Maybe you’ve noticed the poplar lumber from the Metropolitan Wastewater Management Commission’s (MWMC) Biocycle Farm available for purchase at the BRING Store. This partnership brings sustainability full circle, from waste to a wood product ready for use by local builders.
The MWMC Biocycle Farm is located just east of Highway 99 across from the Eugene airport. It’s a 400-acre tree farm that uses biosolids generated from the Eugene-Springfield area as fertilizer. The trees are hybrid poplars which are planted specifically for their ability to grow rapidly, consuming large amounts of nitrogen from the nutrient-rich biosolids, reducing trace pollutants in the soil, and absorbing carbon from biosolids and the atmosphere. These fast-growing trees are managed as an agricultural crop and are harvested at an age of 10-12 years. Upon harvest, the poplars yield a sustainable supply of dimensional lumber and other wood products.
The Biocycle Farm lifecycle is a renewable process. New plantings of poplar are grown from cuttings collected from existing trees and are entirely irrigated and fertilized using recycled water and biosolids recovered from wastewater generated in our community. After the MWMC’s high-quality biosolids treatment, which includes biologic processing for three years followed by filter-pressing and drying, the biosolids are land-applied where they enrich agricultural soils. At the Biocycle Farm, this cycle includes further breakdown of the solids by the poplar tree root systems, including absorption of nutrients, and in the process, reduction of any potential contaminants—an asset known as phytoremediation. In fact, hybrid poplars are used elsewhere in the U.S. specifically to clean up soils on industrial sites.
Biocycle Poplar has been used for a wide range of uses since the initial harvest occurred on the MWMC Biocycle Farm back in 2013. The Library Meeting Room at Springfield’s City Hall is adorned with elegant ceiling panels locally made from the MWMC’s Biocycle Poplar in partnership with Urban Lumber and 9Wood. Biocycle Poplar can be used in a variety of applications, including furniture, trim, molding, and siding. Local builders, craftspeople, and architects will love this lightweight and light-colored wood. It is easy to work, holds a variety of stains, and looks great with a clear coat. Other markets have included pulp for cardboard, newsprint, and kraft paper (grocery bags), as well as plywood veneer, barbeque charcoal, and biomass electricity production.
Poplar is a genus of tree in the willow family that also includes aspen and cottonwood. Hybrid poplar varieties are crosses of two different species to produce clones having desired characteristics, such as weather hardiness and straight trunk growth. The trees on the Biocycle Farm include hybrids of native cottonwood species as well as Eastern, European, and Asian poplars. Note that boards commonly marketed as poplar or yellow-poplar at lumber yards are actually not poplars at all but are a member of the magnolia family and often called tulip poplar due to their tulip-shaped leaves. That wood is grown in the eastern U.S. and, as a fast-growing hardwood, has similar characteristics to hybrid poplar, but is a distinctly different material.
BRING is excited to partner with the MWMC in offering this local, sustainable, full-circle waste-to-commodity wood product to the community. Seventy thousand board feet (70 MBF—equivalent to 70,000 feet of 1-inch thick by 12-inch wide boards) was milled for BRING. This represents less than 2% of the total 2021 log harvest. While the next harvest is several years away, the MWMC can sustainably produce over 1,000 MBF every two years from future harvests, depending on local demand for the product.
In short, poplar, though not as common in the Northwest where Douglas-fir and other conifer lumber is abundant, is a versatile material that can be used in a variety of ways. So come on down to the BRING store to check out the Biocycle Poplar and pick up some sustainably grown lumber! To learn more about the MWMC Biocycle Farm and opportunities to get plugged in with their future poplar harvests, visit mwmcpartners.org/poplarharvest.
