Jr Forest Wardens tour company’s Whitecourt pulp and lumber mills
Millar Western employees take pride in showing people through their operations. For an excited group of Junior Forest Wardens from St. Albert, that meant having the chance Sunday, February 24, to find out just what goes on at the company’s lumber and pulp mills in Whitecourt. Accompanied by their parents and JFW leaders, 13 kids aged 6-12 spent the morning seeing how logs of all shapes and sizes are scanned, analyzed and efficiently converted into lumber in the sawmill. After lunch at the Millar Western training centre, the group headed into the pulp mill to learn how wood chips, including the waste by-products of lumber manufacture, are converted in an environmentally responsible way into the pulp found in paper, tissue and other products they use every day.
The hosts for the day, pulp mill manager Dave Martell, sawmill superintendent Rob Brandt and sawmill safety coordinator Sean Chalmers, reported that the kids had good questions, and a great time. “The laser scanning systems, the laboratories, and the banks of computer monitors and flashing lights in the control rooms are always considered pretty cool, but the kids really enjoyed being able to get out there on the mill floor where the action is. They liked watching the big logs come into the sawmill, and seeing the pulp being pressed, wrapped and baled on the finishing line in the pulp mill,” commented Dave.
For some of the kids and parents on tour, the highlight of the day might have been exploring company founder J.W. Millar’s old blacksmith shop on the mill site, which dates back to the early 1920s. “They found it very interesting to see those old smithing tools,” said Dave, “and to get a sense of the history of the company, while learning about the highly advanced technology used in today’s forest products operations. In turn, we always find it very interesting to hear what kids and other visitors have to say about our work. For all of us, it was a day well spent.”