THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1997, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Tuesday, January 21, 1997 TAG: 9701210195
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: D1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY LINDA MCNATT, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: SUFFOLK LENGTH: 105 lines
In a remote area as far west and as far south as you can go in this rural city - where the North Carolina line looms on the horizon - a young environmental engineer working for Union Camp Corp. can stand on a bluff and gaze into the future of fiber production.
This is where the cottonwoods grow. Irrigated, fertilized, pampered and protected, they stand in straight lines across 15 acres of fields that once grew peanuts and corn.
``In the near future, I don't see all of Union Camp's fiber coming from places like this,'' said Denise Wlodyka, region environmental supervisor for the mammoth paper mill in nearby Isle of Wight County. ``But in the far future - well, you never can tell.''
Wlodyka is a kind of overseer for the project that Camp refers to as its ``cottonwood plantation.'' The concept started on the West Coast, Wlodyka said. Union Camp has a couple of cottonwood plantations in South Carolina. The Suffolk site is the only commercial cottonwood growing farm in Virginia, and it may be the start of farm-raising these trees for fiber production.
Cottonwoods - hybrid poplars - are native to the state, but, like other hardwoods, they prefer moist, almost swampy lands. On the plantation, the trees grow in sandy soil, irrigated from an 11-billion gallon holding pond that collects treated waste water from the paper mill several miles away.
And they are growing at three times the rate of the loblolly pines, oaks, maples and poplars that Camp uses to produce fiber for its paper-making plant.
The tree's only natural enemy is the cottonwood beetle, something Wlodyka and her team constantly keep an eye out for.
The tree plantation, which includes some species of sycamores and sweet gums as well as the cottonwoods, has been planted over the last two springs. Each sapling was no more than a 12-inch stick when first planted.
When the saplings planted in April were measured last fall, the cottonwoods already were 8 to 10 feet tall.
Pines take about 20 years to mature for harvest, Wlodyka said. Oaks, maples and other hardwoods can take from 25 to 30 years. Cottonwoods are reaching above their mature cousins and are ready for harvesting in only about six or seven years.
The Virginia site is still in the study phase, Wlodyka said. It's run by a research group, which includes Wlodyka, that checks on the young trees daily during the growing season.
``There are different levels of management, and this is as high as you can go,'' Wlodyka said. ``Here, we have weed control, pest control, irrigation and fertilization.''
Not only do the cottonwoods have the potential to produce as much fiber as the trees the company uses now, but the plantation setting would provide an opportunity to harvest the trees during weather that would make it impossible to harvest in natural forests.
``Hardwood trees naturally grow in wet areas,'' Wlodyka said. ``In a winter when we get a lot of rain, it's hard to get into a natural hardwood forest. This is a very dry, sandy site. In the winter, we could come in a place like this to harvest.''
Some West Coast cottonwood plantations - which are grown with irrigation in almost desert-like conditions - already have been harvested at least once.
``We don't get quite as much fiber from a cottonwood because of the water content in the tree,'' she said, but the difference is minute. ``But the time it takes to grow the tree makes up for the difference.''
And Camp's cottonwood plantation is an environmentally sound project for the company, she said. When the plantation was still in the discussion phase, the company knew that using groundwater wouldn't be feasible.
Using the treated water from the holding pond has worked well. The trees, irrigated through plastic tubing from the pond during the growing season, are responding well.
From December through February, the pond water flows into the Blackwater River. By March, when irrigation begins on the young trees, the water level in the pond has built up again.
So far, the adolescent trees have withstood whatever Mother Nature has sent their way, Wlodyka said. A weather station on the land recorded 60 mph-plus winds when a tornado swept through.
Two hurricanes that skimmed the area during the summer months bent some saplings.
``But the cottonwoods sprang back,'' Wlodyka said. ``They were real green, very flexible.''
Wlodyka has been involved in the project since its inception. Managing the cottonwoods, she said, has become a special part of the job. That's why she checks on the trees even on blustery winter days, when the winds whip across bare branches.
``When you're doing a study like this, every tree is like a patient,'' she said. ``You have your stat sheet on it, you know how tall it is, you know if the beetles attacked, how healthy it is. We're trying to find the super tree for fiber production. Maybe, by the year 2003, 2004, we'll have it.'' ILLUSTRATION: Color photo
JOHN H. SHEALLY II/The Virginian-Pilot
Denise Wlodyka, region environmental supervisor for the Forest
Resources Group of Union Camp Corp., monitors the company's Suffolk
plantation.
Graphic
ABOUT COTTONWOODS
Cottonwoods - a hybrid poplar - are native to the Virginia. Like
other hardwoods, they prefer moist, almost swampy lands.
They grow at three times the rate of the loblolly pines, oaks,
maples and poplars that Union Camp uses to produce fiber for its
paper-making plant.
On the plantation, the trees grow in sandy soil, irrigated from
an 11-billion gallon holding pond that collects treated waste water
from the paper mill several miles away.
KEYWORDS: LUMBER INDUSTRY