DIXFIELD — A huge crane plucks up a pile of 8- to 16-foot pine logs, then slides them to the nearby debarking plant. In another production facility, an assembly line of almost finished pine boards speeds up a ramp where they are sorted according to quality.

And nowhere in Irving Forest Products is any oil burned for heat. When heat is needed, it’s from sawdust, chips or other wood waste.

Since Irving, based in St. John, New Brunswick, bought the facility from Highland Lumber just over a decade ago, millions of dollars have been invested in upgrading the technology of the plant, said Susan Coulombe, division manager at the Dixfield facility.

Just recently, the company bought a machine that not only fills large paper bags with wood waste, but also opens those bags so an employee is not required to.

A computer controller, perched above a huge assembly line, scans full-sized, debarked pine logs into a saw that cuts them into varying width and length boards.

Alan Orcutt, general manager, believes the company is the largest eastern white pine saw mill of the 100 or so doing business in North America.

He said engineers are constantly working on ways to upgrade technology and streamline the process from logs to the finished project.

The specialty mill was built in 2001. Here, products such as grooved house siding, pine panels, patterned V-match and other items are produced. About a dozen people were recently hired for an extra shift to make products for a national home improvement company. Just across the way, another plant houses the value-added facility.

“We take something destined for the waste stream and turn it into something that can be used,” Orcutt said.

This includes such things as sawdust for fueling the company’s boiler or for bagging and selling to horse farms in southern New England. Or bark mulch for gardening.

“Nothing is wasted,” he said.

During a year, the mill produces 70 million board feet of Eastern White Pine, Coulombe said. This raw wood is delivered from 300 suppliers from throughout New England.

The mill, now employing about 230 people working two shifts, temporarily laid off some of its employees during the winter months. It also reduced the second shift during a decline in the wood products market in 2005. The mill has been running full time throughout the summer.

The addition of a second shift at the specialty mill is a hopeful sign that the economy is turning around, corporate spokeswoman Mary Keith said last week.

The mill sits on about 20 acres almost in the middle of town off Weld Street. Its holdings make up about half of the town’s tax base, Coulombe said. She estimated that the company pays $500,000 in property and equipment taxes each year.

[email protected]

Irving Forest Products’ employees stack and pack pine boards in the company’s specialty plant in Dixfield.

A huge crane slides a load of raw pine logs to the debarker at the Irving Forest Products mill in Dixfield.

An Irving Forest Products’ employee transfers a pine board from the assembly line to a stack in the specialty mill at Dixfield.