Business Examiner Article – Wee Chip Cowichan
DUNCAN – It’s essentially a case of ‘Have Chipper Will Travel’ for Duncan’s Douglas Bruce Kitchen, the owner of Wee Chip Cowichan, a mobile wood chipping, mulching and trimming business that that has been serving clients from the Malahat to Qualicum Beach since 2015.
“People who have old burn piles, freshly limbed trees, yard clean up and other sources of wood waste will simply give us a call and we’ll come and chip it up for them,” Kitchen explained.
Operating out of a property at 5094 Lee Road in Duncan/, Kitchen, who previously had worked in the forest industry for more than 40 years, opened Wee Chip Cowichan in October 2015. Using a commercial grade, but fuel efficient mobile chipper, he transports his equipment all across the Cowichan Valley and beyond helping to reduce the need for burning wood waste by converting it into environmentally friendly chips and mulch.
“Often when we work for a client they will keep the resulting mulch to put on their gardens, flower beds and for other landscaping tasks. If they prefer we can also haul it away for them. I maintain a list of people who always need the material so disposing of it is never a problem,” he said.
A champion of environmental sustainability, for Kitchen one of his personal rewards is taking a material viewed by many as waste and turning it into a positive and adaptable resource – a material with multiple benefits and applications. “In the beginning of 2015 we had a big wind storm so the area wound up with some really big burn piles. I told my wife that it’s crazy to burn this material, we should be chipping this stuff, and that’s sort of where the idea for the company came from,” he remembers.
Initially using consumer grade equipment he quickly upgraded to a state of the art chipping system and hasn’t looked back since. In addition to turning limbs and branches into chips, the same equipment makes short work of nuisance crops such as broom and blackberries – much to the delight of property owners all across the region.
“The need is obviously there for this service so for the future we’ll continue to grow and continue to service the Cowichan Valley. We’re big on trying to get people away from the idea of burning,” he said.
“People are now realizing the chips are good for pathways and other applications so I certainly can’t see the demand for this service going away any time soon.”
For more information visit the company’s website at: teriw18.sg-host.com
