Local Residents Propose to Build A Pellet Mill to Help with Sawmill Waste in Montezuma County

Increasing timber sales from the San Juan National Forest is boosting the supply of available timber to the eight operational sawmills in Montezuma County, Colorado. The local mills are taking that timber and creating everything from wood paneling, plywood, excelsior, flooring, construction lumber, mine cribbing, to furniture. The leftover sawdust and slash have a market as well. Besides for use in pellet stoves, wood mill waste finds markets as animal bedding, firewood, mulch, livestock feed additives and horse track surfaces. Three local Montezuma residence Mara Baxstrom, Luke Baxstrom and Rachel Comisky announced at a county board meeting that they and two other people have formed a partnership to start a pellet mill in the county that would utilize wood waste such as sawdust from regional mills. In support of their plan Montezuma County Emergency Manager Jim Spratlen said, “it is critically important for mills to reduce and safely manage waste, and a pellet mill is a good solution.” A potential location for the pellet mill is next door to the IronWood mill, southwest of Dolores. Mara Baxstrom said the market for stove pellets has increased since the shutdown of regional coal mines relied on for heat by many households in the Southwest and Nation.