Aspenware

Brain McNaughton, manager of forestry and fibre supply for Aspenware, shows off his company‘s biodegradable wooden cutlery at the value-added forestry forum at the Valhalla Inn on Wednesday. (Brent Linton)

Adding value to the forestry industry was the main subject of a forestry forum in Thunder Bay on Wednesday.

Growing Forest Value: Opportunities in Northern Ontario brought forestry industry investors, producers, future producers and researchers together to discuss ways to revitalize the industry.

Central to that goal, said Northwestern Ontario Innovation Centre director of development Rick Prior, is increasing the value of locally-produced products.

“We need to think about doing more to that two-by-four, that piece of lumber, before it‘s shipped away – and add the value here,” said Prior.

Reducing costs by seeking alternative sources of energy was another suggested way to increase forest sector profits.

“In our industry, we‘ve made a major transition of taking what would have been a very energy-intensive process . . . and substituted waste residues to produce the energy,” said FP Innovations president and CEO Ian de la Roche.

De la Roche said that matching up products with market demands and improving building material, pulp and paper and biorefinery technology were important goals for forestry in the region.

One of the value-added forest product producers at the forum was Aspenware Inc.‘s Brian McNaughton.

McNaughton‘s B.C.-based company produces biodegradable cutlery made from birch and aspen veneer.

He said the Thunder Bay region showed potential for producing that sort of product.

“They tell me (Thunder Bay) has quite a good supply of birch . . . they have a very high-calibre well-trained labour force, they have the programs that would provide funding support . . . you go through the checklist, there‘s a lot of positives,” said McNaughton.

“I can imagine we‘ll be talking in the future.”

The forum continues today at the Valhalla Inn.