Thursday Afternoon:

After lunch on the University of Idaho's experimental forest in Moscow, Idaho, we were shown examples of fire managed stands. This was followed by a presentation along the White Pine Trail on Forest Dynamics followed by a visit to Potlatch's plywood mill in St. Maries.

Dinner was hosted by JMF/Regulus at St. Maries Golf Course.

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Forest tour

The University of Idaho has a magnificent 7,000 acre experimental forest located in Moscow, Idaho. We'll be stopping for a picnic lunch on-site at Basalt Hill. Lunch is sponsored by the University of Idaho's College of Natural Resources.

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White Pine Trail

Harold Osborne of the College of Natural Resources at the University of Idaho will be our guide through a Late Successional White Pine Forest. He discussed forest dynamics.

For centuries white pine, one of the region's largest species dominated the moist forest ecosystems of the Inland Northwest. And for decades Americans depended on these dense white pine forests which produces some of the world's most desirable wood. White pine decline spurred important shifts in forest management ideology.

Now the future of western white pine is uncertain.

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St. Maries Plywood Mill

The Potlatch Plywood plant, located along the St. Joes river in St. Maries, Idaho produces 120,000,000 sq ft of plywood annually. The plywood is made from Red/Douglas Fir and Larch (60%) and Grand Fir (40%). We got a tour of the plant and were able to see the process of making plywood from log to board. The processes we saw were:

• Debarking-Bark is removed from the incoming logs. Bark is used to generate steam in the drying process.
• Cut-off Saw Outfeed-Logs are cut to 8.5 foot lengths.
• The Steam Vats-Logs are soaked in a chemical solution to condition them for peeling.
• Lathe-Logs are peeled into 1/6, 1/8, or 1/10th inch veneers. The lathes peel at a rate of 1100 ft/min.
• Clipper-A rotary knife cuts the veneers into 27 x 50 inch sheets
• Green Chain-Veneers are sorted according to moisture content into; heart, sap, heavysap
• Green Stacker-Veneers are stacked for drying
• Dryer-Veneers are dried for 10-13 minutes to 4-8% moisture content. The dryer uses bark to create steam for drying.
• After the Dryer, dried veneers are sorted by Grade and Stacked
• At the Raimann Machine, knots in the veneers are replaced with patches and the resulting veneers are graded again.
• Core Composer-Veneers are cut to 8 x 8 foot sheets before heading to the...
• Lay-up Line-where veneers are assembled into 5-ply sheets to make the finished plywood. Veneer layers (or plys) are arranged with the grains of alternate layers running perpendicular to each other.
• Hot Presses-Assembled boards are individually stacked and inserted into the presses where they are cured by 90psi pressure and 300 degree F. temperatures into plywood.
• Patch Line-fills holes in the pressed plywood boards with polyurethane.
• Saw Line-Panels are graded and cut to 4 x 8 sizes
• Sander Out-feed-panel faces are sanded for smoothness
• Sander Bander-Panels are strapped together for shipping.

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