Seeing the Forest for the Trees

biomass magazine ^ | APRIL 2008 | by Timothy Charles Holmseth

[Kevin J waldroup]

Joann (Tink) Birchem says she “can see the forest for the trees.” In time, everyone else will see it too, she says. Birchem and her husband Jerry, own Valley Forest Wood Products LLC and Birchem Logging Inc., both in Mountain Iron, Minn.

Somewhere in northeast Minnesota, where thousands of trees dot the landscape, Tink Birchem saw the forest that she believes holds the future of heating. That future is in the form of a small wood pellet that burns hot and clean inside special furnaces. Eventually, everyone is going to need them and the reason can be explained in one word—cost, Birchem says. As people struggle with rising energy costs, they will take notice of the relief wood-pellet furnaces offer the pocketbook.

There is a noticeable price difference between the price of wood pellets versus fuel oil, and there’s no getting around the outcome. “Wood pellets cost half of what fuel oil is right now,” Birchem says. Despite the large price gap, the heating alternative has not had much of a behavior-changing impact on consumers, a fact that doesn’t surprise Birchem. “I think it’s just a matter of educating the public,” she says. “A lot of people don’t know about wood pellets.”

[sheana]

Well, if you live in a place that has ‘no burn days’ you are not even allowed to burn pellets.

[ponygirl]

Guess the only other option is freezing to death...isn’t that what happened during Stalin’s hey-day?

[sheana]

They don’t care if you freeze. Our valley gets all the crap from the upper end (San Fran, Sacto, etc) blown down to us. Since we are bordered by mountains to the south it sticks around. We are penalized for their crappy air.

[Mogollon]

Well, if you live in a place that has ‘no burn days’ you are not even allowed to burn pellets.

I usually throw a few logs in the fireplace on "no-burn" days in Phoenix.