CONESVILLE SAWMILL HOSTS TOUR FOR WATERSHED PARTNERS

EAST CONESVILLE, NY – Recently, Eric Dahlberg and Jake Laban - owners of Hardwoods Unlimited in East Conesville, NY hosted a tour of their sawmill and grade stake operation to the Watershed Agricultural Council’s (WAC) Forestry Program Committee. Now in their 10th year, the WAC Forestry Program with support from the USDA Forest Service and New York City Department of Environmental Protection was instrumental in assisting the fledgling company. Two economic assistance grants from the WAC helped the business owners expand their rough-cut lumber and firewood processing operation into the creation of value-added wood products such as hardwood stakes and kiln-dried, planed lumber and wainscoting.

Hardwoods Unlimited is owned by Eric Dahlberg - a Trained Logger Certified (TLC®) logger. With his partner and mill manager, Jake Laban, the company produces a variety of wood products ranging from processed firewood to finished lumber. In the past year, Hardwoods Unlimited has sold over 15,000 stakes to land surveyors and municipalities throughout the northeast which has brought over $20,000 worth of income to the company from poor quality logs. “The grants have helped us expand our niche markets,” states Dahlberg. “We can keep busy when other mills are slowing down.”

With the recent addition of a planer/moulder and a lumber dry kiln, the company is planning to provide area building contractors with high quality hardwood and softwood lumber, wainscoting and other building materials. Hardwoods Unlimited is a two-time recipient of an economic development grant from the Watershed Agricultural Council that aids the region’s wood products industry in creating new markets for value-added wood products. To that end, the company has recently joined Catskill WoodNet – an online network of wood products businesses that manufacture products from sustainable forests in the Catskills.

Catskill WoodNet is a project of the Watershed Agricultural Council with support from the USDA Forest Service–Wood Education Resource Center and the NYC Department of Environmental Protection.  The Watershed Agricultural Council is an Equal Opportunity Employer and Provider.  For more information on Catskill WoodNet and the WAC, log on to www.catskillwoodnet.org or www.nycwatershed.org.