Restore ∙ Replenish ∙ Renew
Come see a spreader in action and learn about RMI’s wood ash and spreader rental program. RMI Sales Representative, Brandy Thomas, and Certified Crop Advisor, Mike Potash, will be there to answer all of your soil amendment questions!
All are welcome and workshop is free!
For more information or to RSVP, contact:
RMI@rmirecycles.com
603-536-8900
www.RMIrecycles.com
As some of you have heard, on Tuesday July 11th at 12:01 AM Senate Bill 129 went into law.
SB 129 is critical to the survival of New Hampshire’s six independent biomass plants. Timberland owners and the forest products businesses rely on the low-grade timber markets that these biomass power plants provide.
Without these power plants, New Hampshire would lose most of its low-grade timber markets, and without these markets, forestry, logging, and sawmilling would look very different.
Foresters and landowners would have lost an important tool for sustainable forestry. Loggers would have lost an important market for their timber. Sawmills would have lost an important market for mill waste and farmers would have lost wood ash.
RMI wants to personally thank all of you for taking the time to send letters, make calls, attend hearings, and testify on this important piece of legislation. Without your help SB 129 might have not become law!
Please call or fax the Governor’s office right away. Leave him a message that you support Senate Bill 129 and ask the Governor to not veto this bill. Leave your Name and Town and ask him to support biomass because you need the wood ash from the biomass plants for your farm operations.
Please contact the governor’s office TODAY to voice your support for SB129 or wood ash could disappear.
Contact Governor Sununu:
(603) 271-2121 phone. Or fax (603) 271-7680
Or email him through his website https://business.nh.gov/nhgovernor/comments.asp
The opposition is also contacting the Governor’s office, and we need to counter that and show that SB 129 is critical to the survival of N.H.’s six independent biomass plants and to New Hampshire’s timberland owners and the forest products businesses that rely on the low-grade timber markets these plants provide. Without those plants, New Hampshire will lose most of its low-grade timber markets. Without these markets, forestry, logging, and sawmilling will look very different a few months from now. Foresters and landowners will lose an important tool for sustainable forestry, loggers will lose an important market for their timber, and sawmills will lose an important market for mill waste. And farmers will lose wood ash.
In short, if the Governor only hears from the opposition and as a result does not act to allow SB 129 to become law, it would be a bone-breaking blow to our industry, meaning the loss of over 900 jobs and $250 million in annual economic activity, according to an economic analysis conducted by Plymouth State University in March.
PLEASE CALL GOVERNOR SUNUNU’S OFFICE TODAY!
In your message, clearly state that you support Senate Bill 129 and the importance of the continued biomass power operations to your timberland, business, farm operation, and jobs.
If you have any questions please contact Shelagh Connelly shelagh.connelly@rmirecycles.com or Charley Hanson charley.hanson@rmirecycles.com
or call RMI at 603-536-8900
Pleasant Valley Farm is a labor of love for Robert Elwell. A subsistence farmer, Robert sells eggs from his free-range chickens but primarily farms for his family and community. He grows hay which one neighbor cuts to feed his seven beef cattle every winter. Robert also invites community members to pick blueberries and vegetables; he doesn’t charge them for his produce but gladly accepts contributions. When asked why his garden plots are spread out around the farm house, Robert smiles wryly and explains “God didn’t put all the good soil in one spot.”
Robert grew up farming. He spent his childhood on his grandfather’s farm in Westbury, Massachusetts where his family raised Holstein dairy cows. “Growing up on a dirt-poor farm you couldn’t throw anything away. You found a way to make it work” Robert explained. Evidence of this Yankee ingenuity could be found on Robert’s own farm throughout our tour. When we pulled into the driveway, Robert was busily tying a tarp over a sawmill he fashioned from a Honda motorcycle engine and a rail car. We also discovered a water treatment tank recycled as a cistern to feed water to Robert’s gardens and a military version of a 1954 Dodge Power Wagon with a 20-ton winch has been maintained to free a number of neighbors’ trapped cars in the winter and spring. Character-filled treasures all.
Robert met the love of his life while he was stationed in Jacksonville, Florida serving in the Navy. Robert’s ship sailed into Lauterdale where, by chance, Mary Patricia (Pat for short) was part of the committee organizing a dance for the sailors. Robert was standing by the door of the dance hall when Pat walked in. “I took one look at her and knew it was over” Robert said. Robert and Pat danced together that evening; when he returned to his ship, Robert bet his best friend $10 that he was going to marry Pat. Robert collected that $10 two years later. Robert and Pat celebrated their 50th wedding anniversary November 2014.
Robert and Pat have put down their roots in Lancaster, literally. They brought three bushels of peony roots with them from Cherry Hill Nursery in Massachusetts to plant at their farm. Pat also began raising Gladiolas which won many a blue ribbon at the Lancaster Fair. Garlic the Elwells grow came from seed stock they received from Steve Touraj of the UNH Cooperative Extension. “This is the last stop for me”, Robert said viewing his fields. “They’re going to drag me out in a box.”
A man of many talents, Robert is also a writer. He ended our tour with a poem he’d written about the farm and armfuls of fresh-picked vegetables for dinner.
Do you know where your water comes from and where it goes when it leaves your house? Well New Hampshire Public Television partnered with Manchester Water Water Works, Manchester Wastewater Treatment Plant, New Hampshire Department of Environmental Services and many other organizations to create a documentary all about New Hampshire water. Water Works traces waster from where it starts, to faucets, and shows all of the challenges that infrastructure, drought and pollution has to the water supply throughout the Granite State.
Thanks to Epping Well & Pump, EnviroVantage Staff, Weston & Sampson, New England Interstate Water Pollution Control Commission (NEIWPCC), NH Water Works Association New Hampshire Water Pollution Control Association (NHWPCA), Resource Management, Inc. (RMI), Skillings & Sons, Inc., Granite State Rural Water Association New Hampshire, Home Magazine and the Coca Cola Bottling Company of Northern New England for funding the production of this very important documentary.
Watch the documentary here: Water Works Documentary
The plug has been pulled on Indeck Energy Services Inc. Biomass Plant in Alexandria, NH. A weak wholesale market and low reimbursement rates under the state’s Renewable Portfolio Standard (RPS) law are the key factors driving this biomass plant to shut down by month’s end.
Back in February, HB 225 threatened to repeal NH’s Renewable Portfolio Standard (RPS) program which is essential in keeping Biomass Plants throughout New Hampshire operating. The RPS supports solar, hydro, geothermal, wind and other renewable technologies.
Wood Ash has been used by farmers to improve soil and crop production for centuries. However, wood ash was not available as a commodity for large-scale use until the 1980s when several wood-fired electrical-generating power plants were built throughout the Northeast. The benefits of these wood-fired power plants were two-fold: the production of local, clean, renewable energy, and the other product generated – organic wood ash. Wood Ash is the perfect product for Northeastern soils because it is a natural, local fertilizer that has the added benefit of fast-acting lime.
The shutting down of this biomass plant has consequences towards suppliers, certain vendors and most importantly the employees. It is a sad day in the biomass world to have a plant shut down and hopefully Indeck, the New Hampshire Timberland Owners Association and other groups can work to get the state to recognize the importance of the RPS for all of New Hampshire.
