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Vol. 48, No. 1

(Founded in 1972—Our 556th Consecutive Issue)

F E AT U R E S

January 2019 A Hatton-Brown Publication

Phone: 334-834-1170 Fax: 334-834-4525

www.southernloggintimes.com

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Tracy Martin Small Family Crew

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Greg Head High Ground Hardwood

Co-Publisher Co-Publisher Chief Operating Officer Executive Editor Editor-in-Chief Western Editor Managing Editor Associate Editor Associate Editor Art Director Ad Production Coordinator Circulation Director Marketing/Media

David H. Ramsey David (DK) Knight Dianne C. Sullivan David (DK) Knight Rich Donnell Dan Shell David Abbott Jessica Johnson Jay Donnell Cindy Segrest Patti Campbell Rhonda Thomas Jordan Anderson

ADVERTISING CONTACTS DISPLAY SALES Eastern U.S. Kathy Sternenberg Tel: 251-928-4962 • Fax: 334-834-4525 219 Royal Lane Fairhope, AL 36532 E-mail: ksternenberg@bellsouth.net

out front:

Midwest USA, Eastern Canada John Simmons Tel: 905-666-0258 • Fax: 905-666-0778 32 Foster Cres.

Whitby, Ontario, Canada L1R 1W1 E-mail: jsimmons@idirect.com

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Log Creek Diversified Family Companies

Southern Stumpin’ . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6 Arkansas logger Don Hamaker started Hamaker Timber Co. with his dad Gene more than 30 years ago. Today, the single crew turns out nearly 100 loads weekly.

Hamaker started using Doosan track loaders and Southstar processing heads a few years ago, and is pleased with the results. Story begins on Page 8. (Jay Donnell photo)

Bulletin Board . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22 Industry News Roundup . . . . . . . 30 ForesTree Equipment Trader . . . 39

Western Canada, Western USA Tim Shaddick Tel: 604-910-1826 • Fax: 604-264-1367 4056 West 10th Ave. Vancouver, BC V6L 1Z1 E-mail: tootall1@shaw.ca Kevin Cook Tel: 604-619-1777 E-mail: lordkevincook@gmail.com International Murray Brett Tel: +34 96 640 4165 +34 96 640 4048 58 Aldea de las Cuevas • Buzon 60 03759 Benidoleig (Alicante), Spain E-mail: murray.brett@abasol.net CLASSIFIED ADVERTISING

Bridget DeVane

Coming Events/Ad Index. . . . . . . 46

Tel: 1-800-669-5613 • Tel 334-699-7837 Email: bdevane7@hotmail.com

Southern Loggin’ Times (ISSN 0744-2106) is published monthly by Hatton-Brown Publishers, Inc., 225 Hanrick St., Montgomery, AL 36104. Subscription Information—SLT is sent free to logging, pulpwood and chipping contractors and their supervisors; managers and supervisors of corporate-owned harvesting operations; wood suppliers; timber buyers; wood procurement and land management officials; industrial forestry purchasing agents; wholesale and retail forest equipment representatives and forest/logging association personnel in the U.S. South. See form elsewhere in this issue.

All non-qualified U.S. subscriptions are $65 annually; $75 in Canada; $120 (Airmail) in all other countries (U.S. funds). Single copies, $5 each; special issues, $20 (U.S. funds). Subscription Inquiries— TOLL-FREE 800-669-5613; Fax 888-611-4525. Go to www.southernloggintimes.com and click on the subscribe button to subscribe/renew via the web. All advertisements for Southern Loggin’ Times magazine are accepted and published by Hatton-Brown Publishers, Inc. with the understanding that the advertiser and/or advertising agency are authorized to publish the entire contents and subject matter thereof. The advertiser and/or advertising agency will defend, indemnify and hold Hatton-Brown Publishers, Inc. harmless from and against any loss, expenses, or other liability resulting from any claims or lawsuits for libel violations or right of privacy or publicity, plagiarism, copyright or trademark infringement and any other claims or lawsuits that may arise out of publication of such advertisement. Hatton-Brown Publishers, Inc. neither endorses nor makes any representation or guarantee as to the quality of goods and services advertised in Southern Loggin’ Times. Hatton-Brown Publishers, Inc. reserves the right to reject any advertisement which it deems inappropriate. Copyright ® 2019. All rights reserved. Reproduction in whole or in part without written permission is prohibited. Periodicals postage paid at Montgomery, Ala. and at additional mailing offices. Printed In USA.

POSTMASTER: Send address changes to: Southern Loggin’ Times, P.O. Box 2419, Montgomery, AL 36102-2419 Member Verified Audit Circulation

Other Hatton-Brown publications: ★ Timber Processing ★ Timber Harvesting ★ Panel World ★ Power Equipment Trade ★ Wood Bioenergy

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SOUTHERN STUMPIN’

By David Abbott • Managing Editor • Ph. 334-834-1170 • Fax: 334-834-4525 • E-mail: david@hattonbrown.com

Tires, Etc. outhern Loggin’ Times invited manufacturers of tires, tracks and chains to submit editorial this month.

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pewag tracks The pewag Star Stud chain is “Made in the USA” at our Pueblo, Colo. plant and specifically designed for the forestry market. The unique 8-sided design increases the surface area by 23% to provide superior penetrating traction in even the most extreme conditions. Additionally, we now have three locations to serve you: Rocklin, Calif., Pueblo, Colo., and Bolingbrook, Ill. The all-new bluetrack forestry tracks provide a unique track profile that adjusts itself to the tire contour, thus increasing the cost effectiveness of the machine in use. Bluetrack can be ordered in dual or single tire applications and is available in three different traction configurations: Perfekt— ideal for steep, rocky territory; Duro—universal all-round track for standard forestry requirements; and Flow—suited for easy terrain and sensitive soil conditions.

Learn more at pewagbluetrack.com

Titan International tires

Forestry contractors have a problem. Their equipment is getting heavier and higher-powered, but OEMs are still offering the same ply tires they were when machines were smaller. Fitting machines with standard lower-ply tires runs the risk of sidewall separation, cracking and increased wear, costing loggers the productivity that’s crucial to their success.

To address this issue, Titan International recently announced 30- and 32-ply tires in the Goodyear Logger Lug line, now the highest ply ratings offered in the forestry industry.

Randy Despino, owner of Despino Tire in Alexandria, La., and his forestry customers partnered with Titan to test higher-ply tires on their equipment. The results were a success.

“Prior to making the switch, many of my cus6

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tomers were running 26-ply tires and having problems with sidewall separation and cracking,” Despino says. “They were getting about 500 hours out of them and replacing the tires about every 10 weeks. We started out testing the new higher-ply Logger Lugs with six customers, and all six have been running them for nearly a year and well over 2,400 hours without a single problem.”

The slightly higher cost of the heavier tires is well justified over time because they last longer.

Loggers may be tempted to go with the cheapest option, but those tires often cannot handle today’s increasingly larger forestry machines and attachments.

“Those who purchase based on cost are getting it wrong,” Despino says. “There is cheaper product out there, but it is not in the best interest of these contractors. Downtime is very costly; it’s massive when a machine is down and you can’t produce wood.”

The new higher-ply ratings are available in the Goodyear Logger Lug 30.5L-32 and 35.5L-32 sizes.

“My job as a dealer is to supply loggers with the best,” says Despino. “These tires are the best option on the market and are saving my customers money and reducing their downtime.”

Submitted by Johni Francis, Titan International; for more information, visit titan-intl.com/forestry.

for operating in mud or other adverse conditions, and have been popular with our Southern logging customers for many years. All models feature alloy lugs that, unlike most other chains, are butt and wrap welded for unsurpassed strength and durability. Tag and cross chains are made from through hardened 10B21 Boron Alloy steel, side chains of 1022 hardened steel. Our slanted half links take out pre-load as the chain goes over the tire. This reduces friction and wear and allows for free tag chain movement. It is a standard feature on all of our ring chains.

Wallingford’s Inc. is a marketing partner with Sweden’s Nordic Traction Group in North America, a premium brand supplier of high-quality traction products for professionals. Nordic Traction Group produces Clark bogie tracks and single wheel tracks, engineered on experience and built with pride in Scotland. Clark SuperGrip single wheel tracks are an alternative to tire chains for harvesters, forwarders and skidders. Many Southern logging professionals have found that they perform very well on soils found in their region. All of our SuperGrip wheel tracks come stock with 28mm linkages to extend overall wheel track service life and is complete with a fitting kit that includes tensioners and joining links for installation and adjustments. Visit www.wallingfords.com and www.clarktracksusa.com.

Wallingford’s chains, tracks

ECO-Wheel Tracks

Wallingford’s Inc. offers BABAC forestry and heavy equipment tire chains that are American made and hand assembled for optimum quality control at our factory in Winslow, Me. BABAC tire chains are built from 10B21 Through Hardened Boron Alloy steel, with a uniform hardness and tensile strength throughout. Extensive tests and field experience have shown that BABAC tire chains wear longer, more uniformly, and without breakage associated with case hardened products.

BABAC offers a full line of standard tire chain patterns for skidder, forwarder, tractor and heavy equipment applications. BABAC tire chain models include single and multiple Diamond net type (with and without U-Form studs), and standard and Multi Ring models (in single or multiple wide patterns).

BABAC has computer design capability and we specialize in custom tire chain applications and odd tire sizes.

BABAC’s Ring chains provide excellent traction

ECO-Wheel Tracks from Olofsfors are an economical alternative to conventional tire chains. They are suitable for skidders and wheeled feller-bunchers with tire sizes ranging from 23.1 x 26 to 35.5 x 32 and metric tire sizes for the cut-to-length machines.

ECO-Wheel Tracks provide numerous benefits over chains including superior traction, longer lifetime and less maintenance. With the smooth and consistent traction, ECO-Wheel Tracks reduce the ‘spin and grab’ effect on the machines drive line. They fit new or used tires and with proper maintenance increase the overall tire lifetime. ECO-Wheel Tracks also increase the machines stability and mobility especially in hilly conditions. They are self cleaning, produce less ground disturbance and can extend your operating season. Engineered for the toughest conditions, ECO-Wheel Tracks can lower operating costs and increase productivity. For more information visit www.eco-tracks.com or call SLT 519-754-2190.

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Keeping The Faith ■ Arkansas’ Hamaker Timber has been blessed for more than 30 years.

By Jay Donnell JUNCTION CITY, Ark. hen Don Hamaker and his father Gene started Hamaker Timber ★ back in 1986 they knew they were taking a leap of faith. After high school, and a tough stint in the construction industry, Don wasn’t exactly sure what his next move in life would be. His father had sold insurance for many years and even insured a local logging company in the Junction City area. The two men decided to put their faith in God as they always have, so they bought a skidder and a chain saw and started up a logging business.

The Hamaker duo built their business from scratch and Don believes it is their faith in God that has gotten them to where they are today. He believes it’s important for his crew to keep a Christian attitude on the job, which means swear

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Hamaker cuts mostly pine on Weyerhaeuser land.

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words are not tolerated. “As a logger, I’ve been through some tough times, economically and financially,” Hamaker says. “But I’ve always gotten through them thanks to the Lord. The Lord has blessed me very much in life, with my crew and with my equipment. We started with one skidder and it’s come to this.”

Today, Hamaker, 56, runs the company while Gene takes care of the more than 120 cows on the family farm. Hamaker has five employees in the woods and two truck drivers. The business really started to get rolling in the mid ’90s when the Hamakers started running two skidders, a cutter and two pullthrough delimbers. As the mills became more particular about merchandising, Hamaker purchased his first processor in 2000 and has been operating one since.

One big reason for Hamaker Timber’s success is their contract with Weyerhaeuser. Hamaker generally works on nothing but Weyerhaeuser land, clear-cutting mostly pine, unless someone from his church needs some cutting done.

Operations About 19 million acres of productive forests cover the state of Arkansas. Hamaker’s crew primarily logs in southern Arkansas as well as northwestern Louisiana. Hamaker Timber had been clear-cutting a 150-acre tract for three weeks when Southern Loggin’ Times visited. The operation had been dealing with large amounts of rain so they had to miss a lot of days of work.

The crew was cutting a measured pine log and a treelength pine log, as well as light poles and three pulpwood sorts. These sawlogs were being hauled to Conifex Timber in El Dorado, Ark. Some pulpwood goes to the Weyerhaeuser OSB plant in Arcadia, La. and to area chip mills.

The Hamakers use a mix of Deere and Tigercat skidders.

SLT SNAPSHOT Hamaker Timber Company Junction City, Ark. Email: don.hamaker62@gmail.com Founded: 1986 Owner: Don and Gene Hamaker No. Crews: 1 Employees: 6 Equipment: 1 feller-buncher, 2 skidders, 2 loaders, 1 dozer, 2 trucks Production: 90 loads per week Average Haul Distance: 60 miles Tidbit: Junction City, Arkansas is the twin city of neighboring Junction City, Louisiana.

The company averaged roughly 90 loads per week in 2018, though due to the rain those weeks ranged from six days to two.

Hamaker generally builds the roads himself with a new John Deere 700K dozer when it’s neces-

Bottom row from left, Don Hamaker and Marvin Aubrey; top row from left, Tracy Holyfield, Patrick Lindsey, Willie Davis

sary, but often they’re already in place. Still, he has to improve the roads on many occasions due to rough terrain so that trucks have no problem passing through.

When closing out a tract Hamaker makes sure to do all the BMP

work necessary. When he’s getting ready to finish up, someone from Weyerhaeuser will generally come out and make sure the tract is good to go. “Weyerhaeuser has been good to me through the years,” Hamaker says. “They don’t put us on quota much.”

Trucks start getting loaded around 6 a.m. and the crew starts working at 7 and then leaves around 5 p.m. They work almost every Saturday and are granted time off for all major holidays. Health insurance and a 401K matching program is provided to all employees. Bonuses are awarded to each employee if they produce more than 100 loads in a week including Saturday. They don’t work on Sundays.

Safety is very important to everyone at Hamaker Timber. Each month Hamaker puts $50 per employee into a pot, totaling $250.

If someone gets written up for a safety violation, then their $50 gets divided up amongst the other men.

That means that if four of the five men commit safety violations during the month, then the one man who didn’t commit a violation

Hamaker was sold on Doosan loaders, and Southstar processing heads (see opposite page), when he saw them in action in the Northwest.

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receives the full $250. It’s a good incentive for the crew to wear the proper boots, safety apparel and have their hardhats on at all times.

Iron Lineup A few years ago Equipment Inc. of Shreveport, La., Doosan and Southstar encouraged Hamaker to travel to the state of Washington and visit several jobs with their equipment. Hamaker liked what he saw so he decided to purchase two 2015 Doosan DX225LL track loaders. Then he bought a 2016 Doosan DX300LL-5 track loader with a Southstar QS600 processing head.

It’s not often that you see Doosan logging equipment in the South. In fact, Hamaker notes that the first Doosan loader he bought from Equipment Inc. was the first one they sold, but they’ve since sold several others, after the potential buyers visited Hamaker’s job and watched his loaders in operation.

One of Hamaker’s DX225LL track loaders is used exclusively at the Georgia-Pacific chip mill wood yard at Bernice, La., for which he contracts. The loader there will move wood from the yard to the debarker.

Hamaker has been very happy

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Along with contractors, two Hamaker trucks haul production on Big John trailers.

with his equipment. His relationship with Jason Dutton at Equipment Inc. has proved to be a valuable one. “I looked into other equipment brands in the past, but I couldn’t find the right machine for my operation,” Hamaker says. “But then Jason took me to the Northwest for a week and I observed several Doosan log loaders and talked to the owners. I was sold right there.”

He says the operators like the loaders as they’re easy to adapt to and operate.

As to the processor. Hamaker says it’s very accurate. “If it says it’s an 8 in. tip on the small end it’s an 8 in. tip on the small end. We can merchandise timber a whole lot better with it and it’s definitely benefited us. I’ve owned a processor since 2000 and I’ve never had one more dependable than that one right there with the Southstar head on it.” He adds that it’s perfect for handling pole trees.

The rest of the equipment includes a 2014 John Deere 843K feller-buncher, 2012 John Deere

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748H skidder, 2015 Tigercat 630E skidder and a Tigercat 240B track loader. Hamaker also owns two trucks, a 2010 Mack and a 2011 Volvo fitted with Big John trailers.

“Big John trailers are great trailers,” Hamaker says. “I saw other loggers using them and started talking to people that had them. One of them is two years old and hasn’t been welded on or anything.”

The 2012 John Deere skidder has been completely rebuilt except for the frame and has been running like

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new. Hamaker prefers to run Nokian tires on his skidders. “I’ve had really good luck with them,” he says. Stribling Equipment in Camden, Ark. is the John Deere dealer.

Machines are greased daily and are serviced every 500 hours. Hydraulic filters and transmission filters are serviced quarterly. They blow out the air filters and radiators daily. All equipment is washed within three months.

While a lot of the company’s hauling is done by contractors the two trucks are still used quite often.

Tracy Holyfield and Willie Davis run the skidders, Patrick Lindsey operates the processor, Marvin Aubrey runs the feller-buncher and Mauricio Rios runs a loader. The crew is paid by the day while the truck drivers are paid by the load.

Hamaker has run two crews in the past, but right now it’s difficult to find employees. He doesn’t always hire employees who have experience with operating logging equipment because he’s not afforded that luxury. Occasionally, he’s had to hire greenhorns and train them from the ground up. He notes that he would run two crews if he could.

Hamaker’s wife, Vicki, does most of the bookkeeping while his mom, Johnnie, also helps with the books.

The ’12 Deere skidder has been completely rebuilt and runs like new.

tant thing is that God has to be in it.”

He adds, “If a young man starts in the logging business and thinks he’s doing everything by himself then he’s fooling himself. I believe that with all my heart.”

When Hamaker isn’t in the woods he likes to go camping with his family. He also enjoys spending time helping out his father with their cattle.

Hamaker Timber is a member of the Arkansas Timber Producers SLT Assn.

Wood Industry Hamaker believes things are looking good for the logging industry as a whole and with fairly new equipment and a dependable crew he’s positive about this business. He’s ever thankful for his relationship with Weyerhaeuser over the years.

However, one of the biggest challenges Hamaker sees moving forward is the price of logs per ton. He believes they are below what they should be, given the investment he and other loggers must make in their business.

Still, when Hamaker and his father started the company more than 30 years ago he never expected the business to reach these heights, but he gives his crew and God all the credit.

Hamaker hopes to add a new feller-buncher in 2019 and expects to demo a Tigercat and a John Deere. He knows the importance of continuously updating equipment while also making sure not to try to upgrade everything at one time.

He offers some solid advice for young loggers just starting out.

“You have to have good help and you have to pay your employees well,” he says. “When you buy your equipment you have to watch what you buy because you can’t get too far in debt, but the most imporSouthern Loggin’ Times

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All In The Family ■ Tracy Martin works with his dad, uncle, son and wife to find success in Virginia hill country.

By David Abbott Martin added the Bandit Intimidator chippers to lure jobs from landowners.

MILLBORO, Va. racy Martin, 51, ★ can recall his grandfathers, both of whom spent their lives as loggers, telling him stories about skidding with horses. “I never saw any of the horse logging, but I would have liked to,” he reflects. “My granddaddy told me how a horse would pull up a drag of logs, and they’d just smack him on the butt and he’d go back out to get another.” His wife, Donna, an integral part of Tracy Martin Logging, interjects, nodding toward her husband. “It kind of still works like that. He brings in a load and I smack him on the butt and send him back out to get more,” she laughs. “So it hasn’t really changed that much.”

His grandfathers’ logging stories entranced him as a child. “It was something I always knew I wanted to do,” Tracy says of logging.

“From the time I was 10 years old I was going to the woods with them.

Now the laws are so tight that kids can’t do that, but back then you could, and it was in my blood.”

Something else was in his blood: a work ethic no doubt passed down from his progenitors. “I love to work,” he admits. When he was in high school he had a firewood business with a friend, selling about 300 pickup truck loads every winter. In the summers they picked up square bales of hay for farmers.

After high school Martin and Donna were married and expecting their first child, and he decided it was more important for him to support his young family than to pursue his academic education further. He took a job running a loader for a railroad tie yard in Goshen, where he stayed for 13 years and gradually worked his way into a supervisor role. During those years, he worked in the evenings for his maternal grandfather, Summer Simmons. Martin says his grandfather was one of the first to haul to Westvaco in Covington. After a few mergers it’s now called WestRock, but it’s the same mill to which Martin hauls today.

When Summer died in 1996, the

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family elected to sell Martin some of the equipment he had been running on his grandfather’s crew at a bargain price. This included a C5 Tree Farmer skidder and a behind-the-cab loader on a tandem axle F7 Ford log truck. After another year of continuing to work both jobs, Martin quit the railroad yard and started working in the woods full-time when he was 30. His dad, Dale Martin, who was working in construction, elected to go to work for Tracy when he started Martin Logging in 1997.

For most of the next decade, it was just Dale and Tracy working as a two-man crew. “I owe him a lot of credit,” the son says of his dad.

Tracy hired Dale’s brother to drive a truck for a while, only until that uncle started his own trucking business, leaving the son and father team on their own again. Then, about 14 years ago, when things in logging weren’t going so well, Tracy’s other uncle, Ronnie Simmons, his grandfather Summer’s son, decided he’d had enough of running his own logging business.

He shut down that company and went to work with his nephew and brother-in-law. “That was a big, big

plus,” Tracy says. That three-man team proved to be the right fit, and has stayed in place ever since.

Generally, Dale drives the skidder, Ronnie runs the loader and Tracy takes on the cutting duties, but any of them can do anything. “We are a tight little group,” Tracy says.

“Whatever needs done, that’s what we do. I can usually cut enough in two or three hours to keep us going, and then I can jump in the truck and haul. If a truck is loaded while I’m cutting, Ronnie might take a load and then I’ll hop in the loader till he gets back. Sometimes dad runs the loader if I’m gone, and if he needs to crank a chain saw, he’s not against that. It’s a big plus having everyone cross trained.”

All three men have a CDL and haul loads, but Tracy supplements trucking capacity with a contract hauler, Harrison Powell of Churchville. He also hires Mike and Mitchell Stinespring of Millboro, another father-son team, to build roads and haul gravel. “It’s cheaper to pay somebody to do that for us, and that frees us up to do what we do best: moving wood,” the logger says.

Tracy says of his family crew,

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“They never get sick. And if they are, they come to work anyway and don’t complain. If we work 365 days a year, they will be here. I just can’t say enough about them.”

The family ties don’t end there.

Tracy and Donna’s son Tracy, Jr. (T.J.) also works for the company part-time, often manning a Caterpillar 312CL excavator with a CBI M3 log screw attachment when it’s needed on some jobs. T.J. works full-time at WestRock’s nearby paper converting plant, but on the side he helps the family crew out on his off days, usually once a week.

Markets Right now the market is better than it’s ever been, Martin says.

“It’s wide open. We can’t cut enough, and there’s good money for the products.” WestRock’s bleached board mill in Covington is his main outlet for pine and hardwood pulpwood and biomass chips. Martin also has a side venture with WestRock. The mill has a small roundwood storage area outside the mill gates for inventory overflow accumulated in the summer and

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Each of the three men on the crew can do whatever needs to be done.

held for winter. When it’s ready to bring that wood in for processing, the mill pays Martin to make the short haul, either on weekends or rained out days. The side work amounts to about 500 extra loads each winter.

Martin Logging sends saw logs either to Bennett Log and Lumber in Low Moor (Dave Ralston is the log buyer there) or to Blue Ridge Lumber in Fishersville (Mark Campbell buys logs there). “It depends on where I am in area,” Martin says.

“Being a small crew, we go to the closest one, but I am very satisfied with both.” Stave logs go to Speyside Bourbon Stave Mill in Millboro.

That mill, managed by Jim McCoy, just started operating last summer; Martin cleared the lot for it.

With markets so strong, Martin says he has no complaints, except the rain. Weather was the challenge in 2018. “It was the wettest summer in I don’t know how long,” he says.

In the hilly western Virginia terrain he normally cuts, Martin can handle the majority of the timber with the feller-buncher, but some chain saw work with a Stihl 660 is required from time to time. He went through the Game of Logging chain saw training class in 2000. The crew also has to maintain its Sharp Logger certification to haul to WestRock.

The crew mainly performs thinning jobs, but when Southern Loggin’ Times visited in December,

The hardwood tracts Martin thins in western Virginia tend to be steep terrain.

SLT SNAPSHOT Martin Logging Millboro, Va. Email: martin_logging@hotmail.com Founded: 1997 Owner: Tracy Martin, Sr. No. Crews: 1 Employees: 2 Equipment: 2 loaders, 2 skidders, 2 cutters, 2 chippers, 4 trucks, 2 excavators and a dozer Average Production: 20 loads/week Average Haul Distance: 50 miles Tidbit: Tracy Martin is an avid hunter, shotgun enthusiast, competitive clay shooter and a member of several hunting associations. “If I don’t have a chain saw in my hand, I have a shotgun,” he says. they were doing a 30-acre clear-cut.

“We very rarely get a job like this,” Martin says. Most tracts are 40 acres and less, which will usually take the crew six weeks or so to thin, moving 20-25 loads a week on an average 50-mile trip to the mill.

In late December, though, the crew was set up a mere three miles from WestRock, so production was up to six or seven loads a day instead of the more typical four or five. “I like

Tracy Martin, center, with his dad Dale Martin, right, and Uncle Ronnie Simmons, left

to log close to home and normally we are 15 minutes from the house, but further from the mill,” Martin says. “Now it’s the reverse; we’re 45 minutes from home and 15 minutes from the mill.”

Iron Martin has two full sets of equipment in the woods: two loaders (2017 Caterpillar 559D and ’09

The two Tracy Martins—Sr., left, and Jr. (T.J.), right

Prentice 2280, both paired with ’00 CSI 4400 classic saw bucks); two John Deere grapple skidders (’12 548G-III and ’03 548G-II); two Hydro-Ax 411EX feller-bunchers, ’04 and 1995 models; and two Bandit 1990XP chippers, ’14 and ’16 models. For road work, laying pipes and other jobs, the logger keeps a Case CX 36 mini excavator, a ’16 John Deere 650K dozer with winch and a Deere 4044R farm tractor. Trucks include ’18 Mack CHU613, ’08 International 5900 triaxle with homemade pulp trailer, ’94 Ford L8000 with Serco 7000 loader behind the cab, and ’94 Mack R model tri-axle chip truck with a modified 26 ft. container. He also has a 25-ton Rogers lowboy, a 40 ft. Kaufman log trailer and a 40 ft. container trailer. A ’15 Chevy 2500 serves as crew truck.

His main equipment dealers are Carter Machinery in Roanoke for Caterpillar (Mark Carlin, salesman) and James River Equipment in Fishersville and Salem for Deere (salesmen Todd Anderson and Jimmy Williamson). He bought the Hydro-Ax cutters used from Dave Hodge at Parts Plus, Inc., in Millboro. Martin bought his Macks from Tommy Morgan at Excel Truck Group in Roanoke and the International from Chad Newlon at Newlon’s International Sales, LLC in Elkins, W.Va. He bought his trailers from LMI-Tennessee in

Martin has worked hand in hand with WestRock forester Roger Timbrook, right, since the start.

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Waverly, Tenn. The chippers came from Lawrence Equipment in Waynesboro, Va., via salesman Derek Alshire.

When purchasing new machines, Martin has preferred to hang on to his older stuff, hence the second set of equipment, which affords him a spare for everything whenever there’s a breakdown. He doesn’t think the trade-in value is worth it.

The logger says he added the chippers to attract more jobs; landowners like it. “We take logs down to a 2 or 3 in. top, as small as we can, and chip the least we can chip,” Martin says. The chips go for biomass, and he was one of the first to haul a load of biomass chips to WestRock.

WestRock forester Roger Timbrook, who works closely with the Martin family, is impressed with their chipper setup. “Everyone else got the big chippers, but Tracy does something different. He bought smaller, 275HP, 18 in. chippers and hooked them to a tri-axle truck with a container on the back,” the forester explains. “Here in the mountains we have very limited landing space. With a small chipper and this chip truck, he can make it work economically, and since they’re not chipping big diameter

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Martin chooses to hold on to older machines rather than trade them in.

wood, this handles it fine.”

Martin hired Timmy Alphin of Goshen to cut a 40 ft. container down to 26 ft. and install the box on the tri-axle truck. “I got in the chipping business for not too much capital,” Martin adds—his investment was about $150 thousand total for chipper and truck, instead of $300 thousand just for the chipper. The 26 ft. container holds 16 tons of chips; he also has 40 ft. chip van available when needed, with a capacity for 30 tons of chips.

Maintenance on trucks is done by

Seibel Heavy Equipment in Low Moor, Va. For woods machines, the crew changes oil every 300 hours, and Parts Plus handles major mechanical repair jobs, especially on the Deere machines. Martin believes that, in his experience, it makes better financial sense for him to let someone else handle those repairs while he sticks to his own area of expertise. “It’s better for me to jump on a machine and do what I do best instead of turn wrenches,” he explains. “I’m not a mechanic.”

He also gets some help in that

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department from friend and fellow logger Reed Vess. “He is a sharp mechanic, and we trade off work instead of exchanging money, so that always helps.”

Martin logging buys on-road diesel from the Southern Loggers Co-op station at the WestRock mill.

It fills its 1,000-gallon off-road fuel tank at Home Oil in Warm Springs.

Cindy Bursey with Allegheny Highlands Financial in Clifton Forge has been Martin’s CPA since he started the business. The company gets commercial insurance for trucks and drivers through Bankers Insurance Co., Ltd. agent Steve Marshall, while equipment is covered by Gaines & Critzer Ltd. agent Troy Gaines in Richmond. The family crew is safety conscious, wearing hardhats with ear and eye protection, saw chaps and high visibility vests or jackets.

Personal Tracy and Donna celebrated their 32nd anniversary on Thursday, December 6, 2018, the very day SLT visited the job site. The couple has known each other since childhood—Tracy was Donna’s brother’s best friend—and her dad was a logger as well. Donna does all the

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Martin had a container box cut down and installed on a tri-axle truck for chips.

Martin competes in clay shoots.

paperwork for the company and makes parts runs, and her husband admits that if not for her he wouldn’t be where he is. “It’s a big plus having her,” he says.

Along with T.J., Tracy and Donna have a daughter, Melinda (Mindy) Griffin, 32, and three grandkids: Mindy’s son Jackson, 8, and T.J.’s daughter Ava, 8, and son Easton, 3.

“Jackson will probably be the next one out here,” Tracy says. “He reminds me of me growing up. He is eaten up with logging.”

From 1994-2012, nearby town Clifton Forge held an Appalachian Forest Expo, with traditional competitions in log rolling, crosscut and chain sawing, choker setting and loader contests. Of the 18 years the Expo ran, Timbrook says that Martin was the overall winner 13 of those years. “And I’m not so sure that Ronnie wasn’t the winner in the other years,” he adds. Tracy and Donna won as a team in Jack and Jill cross cutting competitions, and he and T.J. won together in other team contests. Also, Martin Logging was a recipient of the Virginia Forestry Assn.’s Logger Merit Award in 2000.

When he’s not in the woods working, Martin’s in the woods with his other passion: shooting things, either deer or clay pigeons. “If I don’t have a chainsaw in my hand, I have a shotgun,” he says. A Zoli over and under 12 gauge is his shotgun of choice. As well as participating in competitive clay shoots, Martin is a big deer hunter. Grandson Jackson is also a very avid hunter, going often with his grandfather. “He does all the shooting and I do all the work,” Martin smiles.

Along with the Virginia Loggers Assn., Martin is a member of the Virginia Deer Hunter Assn., National Wild Turkey Federation, Ruffed Grouse Society, National Rifle Assn., Ducks Unlimited, and National Sporting Clays Assn.

“All these groups are big supporters of timber cutting,” the logger points out. “They know you have to manage the woods. I am one of the few loggers who goes to their meetings and banquets, and I have gotten a lot of jobs that way.” He also supports Bath County youth SLT athletics.

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No Rush ■ Logger Greg Head likes to take it easy while working hard in the north Arkansas hardwood hills.

Contractor Lee Porter loads himself; the crew hauls two loads daily.

By David Abbott MARBLE, Ark. ★ arble, Ark. is “One of those kind of towns where if you blink you’ll miss it,” according to one of its residents, logger Greg Head. Cattle and poultry farms are numerous in this northwest region of the Natural State, though there’s not much row crop farming, according to Head. The timber community here and in surrounding areas is also strong, with many of the residents working directly or indirectly in the woods products business. It’s been that way all his life, but times are changing. “There aren’t as many loggers here as there used to be,” Head admits. A lot of the ones he knew coming up have gotten old and retired, and not all have been replaced by younger counterparts, at least not permanently. “There are always some who think they can make lots of money and jump into it,

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and but they usually don’t last,” Head considers.

Head, 59, is the owner of the aptly named Greg Head Logging, headquartered here in Marble. The singlecrew company is a four-man job.

“We are a small operation,” Head acknowledges happily. It’s just the way he wants it. “We get in no hurry; we just try to get two big loads a day.

That way we have more time to take

care of the landowner and treat the land like it’s our own.” Quality over quantity is his way. Before starting a job, he lets his men know what is involved, the particulars of the property, what to watch out for and what they need to do to take care of it properly.

“We pretty much take it easy,” Head reiterates. He doesn’t mean, of course, that they don’t work hard—

God has yet to make the logger who isn’t well acquainted with a hard day’s work. It’s just that there’s no pressure and no rush, since he has no payments to make; his few pieces of equipment are paid off. He’d rather take his time to make sure the job gets done right than be under the gun to get out a lot of production. He remarks with a casual chuckle, “We’ve been at it too long to get in a hurry now.”

Crew

Crew, left to right: Greg Head, Jarred Head, Andrew Gardner, Lee Porter

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There’s no feller-buncher to be found on Head’s job; on a lot of the steep tracts he and his men work, it wouldn’t do them much good anyway. They fell with Husqvarna 390 and 395 chain saws and skid with a 2002 model John Deere 648G-III skidder, purchased used from Ozark Machinery, in West Plains, Mo. Head doesn’t own a truck or a loader; instead, for loading and hauling, he hires a contractor who brings to the job his own self-loader truck. Head

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Head's son Jarred handles chain saw duties in the woods and measures at the stump.

handles all routine repairs and maintenance himself. If there is a breakdown beyond his abilities, he takes it to Deere dealer Stribling Equipment in Lowell, Ark. Head drives the skidder while his son Jarred runs the chain saw.

Employee Andrew Gardner works at the landing with another saw, where he trims limbs and knots and bucks logs. Contractor Lee Porter mans the truck mounted loader and, when he has a full trailer, drives to the mills, usually making two runs a day.

Since they do have men on the ground, safety and communication are of paramount concern on this crew. Everyone is careful to wear all proper gear: saw chaps, hardhats, steel-toe boots and high visibility shirts or vests. In addition, Head says, “I am here on the job all the time with them and if I see anything, we take care of it right there.” Ozark Insurance Group, LLC in Harrison, Ark. covers all his insurance needs.

Jobs Logging is doing really well in this area now, Head reports; better, in fact, than it has ever been. “Log prices are up higher than they’ve ever been, and most of those who have hung on to older timber are getting it cut now.”

The Head Logging head honcho handles the skidder.

SLT SNAPSHOT Greg Head Logging Marble, Ark. Email: greghead_61759@yahoo.com Founded: 1998 Owner: Greg Head No. Crews: 1 Employees: 2, with 1 contract hauler/loader man Equipment: 1 skidder, 2 chain saws Average Production: 10 loads/week Average Haul Distance: 100 miles Tidbit: Greg Head is involved in putting together a timber festival in Madison County with his friend and customer, Jerry Whittmore, as a charitable fund raiser for cancer research.

The reason why, he believes: “There is a lot more building going on now and the economy is a lot better, due to our new President, thank goodness.”

On that note, he’s heard that the softwood market may start coming up for the next few years, in part due to tariffs on softwood producers outside the U.S. that he hopes will result in a better local market. Meanwhile, the

Andrew Gardner trims and bucks ahead of the self-loading truck.

hardwood market, which accounts for the bulk of his business, is excellent at the moment, despite some recent troubles with red oak bore beetles.

Head Logging hauls to two different mills: Jerry Whittmore Timber, Inc., and Boston Mountain Dry Kiln, both in Huntsville. “I like both of them, so I try to split it up (production) and take one load to both mills

each day,” Head says. “I want to help them both out because they have both been really good to us.” Jerry Whittmore is also a logger (featured in the October 2018 issue of Southern Loggin’ Times), and Boston Mountain owner Stacy Easterling is the son of Gary Easterling, another wellknown logger in the area (the senior Easterling was also in SLT, in the November 2018 issue).

Head is strictly a hardwood man, hauling mostly red and white oak, with some walnut, but that’s a different market. He doesn’t even haul the walnut; his buyer comes to pick it up.

He has only one other regular market outside Whittmore and Boston Mountain; any white oak that is of high enough quality he saves for Independent Stave Co. in Lebanon, Mo., a 150-mile journey from Head’s terrain. Independent Stave has a buyer for this area who lives in St. Joe, 60 miles from Marble, and he makes the deal with Head whenever he has some white oak for staves.

The logger does some of his own timber buying, and also gets jobs through a broker. He always works on privately owned tracts with an average size of 80-100 acres. A standard tract takes the Head crew two or three months to finish, depending on how thick the timber is, how long it’s

The team works together to tackle routine repairs and maintenance on site.

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been since it was cut. “We work from as far east as Harrison to Silo Springs on the west, about a 100-miles radius,” Head says.

The tract he was working when SLT visited was just over 100 acres, situated 20 miles from the Missouri line. The wood was at the end of a cow pasture, with cattle roaming freely around the loader ramp and the trail back to the paved road; the owner leased the land out to a beef cattle farm for grazing. “There are areas of timber hollers in the middle of fields, and this is one section

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they haven’t cleaned off cut,” Head says. “It had been cut through 22 years ago, and now we are going back through and cutting the big stuff out of it, 16-18 in. at the stump. In 15 or 20 years they will get another cut out of it.”

Generally, since he does only select cutting, no clearing, and always on natural growth, Head leaves it to the landowner’s discretion as to the thinning prescription.

For instance, they might leave anything under 16 in. at the stump. If timber hadn’t been cut in a long

time, he says, then the stumpage goes up, so on some tracts they don’t cut anything smaller than 24 or even 28 in.

Head laments the knowledge gap suffered by the general populace regarding where and how they get the goods and products enjoyed and even demanded by so many…especially when it comes to wood products. “Timber will last only so long and then start dying if you don’t cut it,” he notes. “A good tract of timber has to be managed just like a crop. If you manage it responsibly,

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you get a lot of use out of it and still have good timber.”

Background Though his father worked for the highway department, Head still went to work in the woods when he was only nine years old, in the late 1960s.

One of his neighbors, Freddy Hargis, had a logging business, and hired the boy to follow a mule during his summer and spring break vacations from school. That was his introduction to skidding wood. As he grew into adulthood, Head worked for a few different loggers, including various members of the Hargis clan. He viewed it all as a learning experience. “They taught me a bunch,” he reflects. About 20 years ago he decided he was ready to get into it for himself, buying a skidder and hiring a man to haul for him, and he’s been doing it that way ever since.

Head has been married to his wife Kathy for 39 years; their anniversary is in January. They have two kids: son Jarred, 34, who came to work in the woods right out of high school, and daughter Kristy Woods, who lives in Compton, Ark. They have four grandkids, two boys and two girls, ages 5, 6, 12 and 13.

The logger has also had and continues to have an active life outside the woods. In 1977 he joined the National Guard, where he served for 15 years, 6 months and 14 days, including deployment in Desert Shield/Desert Storm in 1990-1991.

These days he spends most of his off-time fishing for bass and hunting for deer.

Another activity: Head works with Jerry Whittmore, fellow logger and owner of the Whittmore Timber mill, to produce and promote a saw competition in Huntsville, proceeds from which benefit breast cancer research for the Madison County Health Coalition in Huntsville. It’s a big job putting it all together. “Last year we had a big one,” Head says.

“We had saw carvers, a good band, and lots of sponsors and dealers that brought in equipment and trucks.

We had a loading competition from Ozark Machinery. They really helped us a bunch.” Another event is currently being planned for 2019.

Looking to the future, Head has no plans to expand his operation. “I think we’ll keep doing it like what we are, and always keep an eye out for different markets on better grade butt logs, or walnut. I like staying small. That way I get to spend more time with the landowners and get a better feel for how they want it done. We don’t have to be in a big hurry. This way, this pace, it is safer and helps save on equipment and the profit margin.

I’ve been through that big payment SLT deal, and that’s no fun.”

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Heavenly Truths Creative Help Wanted Ad: —God doesn’t propose Logging Workers Needed to judge a person until after death. So why should you? Lake Fork area. Do not apply if you over—We’re called to be wit- sleep, are in court a lot, do not have a babysitter every day, have to hitch a ride to nesses, not lawyers or work, experience flat tires every week, clutch judges. a cell phone all day, or will become an expert —Be ye fishers of men.

You catch ’em, He’ll clean at your job after the first week and will have no need to learn or take advice thereafter. ’em.

Must be able to talk and work at the same —Coincidence is when time; must remember to get back to work God chooses to remain after lunch. Should not expect to receive gold anonymous. stars for being on time. If you qualify, leave —Don’t put a question name and number at 999-999-9999. mark where God puts a period.

—Don’t wait for six men to take you to church.

—Forbidden fruits create many jams.

—God doesn’t call the qualified; He qualifies the called.

—God grades on the cross, not the curve.

—Many folks want to serve God, but only as advisers.

—It’s easier to preach 10 sermons than it is to live only one.

—When you get to your wit’s end, you’ll find God lives there.

—God loves everyone, but probably prefers ‘fruits of the spirit’ over ‘religious nuts!’

—God promises a safe landing, not a calm passage.

—If God is your co-pilot, swap seats!

—Don’t give God instructions, just report for duty!

—The task ahead of us is never as great as the Power behind us.

—The will of God never takes you to where the grace of God will not protect you.

—We don’t change the message; the message changes us.

—Life without God is like an unsharpened pencil: it has no point.

—The best mathematical equation ever: 1 cross + 3 nails = 4 given.

What Gender Is A Computer?

A Spanish teacher was explaining to her class that in Spanish, unlike English, nouns are designated as either masculine or feminine. For instance, ‘house’ is feminine: ‘la casa;’ while ‘pencil’ is masculine: ‘el lapiz.’

A student asked, “What gender is ‘computer’?” Instead of giving the answer, the teacher split the class into male and female groups and asked them to decide for themselves whether ‘computer’ should be a masculine or a feminine noun. Each group was asked to give four reasons for its recommendation.

The men’s group decided that ‘computer’ should definitely be of the feminine gender (‘la computadora’), because: 1. No one but their creator understands their internal logic.

2. The native language they use to communicate with other computers is incomprehensible to everyone else.

3. Even the smallest mistakes are stored in long-term memory for possible later retrieval.

4. As soon as you make a commitment to one, you find yourself spending half your pay check on accessories for it.

The women’s group, however, concluded that computers should be masculine (‘el computador’), because: 1. In order to do anything with them, you have to turn them on.

2. They have a lot of data but still can’t think for themselves.

3. They are supposed to help you solve problems, but half the time they are the problem.

4. As soon as you commit to one, you realize that if you had waited a little longer, you could have gotten a better model.

The women won!

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Random Thoughts Starbucks is thinking seriously about selling beer and wine. Apparently, it’s becoming difficult to sell sober people a $12 cup of coffee.

What about the low gas prices of late? I got gas the other day for only $1.39. Unfortunately, it was at Taco Bell.

Do you ever go out, and while you’re out, you think, “This is exactly why I don’t go out?”

If you tell the truth, you don’t have to remember anything.

A closed mouth gathers no foot.

Lies are like pain killers: they give you relief but have many side effects.

A car’s weakest part is the nut holding the steering wheel.

Never test the depth of the water with both feet.

Not everything you observe in life is what it appears to be.

Experience is something you don’t get until just after you need it.

Some people are kind, polite, and thoughtful—until you try to sit in ‘their’ church pew.

People generally fall into three categories in that most seek the front of the bus, the middle of the road and the back of the church.

Opportunity may knock once, but temptation bangs on the front door forever.

He who angers you, controls you!

Peace starts with a smile.

You can tell how big a person is by what it takes to discourage him/her.

There is no greater treasure than a good friend!

Children On Marriage Q. How do you decide who to marry?

A. Find somebody who likes the same stuff as you. If you like sports, she should like it that you like sports, and she should keep the chips and dip coming.—Alan, age 10 A. No person really decides before they grow up who they’re going to marry. God decides it all way before, and you find out later who you’re stuck with.—Kristen, age 10 Q. What is the right age to marry?

A. I’d say 23 because you know the person forever by then.—Camille, age 10 Q. How can a stranger tell if two people are married?

A. You might have to guess, based on whether they seem to be yelling at the same kids.—Derrick, age 8 Q. What do you think your mom and dad have in common?

A. Both don’t want any more kids.—Lori, age 8 Q. What do most people do on a date?

A. Dates are for having fun, and people should use them to get to know each other. Even boys have something to say if you listen long enough.— Lynnette, age 8 A. On the first date they just tell each other lies and that usually gets them interested enough to go for a second date.—Martin, age 10 Q. When is it okay to kiss someone?

A. When they are rich.—Pam, age 7 A. The law says you have to be 18, so I wouldn’t want to mess with that.

—Curt, age 7 A. The rule goes like this: If you kiss someone then you should marry them and have kids with them. It’s the right thing to do.—Howard, age 8 Q. Is it better to be single or married?

A. It’s better for girls to be single but not for boys. Boys need someone to clean up after them. —Anita, age 9 (bless you child) Q. How would the world be different if people didn’t get married?

A. There sure would be a lot of kids to explain, wouldn’t there? —Kelvin, age 8 Q. How would you make a marriage work?

A. Tell your wife that she looks pretty, even if she looks like a dump truck.

—Ricky, age 9

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It Takes Three ■ South Carolina’s Williams’ family of companies was the TH 2018 Logging Business Of The Year.

By Jessica Johnson JOHNSTON, SC ollowing each of ★ the three’s graduation from college, siblings Martha Williams Sanders, Reg Williams and Tim Williams have taken the reins of their father’s two-crew logging operation and built a successful empire in South Carolina that now includes a timber procurement company employing 20 harvesting crews (10 of which are Williams company crews), a trucking company with 40 power units and dedicat-

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ed dispatcher, two full service NAPA auto parts stores with Stihl dealerships and a variety of other diversified interests.

At five years old Tim was the boss of the family’s peach field in Edgefield, SC; and by five Reg was telling a mechanic how to fix something, according to their sister Martha. When combined with her leadership skills, the three have worked tirelessly to build their family business to an empire by and large under the radar. Each of the three handles a different aspect of the operation, which employs over 130, including Tim’s wife Susan,

The Williams family: Elaine and Theo Williams, front; from left, behind, Susan Williams, Tim Williams, Martha W. Sanders, Reg Williams and Deanna Williams

Loader operators strive to have loads sorted and ready for trucks as soon as they return to the dock.

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Reg’s wife Deanna and the ones who started it all, Elaine and Theo Williams—their parents.

Elaine and Theo built a dependable business, a single cut/skid/load crew. Once Tim and Reg finished their degrees in the ’90s from Presbyterian College and Clemson, respectively, they returned home to help with the woods crew and the peach field. Martha spent 10 years working outside of the family, following her graduation from Presbyterian. When her daughter was born, she decided to come home and help her mother with errand running and bookwork.

Things started to drastically change in ’97 when a second Log Creek crew was added. From there, growth happened at a relatively aggressive clip. A decade after starting the second crew, Log Creek was operating four in-woods crews and buying its own wood.

Once things began to grow aggressively, the siblings realized it was difficult to keep everything under one banner company for insurance and liability. It was ultimately decided to operate everything separately. Log Creek Timber Co. is the company that employs

NUTS & BOLTS

Upgrades to larger, more efficient skidders have improved production and reduced costs.

ticket processors, foresters and logging crews. Log Creek Thinning owns the in-woods equipment and employs the logging crews. Log Creek Logging, the company that does business as Felix Transport, is the trucking company.

Tim handles daily in-woods operations and managing the procurement team. Martha handles all paperwork and management of office staff. Reg is the self-proclaimed behind the scenes guy, keeping the wheels moving forward. Reg is also the one who, as Martha says, is plugged into the outside—serving the industry via the South Carolina Forestry Assn., presiding as Chairman in 2016-17.

Reg’s involvement with outside groups helps Martha anticipate and prepare for upcoming changes, especially with trucking. With operating so many trucks and trailers, Log Creek has seen its fair share of DOT audits—and overseeing them is part of Reg’s responsibility.

A lack of loggers in the area forced Log Creek to grow its company crews over time to help fill in the gaps for its timber company. In order to move the wood, instead of relying on more contract crews, the siblings added more of their own.

Crews work mainly on pine plantations within an 80-mile radius of the Johnston compound—though most tracts are within 50 to 60 miles. Most all of the crews are three-man operations. Company crews make use of two floating skidders and two floating saw men that move day to day, sometimes week to week, whatever is needed to get the job done. Each crew has a dedicated foreman, and Log Creek has a lead skidder that travels between the crews.

In total, Log Creek has 13 skidders, 10 running full time, two floaters and one spare. Ten fellerbunchers run most every day, with

one spare. Ten of 12 loaders run full-time, with the other two being used primarily for little tracts Log Creek might cut out for family and friends. The crew also has a few skid steers with street sweepers and two motorgraders to built roads and do BMP work.

Five full-time mechanics and one shop manager (who is responsible for coordinating and running the shop as well as managing the mechanics and helps with purchasing the equipment) keep the companies wheels moving.

Low trucking rates and extremely high insurance rates forced Log Creek to lay out a significant investment in their trucking arm, Felix Transport. In the summer of 2017, the siblings made the decision to expand the trucking operation to 40 company-owned trucks and just 10 contract haulers.

For the last four years, Log Creek has had a full-time dispatcher managing company trucks and assisting with contract trucks.

Now that Log Creek operates 40 company trucks, the role of the dispatcher has grown, and is now aided by someone who explicitly stays current on DOT regulations and making sure Log Creek trucks are compliant. Each power unit is outfitted with Verizon fleet management GPS, which is how dispatch is able to monitor wood flow. Inside the dispatch center is one large main monitor with four sub-monitors, all designed to maximize the loaded miles the trucks haul within the day.

While each of the siblings’ children are fairly young, the future of the company is not uncertain. While this may not seem like a mom and pop family business anymore, Log Creek is still 100% owned by the Williams family. However, strides have been taken over the last several years to set things in motion so that Log Creek and the family of

Production breakdown: 85% pine, 15% hardwood Equipment: —10 John Deere 748L skidders —3 John Deere 748H skidders —1 John Deere 437E loader —6 John Deere 437D loaders —5 Tigercat 234 B loaders —2 John Deere 843L cutters —3 John Deere 843K cutters —1 Tigercat 724 cutter —4 Tigercat 720E cutters —1 Tigercat 718E cutter Dealers: Flint Equipment Co, Tidewater Equipment; Shealy Truck Center; GCR; Whitehead Tire Preferred Tire Brands: Firestone; Bridgestone Fuel Consumption: 18,000 gal. of fuel per week Present Markets: Paper mills include Resolute-Catawba, IPEastover, IP-Augusta and Resolute (formerly Abitibi)-Augusta, plus GP-McCormick, Kinard Post-Ehrhardt and EnvivaGreenwood. Plywood mills include GP-Prosperity and Boise Cascade-Chester. Pine sawmills include West FraserNewberry, West Fraser-Augusta, GP-Prosperity, Collums Lumber-Allendale, Cameron Lumber-Cameron, The TimbermenCamak, Pollard LumberAppling and King Lumber-Liberty. Hardwood sawmills include Beasley Forest Products-Hazlehurst, Battle LumberWadley, Beal LumberJonesville, Clendenin LumberDonalds, Durham and Dunn Lumber-Pickens. Chip mills include IP-Silverstreet, IP-Hardcash, Evergreen-Kinards and Capps-Easley. Less frequent markets include Norbord OSBJoanna and GP OSB-Allendale, plus the pole mills of McFarland/Cascade, SC Pole and Piling and Koppers. companies will be able to continue regardless of death or retirement.

This was spurred by the sudden and accidental death of a key employee. For Martha, everything changed after that. She says the Monday morning following his accident was a wake up call when they couldn’t call him and ask him anything. It changed her perspective.

Now, a plan is in place so that if Tim or Reg or Martha don’t show up tomorrow, the company can still function. Taking care of the employees in this manner is extremely SLT important to the siblings.

A version of this story appeared in Southern Loggin’ Times sister publication, Timber Harvesting September-October 2018.

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INDUSTRY NEWS ROUNDUP

As We See It: Fire Issues Require Focus On Solutions

By Chris Potts As debate rages over the cause of catastrophic wildfires, the American Loggers Council (ALC) says it’s time to put partisan politics aside Potts and focus on solutions that reduce the risks to lives, property and natural resources.

“President Trump blamed poor forest management for wildfires in California and throughout the West, and there is truth to statements he has made,” said ALC Executive Vice President Daniel Dructor. “Others focus solely on climate change, but there is truth that drought and changing conditions are contributing to the problem. It’s time to rise above political posturing and recognize that active forest management—including logging, thinning, grazing and controlled burning—are tools that can and must be used to reduce fire risks and help mitigate the impacts to landscapes.”

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In California and many states, the forests most prone to catastrophic wildfires are owned by the federal government. Approximately 60-80 million acres of national forest lands are at a high, to very high, risk of catastrophic wildfire. Data from the Forest Service indicates that thinning and prescribed burns reduce wildfire intensity and improve forest health, yet only a small fraction of high-risk acres are being treated. To increase the pace and scale of needed treatments, Dructor says the Trump Administration and Congress should expand public-private partnerships to efficiently and effectively manage forests at risk of catastrophic wildfire, insect infestations and disease.

“The federal government does not have resources to treat every forest by itself,” Dructor said. “Yet America’s forest sector has the infrastructure to manage and improve the health of our federal forests. The raw excess material from overgrown forests can provide renewable energy and a number of

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American-made products and provide thousands of family-wage jobs.

“It is no accident that the Forest Service is struggling to reduce fire risks in places such as California and the southwest, where this infra-

structure has been allowed to disappear due to the decline of timber harvests on federal lands,” he added. By partnering with the private sector on economical forest projects, the federal government

can not only reduce the risks but also have additional resources to support other values such as expanding recreation on public lands and protecting and enhancing wildlife habitat.

ALC strongly supports forest management reforms that enable federal land managers to implement proactive and science-based forest management activities. Congress should include such reforms in the next Farm Bill, as well as give federal agencies the resources they need to confront the country’s wildfire crisis.

Loggers are America’s ‘boots on the ground’ to conserve our forests and reduce the risks of wildfire.

We work in the woods every day, we understand forestry and see the dangers every day, and we know what needs to be done. Without forests, we are out of business.

That’s why we’ll continue to work with Republicans and Democrats on needed reforms that will help to sustain our forests and protect our forests and communities from SLT wildfire.

Chris Potts is the owner of Potts Logging, Lafayette, Ala. The American Loggers Council is a 501(c)(6) not for profit trade association representing professional timber harvesters throughout the U.S. For more information please contact the American Loggers Council at 409-625-0206, email americanlogger@aol.com, web amloggers.com.

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LOGGING LIFE AT HOME Life’s New Chapter, A Happy Goodbye

By Deborah Smith Well folks, this will be my last article for SLT. Thank you for reading what I write, and thank you for encouraging me or Travis along the way. Travis and I are starting a new

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way of life called semi-retirement.

Kieth’s son bought our half of the business, and now Travis will work part time in the woods. He will work Monday-Wednesday, giving us more time than we have ever had to be together.

How we are looking forward to this adventure! We will have time.

Travis wants to build a small farm, help his sons with their businesses and teach his youngest son to raise goats. He even wants to take the girls to their piano lessons occasionally. And every time he sees a lake, Travis asks me if it would be OK if Jesse could skip school every now and then and go fishing. I think that’s a great idea.

The opportunity to semi-retire

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took us by surprise. We were asking ourselves, “Are we at this stage already? We still have kids to raise…” But yes, the timing is right and it’s here, now.

Logging has helped us raise 10 children. Travis and Keith have employed lots of great men. It has been a good, good way of life. And we are not completely out of the woods, Travis is just working as a hand with a lot less pressure and responsibility. He will still be in his world, still around his people, but not with the load that he was carrying as a partner.

To be honest, most of the time I’m so happy about this change in our lives, but then there are minutes of complete panic and wondering. But that doesn’t last long. We have, like many families, been under a lot of stress and I was praying for some relief, somewhere, but I sure didn’t see where that relief could come from. The buyout came in God’s perfect time for us. He knows how much we can handle, and He is faithful.

I bought Travis a gift to commemorate this new chapter in our life together. I was wandering around Sam’s Club because I needed to walk and it was raining outside. I saw it, and knew it was to be my gift to Travis: a 30-inch clock!

When he saw me dragging this huge clock out of the back of my tiny Sentra, he about doubled over laughing. “What have you bought?!” I explained, as he was still laughing more than I’ve seen him laugh in ages, that maybe we won’t have a lot of money, and we will have time. And money can’t buy time. It is also an inside joke of ours because he always asks me what time it is, even though he has

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an iPhone (FINALLY!) and there are clocks all over the house. So…this clock went on the wall directly across from daddy’s chair. He thought that was hilarious. I look forward to seeing him that happy over simple things, again and again.

Logging life has been and will continue to be a good, good life; we will just be going about it now a little differently. I look forward to the changes and the adventures to come and the time to just be together.

Special thanks to the team at Southern Loggin’ Times for publishing my work. You have made me a better writer; you have made a big difference in my life, personally, for the better. Thank you for what you do for loggers, and the encouragement that you extend to them. We will still be reading our monthly issues—on SLT our day off.

Murphy Retires From Nortrax Nortrax announced that President & CEO Tim Murphy has decided to retire from the company. Chris Holmes, vice president of product support and marketing, has been appointed to the position, effective January 1. Holmes will lead the Nortrax organization in the U.S. and Canada as it aims to further develop Nortrax locations.

“After a thorough and thoughtful succession planning process, Chris is the clear choice to lead Nortrax into

the future,” Murphy says.

Holmes began his career with John Deere and held roles of increasing responsibility in sales, marketing and customer support across Canada.

He was also in a leadership role at a major construction and forestry dealership in Ontario, Canada, which eventually became a part of Nortrax Canada. Since 2014, Holmes has served as Nortrax vice president of product support and marketing. In this position, he has successfully led the growth and development of the marketing, customer support and technology groups for the company.

Murphy started working for Nortrax in 2000 as vice president and general manager of the U.S. Midwest region. In 2013 he was named to his present position.

“It has been an honor to lead Nortrax over the last six years,” Murphy says. “Throughout this time I have been humbled by the commitment and hard work of our people, and their passion for truly providing the best equipment and support to customers.”

Previously Murphy was VP sales and marketing at Pioneer Machinery from 1996-2000; VP worldwide sales and marketing for Blount International Forestry and Industrial Equipment Div. from 1986-1996; and national sales manager, Hawker Siddeley Canada’s Forestry Equipment Div. from 1977-1986.

Nortrax, Inc., a John Deere company, operates John Deere construction and forestry dealerships throughout the U.S. and Canada.

Enviva Plans More Production The world’s biggest producer of wood pellets plans to grow bigger.

Enviva reports it expects to increase production capacity of its wood pellet plants in Northampton, NC and Southampton, Va. by 400,000 metric tons per year.

Enviva expects to invest $130 million in additional production assets and emissions control equipment.

Enviva expects completion of construction in early 2020 with startup shortly thereafter.

Bandit Completes Transition To ESOP Bandit Industries, which recently celebrated its 35th anniversary, has finalized its transition to a 100% ESOP (employee stock ownership plan). Former owners Mike Morey Sr., Dianne Morey and Jerry Morey had announced their intention to sell the company in an ESOP last summer.

The management team that has been guiding Bandit for the last 36

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several years will remain in place under the ESOP. “We’re excited to begin this new era in Bandit’s history,” says Jason Morey, Bandit’s North American sales manager and member of Bandit’s management board. “We continue to grow, expand and gain market.

We’re putting the finishing touches on two new building expansions that will increase our capacity and efficiency for our parts departments and final assembly.”

In addition to growing in capacity, Bandit has also been expanding its worldwide dealer network and customer base, growing in virtually every market share. Bandit recently announced a joint venture with German company ARJES GmbH, a producer of slow-speed shredders and crushers.

Scott Parks, the plant manager and member of Bandit’s management board, says the future looks bright.“I can see us continuing to grow because we work as a team here at Bandit,” he says. “It’s not just one person that does anything and everything, it’s teamwork.”

Jamie Morey, the Bandit parts and service manager and granddaughter of Mike and Dianne, comments, “As we move forward with Bandit now an ESOP company, myself and the rest of management are excited to keep pioneering and moving forward with the legacy that was left to all of us. As a granddaughter and management board member, I couldn’t be more proud of what Mike, Di and Jerry have chosen to do. It’s been a real honor to watch this company transform into what greatness it is today.”

Former owner Jerry Morey says the future of Bandit now belongs to its employees. “It’s going to be a great opportunity for all of our employees. They’ll all have a share in the business, with a lot of incentive to continue to add to what we’ve already built.”

first year of operation, 200,000 in the second year, and 240,000 in subsequent years.

New capital will also be used for CAPEX projects and to provide working capital for the mill to build inventory for sale into primary markets worldwide (Europe, Asia, Africa and the Caribbean).

Zilkha reports its black pellets have co-fired at rates up to 50% substitution for coal without changes to the processing equipment.

The plant has primarily procured in-woods fuel chips and some chip

mill clean chips, mostly southern yellow pine.

Dixie Pellets actually built the first pellet plant on the site in 2008, producing conventional pellets, but the venture failed, before Zilkha purchased it.

Loggers Aiding Hurricane Recovery When Hurricane Florence slammed into North Carolina on September 14, as a Category 1 rainmaker, it

was clear that damage to the already rain-soaked state would be immense.

As the state continues the recovery process, two groups—the Carolina Loggers Assn.’s Logs for the Cause and NASCAR driver Brad Keselowski’s Checkered Flag Foundation’s United2gether–have joined forces with the St. Bernard Project (SBP) to help first responders and veterans impacted by the storm get one step closer to a Home for the Holidays.

“Every gift given through both the Logs for the Cause and United2

Alabama Pellet Plant Finds New Life Zilkha Biomass Fuels is making a comeback. The operation in Selma, Ala., which started up in 2015 producing “black” pellets, has completed new investment refinancing of nearly $60 million.

The operation is now called Zilkha Biomass Selma LLC. The money will be used to recommission and place the mill back in operation to produce black pellets as a substitute for coal to support power plant operations and production of renewable energy.

The mill is expected to start commercial operation in the first quarter of 2019. The mill will produce 60,000 metric tons in the Southern Loggin’ Times

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gether campaigns will go toward SBP’s efforts to rebuild homes for first responders and veterans throughout North Carolina who were impacted by Hurricane Florence,” says Ewell Smith, Executive Director of

the Carolina Loggers Assn., Henderson, NC. “While those affected have long since returned to work, the impact from this storm will be felt for years to come. The logging community in NC—one that was hit espe-

cially hard by the storm—is closeknit. We believe in giving back and paying it forward and helping to kick start the rebuilding process is the perfect place to start.”

Please contact Carolina Loggers

Assn. Executive Director Smith: esmith@ncloggers.com or call him at (504) 884-4585 for more information.

GP Will Expand Clarendon OSB Mill Clarendon OSB became a part of Georgia-Pacific’s Building Products Div. in 2010 when GP acquired the mill from Grant Forest Products.

The mill then underwent a $30 million construction project to complete the building of the facility and started up production in 2013.

Six years later, Clarendon OSB will soon be looking at a new 30,000 sq. ft. warehouse, a new laminating line and the installation of additional equipment. The $4.5 million investment driving this operational expansion is one of many investments made at Clarendon OSB in the past 12 months.

More than $6 million in capital has been invested at the location just this year.

These investments are intended to fulfill the company’s growing customer base, support a future 24/7 run schedule and accommodate future automatic guided vehicles.

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PRINT CLASSIFIED AD RATES: Print advertising rates are $50 per inch. Space is available by column inch only, one inch minimum.

DEADLINES: Ad reservation must be received by 10th of month prior to month of publication. Material must be received no later than 12th of month prior to month of publication.

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A D L I N K ●

ADVERTISER

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PG. NO.

PHONE NO.

American Logger’s Council

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409.625.0206

American Truck Parts

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Around The World Salvage

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BITCO Insurance

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Caterpillar Dealer Promotion

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John Deere Forestry

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Doggett Machinery Service

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Flint Equipment

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FMI Trailers

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Forest Chain

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Forestry First

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G & W Equipment

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Hawkins & Rawlinson

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Industrial Cleaning Equipment

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Interstate Tire Service

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Mid-Atlantic Logging & Biomass

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COMING EVENTS January

April

8-9—Missouri Forest Products Assn. winter meeting, Capitol Plaza, Jefferson City, Mo. Call 573634-3252; visit moforest.org.

2-4—Kentucky Forest Industries Assn. annual meeting, Embassy Suites, Lexington, Ky. Call 502695-3979; visit kfia.org.

February

30-May 3—Virginia Forestry Assn. Summit, Sheraton Norfolk Waterside, Norfolk. Call 804-2788733; visit vaforestry.org.

8-10—South Carolina Timber Producers Assn. annual meeting, DoubleTree Resort by Hilton, Myrtle Beach, SC. Call 800-371-2240; visit scloggers.com.

20-24—Appalachian Hardwood Manufacturers annual meeting, W Hotel, Fort Lauderdale, Fla. Call 336885-8315; visit appalachianwood.org.

May 3-4—Mid-Atlantic Logging & Biomass Expo, near Laurinburg, NC. Call 919-271-9050; visit malbexpo.com.

22-24—Carolina Loggers Assn. annual meeting, Hotel Ballast, Wilmington, NC. Call 828-4218444; visit ncloggers.com.

20-22—Forest Resources Assn. annual meeting, Oroni Amelia Island Plantation Resort, Amelia Island, Fla. Call 202-296-3937; visit forestresources.org.

March

June

7-9—Southeastern Wood Producers Assn. annual meeting, Okefenokee Fairgrounds and Exchange Club, Waycross, Ga. Call 904-845-7133; visit swpa.ag.

26-28—Forest Products Machinery & Equipment Expo, Georgia World Congress Center, Atlanta, Ga. Call 504-443-4464; visit sfpaexpo.com.

20-22—Hardwood Manufacturers Assn. National Conference & Expo, Hyatt Regency Savannah, Savannah, Ga. Call 412-244-0440; visit hmamembers.org.

southernloggintimes.com

ADLINK is a free service for advertisers and readers. The publisher assumes no liability for errors or omissions.

July 10-13—West Virginia Forestry Assn. annual meeting, Canaan Resort Conf. Center, Davis, W.Va. Call 681-265-5019; visit wvfa.org.

26-28—Georgia Forestry Assn. annual meeting, Westin Jekyll Island, Jekyll Island, Ga. Call 478992-8110; visit gfagrow.org.

August 20-22—Florida Forestry Assn. annual meeting, Sheraton Bay Point Resort, Panama City Beach, Fla. Call 850-222-5646; visit florida forest.org.

23-24—Southwest Forest Products Expo, Hot Springs Covention Center, Hot Springs, Ark. Call 501-2242232; visit arkloggers.com.

23-25—Virginia Loggers Assn. annual meeting, Homestead Resort, Hot Springs, Va. Call 804-6774290; visit valoggers.org.

27-29—Louisiana Forestry Assn. annual meeting, Golden Nugget, Lake Charles, La. Call 318-4432558; visit laforestry.com.

Listings are submitted months in advance.

Always verify dates and locations with contacts prior to making plans to attend.

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JANUARY 2019 ● Southern Loggin’ Times

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