The Greenwood Boardman Tree Farm is an innovative poplar farm that employs more than 100 people locally.

Its also one of the most eye-catching sights for miles along Interstate 84.

The farm grows hybrid poplar trees. Workers then take the trees to the Upper Columbia Mill, where they are cut into lumber and processed into boards and wood chips.

Kerry Hart, sawmill manager, said the Greenwood farm is unique to other tree farms because its workers not only grow and cut down the trees, but they also process the farms boards and wood chips instead of sending the raw lumber to another processing company.

Its all coming from the plantation, he said. Its a unit. There arent very many like that in North America that Im aware of.

The Upper Columbia Mill is located on site and employs about 60 people. It is run by Collins Management Corporation, a partner with the Greenwood Tree Farm Fund (GTFF).

Hart also manages work at the planer facility at the Port of Morrow. There, workers dry some of the lumber, process it and grade it. They ship the lumber to secondary manufacturing companies, where it is used to make products such as door and window trimming, cabinets and furniture. About 50 percent of the boards are shipped overseas, while the other 50 percent are shipped within the United States.

According to Hart, the farm is 100 percent sustainable. The trees are actually growing faster than we are cutting them at this point.

The farm is more than 24,000 acres and is located at 77200 Poleline Road in Boardman.

In addition to the sawmill, the farm has about 70 other employees in various departments, said Don Rice, farm managing director.

Greenwood workers have screened poplar trees for 30 different characteristics, such as being insect resistant, Rice said. They cross-breed trees that have good durability and other good characteristics to form hybrid trees that grow quickly and produce high quality lumber.

One plus for poplar wood is that it is lighter than many other hardwoods, Hart said. This makes it less expensive to ship overseas.

Rice said the Boardman farm was originally owned by two separate companies: Boise Cascade LLC and the Potlatch Fund. It was used to make pulp and paper chips. The land was bought by GTFF in 2007. Greenwood officials added value to the farm by opening the sawmill in January 2009 and beginning to cut and process boards.

Rice said farm officials are committed to protecting the environment. Ten percent of the farm is dedicated to preserving local wildlife, such as deer, elk and owls.

In addition to making boards and wood chips, Hart said that the tree farm has a supply agreement with ZeaChem Inc. to supply bio-mass from wood, sawdust and bark. ZeaChem would use the bio-mass to produce cellulosic ethanol and other chemical products. ZeaChems Boardman facility is currently under construction and is expected to be completed this fall.

GTFF owns several other poplar tree farms in the Pacific Northwest and a few farms overseas.