BY DUCK PATERSON
A Ladysmith man heads a worldwide forestry organization, meaning he has earned the lofty title of ‘snark of the universe.’
Paul Beltgens is assuming leadership of the Concatenated Order of Hoo-Hoo for 2024. The organization, founded in 1892 and based in Gurdon, Ark., has nearly 10,000 members in 23 countries.
Hoo-Hoo came to the Cowichan Valley in the 1960s when Herb and Gordie Doman decided to initiate a chapter in the area. Today Hoo-Hoo No. 229 Cowichan has more than 65 members who are all involved, one way or another, in the forestry industry.
Beltgens is owner of Jemico Enterprises and Paulcan Enterprises and has been a member of the Cowichan Valley’s Hoo-Hoo club since 1983.
“The spirit of Hoo-Hoo is expressed in nine fundamental values which encourage members to be fraternal, helpful, grateful, friendly, tolerant, progressive, industrious, ethical and loyal and those are all important to me,” Beltgens said.
“The Hoo-Hoo believe that these nine points are the building blocks of our golden rule and members are expected to practise these in their business and personal lives for the betterment of themselves and society.”
Since finishing school, Beltgens has been involved, one way or another, in the B.C. forestry sector. He spent time working clean-up at Schon Timber at the head of Ladysmith Harbour, then went to work at Harmac, owned by MacMillan Bloedel at that time. After nine months, he decided to return to school, enrolling at the B.C. Institute of Technology in the forest product diploma program and graduating in 1976. He then went back to work for MacMillan Bloedel as a supervisor at the Chemainus sawmill.
“That was different,” he said, “my dad was a lumber grader there and I ended up being his boss.”
In 1981, Beltgens make a decision that would change his life and that was to buy a portable log chipper and go into business for himself
“I started cleaning up 17 acres of wood debris that was floating in First Lake, at Nanaimo Lakes, and after that I moved the equipment to Lake Cowichan and started chipping log, etc., that had accumulated on that lake,” he said. “At that time the B.C. Forest Discovery Museum was looking for a big spruce log to show off, and I had spotted a couple on the lake that were too big to be removed due to bridge restrictions, so after some libations and chatting with other Hoo-Hoo these logs were removed from the lake and transported to the museum.”
His company Paulcan provides customized mill work to global markets, manufacturing any size of wood product, building material, and kiln-dried lumber for domestic and international customers. The Jemico mill produces products such as hardwoods for furniture, doors, mouldings and frames, and Beltgens said it’s the largest producer of alder and maple – and at times cottonwood – products in all of B.C.
Another side of Beltgens’s business is mill deconstruction. He started to buy equipment from other mill shutdowns in 1985 and convinced the local government to rent him a piece of industrial property.
“I continued to buy and sell mill equipment, and that led me to travel all over the world and meeting people and continuing to learn,” he said. “I’ll tell you one thing, all of this would never have happened if it wasn’t for the support from many people, with so many of them being members of Hoo-Hoo all over the world.”
He was Hoo-Hoo Cowichan’s club president for a couple of years and an area director before becoming vice-president and now snark of the universe. As head of Hoo-Hoo International, Beltgens intends to continue to promote the forestry sector and its benefits.
“I’ve been involved in forestry for over 53 years and the story of forestry is almost as long as mankind’s story. We all use wood, in one way or another, every day.”
A huge part of the organization’s reason for being is to spread knowledge around the world.
“There are different kinds of forests and different kinds of products, so at times you run up against something that can dumbfound you, but then it comes,” he said. “It comes to you that, ‘hey, I know a guy and he’s done this before,’ so you call him, and he could be in New Zealand or Florida or anywhere and the answer is there.”
Part of the snark position involves visiting Hoo-Hoo clubs in various locations. So far Beltgens has visited Boston, Detroit, Minneapolis, Houston and Gurdon headquarters, and has plans to visit other clubs in the U.S., Australia and Asia. He pays for his own travel, but said he’s “looked after incredibly” in the places he visits.
Aside from leading to business connections, Hoo-Hoo also has an impact in communities, donating to post-secondary institutions and forestry museums, and providing wood products for school woodworking courses, for example.
“It’s the promotion of the forest industry, because it’s had such a bad rap, lately. It’s not true,” he said. “We are a big part of all communities and a big part of the country’s economy. We are as environmentally friendly as the next guy. We want to see the forests grow as our business is sustainable and if we don’t take care of it, then it only hurts us, so we do all we can and not just in the forest but in our communities as well.”
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