Primary Industries

The estimated replacement value of forest industry capital investment in Saskatchewan is $550 million. There are 180 primary wood plants including: sawmills pulp mills plywood plants waferboard plant planing mills preservation plants building timber plants lath plants

Some of the products produced by these industries are pulp, waferboard, plywood, lumber, fence posts, poles, building logs, lath and chopsticks.

From a provincial perspective, the primary wood industry accounts for almost one out of every 10 jobs in the manufacturing sector. The six largest sawmills provide 32 percent of employment and a further 28 percent are employed at the pulp mill in Prince Albert. With more than 85 per cent of Saskatchewan's wood plants and 90 per cent of associated employment located across the northern grain belt, local communities such as Big River, Meadow Lake, Glaslyn, Prince Albert and Hudson Bay, rely on the forest industry to enhance their economies.

Secondary and Tertiary Industries

The economic impact of the forest industry broadens with the inclusion of secondary and tertiary forest industries which further refine primary wood products to create new manufactured goods. Examples of these industries include:

• paper products industry
• hygienic paper products industry
• printing companies
• publishing firms
• furniture makers
• wooden box factories
• wooden doors and windows factories
• millwork companies
• stationery products industry
• paper bag industry
• asphalt roofing industry
• coated and treated paper industry
• coffin and casket industry
• wooden kitchen and bathroom cabinets factories
• prefabricated wooden buildings factories
• corrugated box industry
• wooden boxes and pallets industry

These industries are located in communities throughout Saskatchewan and play a prominent role in raising the total number of direct and indirect forest industry employment jobs.

Both primary and secondary industries produce valuable products which are used both in Saskatchewan and elsewhere. The products produced in Saskatchewan include wood products, paper products and other products such as foods and medicines.

Wood Products

More than 5000 products can be made from wood. Many are well known: lumber, pulp, all kinds of papers, furniture, toothpicks, and matches. Other products are not so well known. One wood product, vanillin, is used as a base for artificial food flavouring and in some pharmaceutical products. Other wood products include shatterproof glass, adhesives, furniture upholstery, rayon clothing and turpentine.

Paper is an extremely valuable forest product. Wood is chemically broken down and reconstituted into paper and paper-fibre products. Canadians are per capita one of the largest consumers of paper products. Roughly 35 percent of municipal waste consists of paper and paperboard products. Recycling programs, however, are reducing the amount of wastepaper going to landfills and are responsible for turning it into new products.

For example, post-consumer waste - fine paper, magazines and newspapers - can be collected in community recycling programs and used by some pulp and paper mills to make new paper products. Wastepaper can be recycled seven times before the fibre becomes to short to produce good newsprint. At present, Canada recovers 31 percent of the newsprint it consumes.

Other Forest Products

Wood products are only one of many benefits we as humans derive from the forest. Others range from simple personal use to full-scale harvest. Mushrooms, such as morels and pine, and blueberries are harvested both commercially and domestically. Maple syrup derived from the indigenous Manitoba maple, while distinctively different in flavour from that of the eastern sugar maples, has a pleasant "fruity" taste. Indian peoples and early settlers were familiar with the making of maple syrup. Today, efforts are being made to revitalize production, by taking advantage of the millions of Manitoba maples provided to farmers to plant in homestead shelterbelts. Presently, there are approximately 1200 trees being tapped in the Cumberland House area, with smaller numbers in the Melfort - Nipawin area and around Indian Head.

Nature crafting comprises a multi-million dollar industry in the United States, and producers are now looking toward Saskatchewan as the source of high quality products. Leaves, mosses, cones, branches, and dried grasses collected from areas earmarked for timber harvesting are used in flower arrangements, wreaths, and other decorative pieces. The art of birch bark bitings, wherein intricate patterns are produced by biting into thin strips of bark from the white birch, is a popular Aboriginal craft. Varieties of fragrant potpourri are made out of herbs, petals, cones, barks and berries.

Essential oils extracted from leaves and boughs are fundamental to the perfume industry and are at the core of the food flavoring industry. The herb ginseng is used in teas and health tonics heralded for their ability to increase longevity. Echinacea root is used in medicines to build healthy immune systems and remedies made from aspen and chokecherry are used in the treatment of psoriasis.

Value of Forest Products

The manufacturing process uses intermediate goods and services to transform raw materials into finished goods and to add value to final products. Examples of such goods and services in the forest industry include fuel and electricity, wood-preserving chemicals, contracting fees and legal and accounting fees. Without the use of these goods and services, forest product firms could not produce the end products demanded by consumers. Forest product firms include both primary and secondary wood-using firms.

The value-added generated by an industry is a measure of that industry's contribution to a total regional, provincial and national income. The value added for Canada as a whole is described as its Gross Domestic Product (GDP).

Over 85 percent of Saskatchewan's primary forest products are sold to out-of-province markets. The United States is the principal trading partner, but significant markets are also found in Canada, Japan, Mexico, Australia, England and other countries. The revenue from these sales helps to ensure that Saskatchewan residents continue to enjoy access to foreign manufactured goods, fruits, vegetables and other desired trade items.

Other Forest Uses

More and more, people are traveling to Saskatchewan's natural areas specifically to enjoy the scenery, the wild plants, the animals, as well as cultural aspects found in the areas, making ecotourism the fastest growing area of Saskatchewan's tourism industry. An estimated $650 million of Saskatchewan's Gross Domestic Product (GDP) is derived from tourism.

Recreational value of the forest is often understated. People travel to Saskatchewan's forest throughout the year to "get away from it all" and relax. Recreational activities consist of consumptive and non-consumptive uses of resources in the forest environment. Consumptive uses include hunting, fishing and trapping. Non-consumptive forest activities are numerous and include hiking, skiing, camping, boating, photography, bird watching and general wildlife viewing.

Forest Industry Future

It takes sound, long-term forest management planning to ensure that employment opportunities are maintained and enhanced in the forestry industry. In the future, forest industry workers will continue to be found interpreting satellite imagery, operating computers, updating the provincial forest inventory, nurturing trees, fighting fires, picking cones or conducting scientific research. The forest industry will also provide employment for truckers, equipment dealers, tree harvesters, tree planters, sawmill and pulp mill workers, wood product manufacturers and a host of other occupations.

Many of these jobs have been made more secure with the modernization of the pulp mill and construction of the paper mill in Prince Albert. The paper mill is the second largest of its kind in Canada and represents the first major involvement by a Saskatchewan forest company in large scale secondary manufacturing. Managed effectively, Saskatchewan's forests will continue to produce a wide spectrum of high-tech and labor intensive employment in the future.