Josh Clarkweiss: Full Circle Forest Products

 

Welcome to the Woodpreneur Podcast, the best podcast for the business and marketing side of the sawmill, lumber, and wood industry. Today’s guest is Josh Clarkweiss from Full Circle Forest Products. 

 

Josh’s story with Full Circle Forest Products began with a portable sawmill that he purchased used from one of his neighbors who had left it sitting in a shed for a long time. Interestingly, the mill was manufactured the same year Josh was born, 1991.

 

Initially, Josh got started by doing small custom jobs for his neighbors and taking on a few portable jobs here and there. However, he notes that most of the work he got in the early days was from people putting homes up in the area that wanted timber milled for flooring or other projects.

 

“It kind of snowballed from there. We started expanding when we realized there was a possibility of getting a grant to take on urban salvaged logs in Kirksville, Missouri. It’s a Missouri grant that basically helps pay for equipment for businesses that will take on landfill waste and process them into a marketable product. 

 

I got excited about the idea of getting a kiln and some other equipment because I realized pretty quickly that being able to kiln-dry the lumber I was producing would take us to the next level.

 

I applied for the grant, and we were awarded the grant. It went towards 50% of a vacuum kiln, a skid steer, and an edger, and we were able to get the other 50% from a rural economic development loan From our Electric Co-Op. We kind of pieced together the funding to expand.”

 

• Josh Clarkweiss

 

 

 

 

Production by Sustainable Means

 

Between the grants and the low-interest loans provided to Josh through his state and other entities, Full Circle Forest Products has grown more quickly, efficiently, and effectively than other similar businesses. Josh notes that there was no way his company could expand without that outside funding, and they are very grateful for the opportunity. 

 

Thanks to Full Circle Forest Products’ focus on production by sustainable means and the effort they have taken to develop their market, they have been eligible for these financial aids. Steve notes that Josh and his company are saving the state a ton of money even with the grants because they no longer have to spend as much money to process or dispose of the wood he is making forest products out of.

 

“What they’re excited about, and what we’re excited about is developing this market, which is basically prioritizing the ethical sourcing of wood over what’s trending and trying to develop the market, that would pave the way for other businesses to come in and be able to sustain themselves by marketing products that, you know, aren’t all white oak and walnut. 

 

We’re limited in what we can do because of these grants, and it has a lot of challenges because of that limitation. We’re required to take on a certain amount of tonnage, or at least try to aim for it per quarter. That does limit us from processing purely based on orders, but that’s what’s kind of special, about what they’re offering and what our business is doing.

 

We’re sort of prioritizing what’s available, and we’re trying to make that trend and shift focus from what people want to what our ecosystem has in abundance. How can we make the most of that and make products that people want and develop that as a market?”

 

• Josh Clarkweiss

 

 

 

 

Forestry for Future Generations

 

Overall, the idea behind Full Circle Forest Products is to explore the beauty of sustainable options. There is a term called “high-grading” in logging, where loggers go into forests and take out only the highest grade lumber. Part of Josh’s idea is to take the lowest grade logs first and leave everything else. Those are the trees that will reproduce.

 

This philosophy means that there could potentially be entire forests of high-grade trees for future generations. It also means sharing the beauty and value of everyday trees like the American elm, the cottonwood, or the sycamore because they are often what is available.

 

“Instead of just pulling out all the white oak and walnut, which I will do, I love white oak and walnut and, and we do sell white oak and walnut too, but we sell it when it becomes available to us. We actively manage our woodlands as well. We’re not just taking in urban salvage logs. We’re also actively managing 150-acre woodland on our farm following a forest management plan that the conservation agency wrote up. 

 

This year, we were able to harvest 51,000 board feet just by sending out the overcrowded species. We harvested the ash that had gotten hit by emerald ash borer and plenty of high-grade stuff. Still, it was based on creating a healthier forest, a healthier woodland, not necessarily letting the market dictate all the choices that we make.”

 

• Josh Clarkweiss

 

 

 

 

Steve’s Advice Corner

 

“It has been hard for me to sell packs of lumber, for example, a pack of 80 board feet of surfaced American Elm. Or a pack of 200 board feet of white oak because a lot of the people that I do business with are looking for larger quantities. I’ve been told, “Oh, yeah, just put it up on the Facebook marketplace. There are tons of woodworkers out there trying to buy small amounts of wood.” But I have found that that’s not true for my location. 

 

So my question is, when do I decide to take that pack of 80 board feet of American Elm and make a glue-up into a tabletop to try to sell that? Or turn it into cutting boards and put it up online?”

 

• Josh Clarkweiss

 

While there are many different ways to approach a problematic marketplace with stock that simply isn’t moving, Steve explains the best way to overcome that is to use cultivated relationships and your brand to build a community that will purchase your products.

 

“It comes down to building a community right around yourself. You’re much further now than when we first started, you have more capacity in terms of production, and now you’ve built a little bit of a team around you.

 

You created agreements to help secure some of the larger of these grants. You created relationships. I think now you need to do the same thing but for these particular products. So we talked about joining Facebook groups, different woodworking clubs, and other like-minded communities and organizations. 

 

Use whatever platform you have, and literally make every one of your ideal target customers your friend. Get them all in a group together and say, “Look, I have some stuff that I need to unload, and I want to be able to go to you first to unload it before I go out to the open market.” 

 

• Steve Larosiliere

 

Website: https://www.fullcircleforestproducts.net

 

Facebook: Full Circle Forest Products LLC