Bamboo: new industry for Demopolis, new crop for the Black Belt

Marsha Folsom is nothing if not passionate about bamboo.

She is chief development officer for ResourceFiber, a company she co-founded that plans to bring a manufacturing site to Demopolis.

Folsom and others from her company were in the city to tour possible manufacturing sites, but several times on Wednesday she presented a program to city officials, business leaders and the public to explain what the company does, what it hopes to do and why she is so enthusiastic about bamboo. She also answered questions and concerns about noise, traffic and the appearance of the plant.

The two locations being considered are the former New Era plant and the former Wallace Wood Manufacturing site.

The Demopolis City Council approved an incentive package for ResourceFiber on March 19. The incentive package includes $50,000 from the city and $40,000 from the Marengo County Economic Development Authority. It requires the company to provide 20 jobs over four years.

However, Folsom said Wednesday the company expects to employ some 109 workers by 2023.

The plant in Demopolis will produce three products that are not produced anywhere else.

“We’re bringing an industry that doesn’t exist,” she said.

ResourceFiber in Demopolis will make laminated timber for construction, rail and bridge ties and truck/trailer decking, Folsom said. Bamboo has the tensile strength of steel and the compression strength of concrete, she added.

What makes the new industry especially attractive is that bamboo is easy to grow in this area, is environmentally friendly when properly maintained, and every bit of it will be used, she told the group. There is no waste.

Folsom was optimistic that other industries could locate in the area to take advantage of what ResourceFiber will start.

“We want to be the vanguard,” she said.

The company’s website said its goal is to be a Climate Positive company operating with 100 percent renewable energy as well as developing a bamboo carbon offset program for the voluntary market. Climate Positive is the state at which an entity is removing and absorbing more greenhouse gas than it is emitting. 

Folsom said the company already has a 2,000-acre bamboo farm in Greene County. The website said over a 15-year period ResourceFiber hopes to have 54,000 acres of bamboo planted in the Black Belt region.

She went on to say the company already has buyers for their products and a host of strategic partners working to test and help develop new uses for bamboo.

Folsom works closely with Alabama municipalities, economic development authorities, State of Alabama departments and U.S. federal agencies to promote the benefits of commercial-scale bamboo farming and product manufacturing to reinvigorate under-served areas of Alabama. Locally she worked with JoEllen Martin of the Marengo County Economic Development Authority.

A resident of Cullman, Folsom is the former First Lady of Alabama.