Timbergreen Farm sawmill with solar kilns in background.  Lumber is first air dried and then kiln dried in the Timbergreen Solar Cycle kilns, without ever having to move the boards.  7,000 bf of lumber is kiln drying and 17,500 bf is air drying when the kilns are full.  The slow drying produces high quality lumber in about 6 months with an energy cost of $.01/bf.
Solar cycle kilns

The brand new sawmill was picked up in November 1989, a family partnership was formed, and Jim began to thin out the forests to build a sawmill shed and new solar dry kiln.  Only poor value trees were cut, but a lot good of construction lumber and a some high quality boards were produced that first winter. 

A few ads in the local papers and the first lumber out of the new kiln quickly sold to local woodworkers.  An insulated and heated wood sales room  and workshop was then built in the basement of the old dairy barn.  Three years later and a much improved solar kiln was built, again using timber cut from the farm.  A larger wood sales room  then had to be built in the hay mow of the barn. 

"When I started my forestry business, fresh out of college, an old sawmill owner told me that if I wanted to be a good forester, I should get a sawmill," said Jim.  "He was right!  After sawing the first couple of logs it became clear to me that you get good boards from big trees - and that everyone in the business (including me) had been selling timber way to soon, just before the trees made their best wood.  We immediately changed our forest maturity goal to grow our good trees to 24 inches in diameter.  This was unheard of around here, but others are gradually seeing why we grow large high value crop trees.  Our current goal is now 30 inches diameter plus for our best trees."

Harvesting the low grade trees over the years and doing a lot of non-commercial Timber Stand Improvement has gradually improved the forest at Timbergreen Farm.  180,000 bf of low grade timber has been cut over the past 24 years, while stocking has grown from the original 350,000 bf up to 780,000 bf of much higher quality trees. Stumpage values have increased from the original $14,000 to over $300,000 today.

Current annual harvest of low grade live trees at Timbergreen Farm is 20,000 bf, plus a salvage of 10,000 bf of dead timber (oak wilt, windthrows etc).  Annual growth is now 36,000 bf, so 16,000 bf net growth is added to inventory each year.    "With timber prices rising at about 15% per year, the only mature tree today is a dead tree, one that will die before the next thinning, or a low grade tree that is hindering the growth of a good crop tree," explains Jim.  "We are saving every healthy tree for the future, and enjoying all the benefits of a beautiful and productive  forest."



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