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Portable sawmills help turn trees into cash By Cindy Nuttall he growing number of portable saw- mill operators in Ontario has added a new dimension to the lumber industry, making it easier for individual property owners to cash in on the value of their woodlots. The problem is many people still don't see the trees sitting out on their ‘back 40' for what they could be - money in the bank. As one of those portable sawmill operaâ€" tors Tim Sherin, of Sherindale Custom Milling located north of Peterborough, helps people see beyond the aesthetic or firewood value of trees. “The woodlot, right now, in Ontario is probably a very important viable resource that not a lot of people know about,“ Sherin said; Because of mat, it has become Sherin‘s personal goal to educate people about the imporâ€" tance of woodlots, including the fact they are being greatly reduced extremely quickly, he said. According to Sherin. too few people un- derstand the benefit of improving the health of the woodlot and replanting old pasture that has laid fallow. “I know the Ontario Ministry of Agriculture and Food is looking at trees now as an important resource,“ said Sherin, citing agro-forestry as an important next step in the transition of some vacant land into useful, valuable forests. Formerly employed as a conservation authority planner, Sherin is an advocate of integrated resource management ~ which, in this case, boils down to a conservative minded,.multi~facetcd utilization of forest products. That fact is reflected in his work. Sherin got into the portable sawmill busiv ness in 1988. The inspiration for this mid»stream career change came after a portable sawmill company was hired to do some woodlot management at a local corn 8 Home 8 Country, Winter‘93 servation area. “This was my first exposure to a portable sawmill and I immediately saw a niche in my own life for [one]." Sherin had worked for the government for several years, first with the Canadian Wildlife Service, then with the Ministry of Environment, and later with several conâ€" servation authorities. He grew up in Lakefield, north of Peterâ€" borough, and in the Stoney Lake tourist area north of Lakefield. It was this area, he first targeted as a potential market for his proposed portable sawmill operation. He estimated hundreds of thousands of board feet (1 inch thick X 12 inches long) of wood is wasted each year counting trees felled by storms or taken down in the cotâ€" tage country near his home, Large sawmills take “a very dim view" of someâ€" one bringing a log or two in to be milled, said Sherin, which means much of this material gets left to rot behind a cottage or used as summer firewood. That‘s the market Sherin tapped into. Before he had even purchased his portable sawmill in August l988, Sherin had lined up six customers. In 1988-89. he started providing custom sawmiliing, and the More farmers and wood/0t owners than ever belore are getting their lumber sawed by mobile sawmills. The above mill was put through its paces at an “Income from the Farm Wood/at Conference " at K emle/e College. business has just grown by leaps and bounds since then. So far, he said response has been “rnjndboggling,” so much so that he has been able to expand into kiln drying and more recently into supplying custom~ ers with hardwood flooring and softwood panelling. His number one customer is still the per- son looking for onâ€"site custom sawmilling, followed closely by the small-time, hob- byist woodworker, and then by the person looking to buy a finished product. Accord- ing to Sherin. farmers have always been aware of the resource, but portable saw- mills have eliminated the need to haul logs away to be milled. So, how can a woodlot owner determine the real value of his woodlot? The answer, according to Sherin, is to call a profes- sional... With the increasing trend toward agro»forestry, there may be OMAF per» sonnel with a forestry background able t help, or Ministry of Natural Resources staff. However, one of the best bets, Sherin said, is the local conservation authority. This article was reprinted, in part, from the Ontario Farmer, Western Edition, March 10, 1993. 0* Photo courtesy of the Ontario Fanner.