturing, is not going to be easy he acknowledges. ‘'Value-added takes a dif- ferent mentality and management. Thal’s why some value-added schemes have failed, We have to look at fibre differently —- to make a product of value, not one of mass production.’’ It is not that what is being done loday is wrong, just that a portion of wood fibre can be better used. But be asks, ‘‘can we continue with the status quo in the forest industry? There is a strong perception that we cannot.”’ However, through value-added Spencer feels, ‘‘We can have higher employment from a lower cut.”” As an example he points to the Central Interior Wood Processors, 13 companies with an employment that has tripled over the last seven years. Vanderhoof Speciality Wood Products of which Spencer is general manager employs 80 people, all in value-added. The majority of value-added is going to be small business, Spencer says. Communities need to move away from complete dependency on any one company, such as Golden recently found out. The market for B.C. producers could be unlimited, he says. But the area most likely to attract interest is the retiring baby-boomers. ‘'They are all going to retire, most with a good income and so recreation will be a big part of their lives, Many will have cabins on the lake and them with want picnic tables and rustic furni- ture. It could be lucrative and demand Jots of product,”’ he says. The wood forum in Williams Lake will draw over 500 delegates and 10,000 visitors. Not bad for two years work and even if it does take dozens of volunteers and thousands of hours. 3671 Highway 16 East Terrace 635-2292 1-800-663-6390 GROWING wit THE INDUSTRY For 43 YEARS!