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The forest fires that burned through the area last summer destroyed a lot of trees, but not all of that lumber need go wasted.
The U.S. Forest Service issued a contract to have red and white pine thinned from the burnt over area above Finland, Minnesota, and Hedstrom Lumber Company got the bid, hiring logger Greg Tibbetts to cut the timber.
“Greg was working nearby, wrapping up a job on the Jackpot ATV trail which is near the intersection of Highway 2 and Highway 1” said Hedstrom’s Lumber Co. President Chris Hegg, who oversees purchasing wood for the mill.
Some of the many cords of wood from the sale will be used by North House Folk School.
“North House ordered 200 special length timbers,” said Chris.
To fill the order, Chris said, “Greg had to carefully measure each log. They had to be a certain diameter and length for the project.”
On the outside the fire damaged pine logs bark is singed, black in places, but once run through the planer the thick timbers are clear and look like any other timbers used for framing a house, cabin or shed. However, if trees damaged by fire stand for very long, they succumb to bugs and rot and become unusable.
“We will be milling them soon. It’s nice to take wood that was burnt and get it to market in time to be used,” said Chris.
North House Folk School will use the milled pine for a variety of projects, said North House Folk School Director Greg Wright.
“Some of the timbers will be used for the Community Bridge (by the community tennis courts) built by students. Some will be used for Timber Framing classes this summer. We are also exploring with planning and zoning areas we can expand and build more classroom space. Planning for projects is what you do if you want to do them right,” he added.
Wright noted that all of the timbers used by North House are purchased from Hedstrom Lumber Co.
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