SPRING PLANTING: SAWMILL PUTS IN 30,000 SEEDLINGS

FROHNA -- East Perry Lumber Co. started its annual spring planting early this year.

The Frohna-based sawmill, which annually produces up to 12 million board feet of kiln-dried, finished lumber -- mostly red and white oak, poplar and ash -- established its own hardwood timber farm in East Perry County a quarter century ago.

"We plant 30,000 new trees each year now," said Natalie Petzoldt-Naeger of the company. The crop includes red oak, poplar, ash and walnut.

From 1970 to 1975, the company planted about 9,000 seedlings a year, including maple, cottonwood and sycamore. Since 1970, the company has planted more than 650,000 trees.

The company started planting young hardwood trees by machine in the 1970s. "We've always planted new trees to replace those that are harvested, but before 1970 it was done manually," said Petzoldt-Naeger. "By doing it with a machine we can plant more trees."

Using the machine system, the company can plant 5,000 trees a day with five men working.

This year's planting of 30,000 trees is a weeklong event, using about 100 acres.

A tiller is used to make rows. The terrain of the land is studied and rows are tilled with the curvature of the hills. "This lessens the chance of erosion," she explained. A tractor pulling the tree planters follows the rows. A man inside the planters places the trees about every 10 feet. Another man walks behind the planter to ensure the trees are firmly in the ground.

This year's plantings won't be ready for harvest for a number of years. Poplar trees usually reach maturity in 35 to 40 years, while oak trees take longer, from 50 to 60 years.

In 1993, East Perry County Lumber harvested some cottonwood trees that had reached maturity. The cottonwood trees had been planted in 1954.

East Perry Lumber was founded almost 51 years ago as a railroad tie mill. The first dry kilns were erected a decade later, and the company started supplying lumber to furniture and flooring plants. Following further modernization during the early to mid-1960s, production increased.

Almost every part of the tree is used in production now. The wood slabs from the log are taken to the Westvaco paper plant in Wickliffe, Ky., where they are made into wood chips for the production of paper. The sawdust and wood shavings are used for fuel, livestock bedding and liquid smoke for barbecue grills.

Lumber manufactured by East Perry is used in the building of furniture, cabinets, flooring, doors, moldings, pallets, pool tables, truck beds, stairs and handrails, fencing and handles, and is sold in retail hobby stores.

The East Perry company has three foresters on its staff. They work with landowners to help them develop stands of timber and do research and experiment with different methods of tree planting.

Forestry practices in a hardwood forest are different from those in a softwood forest, said Petzoldt-Naeger. For instance, very little clear-cutting is done. The harvest is designed to remove only mature hardwood trees and makes room for the younger trees and seedlings to grow and develop.

The lumber industry receives much negative publicity about depleting forests, noted Petzoldt-Naeger. "But in addition to planting, we practice forestry methods which enable thousands of trees to grow from natural reforestation.

"There is a positive impact from our industry," said Petzoldt-Naeger. "We believe our annual tree-planting program is a prime example of this positive impact."