Forest Operations
With more than 17,000 acres of timberland under our care, Freres takes the stewardship of our forests seriously. We realize that managing this tremendous resource requires a variety of approaches. Across all our management practices, we don’t just work to maximize economic value — we’re also dedicated to ensuring that our forests will remain for future generations.
Forest Harvest Cycle
In a typical year, Freres replants over 350,000 trees on private and timber-sale lands. While replanting harvested ground is a requirement, it’s also good business, ensuring future productivity and reducing the opportunity for invasive plant species to take hold.
Contrary to what is often portrayed, herbicides and pesticides are used judiciously on timber operations, typically until seedlings reach a “free-to-grow” stage where they are no longer competing against brush and shrubs (about two years after ground has been replanted). After a clearcut, once a stand has achieved this free-to-grow stage, herbicide and pesticide application is typically not required until the stand is ready to harvest. The use of these chemicals are important to ensure that stands can be productive again, and not overrun by pests or invasive plant species. Freres adheres to all of the rules laid out by the EPA and the Oregon Forest Practices Act to ensure the health and protection of rivers and streams, marine wildlife, and our community’s drinking water.
It’s important to remove trees that are dead or dying to not only support the continued growth of healthy trees but also reduce fire hazard. There are a variety of natural explanations for dead and dying trees during the lifetime of a timber stand, including bugs, disease, and climatic reasons such as ice storms or drought. Salvaging allows us to recover timber resources that would otherwise be lost and helps capture carbon dioxide that would otherwise be released into the atmosphere as the trees decompose.
Thinning helps promote a healthy forest by preventing overcrowded and “stagnant” stands that lead to stressed and weakened trees. Strategic harvesting gives the remaining trees more access to the water, nutrients, and sunlight they need to grow. Thinning is also one of our most important tools to reduce the risk of wildfires which pose a threat to people and wildlife and release large amounts of carbon dioxide into our environment.
Modern clearcuts are conducted in a controlled manner that supports regeneration, following state and federal guidelines to ensure our wildlife and natural resources are protected. While clearcuts may not be attractive to view in the early stages of harvest and regrowth, there are many ecological reasons why clearcuts are necessary.
Room to Grow
Unlike fast-growing broadleaf trees, such as maple, Douglas fir trees are a shade-intolerant species and struggle to grow beneath the cover of other trees. Clearcuts imitate natural disturbances which might fell trees, such as fire and wind storms, to provide an open area with full sun where Douglas fir seedlings can grow and thrive.
Fewer Disturbances
In a typical clearcut lifecycle, a stand may not be touched after replanting until a pre-commercial thin is required to open the stand (around 20-30 years). Freres targets a 70-year rotation on our private ground, which means that a harvested area only sees two entries over that 70-year period. Fully harvesting these select areas while entering the forest fewer times requires less money, less energy, and causes less disturbance to soil, water, and wildlife.
Manufacturing
Our state-of-the-art facilities are designed to maximize the recovery of beneficial products from our timber, using 100% of each log that comes through our doors. After creating our timber products, wood residuals with no other beneficial use are burned to produce heat and steam for our production processes. Our cogeneration facility produces more electricity on an annual basis than all of our manufacturing facilities combined, from biomass that would otherwise provide no benefit.
Forest Resource Cycle
Seedling, planting
Freres’ manages 18K acres of timberland, and every harvest begins with nursery operations and site preparations and ends with planting and fertilization to establish the new trees.
Tree growth, then thinning
After 20-30 years of growth, Freres harvests 50-60% of the trees on their timberland to allow the remaining 40-50% ample sunlight and nutrients to grow and to reduce the risk of forest fires.
Log harvesting
Log harvesting begins with a pre-commercial thin at 20-30 years, then a full harvest of all trees at 70 years. At this point, Freres replants the entire stand to regenerate new crop trees.
Veneer production
Freres produces wood veneers by peeling thin layers from logs as small as 6” in diameter, a process that reduces waste by recovering more from a single log than traditional lumber products.
Manufacturing (plywood and Mass Ply)
Freres produces a wide range of plywood and Mass Ply products by combining thin layers of veneer to develop sustainable substitutes for traditional building materials like concrete and steel.
Residual mulch
Manufacturing operations produce residual materials like bar dust, chips, and sawdust, which Freres sells to farms and nurseries.
Heat, electricity, and biochar
Wood residuals with no other beneficial use are burned to produce biomass energy, a renewable energy used to generate heat and electricity. The leftover byproduct of burning, biochar, retains carbon and is used to enhance soil.
In a typical year, Freres replants over 350,000 trees... While replanting harvested ground is a requirement, it’s also good business.
Transportation
To further reduce our environmental footprint, Freres is integrating R99 Renewable Diesel into our fleet of over thirty vehicles. Starting with a test group of six log trucks, we will slowly roll out R99 to the rest of our highway fleet and off-highway rolling stock. More info on Renewable Diesel can be found here.
Working with Enterprise, we’ve also instituted a Vanpool Program. The program, in partnership with a grant from Cherriots Transportation, is designed to lessen the transportation burden on employees and reduce the company’s carbon footprint by encouraging structured carpooling. We hope that the Vanpool Program will attract potential employees from outlying areas, help with employee retention, and keep more of our employees’ earnings in their pockets.
Construction
Not only do our veneer products recover more material from a single log than lumber-based products, but we design our engineered wood products to perform predictably under strict certified specifications. This allows our customers to design structures with as little wood as possible, saving time, energy, and resources. Additionally, wood products absorb and retain carbon, unlike traditional building materials like concrete and steel which are among the largest sources of industrial CO2 emissions in the United States. As a result, Freres’ engineered wood products can reduce the environmental impact of construction.
Certifications
We are one of two responsibly sourced manufacturers in Oregon certified by the Pacific Lumber Inspection Bureau (PLIB), demonstrating our commitment to the responsible harvest of Oregon timber.
We are certified by the American Tree Farm System (ATFS), a third-party accredited body that provides forest certification. This certification gives customers peace of mind that the products they purchase originate from sustainably-managed forests that protect economic, social, and environmental benefits.