Nevada County Picayune and Gurdon Times Newspaper Archive

Safety Important At IP Whelen Plan

For 21 years, the International Paper Company plant at Whelen Springs has gone without a lost time accident.

This is nothing short of amazing for a timber company, but, according to Andrew Jumento, the new plant manager, much of this record can be attributed to having old hand on board.

Jumento told the Gurdon Rotary Club there are several employees at the Whelen plant with 20 and 30 years experience.

However, the gist of his talk wasn't about this record, but concerned the wood produced by the plant.

The plant is a small one, producing about 13 million board feet a year, sending much of its product oversees to the European market.

Jumento said the plant produces a high quality wood, shipping southern pine oversees. For the European market this is the preferred wood.

The plant ships what is termed clears and saps. This basically means the wood shipped is free of defect and raw, or untreated, with the customer making any and all changes to it.

Jumento visited some of the company's European customers in May, spending time in Spain and Italy to see what happened to the lumber once they received it.

"It's amazing," he said, "with this tiny mill tied to wholesale distributors overseas."

But, the overseas customers are willing to pay a higher price for the southern pine than are American consumers and, therefore, get the choice cuts and grades.

The Whelen mill, he said, is the last export mill IP has. The other plants produce lumber for domestic use.

While the Whelen mill exports lumber overseas, only about 20 percent of its product is shipped to the European market. The rest is used as domestic lumber because it doesn't meet the stringent requirements of the foreign markets.

The remaining 80 percent, Jumento said, is sent to the IP mill in Gurdon where it is treated and milled for use in the United States.

The Whelen mill is capable of working with trees as small as 14 inches in diameter or as large as 35 inches. But, he said, the preferred range is 18 to 22 inches.

The butt cut is sent to the European market, with the remainder going to Gurdon's IP mill.

Currently, most of the drying is done at the Gurdon mill, Jumento said, but the company is working to add a second kiln at the Whelen site. Once this is done, fewer trucks will be making the run between the Whelen and Gurdon plants.

Drying, he said, is a slow process, taking five or six days for the thickest products. One of the problems the plant is having with drying is a two-week wait because the Gurdon plant has to dry its product first.

The plant is also working to use all its waste product as well. Jumento said the bark is used as mulch, while the rest is sold as boiler fuel.