What else is out there that we're overlooking?
Last week an Oklahoma lawmaker pulled together people to discuss the dreaded Eastern red cedar. Usually when people in Oklahoma talk about this tree, words are repeated that shouldn't be reproduced in print. But that didn't happen this time.
For years this pesky tree has plagued Oklahoma. Farmers and ranchers hate the tree because it sucks precious water from livestock and crops. Firemen curse it because it is essentially gasoline for wildfires. But last week, Rep. Richard Morrisette, D-Oklahoma City, brought together people who see another side of the red cedar, a good side.
“Clearing the cedar trees fixes one of the most newsworthy problems in Oklahoma last year – the wild fires,” Morrisette said. But what he and others learned at the conference was that “100 percent of the Eastern red cedar trees can be used to create products that could provide jobs for Oklahomans.”
That should get some attention.
Apparently, the oil that makes the trees such a fire hazard also has considerable value as an insecticide. It also helps create a pharmaceutical used to fight certain forms of cancer.
Some Oklahoma companies apparently know about this because they are finding ways to make a buck off the red cedar and create much-needed jobs as well.
Federal Recycling Technologies Inc. (FRT) of Norman and GC Renewable Resource Technologies LLC (GCRRT) of Commerce have developed different processes that derive marketable products from the Eastern red cedar.
FRT uses a pyrolytic process to heat shredded Eastern red cedar trees in the absence of oxygen to recover cedar oil. When refined, the aromatic oil fetches from $50 to $250 per gallon on the open market and has a wide range of applications from industrial to biomedical use.
“It is absurd that the United States imports cedar oil from China when we have the resource literally growing in our own backyard. So much, in fact, that production will never outstrip the feedstock,” said Dr. Robert Shapiro, president and CEO of FRT.
Shapiro points out that one of the most novel uses found for cedar oil by Johns Hopkins University is to eradicate the liver fluke which causes schistosomiasis, the number two killer behind malaria in tropical climates. “When combined with a surfactant and sprayed on infested waters, the cedar oil kills the liver fluke parasite.”
The firm located in Commerce uses the red cedar to produce bio-energy products that are finding a niche as a heating oil in Northern Europe.
Morrisette said he will propose an Eastern red cedar initiative that could “pave the way for investment in numerous technologies that will take advantage of this opportunity.
“I want Oklahoma to be the first in the nation to put in place a viable initiative that will take advantage of the Eastern red cedar problem by stimulating new industry and creating new jobs as well.”
Oklahoma State University estimated the economic losses to Oklahoma by 2013 if the red cedar problem goes untreated as $447 million, which includes $107 million lost due to catastrophic wildfires, $205 million in cattle forage lost, $107 million in lease hunting lost, $17 million in recreation lost, and $11 million in water yield lost.
If Morrisette can find a way to turn those negative numbers into a positive, Oklahomans will be very grateful. We wish him success. No doubt, so do many farmers and firemen.