Page 141 - Tattnall County

2005 was also the year of tropical storm Arlene, hurricanes Dennis, Rita, Wilma, and the deadliest, Hurricane Katrina. Jesse Murray, a friend from Baxley, called Mike and asked if he would come help him in the clean up from these disasters. Mike and one other guy, Bobby Lynn, spent months cleaning up piles of debris that were “seventy to one hundred feet high and as big as a pasture,” said Mike. Instead of piling and burning and releasing hazardous chemicals into the environment, they were able to simply grind everything.

In 2006 one of the mills called and asked Mike if he could provide a cleaner product for them to burn. Mills usually produce their own electricity because one mill will use as much as all of the rest of the electricity used in the state combined. At times, Mike was producing one hundred and ffty to two hundred loads. Today he averages from about ninety to one hundred. Mike also provides an invaluable service to the sawmills by cleaning up their waste.

Mike Collins is one of few in the southeast United States who implements the biomass philosophy. It’s a philosophy not only of his work but also of his life: What is left behind after everything has been taken can be used for good. And often, the good that comes from devastation is the preparation needed for new life to be known.  TCM

Biomass harvesting is also a way to make use of fre-burnt trees to supply a cleaner source of fuel to run electricity for pulp mills. By July 26, 2011 wildfres in Georgia had already burned over 342,000 acres according to the Incident Information Web (InciWeb). And the fres continue to burn. Mike and his crew have been kept busy harvesting the burnt acreage for fuel wood.