Women with fur coats and Porsches like Geoff's wood

Bob Johnston is the Sault Ste. Marie district manager for the Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources.

Johnston says it's so rare for new forestry businesses to open these days that he wanted to make a big deal about Superior Firewood Products Inc.

Johnston wanted to recognize the owner of the new business and his hard work and creativity.

So he invited Geoff Meakin and office manager Sarah Guzzo down to the district office on Church Street on Thursday for some of Tuula Valkonen's famous buns.

"In a time when jobs are being lost, business closures being announced or imminent and the outlook bleaker, I think it's inspiring to see and recognize what Geoff and his family has accomplished here," said Johnston.

They all had sandwiches and pastries from a Taste of Scandia and they heard about Goeff's new business and how it's catching on.

"Women in fur coats are driving to the shops on the East Coast in Porsches to buy my wood," said Meakin. "It's a very high-end product."

Apparently there's a big market for white birch in areas of the United States, especially around Chicago and St. Louis.

And Meakin's brand new company, Superior Firewood Products Inc. got a forest resource processing licence today.

Meakin said he was surprised when he and his family learned, in the course of their market research, that many condos in big cities have real wood-burning fireplaces.

"They have no place to keep a lot of wood. So they just go pick up a bag of it whenever they want to light a fire and have a glass of wine," he said.

And there's just not a lot of white birch around the East Coast.

Practically none.

So Meakin's high-grade fireplace logs have really caught on and he can't keep up with the demand.

The product he has the most orders for right now is kiln-dried ambiance white birch.

It uses trees that are smaller than those that would be harvested for veneer or hardwood products like lumber, flooring, furnishings and other items.

"There has to be bark all the way around the log for it to be top grade," said Meakin.

Superior Firewood products are harvested from Forest Services Canada certified forests.

Its motto is Production with safety and quality from sustainable forests.

Meakin said the company is looking at buying its own kiln somewhere down the line.

Right now, it's renting one off-site.

Initially, at peak operations, the business will employ eight to 10 people.

Things will really start rolling in the spring.

For now, Meakin says he's looking to expand the company's market in Canada and find more stands of birch and maple the right size to use for kiln-dried firewood.

He said it's surprisingly difficult to do.

"You'd think you just walk into any bush anywhere and you'll find birch and maple," he said. "But the trick is finding the right kind."

Meakin also says he believes the forests in our area are very well managed so he can find the wood he needs for the life of his company and beyond and the hardwood product manufacturers will have plenty of what they need, too.

Maybe more than they need.

He said he's 65 and has been working in the forest industry in this area since he was 18.

"I went from feeding horses on Mile 11 on the Ranger Lake Road to being a member of the citizen's committee that advised the MNR on forest management. And I don't think there was ever anything regressive done in this area," Meaken says. "Don't get me wrong, there were one or two greedy companies. But not the most of them."

But now, the once-sustainable industry has taken a real hit and is fading away to almost gone, says Meakin.

That's one of the reasons he decided to just go for this business.

To keep it alive.

Superior Firewood Products is located at Meakin Forest Products on McNabb Street.

It sells hand-split pine kindling, jig-split cedar kindling, bags of birch bark, sawdust and sawchips as well as its high-end kiln-dried white birch firewood.