FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:

Contact: State Rep. Richard Morrissette

Capitol: (405) 823-5386

OKLAHOMA CITY (November 10, 2009) – Appearances can be deceiving.

Eastern red cedar trees are a menace to Oklahoma property and agricultural land, but also a crop, a group of red cedar harvesters and landowners told state Rep. Richard Morrisette today.

When Morrissette, D-Oklahoma City, began his interim study on how to handle the rapidly growing problem of Eastern Red Cedar infestation in Oklahoma, the only answer initially advanced was controlled burning of the trees. But the oil that makes the trees a fire hazard also has considerable value as an insecticide and a pharmaceutical used to fight certain forms of cancer.

“When I started this study, the only viable solution seemed to be burning,” says Morrissette. “Clearing the cedar trees fixes one of the most newsworthy problems in Oklahoma last year – the wildfires. I was told today that 100 percent of the Eastern red cedar tree can be used to create products that could provide jobs for Oklahomans and that would remove these trees which are both fuel wildfires and overtake good agricultural land. We are hoping to move quickly to do what is necessary to create a large-scale red cedar industry in Oklahoma.”

The Eastern red cedar takes over nearly 300,000 acres of Oklahoma land each year and a mature tree can soak up as many as 30 gallons of water a day, according to an interim study held earlier this fall. Clay Pope, the executive director of the Oklahoma Association of Conservation Districts told the House Agriculture and Rural Development Committee that Oklahoma is losing 700 acres a day to the invasive cedar species.

Oklahoma State University estimated the economic losses to Oklahoma by 2013 if the 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.

“This is a problem that the state of Oklahoma is already invested in,” Morrisette said. “It would be nice if we could turn that expense into tax revenue by bolstering this emerging Eastern red cedar tree harvesting industry.

This past week Morrissette met with representatives of  Federal Recycling Technologies, Inc. (FRT) of Norman, Oklahoma and GC Renewable Resource Technologies LLC (GCRRT) of Commerce, Oklahoma. The two companies 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-$250 per gallon on the open market and has a wide range of applications from industrial to biomedical use.

According to Dr. Robert Shapiro, President and CEO of FRT, “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.

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.”

GCRRT produces residential pellets and heat logs, and commercial fuel pellets used in REC/KWh electricity generation from a wide variety of traditionally cellulosic organic waste materials employed in a formula that is bound by non-toxic and perpetually occurring waste petroleum plastic material through a proprietary process. David Watson, GCRRT Principal Member, says that with the price of heating fuels continuing to rise, so is the demand for the company’s bio-energy products.

“Our proprietary equipment and process produces a variety of bio-energy products that provides around -12,000 btu per lb. as compared to other premium pellets and logs that produce only about 8,500 btu or less, “ says Watson. “This fact, coupled with favorable pricing, has opened up numerous markets especially in Northern Europe and Scandinavia.”

“Hearing about these Oklahoma companies that are capitalizing on Eastern red cedar is very exciting,” says Morrissette. “So much so, that I believe that it is incumbent on us to take advantage of the ‘green revolution’ stimulus monies that might be available. In addition to being a fire hazard, the red cedar overtakes nearly 300,000 acres of pasture land per year in Oklahoma and can soak up as much as 30 gallons of water a day per mature tree.”

To this end, Morrisette says that he will propose a Eastern Red Cedar Initiative that will 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.”