On Monday, May 15, Rami Rothkop and Oliver Scholfield unveiled their ‘Business Roadmap for Value-Added Forestry Products’ on Cortes Island at Mansons Hall.
Most of what they presented has been discussed before, the difference being that they were not just talking about ‘ideas.’ These were things they had already accomplished. That is why the Cortes Community Forest Cooperative hired them.
They previously met with local mill owners Ron Wolda, Henry Verschuur, Aaron and Jeramie Ellingsen, as well as Kevin Peacey from the Klahoose First Nation.
“We took the information that we gathered, and tried to create several different options for the community to look at, to analyze, and to then choose which direction they want to take forward,” explained Rothkop.
“I’d just like to say thank you to the people I’ve met, and the new friends that I’ve connected with here. This is really an enjoyable project and I’m pretty optimistic about it. The prerequisite is having people moving forward with ideas, because without that it won’t happen, but the ingredients are here for this to work.”
“My approach has always been precautionary with business, and with forestry in general. One of the roadmap options that we came up with, embraced what a couple of the local mills are already doing. We created a vision that would utilize a short-term plan of their expertise and would test the waters for a couple of years with the intention of starting a facility later on Cortes that would be centralized, assuming these first few years were positive and showed promise.”
CC: Okay, now I want the details.
RR: “It’s a little delicate because the board has to formally embrace what we are recommending, and that hasn’t happened yet.”
“Ron Wolda is in a position in his life where he wants to start winding down on the sawmilling front. At the same time, there’s three younger folks that he wants to mentor at his mill, with the intention of handing off his operation to them: Paul, Kenny, and Richard. They’re already working with him, training up on the mill. The recommendation of the roadmap is utilizing their mill, with that configuration of folks, coupled with Aaron Ellingsen’s mill – especially his molder and his kiln because he has those things in place. “
“I also met with a few facilities off island where wood could go in board form and they would produce some molded products, if Aaron is not available or if the order is too large for him. That would test the waters in the market, without having to risk a whole bunch of money buying equipment in the short term.”
“The plan hopefully will be that Ron’s mill ramps up production. Aaron and Jeramie do some processing and drying of smaller orders, and then we would ship some larger orders off the island to be processed into things like paneling, decking, and siding. Some of that product would be brought back to Cortes and sold on the island.”
“This means broadening the market off Cortes and increasing the profile of business with those two businesses, and other mills on Cortes should they want to participate.”
“The Community Forest piece of this could and hopefully will be hiring someone to raise the profile of all wood products and producers on Cortes who are using Community Forest wood, a role of marketing, promotion and branding.”
“Cortes has a very strong brand. We believe there’s a lot of potential in pushing it, because It’s a very compelling story that people will like. It is really similar to the Harrop-Procter Community Forest story, where I’m from. So all these things come together and the business grows from there, with the help of this marketing person.”
“That goes on for a couple or three years and while that’s happening, a site will be researched. All these things should happen in the same place, with a configuration of local people running it.”
CC: The Ellingsens and Arne Olafson from Wits End are both moving into what, for lack of a better term, I am going to call the tiny home market.
RR: “I’m familiar with what they’re planning on doing, and I think it’s wonderful and the answer is yes. There’s all kinds of different pieces to this. So one aspect could be making tongue and groove panelling, timbers and decking etc. , but basically there’s no bad ideas when it comes to utilizing more of the logged trees on Cortes.”
“That can look like a lot of things and hopefully Aaron and Jeramie’s vision of the small structures will use Cortes Community Forest logs that Aaron will mill into products for their homes. He’s also helping us with drying and molding in the short term, because he has that equipment.”
“There’s lots of cool things happening on Cortes and the hope is that the answer is in a lot of different pieces. It could be toy makers, it could be new ideas that haven’t come up yet, coupled with all the existing milling operations that’ll buy logs coupled with expanding markets off Cortes.”
“Then this person that’s going to be hopefully hired by the Community Forest will be promoting all these different businesses that are utilizing logs. The hope is that sales increase because the visibility goes up and the story’s compelling.”
“It is the story of a community, that didn’t take no for an answer, getting a license that was collaborative between Klahoose and settlers on Cortes.”
“The collective will determine whether it works or not.”
“There’s a lot of really smart, committed people that I met that seem to want to make this work.”
CC: Do you see any challenges? Or especially easy fruit?
“Always challenges: the wood business is probably not the first thing you think of if you want to get rich. The challenges are: the distance away when creating markets off island; how to get the wood products from Cortes to market in an effective and a cost effective way; competing against mechanized mills that produce things very cheaply without a lot of labor.
“Low hanging fruit: the wood quality on Cortes is exceptional, particularly the Fir. I’m not so sure about the Cedar yet, but I believe that the Cortes Fir is particularly suited for the timber market for timber framing. It’s second growth, straight tall trees, and you see them all over Cortes. That should be a focus and that will be a focus because small mills take a longer time to cut logs up into boards, compared to a big mill that’s completely mechanized. ”
You’ve got a product that’s worth more per board foot. Those are the kind of products that we want to be focusing on because it just makes economic sense and the big mills, by and large, aren’t in the business of timber production. .
“We didn’t talk much about my experience at Harrop Procter, but the focus that we chose was things that were in demand locally and regionally. Things that we could produce and still be in the black, so not lose money on. Those things typically were products that weren’t being made by the big mills.”
“The good news is there’s lots of products like that. You find niche products that have a high enough value that it works and then expand on those markets. It’s not that complicated, but it’s a lot of hard work.”
“In the end, it comes down to people.”
We’ve recommended this graduated approach because, If the people on Cortes are willing and able to make this work, the equipment can be added and it’ll just further the success down the road.
“The way this is being approached, there’s not a lot of risk because we’re working with what is for the first several years, while plans are being developed to make it bigger, as opposed to throwing a million dollars at it now and hoping it works. I’ve done projects like that and it doesn’t make sense to me. Just because you can raise money to do something doesn’t mean it’s right.”
“So Cortes is very fortunate because it has four or five local mills that are already doing good work. We work with that, and grow it into something more complete.”
CC: This contract is over, will you continue to be involved with the forestry sector on Cortes?
“I’ve voiced strongly that I’d like to stay involved because it’s an exciting project. I could see myself working with the person who is hired to promote the wood products, to share some of the lessons I learned at the Harrop Procter mill.. To help that person along, which would be exciting because I think there’s a lot of potential regionally for increased sales.”
“I’d love to work with some of the mills just to develop systems that we learned over time here at our mill, to save people the time and all the mistakes (or all the lessons) I learned early on through not really knowing the business.”
“In a lot of ways, Cortes is ahead of where we started because you folks have some great people that already have expertise. So it’s taking it from milling now, to ramping up into more finished products and developing markets and systems around how to accomplish all that. I think I could be of assistance with some of it just because we did it earlier and we’re further along. It’s not that we’re doing it better, it’s just that we’re further along. That’s how I see it.”
Links of Interest:
- The Harrop-Procter Community Forest Cooperative website
- Cortes value-added wood products: A workshop for Champions
- Highly generative community forest meeting launches next phase of opportunity roadmap
Top photo credit: The Business Roadmap for Value-Added Forestry Products presentation at Mansons Hall, Cortes Island, on May 15, 2023 – Photo by Kate Maddigan
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