Oyama Forest Products are battling back on the long road to viability with their Oyama mill operations following a devastating fire last year that destroyed the company's planer mill. The planer mill fire in the April 2005 wasn't covered by insurance and losses were estimated at that time to be anywhere from $150,000 to $200,000. But by April, a new planer mill was built and ready to go. New equipment has been installed and tested and the new planer mill has begun operations.

"We're $100,000 over budget from our projected rebuilding costs however we are operational," said Ed Tarasewich spokesman for the family run operations that were set up just off Sawmill Road in Oyama some 43 years ago. One of the problems getting the equipment up and running was the lack of enough power from BC Hydro to operate the planer mill and the Oyama company had to purchase a $20,0000 360 KVA Unit Gen Set to enable them to generate enough power to run the system. Tarasewich said his company had finally come to an agreement with Hydro to provide the power from two transformers Hydro recently installed near the site.

While the planer mill was down for a year, Oyama Forest Products lost $500,000 worth of business and even with the sawmill on the same site "going strong" during that period of time it has been a difficult time to come up with the necessary capital to fund the rebuilding costs.

Tarasewich said there are still some pieces of equipment that require installation in the planer mill, however, the planer itself and the moulding machines are up and running allowing them to again mill those "niche market products" that they can produce.

The new planer has the capacity to plane beams up to 8 inch by 16 inch by 30 feet long as well as most commonly used dimensional lumber. The moulder is in place and does such specialty items as flooring, cabin siding, channel siding and other products that the bigger mills just can't touch.

After more than four decades of operation, there isn't too much Ed hasn't seen happen within BC's forest industry,

"We've seen this industry go from the days of the logger who skidded logs with a horse through the low-tech and finally into the sophisticated high tech industry it is to-day." He said. He went on to say that there have been many good changes made to the Small Business Forestry Enterprise Program opening the door to better opportunity and access to those operations produce top quality value added products for the marketplace.

Oyama Forest Products has been able to utilize timber the larger mills aren't interested in including salvage from wildfires, beetle kill and others blocks of timber that can't easily be harvested by the larger operations that use mostly high tech faller-bunchers in their woods operations.

Oyama Forest Products is a family affair with Ed Tarasewich's two sons Terry and Mark operating the logging and log hauling part of the operations through their company Grizzly Hills Logging. His son-in-law Todd Roberts and his wife Wanda also are a big part of the day-to-day operation of the Oyama Sawmill and their company, Okanagan Timber Frame, has established a good marketing in the US where much of the large frame beams cut in the sawmill are sold. Todd has recently launched a marketing campaign in Ireland and has sold his first Okanagan Timber Frame building there.

Oyama Forest Products has just launched their own log home manufacturing component to the marketplace and early indications are that there is a strong demand for their manufactured log homes. Tarasewich says now with the planer mill up and operational, many doors are opening with a wide interest from the construction industry for the products that the Oyama operations produce.

"We've been milling the components for these manufactured log homes for the last 30 years. Its something that we do well and it's a natural evolution that will see us operating our own log home company," he said

"We provide employment for 15 people with our sawmill and planer mill operations and I like to refer to them as part of our extended family-without them, we couldn't operate and we like to think of them as our most valuable asset."

Looking back over the years Ed Tarasewich said his operations have been in a constant struggle to survive. A "tough go" in an industry that has been perpetually downsizing over the past couple of decades. 20 years ago there were approximately 20 smaller mills operating in the Okanagan Region where today there are only six.

Today, Oyama Forest Products works with the larger forest products producers helping to utilize all the resource, particularly in the beetle infested parts of our foresters. Tarasewich says his company has been utilizing beetle killed timber from our local watershed for the past 22 years and first saw some of the destruction caused by the Western Pine Beetle more than 30 years ago in the Penticton area. He said that if they can harvest and mill the beetle-killed timber when it's still green the products produced are of good quality and very marketable. He expressed his frustration with the Ministry of Forests who didn't always react to infestations quickly enough resulting in even heavier infestations when the beetle were left to fly on to the next block of timber. He did say that over the past couple of years the ministry is reacting much faster however he intimated that Lake Country residents are not going to be very happy with the destruction the beetles have left in our watershed.

Today, Oyama Forest Products gets its supply of wood from throughout the Okanagan from Osoyoos to Revelstoke. The logging operations also sell logs to Tolko who have co-operated with the smaller mill's operations and who have been very good to work with. It also works well for Tolko as the small Oyama operation can mill logs that aren't suitable for their operations.

Another opportunity comes from selective logging on private lands where developers now want to log the interface areas as urbanization spreads into the forested areas.

"We have the ability to go in and log in such a positive manner that when we leave, we leave a beautiful forest behind." Said Terry Tarasewich who manages the family logging operations in the forest.

Ed Tarasewich doesn't know how much longer he will be at the helm of the family run business and he's confident his family has the knowledge and experience to make the operations a success without his leadership however he still comfortable helping run the whole show.

"I still enjoy greeting old friends and customers, some who I have been dealing with for more than 30 years. As we move forward I hope our success will come from the fact that we can maintain a niche in the value added marketplace and that we sustain a livelihood for our families."