Investors put their hope in wood pellets

Monday, January 07, 2008

From an article by Jane Brissett in the Duluth News Tribune:

MARCELL — Tink Birchem believes she has a solution to high heating prices as well as all the pollutants they produce.

She and other investors are putting millions of dollars into making what they believe is the heating fuel of the future: wood pellets.

European countries are far ahead of the United States in use of pellets fuel. If Birchem’s new company, Valley Forest Wood Products, can’t sell at home its 50,000 ton capacity, she’ll sell the pellets abroad, she said.

Eventually, though, she’s sure there will be a big market for them domestically. “The United States is going to catch on, but when?” Birchem said.

Opening of the plant in Marcell is a new chapter for Tink Birchem and her husband, Jerry Birchem, who also own Birchem Logging of Mountain Iron and are founding members of a logging cooperative, Forest Management Systems in Buhl. The investors include other loggers, family members and a Spanish company. Tink Birchem is the company’s CEO.