
DATE: Sunday, April 6, 1997                 TAG: 9704040257

SECTION: CAROLINA COAST          PAGE: 06   EDITION: FINAL 

SOURCE: BY JEFFREY S. HAMPTON, CORRESPONDENT 

DATELINE: ELIZABETH CITY                    LENGTH:  165 lines

ON THE CUTTING EDGE A COMPANY WITH TEETH FROM HAND SAWS TO HIGH-TECH COMPUTERS, THE LUMBER INDUSTRY ENTERS THE MODERN AGE.

LEGEND HAS it Paul Bunyan could fell a towering tree and saw it into boards faster than any man or machine.

Bet you Bill Rountree is faster.

Rountree, a sawyer with J.W. Jones Lumber Company, rips through 650 board feet of logs on an average day without even wiping his brow.

That might be because he sits in an air-conditioned cab and cuts his logs by punching a computer keyboard and maneuvering a hydraulic stick shift.

Bunyan would be impressed with the efficiency. But he probably wouldn't be pleased with the lack of sweat and sawdust.

He'd have to blame people like J.W. Jones Jr., 63, who keeps his lumber mill on the ``cutting edge'' with an efficient assembly line of computer guided machinery. Machinery which he says is the future of the logging industry.

Noisy saws and planers still are part of the process. And most of Jones' 95 employees get their hands dirty doing a day's work. But computers have taken a lot of the guessing and grime out of the lumber business.

Jones is quick to point out that despite the advanced technology, he still needs good people to keep his gig going.

``You've still got to have the brains up there,'' Jones said from his sizeable office with large windows that overlook the mill's eight acres outside Elizabeth City.

``If you don't have that, you don't have anything. The credit goes to the people who work here.''

Jones has latched on to high technology quicker than the leaders of most independent lumber companies.

And it's a good thing for him.

Technology means higher production. And better production means survival in the lumber industry.

According to figures from the N.C. Division of Forest Resources, smaller companies are dropping like wood chips from an industrial planer.

The number of mills in North Carolina that produce under 5 million board feet per year fell from 214 to 173 between 1992 and 1994. Since 1979, the overall number of sawmills dropped by more than 200.

Conversely, between 1992 and 1994, the number of mills that produced more than 5 million board feet increased from 92 to 102.

Jones Lumber produces 17 million board feet a year.

Computers make the operation more efficient and save the resources, said Tom Morgan, a forester for the Elizabeth City District of the N.C. Division of Forest Resources.

``Twenty years ago, they predicted we'd run out of trees by now. And they were right according to the technology they had then,'' Morgan said.

``We're getting more out of each tree now. And that's why we haven't run out. Where they used to get 100 2 by 4s out of a log, now they get 120 2 by 4s out of the same log.''

Overall tree growth is actually outpacing harvest, said Morgan - though there is not as much old-growth hardwood as there once was.

Pine trees grow to maturity in about 40 years. An oak tree needs 100 years. Some hardwoods like sweetgum and sycamore grow in less time, said Morgan.

``The current supply is heavily weighted with smaller trees,'' said Morgan.

The shortage of large old trees in the area comes mostly from the nearly total harvest during the railroad boom at the turn of the century - and again during World War II, Morgan said.

The two major harvests here in northeastern North Carolina were much like the current excessive clearing of the rain forests in South America.

``We did some of the same things they've done down there,'' said Morgan.

``But our land is very productive. And it has recovered.''

North Carolina and federal officials are making enticing offers to landowners who will grow trees on their land to help in that recovery.

``Tax and cost incentives offered by the government to establish a new stand will cost a landowner just $30 out of a $100 investment,'' Morgan said.

To make a profit, a landowner should have at least 20 acres, he said.

``It's in society's best interest to manage natural stands.''

Because of the precision of computers and a preservation mindset, every part of a tree serves a purpose.

Industry insiders call that process optimization. Computerized saws get every board possible from the log.

The bark goes to landscaping companies. The sawdust and shavings go to paper pulp mills.

In 1981, Jones led the industry by becoming the first company east of the Mississippi to computerize his log cutting carriage, said Bob Pippen Jr., vice president of operations and sales at Jones Lumber.

``What we do today it would take 200 people to do at the turn of the century,'' said Pippen.

Rountree's station is the heart of the lumber mill. He sits in a small cab within the large mill. From his perch, he loads a log onto the carriage where a ``light curtain'' reads the length, diameter and profile and feeds it into a computer.

``You look at a pine tree in the woods and say, `Hey, that's a straight tree,''' said Jones as he watched Rountree at work last week. ``You put it through something that measures the tree to a 10th of an inch and it suddenly gets crooked.''

Rountree watches a small computer screen to his upper right that displays a cross-section image of the log and instantly gives him the amount of board feet it will yield. Another machine already has peeled the bark.

At Rountree's command, the carriage zips back and forth, taking the log through a blade that looks like a giant band saw.

With every cut, the computer screen image imitates the new shape of the log. From the image, Rountree turns and cuts the log to get the maximum number of boards from it.

In a few minutes, a log as thick as Babe - Paul Bunyan's Big Blue Ox - becomes an assortment of lumber.

Bunyan wouldn't have a chance matching his might against these machines.

Outside the cab, the saw roars loudly and men actually use their hands, if only briefly, to guide the boards through a saw that cuts the pieces to predetermined lengths.

Other men grade the various boards and stack them to be dried. Computer controlled kilns have improved the drying process, too.

Calvin Upton, of Jones Lumber, remembers watching a wall full of gauges to track the temperatures in the kilns.

It was not an exact science.

Huge boilers still produce steam that runs through pipes in the kiln. Temperatures vary even within the kiln.

``If you over dry it, it splits. If you under dry it, it shrinks,'' said Upton. ``Drying is a very critical part. It's just as important as cutting.''

But four years ago, Jones had computer controls put on his giant kilns.

From a computer screen, Upton can see the exact temperatures at each end and top to bottom on a stack of lumber.

``We've probably eliminated better than 95 percent, I would say 98 percent of the drying errors,'' said Pippen.

At first, Upton was intimidated by the computer's buttons and lights. But a little training solved that problem.

``I'll be honest with you,'' Upton said. ``It's really easy. And it gives you so much more information.''

Planing is the last phase of the board-making process. Here, the foreman adjusts planes to shape a board into anything from tongue-and-groove flooring to 2-inch-by-6-inch joists. The finished product can be shipped anywhere in the world.

``That tree that grew in Gates County could end up in somebody's house in Italy,'' said Pippen.

The planing operation is the only part of Jones' lumber business left to be computerized. Soon, that process also will be controlled by keystrokes.

``I look back at how we used to do things and it was very wasteful,'' said Jones, who has won regional and state awards for his progressive business practices.

``It's been an evolution.'' ILLUSTRATION: ON THE COVER

Wilson Jones leads the J.W. Jones Jr. Lumber Co. his father founded

into the 21st century. Photos including color cover by

Virginian-Pilot staff photographer DREW C. WILSON

Bill Rountree, a sawyer with J.W. Jones Lumber Company, rips through

650 board feet of logs on an average day without even wiping his

brow.

Jones Lumber produces 17 million board feet a year. Computers not

only make the operation more efficient, they save trees.

Wilson Jones is president of the J.W. Jones Lumber Co. In 1981,

Jones led the industry by becoming the first company east of the

Mississippi to computerize his log cutting carriage.