Forestry is big business in Virginia and produces more than $23 billion of goods and services annually in the Commonwealth. There are nearly 700 wood products manufacturing facilities in Virginia. Additionally, byproducts from these manufacturing operations are burned to produce electricity that saves more than 2 million barrels of oil annually.
The IP (International Paper) Economic Recovery Task Force Forestry Committee has worked to provide information to interested companies that may want to locate on the mill site or other potential sites in our area. Our region has come to the attention of domestic and international companies hoping to capitalize on our location, our natural resource and our valuable and experienced workforce.
Generally speaking, when people in the forest industry talk about their wood basket, they are referring to an area where wood is available that may be used by a particular manufacturer such as a paper mill, sawmill, pellet mill, particleboard mill, chip mill or any other wood-using facility.
If we look at our wood basket within a 100-mile haul distance from Franklin, there are 58 counties and cities in Virginia and North Carolina that provide timber to the overall market.
By Allison T. Williams 247-4535
April 17, 2010
ISLE OF WIGHT
— For years, Wayne Garrett Logging Inc., a family-owned business in Surry County, hauled all the timber it harvested to International Paper Corp. in southern Isle of Wight County.
“We depended on International Paper exclusively; 100 percent of our deliveries were still going to International Paper until the last couple of months,” said owner Wayne Garrett, who estimated that he was delivering up to 70 loads of timber to the mill weekly this time last year. “We started weaning away from them about two months ago and hauling more of our product to mills in West Point, Hopewell and Roanoke Rapids (N.C.).”
On Thursday, International Paper shut down its last two machines that produced sheet paper and coated paperboard, ending nearly a century of paper manufacturing in Isle of Wight County. Once the company shutters the plant this summer, more than 1,100 people will have lost their jobs.
And Isle of Wight County will have lost its largest taxpayer and its largest employer.
Published Monday, March 29, 2010
FRANKLIN—The Economic Recovery Task Force’s Executive Committee will hold a community briefing at 6:30 p.m. on Tuesday, April 6, at the Paul D. Camp Community College Regional Workforce Development Center.
According to Lisa Peterson — business services director for Opportunity Inc. of Hampton Roads, a regional workforce organization based in Norfolk — the meeting “is intended to provide information to the community on workforce development efforts, economic development strategies, status of the forestry industry and small business development and assistance activities.”
Peterson said a question-and-answer session would also take place at the event.
