Senator gets message: The mill needs more timber

U.S. Senator Mike Enzi received a guided tour of the Saratoga Forest Management sawmill Saturday before his meet and greet at the Platte Valley Community Center.

Owner Gary Ervin, his wife Cheryl, Rollin Ervin, forester, Caroline Ervin, in charge of human resources, and Scott Williams, operations manager guided the Senator through the mill.

The mill does not operate on weekends, and the tour included parts of the mill not normally shown when in operation.

Ervin told Enzi 100 employees are currently working at the mill. The mill also uses 50 loggers to bring in timber. Ervin said, if they can get more of the available timber, he would be able to run two shifts and employ more people.

The tour began in the control room, with Williams explaining to the Senator how the computers are used to determine how to get the most board feet from a log and then sends the data to the saws to cut the log.

Enzi viewed the huge saws on the east side of the mill, as Williams and Ervin described the changes that have been made to the mill since purchasing it more than two years ago.

The tour continued through each section of the mill as Ervin and Williams explained how the mill operated.

Enzi said he returns to Wyoming every weekend and uses that opportunity to visit businesses like the mill, so that he keeps up to date on what the needs of the businesses in Wyoming are.

The next stop was the boiler, which is the tallest building in Saratoga according to Ervin. The building housing the boiler is four to five stories high. Williams explained that the boiler is running at 20 percent now.

The message to the Senator was clear in every aspect of the tour-the mill needs more timber. Ervin explained right now the mill is operating one shift, which covers payroll and expenses, but for the mill to be profitable it needs to run two shifts. The profit could be reinvested into the mill, like equipment to make pellets. This addition would utilize the smaller fiber and the brush, Ervin said. It takes around 29 minutes for the mill to process one semi load of logs, Williams said.

Ervin, Williams and Enzi discussed the strategies that South Dakota is using to be able bid on timber sales and increase their production. Ervin said there are two types of programs, the stewardship contract and the stewardship agreement. The contract, the federal government pays to have the logs removed and with the agreement, the forest service enters into an agreement and companies like Saratoga Forest Management pay to remove the logs, brush and restore trails. Ervin said his company is working on the latter.

According to the U.S. Forest service website, the Forest Service and Bureau of Land Management (BLM) began implementing stewardship contracting and agreements in the 2003 appropriation act. New services under the authority include allowing exchange of goods for services; facilitating land restoration and enhancement efforts by using value of traded goods for important work on the ground; required the contracts to be awarded based on "best value" and allows for a contracting period of up to 10 years.

As the tour moved through the mill, the Senator viewed the sorting area and learned how Saratoga Forest Management uses other companies in Saratoga. Todd Hughes, owner of Hughes Manufacturing provides the stickers for the finished product. The "stickers" are used to separate the lumber before it goes to the boiler to be dried by the kilns. This allows the lumber to be dried evenly. Hughes uses the wood from the sawmill to make the stickers. It takes 12 hours to dry the beetle-killed wood and 36 hours to dry the green wood, Ervin said.

"Things don't happen unless you have good people," Ervin said. He complimented the employees who work at the mill and Hughes. "We are pretty fortunate."

"We have some wonderful employees," Cheryl added.

Enzi's tour ended with the tour of the machine shop and sharpening room.

The sharpening room employs four people who correct the tension file and sharpen the teeth on the band saw blades. The employees change out the blades in the mill every four hours.