Portable Sawmills to Help Salvage Timber

Southwest Mississippi Resource Conservation and Development (RC&D), Inc. is coordinating an effort to assist landowners in salvaging timber felled by Hurricane Katrina. Landowners that need the services of a small portable sawmill to convert logs to lumber for their own use or to convert logs to square cants for stacking and storage until the market opens up can access a database of small, portable sawmill operators from outside the storm-damaged area that have expressed an interest in moving into the area to do contract or volunteer sawing.

Landowners having internet access should go to www.msrcd.org and check out several links to Katrina Timber Salvage. The first link is to Wood-Mizer, Inc., the major supplier of portable sawmills in the southeastern US. Wood-Mizer issued a challenge to their clients in Mississippi and surrounding states and respondents that have expressed an interest in moving into the impacted area to do contract or volunteer sawing are listed. The second link is to a list of the portable sawmill operators that have responded to the same challenge issued by seven other companies that supply portable sawmills and equipment in the Southeast. Landowners without internet access may call the RC&D office in Brookhaven (601-833-5539), the SE MS RC&D office in Hattiesburg (601-296-1187) or the Coastal Plains RC&D office in Perkinston (601-528-5133) to get the lists.

For more information, call Bennie Hutchins, RC&D Coordinator, 601-833-5539.