Old file photo from the days of Hoopa Modular. Source.

From the Hoopa Valley Tribe:

The Hoopa Valley Tribe (Tribe) announced today that it has agreed to enter into a strategic partnership with PJ Woodlands LLC, the owner of Altree™, a revolutionary wood-plastic composite (WPC), to build the first Altree™ production facility. Under a long-term lease of the 65,000 sq. ft. Hoopa Modular Facility (Facility), PJ Woodlands will repurpose the Facility to manufacture Altree™ WPC sheeting products. PJ Woodlands LLC will enter into an exclusive management agreement with the Tribe and will be solely responsible for all business management of a company to be created under Hoopa Tribal Law. The strategic partnership with the Hoopa Valley Tribe provides PJ Woodlands with the ideal manufacturing plant, access to the Hoopa Valley Tribal labor force, and woody biomass in sufficient quantity to scale the manufacturing operations over time. The strategic partnership includes a multi-million dollar investment by the Hoopa Valley Tribe which will receive a significant minority equity stake in PJ Woodlands LLC. The transaction is expected to close in December 2016.

Altree™ is a patent protected, green, recyclable, reusable, wood-plastic composite made from wood fibers derived from forest slash and recycled HDPE #2 plastic. Altree™ was initially developed in conjunction with USDA USFS Forest Products Laboratory. According to the USFS, Altree™ is one of the only sustainable solutions to thinning our forests and making a commercial product on a scale significant enough to make a measurable impact. Altree™ has been developed and tested for over two decades. Altree™ is manufactured in 4’ x 8’ sheets (of various thicknesses) and is used as both a building product and as a substrate replacement to aluminum roadway signs.

The Hoopa Valley Tribe and its Reservation are located in northeastern Humboldt County and has approximately 3,200 Tribal members. The reservation has a land area of roughly 144 square miles. The approximately 90,000 acres of the reservation are heavily forested and have been designated a “Smartwood” forest by the Rainforest Alliance. Chairman Ryan P. Jackson adds, “Many of the needs of the Tribe will be addressed by our strategic partnership with PJ Woodlands. By working together, we will bring many well-paying jobs to the Tribe while fulfilling our life-long mission of protecting our natural resources. From time immemorial the Hupa People have relied on the forest for sustenance and have sustainably managed those resources to ensure their continued existence for the benefit of future generations. It is important to note that not all of the woody biomass necessary to produce Altree™ will come from reservation resources as the wood fiber is readily available in other areas of the marketplace.”

Tony J. Burger, CEO of PJ Woodlands LLC added, “Our strategic partnership provides many synergistic opportunities for both the members of the Hoopa Valley Tribe and our company – the forward-thinking Tribal Council is seizing the opportunity to participate in the commercialization of this one-of-a-kind, eco-friendly, commercial product. We are embarking on a global venture designed to create employment in rural areas; maintain forest health by utilizing forest slash on a large scale, as well as, creating new revenue streams for both the Tribe and our company.  Our visions of protecting natural resources are perfectly aligned.”