Dianne Stallings
ruidoso news staff writer

Sunday, March 24, 2002 - Once the operation is running, SBS Wood Products. will churn up 125 cords of small diameter wood each week, says Sherry Barrow. The business also may be selected as one of six sites in the nation for a pilot biomass gasification unit to create power and heat.

The entrepreneur reported to members of the South Central Mountain Resource Conservation and Development Council and guests Tuesday about the status of the endeavor she put together with her husband, Glen Barrow.

They came up with the concept of producing shavings for animal bedding as alternative to dispose of small diameter trees left after forest thinning projects aimed at reducing fire hazards and improving forest health.

The director of the Forest Products Laboratory and representatives of the U.S. Department of Energy visited the Glencoe Rural Events Center on U.S. 70, which the Barrows lease from Lincoln County.

"They are narrowing down from a list of 68 people and they called our business promising with a very high probability," she said. "This state is so rich in resources and the government is moving toward alternate sources. We have wind, sun and tons of biomass. New Mexico could become a leader in sustainable energy."

The government sees the day when a homeowner can walk into Circuit City and buy a unit to sustain a house, she said.

Barrow said her husband was in Missouri Tuesday picking up the last component in the custom assembly to produce shavings, something that will speed up handling.

"We expect to start with 12 1/2 cords of wood a day and then double that," she said. They use pine, fir and spruce, she said. But because of the demand to find a use for pion juniper cleared by ranchers, from the Lincoln National Forest and from Bureau of Land Management tracts, they will integrate a small niche for that wood in six to nine months, she said.

The operation has contracts through May for all the wood it needs, but will start looking again in mid-May for new contracts, she said.

She complimented the group, which includes representatives from several different agencies, municipalities, the county, private enterprise, the ranching industry and the Mescalero Apache reservation, for coming together to build tolerance and establish a dialogue.

"We've identified common ground and now we're moving toward a common goal," Barrow said. "If groups like the New York Times want to interview us, it's because we've developed something unique here."

Transportation of the cut wood still remains a challenge, she said.

"It will be the thrust of the next grants," Barrow said. "We must work toward sustainability. That's the government's goal. We may not get rich, but we should be able to make a living. We need access to people trying to use small diameter wood, and to mentors, and to sources of capital and people with good business plans. Don't give up."

Phil Archuletta reviewed the progress of his new product called All Tree Wood, made out of small pine and juniper blended with plastic mike bottles to produce boards. The process handles two waste disposal problems.

Howard Shanks, coordinator for the council, showed off his name tag, which was made from the final product.

"We're going to be able to use the whole tree," said Archuletta, who is based in Mountainair. Trees will be ground up on site instead of hauling them out, which eliminate the need to burn piles of limbs and trunks, he said.

"This will be used instead of plywood and aluminum," he said. "I just received word it will be put into the specifications for the U.S. Forest Service as material acceptable for their new signs."