BERTHOUD - Andre Roy is a man of many ideas. But his latest idea is garnering attention from scientists at Colorado State University.
Working in an industrial park in Berthoud, Roy developed an efficient process to turn dead trees into nutrient-rich fertilizer.
"There's no added chemicals," Roy said. "It's just 100 percent natural."
Roy's patent-pending process is now being called revolutionary by forestry and plant specialists at CSU.
"This is the real deal," James Self, director of CSU's Soil, Water and Plant Testing Laboratory, said.
First, Roy, who's not exactly sure himself how his process works, says the fertilizer produces miracles in the garden.
"A lot of the cells have been broken exposing a lot of the nutrients," he said.
Second, the process may provide one solution to the question of what to do with the pine beetle kill.
"If you were to grind up a pine tree without this process, the plants just couldn't utilize the product," he said.
But now, by making the dead trees both usable and profitable, Roy says more landowners will clear out their property.
Roy has been working on this project for three years. The former business owner already has a small amount of product on the market.
Still, he'd like an institution like Colorado State University to take it from here.
"It still needs to be vetted out correctly and it also needs a better manufacturing method," Roy said.
Claiming the process takes a very small amount of energy, Roy would like to see his invention make its way into developing countries.
"As long as they have vegetative matter, they can improve their soil and grow bigger and better crops," he said.
Fort Collins' stores Jax and Green Logic are the only places carrying Roy's product, which is called Mill Creek Soil Primer.
Source: http://www.9news.com/news/article.aspx?storyid=112195&catid=339
