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U.S. Sen. Cory Gardner visited the Aspen Wood Products Mill in Mancos Tuesday as part of a tour of Colorado.<\/p>\n
The mill, owned and operated by David Sitton, was formerly the Western Excelsior Plant, which burned down in 2017.<\/p>\n
Sitton purchased the business in 2018, salvaged and restored equipment, built a new warehouse for excelsior mill operations and cleaned the property.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe geared up fast and filled a market niche,\u201d Sitton said. \u201cIt took a lot of support from Mancos, First Southwest Bank and many others to make it happen.\u201d<\/p>\n
The mill produces excelsior, a shredded aspen product made from trees logged in the San Juan National Forest.<\/p>\n
The material is packaged and sold for erosion control wattles, air conditioners, packing material and acoustic tiles.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s impressive,\u201d said Gardner. \u201cOperations like this help sustain the forest and create jobs for the community.\u201d<\/p>\n
Sitton has hired 30 workers, many from the former excelsior plant. Business has been brisk, and he plans to hire 12 to 15 workers for a second shift. The former Western Excelsior mill had about 110 workers.<\/p>\n
A tour showed dozens of workers feeding aspen from a conveyor belt into a row of industrial shredders. The material is then fed into a hopper that packs it into long tubes that are rolled and stacked. Semitrailers leave with the product while logging trucks with aspen arrive.<\/p>\n
Sitton partners with the national forest to plan for aspen regeneration projects needed to support the mill\u2019s demand.<\/p>\n