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January 2008
East Conesville, NY – Hardwoods Unlimited recently led members of the Watershed Agricultural Council’s (WAC) Forestry Program on a tour of their sawmill and grade stake operation. In the last two years, owners Eric Dahlberg and Jake Laban have expanded the facility with two economic assistance grants administered through the WAC, U.S. Forest Service and New York City Department of Environmental Protection. “The grants helped us expand our niche markets,” states Dahlberg. “We can keep busy when other mills are slowing down.”
Originally, Hardwoods Unlimited’s primary ventures included a rough-cut lumber and firewood processing operation. With the economic assistance provided by the WAC, Hardwoods Unlimited enhanced its product line with three value-added wood products -- hardwood stakes, kiln-dried, planed lumber and wainscoting. Value-added products like these are items rendered from less desirable or otherwise discarded materials. “In the past year, Hardwoods Unlimited sold over 15,000 stakes to land surveyors and municipalities throughout the northeast,” said Dahlberg, a WAC Forestry Program Committee member. “We added over $20,000 worth of income from poor quality logs, money previously not realized from unsalable lumber until we expanded.” Similarly, with the recent addition of a planer/moulder and a lumber dry kiln, the company is planning to provide area building contractors with high-quality hardwood and softwood lumber, wainscoting and other building materials. Increased sales ultimately supplement Hardwood Unlimited’s bottom line and its workforce of four full-time employees.
As a two-time recipient of a WAC economic development grant, Hardwoods Unlimited has benefited from watershed aid to the region’s wood products industry, money that has helped create new markets for value-added wood products. To that end, the company has recently joined Catskill WoodNet – an online network of wood-products businesses that manufacture products from sustainable Catskill forests. The WAC’s Forestry Program recently celebrated its 10-year anniversary and its extensive projects designed to sustain forestry as a preferred land use to protect water quality within the New York City Watershed. Hardwoods Unlimited is just one of 58 grant recipients over the last 10 years benefiting from WAC’s commitment to bolstering farm and forest-based industries.
Catskill WoodNet is a project of the Watershed Agricultural Council with support from the USDA Forest Service–Wood Education Resource Center and the New York City Department of Environmental Protection. The Watershed Agricultural Council is an Equal Opportunity Employer and Provider. For more information on Catskill WoodNet and the WAC, log on to www.catskillwoodnet.org.
Above: Members of the Watershed Agricultural Council’s Forestry Program Committee surround Hardwoods Unlimited staff and owner Eric Dahlberg (center) during a recent tour of the sawmill and facility. |
