Update on the Emerald Ash Borer

What’s that purple thing in the trees?  It’s a sticky trap used to detect the emerald ash borer. 

The Emerald Ash borer. Sounds almost like royalty, however this little pest stands a chance of wiping out the ash species. If left un-monitored, it probably would. It was confirmed to be in New York state on June 17, 2009. They were first discovered in Michigan in 2002, and have been spreading state by state since then, as far west as Iowa. There are now quarantined areas to try and prevent the spread of these little beast, including the complete lower half of N.Y.  As ash is one of more desirable species in the lumber business, we  strive to protect it as much as humanly possible. 

In an ongoing mindset towards the safety of our workers, we will now be implementing the use of hard hats through out the facility. Healthy workers are productive workers, and We strive to keep our production and quality up to meet our customers needs. We appreciate your business.

I thought it might be interesting to share some forestry facts Iobtained from the American Forest & Paper Association:

    In the United States, private, working forests support 2.5 million jobs, $235 billion in annual sales, $87 billion in payroll, $4.4 billion in state income and severance taxes, and $102 billion to the Gross Domestic Product.
 One-third of the United States is forested - 751 million acres. Privately-owned forests supply 91 percent of the wood harvested in the U.S. State and tribal forests supply approximately 6 percent and federal forests supply only 2 percent of the wood used by the forest products industry. 
 For the past 100 years, total forest area has been stable and grew by 2 million acres from 2000 to 2005.
  Today, the United States has 20 percent more trees than it did on the first Earth Day celebration more than 40 years ago on April of 1970
Insects and disease threaten 58 million acres of America’s forests. 

So there you have it, while it seems that log trucks are running up down the road constantly, through managed reforestation, the U.S. is actually gaining on the tree population. Good news as our status as a global supplier of lumber is ever increasing with the development of countries worldwide, and we at Wightman Lumber are proud to supply them with the best product possible.

There snow mercy… 

                        Mother Nature is having no mercy on Portlandville when it comes to cold weather and snow this winter.

Meet our new blogger…..

Wightman Specialty Woods is a family owned and family oriented business. This rings true in many aspects of the business. One of which is the fact that many of our employees are not only part of the Wightman Lumber family but also related to one and other. On our staff you will find brothers, brother-in-laws, aunt, sons, grandsons, cousins, uncles, nephews and spouses working together for the common goal of producing fine quality hardwood.

My husband Mark Miller has worked part time for Wightmans for the past year and half. I am here working full time. Together we will be keeping you updated on the happenings at the Wightman mill.  Mark will be writing for our blog and Face Book posting. I will help by providing him with ideas and photos and posting his writing.

Together we will work as team to keep you informed. Thanks for your continued

support.