Susan Nolan

A Visit to K-P & Sons Mill

On: September 5, 2021

K-P & Sons operates a small, sustainable mill in Humboldt County

ISF is a big supporter of small mills. We were really disappointed when last year’s trip to the K-P & Sons mill had to be cancelled, as the corona virus crisis deepened. But when things opened up this year, we were able to reschedule for June 18.

There was a great turnout, including curious and supportive friends and neighbors, potential customers, young people looking to get into the business, and a couple from our kindred group, Roots of Motive Power in Willits.

A log’s journey through the mill begins with getting trimmed to usable lengths and then being brought to the 1972 debarker. As the log is rotated, bark gets ground off, leaving spiral grooves. KP’s debarkers can handle up to 36” logs; anything bigger is debarked with a backhoe. KP is one of the few mills left that can still handle really big logs.

Log with spiral grooves at K-P & Sons mill. Photo by Ann Constantino.

Waste is carried off to a pile,K-P & Sons Mill — Waste is carried off to a pile. Photo by Ann Constantino.

Next, logs are brought to the LT-40 to be cut into cants. Cants are big beam-like cuts, intended to be sawed down further into smaller lumber.

K-P & Sons Mill — Logs are brought to the LT-40 to be cut into cants. Photo by Ann Constantino.

They also use a mobile dimension saw to cut the really large logs that do not fit on their other mills. This saw can also produce slab materials. The mobile dimension saw makes two cuts in one pass, with a vertical blade and a horizontal blade both running at once. Here it is slicing out 2 x 8s. Good lumber is stacked to the operator’s left, and offcuts to his right. Defective boards can be directed to other uses. This happens at each machine. Every stick gets processed into marketable product as much as possible.

From there it goes to a Wood-Mizer resaw, which cuts the 2 x 8s into 1 x 8s, producing one of the mill’s main products, fence boards.
The Wood-Mizer EG200 edger puts a nice clean edge on both sides of a board in one pass:

At the very end of the line, 1” boards with defects that won’t make good fencing are cut into 1 x 1 lath using a five-blade gang saw, and then banded in bundles, salvaging as much useable product as possible.

Of course, much material can’t be made into lumber: the rounded edges of logs, bark, sawdust, trim ends, etc. The Paines are trying to find responsible uses for all their waste. Their sawdiust and ground bark get processed into “forest peat” and mixed with bat guano, worm castings and chicken manure by NorCal Gold, and sold in bulk at the mill. It’s a new prodcut this year; “we’re getting good reports from users, “ Kelly notes. Finding a use for their woody waste is a work in progress. They’re considering chipping it, if they can find a market for chips, and making biochar.

A variety of machines power the mill. Many are older. The debarker dates back to 1970. One runs on an old VW motor. As their business grows, he Paines are reducing their need for “muscle and diesel” by upgrading to more efficient electric machines.

Redwood is the KP Mill’s mainstay, as it is the market that they have focused on. Douglas fir and hardwoods require different saw blades. Buying logs is a challenge—“that’s the rough part,” Kelly observes. They prefer sustainably produced trees, and will be buying 600,000 board feet this year from the Redwood Forest Foundation, with whom they have a good relationship. They also sustainably harvest a small amount from their own land.They don’t do grading, drying, or planing, but there’s a steady demand for the products they do make. “Not quite two truckloads a day” go out, with 16, to 18,000 board feet per truck.

The Paines started milling on their own property, then moved near Garberville, and are now working at the old Coombs mill site in Piercy, a great site with old mill buildings and plenty of room. Recently they’ve opened up a retail outlet in Santa Rosa, KP & Sons Custom Redwood, which offers fence boards, 1 x 1 x 8’ lath, slabs, timbers, beams, custom orders and more. The family’s two oldest sons, Levi and Jayden, along with Levi’s fiance Caitlin, run the store. This is a new project for the the Paines, and they are enjoying teaching their kids the trade and the ins and outs of running a retail store.

To learn more about KP and Sons Custom Redwood, see https://kpcustomredwood.com

We had a great time with the Paines, and learned a lot. ISF intends to visit more local mills. If you are interested, please contact us at contact.newforestry@gmail.com

Fire and Vegetation Change in the Yolla Bolly

By: isf_admin1

On: August 24, 2020

In: Documents & Articles

With: 0 Comments

Fire and Vegetation Change in the Yolla Bolly

by Susan Nolan

A recent backpack trip to the Yolla Bolly Wilderness gave an immersion in fire ecology. In Indian times Cedar Basin must have been frequently burned. Someone pointed out that Indians burned to manage vegetation, not for fire control, and that would certainly be true in Cedar Basin, a place that would have been used for summer gathering and hunting, not a place to live year round. (Both the Wailaki and the Wintun used that area.) The early ranchers who ran cattle up there continued the burning regime to keep pastures clear.

But as the young Forest Service gained traction it suppressed fire to preserve timber resources. Protected from their greatest natural enemy, trees began filling in the grassland. It was quite striking to me on this trip that so many of the trees are young, short and pointy-topped.

Yolla Bolly Wilderness. Photo by Susan Nolan.

There are scattered old growth trees. Their progency crowd around them:

Stand of Douglas Fir, Yolla Bolly Wilderness

You can see this tree grew up without near neighbors by the dead lower branches remaining on the trunk—those would have been shed much earlier in shade. With more frequent fires, the little trees would have been killed off.

An interesting spot is Saunder’s Place, a small stand of old growth next to an unusual meadow, very near a creek, a natural campsite. Note size of red backpack. Looking south.

Looking north across the meadow from within the small grove, you can see dense young trees filling in:

I bet the Wintu had a name for Saunder’s Place too; it is definitely a place. And reading the forest, it looks like in their day this little grove stood by itself in a mostly open grassland.

Here’s an opening filling in with young trees. Very common.

Frequent fires would wipe most of these out, but with fire suppression they turn into thickets, then dense stands, which burn hard, leaving lots of standing dead wood.

There was also a lot of deadfall. Here is a firebreak, I think the original fire was in 2008 and the firebreak made more recently, defending against a different fire:

Lots of fuel standing and on the ground. This could become a catastrophic fire, killing the big surviving trees.

Also, not one but two trails on my route in burned areas had been neglected by the Forest Service, and become blocked by deadfall and brush until they disappeared. This meant a change of plan for me, but more seriously, hinders access for future firefighting. I would guess that the Forest Service has half the trail mileage they did 50 years ago.

So lots of time to consider fire on this trip. After a century of fire suppression, it will take more than one or two prescribed burns to restore some places to a healthy balance. And it can’t happen fast enough, we can’t do the work fast enough, so a great deal of catastrophic fire lies ahead—and that’s no solution either. Climate change complicates the problem as this ecosystem adapts to new conditions. We can expect that a new equilibrium will establish itself, likely more like biomes further south.

Sorry if this sounds glum. It was a wonderful trip, with bears and grouse and wild lilies, so much of interest and beauty. And that place will be there, whatever the changes.

Biochar Workshop, March 13, 2020

By: isf_admin1

On: March 28, 2020

In: ISF Events

With: 0 Comments

Biochar Workshop, March 13, 2020, Miranda, CA

with T. Gray Shaw and Susan Nolan

On Friday March 13, 2020 Gray Shaw and Susan Nolan of the Institute for Sustainable Forestry presented an afternoon workshop on making and using biochar from forest waste resulting from fuel reduction. The site was Lonnie Whitlow’s Workhorse Welding shop in Miranda. Lonnie built a 4’x4′ biochar kiln last year for ISF and offers to make more on request.

Susan built a top-lit fire in her mini-kiln while Gray explained the process and answered questions.

Gray’s farmer/neighbor Ingrid Leon explained biochar inoculation and the results from adding 5% biochar to the soil in 2019: 25% less water use, healthier plants, and double productivity. Gray demonstrated his homemade charcoal grinder, which makes 1/4″ biochar from forest waste. This hand-powered grinder processed all the char for 10,000 square feet of garden.

For the full story leading to this workshop, see www.blackripple.com.