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Vol. 51, No. 1

(Founded in 1972—Our 592nd Consecutive Issue)

F E AT U R E S out front:

January 2022 A Hatton-Brown Publication

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

www.southernloggintimes.com Publisher David H. Ramsey Chief Operating Officer Dianne C. Sullivan Editor-in-Chief Senior Editor Managing Editor Senior Associate Editor Associate Editor

Rich Donnell Dan Shell David Abbott Jessica Johnson Patrick Dunning

Publisher/Editor Emeritus David (DK) Knight

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Bearden Logging Tried And True

Art Director Ad Production Coordinator Circulation Director Online Content/Marketing

Cindy Segrest Patti Campbell Rhonda Thomas Jacqlyn Kirkland

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

Mississippi’s Eddie Harrison is a lover of Alabama football, forestry, family and race horses. His company, Eddie Inc., has been in operation 30+ years. The business-minded logger is plainspoken and outspoken when it comes to speaking up for the industry’s best interests, and he knows that loggers have to stand up for themselves and forge alliances with industry advocates in the political arena. Story begins on Page 8.

(Photo by David Abbott)

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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Spotlight On: Tires, Tracks, Etc.

Western Canada, Western USA

Stumpin’. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6

Tim Shaddick Tel: 604-910-1826 • Fax: 604-264-1367 4056 West 10th Ave. Vancouver, BC V6L 1Z1 E-mail: tootall1@shaw.ca

Bulletin Board . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24

Kevin Cook Tel: 604-619-1777 E-mail: lordkevincook@gmail.com

From The Backwoods Pew . . . . . . . 30 Industry News Roundup . . . . . . . . . 32 ForesTree Equipment Trader . . . . . 41

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 ® 2022. 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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JANUARY 2022 ● Southern Loggin’ Times

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SOUTHERN STUMPIN’

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

Riding High elcome to 2022! Let’s hope it’s not 2020-2: The Sequel.

Our first cover story of the new year, starting on page 8, focuses on Mississippi logger Eddie Harrison. Harrison will most assuredly be among those watching the college football playoffs this New Years Eve, and, if things go well for his preferred team, the National Championship game a week or so later as well. Once again, for the seventh time in the eight years the current system has existed, Alabama’s Crimson Tide will be in the playoffs, and Harrison is a dyed-in-the-wool Bama man.

The Tide capped off what had been a season of struggles with a near-miraculous last minute comeback to defeat in-state rival Auburn in the Thanksgiving weekend Iron Bowl, after four overtimes. A week after that—just last weekend as I’m writing this—Bama defied the predictions of most professional prognosticators by defeating previously undefeated (and seemingly undefeatable) Georgia to win the SEC Championship and yet another appearance in the College Football Playoffs. If the Tide beats Cincinnati, and Georgia overcomes Michigan, the two schools—coached by former colleagues Nick Saban and Kirby Smart—will have a rematch for the national title. Will Saban add another ring to his collection, or will Kirby finally vanquish his mentor? By the time this reaches your mailbox, we’ll know the answers.

So how did a guy born and bred in Mississippi become a die-hard Alabama fan, instead of a Rebel or a Bulldog? Blame it on the houndstooth. “The first football games I saw on TV were Alabama, and I can remember as a kid in the ’70s seeing Bear Bryant,” he recalls. “There was something

Stallings in 1992, a solitary oasis in the desert. The Smart was still Bama’s defensive coordinator Bama faithful had been through a long dry spell, before he replaced Mark Richt as UGA’s head wandering for decades in a wasteland of champicoach in 2016. onship-free mediocrity. So when the chance came Aside from football, horses continues to be to see his team play for the big trophy again at the Eddie’s great passion. He started racing quarter end of the 2009 season, Eddie took it. “They had horses in 2008, and keeps several on the racetrack been through a lot of hard years, and when they got circuit, running at four tracks in Louisiana all year. there, I just said I was going.”

“We have had some good ones,” he says. One was And he didn’t go alone. Eddie’s girlfriend at the time, Stephanie, was a cowgirl who had never been to a college football game. Eddie took her to her first, and as firsts go, this was a doozy: the 2009 BCS National Championship game, played on January 7, 2010 between the University of Alabama Crimson Tide and the University of Texas Longhorns at the historic Rose Bowl in Pasadena, Cali. This was Saban’s third year at Alabama and his Harrison loves horses. second national title as a head coach (he’d already picked up one ring in 2003 during his a champion mare for Louisiana and regional mare tenure at LSU). It would be his first of six national for the southeastern U.S. in 2012, and another won championships (so far, as of press time) at Bama, the championship for three-year-old geldings in and the start of his long reign (of terror, non-Bama 2020 for Louisiana. fans might say) at the top of the college football The mares that Eddie and Stephanie own stay at world over the past decade-plus. Tough to beat that a ranch in Louisiana, so the colts are Louisiana for a first game! accredited. When colts are weaned off their mothEddie managed to get tickets and flew with ers, they come home for a little over a year, then go Stephanie out to California for the game. They had to trainers at about 20 months old, Eddie explains. seats on the 40-yard line, just a few rows up from “We usually have from 5-10 at home, between the the field. “The Rose Bowl is a special place.” They babies and older horses, at all times,” Eddie says. spent the rest of the week in Las Vegas. Top that “We usually have from five to seven on the tracks for a date, fellas. “It was worth every dime that it and six or seven brood mares.” They also sell horscost, and it cost a bunch,” he laughs. es in Louisiana and Oklahoma.

Stephanie has learned to love football but she had always been a rodeo cow- 50 Years girl. That’s how she and Eddie Southern Loggin’ Times will mark 50 years since got together, in fact: their its first issue in October 2022; notice our 50th mutual love of horses. They anniversary logo on the cover. We plan for the Octhad actually known each for ober issue to be a special commemorative edition, about 10 years before they so be on the lookout for more information about started talking on a ride one that throughout the year as we look back on five weekend in the summer of decades of SLT. 2009, and that’s when they It’s fitting that in the first issue of this 50th annistarted dating, about six versary year, both of our featured loggers have remonths before their Rose cently marked significant anniversaries as well— Bowl trip.

Eddie Harrison, far right, with, from left, his nephew/employee Stephen Varner, PuckEddie turned 40 on Novem- Eddie Harrison’s company celebrated 30 years in ett Machinery salesman Jay Barrett, and Stephen's brother Harrison Varner (who business, while Bearden Logging (page 18) also ber 12, 2012, and they were works for Eddie's brother Jimmy) at the Bama/Ole Miss game this fall just had their 50th anniversary; they started the married two weeks after his year before SLT did. Both companies also still use about (him).” Eddie also attended a football camp birthday. “I always said I would wait to 40 to get some machine brands that remind us of the past: in Tuscaloosa during his senior year of high school, married,” he reveals. They went to Gatlinburg for Hydro-Ax, Prentice, and even Clark are representwhen Bill Curry was the Tide’s coach. “He was a their honeymoon, then ended the week in Atlanta ed this issue. good man, a real nice man.” for the SEC Championship Game that year beWhen did your business start? Was it around Those glory days under Bryant were a somewhat tween Alabama and Georgia (the first of many such 1972? If you’re also marking a big golden anniverdistant memory by the time Nick Saban brought matchups over the last decade). It was a nail biter sary soon, get in touch with us; we’d love to tell the Tide back to national prominence 27 years after game that came down to the last second, a true your story this year. the iconic Bear’s death, and 17 years after their classic in the ongoing series between these two SLT Till next time, excelsior! then-most recent national title under Coach Gene cross-divisional rivals. This was back when Kirby

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Plain Spoken ■ The logging business is not always so simple for a simple man like Eddie Harrison.

By David Abbott FOREST, Miss. ust over a year ago, Eddie Harrison, 49, ★ and his family celebrated the 30th anniversary of the business. Harrison and his brother Jimmy were partners when they started operations on January 1, 1991. The anniversary party on December 31, 2020, marked the completion of exactly 30 years of logging.

More than 100 guests attended the event, including fellow loggers and their crews, mill people, reps from Mack, Tigercat, Deere, Cat, several insurance companies—all people the Harrisons have done business with over the last three decades—not to mention two state senators and a few judges. Needless to say, the Harrison brothers have made some connections along the way.

Eddie’s company is, simply, Eddie Inc. “It started as a joke when my brother and I were partners,” Eddie recalls. “We had Ringgold Timber,

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Eddie, far right, with his brother Jimmy Harrison, far left, and their parents Lamar Harrison and Jennie Harrison, center

and when we incorporated, we had to have a name to put the trucks under. I always said I was going to incorporate myself, so as a joke he incorporated the trucking under my name.”

The original company the brothers started in ’91 was called L&L Log-

ging, because both their middle initials are L. They incorporated as Ringgold Timber (named for the community in which they lived) in 1994. When the brothers (amicably) parted ways in 2012, Jimmy took Ringgold Timber and Eddie, natural-

Eddie Harrison's nephew Stephen Varner in Weiler skidder; Harrison has been a Cat/Puckett customer for years and now has two Weiler pieces.

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ly, took Eddie Inc. Though they are in separate companies now, the brothers still work closely together because Eddie buys wood for Ringgold Timber.

Their dad Lamar had logged in the ’80s but quit at the end of 1990, just

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before his sons were getting started for themselves. He still hauled for Eddie and Jimmy, though, and their mom Jennie did the books for them until Eddie got married about 10 years ago.

Brands Eddie and Jimmy started at ages 19 and 20, and early on they used John Deere equipment from Warrior Tractor in Tuscaloosa, Ala.; owner Gene Taylor helped them get their first skidder financed in 1992. They also started running Prentice and Hydro-Ax machines back then, and have stayed loyal to the brands since.

Today, B&G Equipment and Stribling Equipment, both in Philadelphia, are his main equipment dealers for Tigercat and John Deere, respectively, while Puckett Machinery in Jackson and Meridian supply Cat/Weiler pieces.

In December, Puckett sold him a new Weiler B570 cutter when the motor went out on one of his older Cat 553Cs. Like most businesses these days, Puckett had to warn the logger to expect delays. “I told them I was in a bind, and they said the best-case scenario was two to three weeks,” he said. December 15 was the predicted date of delivery, but they told him that realistically it would be sometime in January. But, as it turned out, instead of the dreaded months-long supply chain backlog that has plagued many in the last year, Puckett got a new machine to Harrison in just a week. He took delivery on December 6—nine days ahead of schedule instead of a month behind. “They went out of their way to help me,” he acknowledges gratefully.

Harrison has enjoyed similarly positive experiences with his other dealers and counts many of them among his friends: Sean Doyle and Jay Barrett at Puckett, Scott Swanson and Richard Herron at Stribling, and Doug Bates and Debbie Webb at B&G, to name a few.

Between the two crews, Eddie

Stribling Equipment supplied Harrison with two Deere H series skidders, a 648 and a 748.

Harrison says the Tigercat from B&G Equipment has been a good skidder.

has multiple feller-bunchers: the new Weiler B570, another Cat 553C, a 670 Hydro-Ax, a Prentice 2570, and a John Deere 753J track cutter that runs as needed.

Eddie Inc. has a Weiler S450 skidder on one crew, backed up by a Deere 648, and a ’19 Tigercat 630E

Left to right: Eddie’s nephew Stephen Varner , Eddie Harrison and Eddie’s wife Stephanie Harrison

on the other crew, with a 748H Deere in reserve.

In December 2017, Harrison bought the last two 559C model loaders that Puckett had. These two serve as primary loaders, with two others, ’15 model Prentice 2384Cs (which is the same thing as the Cats but painted

different colors) as spares.

Harrison likes to keep a spare as a backup for every machine on each job—one newer backed up by one older—so they don’t have to lose much production when breakdowns occur.

“We don’t do as good on mainte-

Eddie with his cousin Johnny Jones, center, and brother Jimmy Harrison holding Cinch Harrison, Jimmy's son

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nance as we need to, but we are fixing to start doing better,” the logger predicts. “We have to do a better job of writing everything down.” As he points out, some machines get run more often than others. “That’s the bad thing about spares. The stuff you are running you keep up with, but the stuff nobody is really on, you don’t remember when you’ve done it.” Operators change oil every 400 hours in machines and in trucks every 10-12,000 miles.

It seems to Harrison that, if he had enough workers, the best scenario for each crew would be to have one cutter and one skidder feeding two loaders, getting 18-20 loads a day. “That is the most efficient way, and the only way to justify having these big skidders,” he opines. “If you only get 10 loads a day, you don’t need the big skidder; it is just a waste of diesel.

They burn a lot more fuel, and a lot of DEF.”

Markets Harrison tracks fuel consumption overall but doesn’t break down by each machine. “I’m a keep up with it in my head kind of person,” he says. “ I know that he loads 20-25 loads on a tank of fuel and I know those skidders burn on a long drag in that mud over a tank and a half a

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Puckett Machinery sold Harrison their last two 559C loaders four years ago.

day. This year the price of fuel has gone up on average about $2 a gallon more than it was last year, so I know it is going to cost me about $500,000 in straight diesel fuel.”

The logger continues, “That is coming out of timber I already bought, so there is nothing that can be done about it. The bad thing about having a lot of timber bought up is that very thing,” he cautions.

JANUARY 2022 l Southern Loggin’ Times

“I have enough timber bought right now that we can’t cut it all in two years. Hardwood timber is up right now and that helps on some of it; pine really hasn’t changed.”

Demand is picking up, he notes.

“Biewer opened up in Newton running 250 loads a day, four days a week, and a new one they’re building in Winona is within reach of where we cut a lot. North of here, Vicksburg

Forest Products has increased production. This the first year I don’t think we have been on quota.”

All the pine logs they cut go to Georgia Pacific in Taylorsville.

Smaller logs and chip-n-saw go to Biewer Lumber in Newton. Pulpwood goes to usually either GP in Leaf River or International Paper at Redwood; they don’t have a close pine pulpwood market. “We have to

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Crew, from left: Grady Embry, Stephen Varner, Paul Hunt

Two 2015 model Prentice knucklebooms back up the Cats.

haul pine pulpwood about 100 miles,” he says. Combined, his crews normally haul somewhere between 20-30 loads a day, including a load or two of pulp.

harvests before replanting; tops are the only pulpwood they haul.

They work mostly private land, and 40-50% of it is timber Eddie buys either by himself or with a partner. The rest comes from bid sales. Under Eddie Inc., he buys timber for his two crews and two others (his brother’s and his cousin’s companies).

Corn Pickin’ Two D6K2 dozers, a D4K2 and a D6T high track dozer along with a track hoe, motor grader and dump truck help with roadwork and site prep/maintenance. “We used to log mainly in hardwood swamps, so we had to have the big dozer to build roads through them,” Harrison says.

“About four years ago I decided I

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wanted to be a corn picker instead of a logger, so we converted to cutting pine plantations. It’s a totally different world.” He compares plantation clearing to row crop farming.

“It’s a routine, you get into it, the ground is dry. It’s easier to work, easier on equipment. And you don’t have to have nearly the knowledge you do when you’re cutting hardwood.”

Southern Loggin’ Times visited one of Eddie’s crews in November on a 35-year-old plantation. It was representative of stands they typically cut: fully mature, between 25-35 years old. They do no thinning, only final

JANUARY 2022 l Southern Loggin’ Times

Hauling Eddie Inc. has 10 Mack trucks; in December he replaced four ’16 models with five ’22s, and kept five ’20 models. All 10 have automatic

transmissions. “We order all our trucks with camel back suspensions; we don’t have any air ride trucks,” he says. Why? “They have upside down springs and will come out of the woods where nothing else will.

They are about $2,000 more than the air ride and probably a little heavier, but so much less upkeep to worry about. The main thing is they keep traction; they just keep coming where air ride trucks spin out.” He’s bought them in groups of five directly from Mack to get discounts of about $2,500 per truck. The plan going forward is to run each group about five years before rotating in a

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Hydro-Ax, Cat and Deere feller-bunchers work with a new Weiler cutter, added in December.

new set so they stay under warranty and about half of the trucks in his fleet are paid off at all times.

Eddie Inc. has 20+ trailers, poles and double bunks, from Magnolia, FMI and Pitts. Harrison plans to soon add Vulcan onboard scales to all of them. They ran scales in the ’90s but got away from it. The time is right to go back to it, he figures, because of new weight limit laws going into effect in Mississippi, raising the limit from 84,000 to 88,000 lbs. with a harvest permit, and a flat rate fine of $1,500 for anything over 92,000.

Eddie figures it won’t take many of those to take the profit out of a truck.

“To run new trucks and trailers, if you finance for three years and pay the driver well, there is no money in the truck,” the logger says. “It is necessary to move logs, but it is just a dead cost. We can make money logging, but the real money is made buying timber. If I didn’t have to I wouldn’t do anything but buy timber. But when you log it yourself you make more money off the timber.”

you don’t want to work hard this ain’t the place for you. I say you can do more with two or three good men than five sorry ones.”

Since Eddie Inc. has been short handed in recent months, some have been jumping back and forth between both jobs as needed, including Eddie’s nephew StephenVarner, who mans a cutter. Stephen grew up in Istanbul, Turkey, a city of 15 million—almost double the population of New York. That’s a long way from Mississippi, so he didn’t grow up around the woods, but this was what he wanted to do as soon as he was old enough.

Also on the Eddie Inc. crews is Paul Hunt, who drives a skidder; similar to Rutledge, he’s been with Eddie for 10 years straight, but his time with the Harrison family goes back to 1985, when he originally cut with power saws for Eddie’s

Crews Harrison says he hasn’t had much trouble finding and keeping drivers most of the time, but he lost several in just a few weeks this fall—one of whom had been with the logger for five years but decided to take an over-the-road job. With new trucks being added, Eddie Inc. is looking to hire three new drivers.

Harrison recently added five new Macks.

Truck drivers are Randy Rutledge (he has 16 consecutive years dad. In fact, he was one of the ones with Eddie but also worked for who taught Eddie how to run a saw.

Lamar in the early ’90s), Atley Grady Embry has operated a loader Mahawthey, Greg Gardner, Chris Jef- for Eddie Inc. for a long time, and, fcoat, Jeff Jones and James McNair. his employer says, is “darn good at Harrison has found it harder to cutting up logs, really darn good.” find good, reliable woods help than Relative newcomers Michael good drivers; he does have a few Thornberry and Chris Smith are who have been here a long time, but training on skidders and loaders. many others come and go. “They The biggest challenge is labor, might be here two weeks or six “hands down,” in Harrison’s experimonths but many won’t stay long ence, and has been for the last sevenough to get good at what they are eral years. If he had the labor he doing,” he laments. “A lot of them would be running three or four are young and don’t like to work all crews, he’s sure. day, so they jump to other things. If Hawkins and Rawlinson provides

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insurance for Eddie Inc.

Family, Hobbies Eddie and Johnny are active in their local Baptist church, Sulfur Springs. Their parents, both 75, have been involved in Gideons since the early ’80s, and Lamar has been a deacon in their church for 50 years. Jennie has been slowed down by an open-heart surgery, but Lamar still works daylight to dark six days a week, Eddie says. “That’s just what he does. We grew up working

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every day; till the day he dies, it’s what he will do.” Among other things, Lamar helps Eddie and his wife Stephanie look after 200 head of cattle.

The couple also owns racehorses at a ranch in Louisiana. “That’s what I love the best: running horses,” he says. “If I am going to throw money away, that’s where I will throw it away. There is a peace around them and I love to watch them.” Trail riding on the weekends is how Eddie and Stephanie got connected, in fact.

(Note: read more about Eddie and

JANUARY 2022 l Southern Loggin’ Times

Stephanie in Southern Stumpin’ on page 6.)

Speaking Up

Truck driver Randy Rutledge has worked for the Harrison family since the ’90s, and the last 16 years straight for Eddie Inc.

“I stay in my own world for the most part and see about what I have to of mine, but the times are changing,” Harrison notes. “We all sit and wait for someone else to do it but everybody is about to have to start working together on some of these issues.”

Harrison believes one of his best assets is his lawyer, Jenifer Branning, who is also a member of the Mississippi State Senate, representing parts of Leake, Neshoba and Winston Counties. “She is pro work force and does a lot of for us at the state capital,” Harrison says. “She supports the timber industry; they are in the landowning business and grow timber. She was involved in getting the weight limit raised. We have to get good people representing us like her who understand what we are trying to do.”

Though he protests that he lacks the finesse, the political correctness, to speak out for the industry, Harrison can articulate his positions as well as anyone. He points out, for instance, that all the taxes a business like his has to pay to the counties in which they work add up. “I pay the county $30,000 a year, not counting fuel,” he says. “We should not be treated like we don’t use that road or have a vote. If you pay that kind of tax in that county they should be trying to work with you. I own land in every county around here; in some of them I own a lot of land.

But they will treat you like you’re a criminal when you come in there and try to cut timber.”

He admits that loggers in general must do their part better than some do, especially at keeping public roads clean. That’s why he bought two Broce BW260 towable threewheel brooms from Puckett Machinery. And there are other ways loggers can help themselves, he says. “I have seen skidders on county roads; there’s no business having a skidder on a road. All it does is cause us trouble. We have all been in a bind where we need to work and done things we ought not to do, me included. But we all have to do a better job of helping our image.”

But, he adds, “I buy gravel on county roads; they should try to work with us if we are putting forth the effort to help keep that road maintained. We help pay for this infrastructure. The chicken trucks don’t have any problem with going down the road. Poultry is one of the biggest things in this part of the country and they can go anywhere they want to, no permits, no anything. It is kind of an uneven playSLT ing field, real uneven.”

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Built To Last ■ Northwest Georgia’s Bearden Logging knows a thing or two about overcoming obstacles.

By Patrick Dunning SUMMERVILLE, Ga. ★ Bearden Logging marked its 51st anniversary in December with Frank Bearden, 74, retiring at the end of 2021. His son, Greg Bearden, 54, has taken a leadership role in the company’s woods opera-

tion since overcoming leukemia and a heart attack shortly after while in remission. But the Bearden family, like their vintage woods equipment, is built to last.

Greg has a new appreciation for work and says it’s great to be back in the woods. Greg’s father and his son, Dalton Bearden, 26, handled in-woods responsibilities while he

Three generations of Beardens, from left: Dalton, Greg and Frank

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The Beardens still run vintage machines, including Timberjack and several Clarks like this one.

waged a four-year battle against leukemia that was capped by a successful stem cell transplant in 2017.

Greg is grateful to finish 2021 working alongside his father and son again since returning full-time to the woods October 21, 2020.

“I worked till the day I went to the hospital and they gave me two weeks to live. I just got back out here a few weeks ago,” he says.

“My son and dad were out here consistently the four years I was in and out of the hospital. I laid in bed a lot of days, watching them leave and come home. I was so weak after that stem cell transplant it took me six months to get out of bed. I told my doctor I have to get back to the woods.”

Greg went through 11 months of chemotherapy trying to eradicate the disease and spent four months in a hospital bed at Emory University Hospital in Atlanta. After five more months of chemotherapy and a bone marrow biopsy, doctors concluded the leukemia would come back in a year without stem cell treatment. A German donor provided the stem cells and the procedure took 30 minutes to complete.

“I went in November 7th, they did the transplant on the 10th and I was home on Valentine’s Day 2018,” Greg recalls. “They had to put a line in my chest, which didn’t take long, and gave me chemo to wipe out all my cancer cells. It took my body over a week to start taking hold of the new donor. I was having

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issues with my stomach, couldn’t move my hands or anything, my body was trying to reject the stem cells, but it ended up being successful.” Doctors advised Greg if the leukemia doesn’t come back in five years, his chances of getting it again are extremely low.

Old-fashioned Lineup The Beardens are an intuitive bunch who’ve purchased only a handful of tractors since Frank established Bearden Logging in 1971. In fact, the first machine Frank used to drag wood was a GI army truck from WWII he adapted to a skidder. The process of cutting the cab, welding together axles, fabricating the cab and adding a winch and boom took less than a month to complete and Frank utilized it for the first 12 years.

The retrofitted skidder used a straight-six GMC engine in its glory days but now sits on the family’s property as a relic of the past.

Frank bought his first skidder, a new ’83 Clark (Ranger) skidder, from Drew Bentley, who was working at West Georgia Equipment then. Greg says the almost 40-yearold skidder could have well over 30,000 hours logged now, but it’s

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Before John Deere was John Deere green...

impossible to know for certain because the hour gauge hasn’t worked in 20 years.

“You can tell which one is the oldest because it doesn’t have much paint on it,” Greg laughs.

Bearden Logging’s equipment lineup includes a ’83 Clark 666D skidder, ’89 Clark L667 skidder, ’91 Clark L66 skidder, ’95 Timberjack 450C grapple skidder, ’97 John

JANUARY 2022 ● Southern Loggin’ Times

Deere 843G cutter and ’92 Prentice 410D loader. All machinery except the ’83 model Clark was purchased in auctions at J.M. Wood Auction Co., Inc., in Montgomery, Ala. Frank and Greg lean towards older equipment because it’s easier to work on, and they believe Clark parts make upkeep and routine maintenance timely. In 1975 a new Clark cable skidder listed for $17,000, Greg

says, and in 1983 a Clark skidder was approximately $68,000. “It’s a lot to even buy tires for skidders right now.”

Frank spent six years as a mechanic at a Lincoln Ford car dealership in Summerville before founding the business in his early 20s.

“We can work on this equipment here. Newer machines are too computerized so we don’t like working

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on them,” Greg says. “We do almost all the maintenance ourselves. Dad can work on almost anything: transmissions, swapping motors, whatever.”

Maintaining older equipment is an arena the Beardens are talented in. They figure 99% of all their maintenance is performed in-house at the company’s 74x60 shop next to James H. “Sloppy” Floyd State Park, just outside of Summerville.

“Main thing with maintenance is just keeping up with our machines,”

Frank adds. “We bought John Deeres in the past, used to buy new sometimes but don’t really like to.

I’d rather run something till it fails.”

Of all Bearden Logging’s woods equipment, Frank has only replaced one machine’s engine: a Detroit motor in the 666D Clark skidder with a 5.9 Cummins engine. Now 15 years later, Greg says the machine still runs strong. The Beardens prefer Rotella 15W-40 and change oil every 250 hours, greasing their machines weekly.

Smith & Turner Equipment Inc., Gainesville, Ga., supplies the company with Clark parts. Yancey Bros.

Co., Calhoun, provides Prentice parts and they also shop often with Flint Equipment, Adairsville.

Operations When Southern Loggin’ Times caught up with Bearden Logging, the solo crew was conducting a clear-cut on a 70-acre block in Chattooga County. The tract was 75% planted Frank with the remains of his first machine, a modified Army truck/skidder

pine with some scattered hardwood bottoms. Frank was running the cutter felling a patch of 15year-old pines, with Dalton manning the skidder and Greg operating the loader at the landing. Greg says his markets are practically begging for wood right now.

“Everything is wide open right now; we haven’t had any issues with quotas or delivering product.”

Bearden Logging owns one company truck and keeps two to three contract trucks in rotation each week, hauling 25 loads weekly on average to four local mills.

The Beardens have contracted for JP Smith Lumber Co. Inc., Menlo, since 2001. They also haul pine pulpwood to International Paper, Rome, and WestRock, Stevenson, Ala. Hardwood pulpwood goes to Resolute Forest Products, Calhoun, Tenn.

Like many logging professionals, Frank Bearden caught the bug his first time in the woods. His uncles were harvesting shortwood along Taylor’s Ridge in northwest Georgia and invited 13-year-old Frank to tag along. Clutching a double-bladed axe, the young kid trimmed a 15 in. DBH blackjack oak one tired swing at a time as his uncles looked on.

“That was my first time in the woods,” Frank recalls the early 1950s. “They handed me an axe and told me to get to work.”

Greg adds, “The old GI skidder he built was the first machine he used in the woods. At the time he loaded shortwood by hand, then got a stick loader. I was four years old when he started logging.

That’s all I ever wanted to do.”

As Frank transitions to retirement after 50-plus years of logging, he plans to spend more time on his 400-acre farm with his 60 head of cattle. “I plan on fooling around a little bit on the farm,” he says. Frank previously spent around two hours after work feeding his cows in the dark. The newly forged fatherson duo of Greg and Dalton looks to build on the firm founSLT dation laid by Frank.

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Gotcha!

A preacher was reaching the end of his sermon when he said, “Now for next week, I need everyone to read Leviticus chapter 28. It ties into my next sermon.”

The next Sunday the preacher asked, “How many of you read Leviticus chapter 28?” Scores of hands went up. He smiled and said, “Folks, there is no 28th chapter to Leviticus. Now let me start my sermon on lying.”

Italian Mother

A Letter To My Boss I have enjoyed working here these past several years. You have paid me very well and given me benefits beyond belief. I get two to three months off each year and a pension plan that will pay my salary till the day I die and then pay my estate a one-year salary death bonus and then continue to pay my spouse my salary with increases until she or he dies, and a health plan that most people can only dream of having.

Despite this, I plan to take the next 12-18 months to find a new position. During this time, I will show up for work when it is convenient for me. And in addition, I fully expect to draw my full salary and all the other perks associated with my current job.

Oh yes, if my search for this new job proves fruitless, I will be coming back with no loss in pay or status. Before you say anything, remember that you have no choice in this matter. I can, and I will do this.

Sincerely, Senate and House members running for President in 2024

Anthony excitedly told his mother that he has fallen in love and will soon marry.

He said, “Just for fun, mama, I’m going to bring over three women and you try and guess which one I’m going to marry.” His mother agreed.

The next day he brought the beautiful women into the house, sat them down on the couch and they chatted for a while.

He then said, “Okay, mama, guess which one I plan to marry.”

Mama immediately replied, “The one on the right.”

“That’s amazing, mama. You’re right. How did you know?”

She clipped, “I don’t like her.”

Questions Without Answers

Hide The Necklace A 17-year-old boy was shopping at a department store in St. Cloud, Minn. The cashier was a Muslim lady who was wearing her headscarf. The boy was wearing a necklace with a cross on it.

She told him he would have to put his cross under his shirt because it offended her. He told her he would not do that. Then he told her that he thought she should take her hijab (headscarf) off. She then called for the manager.

The manager came out and told the boy to just put his cross under his shirt and everything would be fine. The boy again refused to do so, and at that point he left the items he had intended to purchase and walked out. Several customers in line behind him had heard the conversation and also left their carts full of items and walked out of the store!

Playing The Part

A little boy was in a relative’s wedding. As he was coming down the aisle he took two steps, stopped, and turned to the crowd, alternating between the bride’s side and groom’s side. While facing the crowd, he would put his hands up like claws and roar. So it went, step, step, roar, step, step, roar—all the way down the aisle. The crowd was near tears from laughing so hard by the time he reached the front. The little boy, however, was getting more and more distressed from all the laughing, and was also near tears by the time he reached the end of the aisle. When asked what he was doing, the child sniffed and said, “I was being the ring bear.”

1. If poison expires, is it more poisonous or is it no longer poisonous?

2. Which letter is silent in the word “Scent,” the S or the C? 3. Do twins ever realize that one of them was unplanned?

4. Why is the letter W, in English, called double U? Shouldn’t it be called A blind man walked into a lesbian bar by mistake. He sat down and double V? ordered a drink. He sipped it for a while and then announced that he had a 5. Maybe oxygen is slowly killing us and it just takes 75-100 years to fully blonde joke to tell. work.

The bar quickly went quiet.

6. Every time you clean something, With a deep voice, the woman sityou just make something else dirty. ting next to him said, “Before you tell 7. The word “swims” upside-down your joke, I’d just like to inform you is still “swims” that: 8. At a movie theater, which arm rest 1. The bartender is a blonde is yours? woman.

9. If people evolved from monkeys, 2. The bouncer is a blonde woman. why are monkeys still around?

3. I’m blonde, 6’ 2’’, 260 pounds 10. Why is there a ‘d’ in fridge, but and have a black belt in karate. not in refrigerator?

4. The woman next to me is also 11. Who knew what time it was blonde and a professional when the first clock was made? weightlifter.

12. Ever wonder why the word 5. The woman on your right is also funeral starts with fun? blonde and she’s a professional 13. Why isn’t a fireman called a wrestler. waterman?

So now that you know this, are 14. How come lipstick doesn’t do you sure you want to tell your what it says?

The Pee Dee River bottoms in South Carolina can grow some big, quality hardblonde joke?”

15. If a vegetarian eats vegetables, wood, as evidenced by these red and The blind man shook his head and what does a humanitarian eat? white oak specimens recently harvested said, “Oh. Well, never mind then.”

16. How do you get off a non-stop in the Cash Swamp in Chesterfield The woman laughed and said, “I flight?

County by the crew of Great Woods thought so; you don’t want to get 17. Why are goods sent by ship Companies LLC, Bennettsville, SC. Bob Lussier, GWC’s President and Operations Manager, reports, “It was the nicest hardyour butt kicked, do ya.” called cargo and those sent by truck wood tract I've cut in my 38-year career,” adding that some 30-plus ton loads conThe blind man replied, “No, it’s called shipment? tained only 4 to 5 logs. They were hauled to Long Island Lumber Co., Long Island, Va., not that, I just don’t want to have to 18. Why do we put cups in the dishfor conversion to crane mats. explain the joke five times.” washer and the dishes in the cupboard?

Blonde Joke Halted

Bob’s Big Boys

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Spotlight On: Tires, Tracks, Etc. S tires, tracks and chains to submit editorial.

outhern Loggin’ Times invited manufacturers of

Forest Chain Multi-Ring Forest Chain wide range of ring skidder chains are available in fixed ring, multi ring, and studded with 9⁄16", 5⁄8" or 3⁄4" tag chains to fit all popular tire sizes.

Designed to give as much as 60% more traction to your skidder, Forest Chain skidder chains provide quicker skid times, more production and increased bottom line profits. Forest Chain premium multi-ring heavy duty chains offer superior traction and are available in 9⁄16, 5⁄8, 3 ⁄4, 7⁄8 and 1 inch. The DoubleDiamond configured chains equipped with U-shaped studs are especially effective in the worst conditions: the deep biting lugs dig deeply into the terrain.

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Repairs are easy using common welding techniques and materials for longer life. Email forestchain@gmail.com or call 800-288-0887.

Olofsfors

Olofsfors is a Swedish based company founded in 1762 with North American operations in Brantford, Ontario, Canada. Olofsfors Inc. specializes in attachments and accessories for the cut-to-length machinery. The two main product lines are ECO-Tracks and Iggesund Forest.

Olofsfors is the market leader in bogie tracks for CTL machinery and wheel tracks for skid-

JANUARY 2022 ● Southern Loggin’ Times

ders and wheeled feller bunchers. Under the brand name, ECO-Tracks, Olofsfors offers a wide range of track models and linkage systems for various machine configurations and ground conditions. Most track models are now available in the next generation of curved cross members for increased flotation, less ground disturbance and easier machine turning.

The track assortment ranges from traction only, flotation only and all around. Along with 5 different link systems, Olofsfors has the most track options available on the market today. The link systems range from 22 mm (7⁄8") to 30 mm (1-3⁄16") with the 26 mm (1") being the most popular. The newest addition is a larger 29 mm (1-1⁄8") link system. It features a 29 mm (1-1⁄8") link and wider and thicker link hook for increased lifetime.

Olofsfors has 9 families of track models. The All Around tracks are ECO-Track and KovaX. Both models provide good traction along with good flotation. The Traction tracks include EX, OF and EVO with EX providing the most traction. The Flotation tracks consist of Baltic, U and CoverX. CoverX is the newest addition which features exceptional flotation along with good traction. The cross member sits higher on the tire and has raised ridges on the leading

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edges to increase the traction. Lastly is Combination where you can mix and match track profiles to get the perfect track.

For more product information, visit www.olofsfors.com

Wallingford’s

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, Maine.

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,

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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 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 Austria’s pewag group, a premium brand supplier of high-quality traction products for professionals. Pewag manufactures bogie tracks and single wheel tracks, engineered on experience and built in Europe. Pewag single wheel tracks are an alternative to tire chains for skidders, and many Southern logging professionals have found that they perform very well on soils found in their region. All of our pewag wheel tracks come complete with a fitting kit which includes tensioners and joining links for installation and

JANUARY 2022 ● Southern Loggin’ Times

adjustments. We are currently offering special introductory pricing. Give us a call at 207-4659575 or visit www.wallingfords.com to get more information.

BKT FS 216 is a bias tire that has a robust log design with optimum angle and wider width to enhance traction performance for loggers and skidders. It provides excellent cut and chip resistance under the most critical operating conditions and ensures maximum protection against possible damages at any time. It has a high load capacity with excellent selfcleaning properties. The FS 216 has superior durability for the toughest jobs and is designed with a reinforced bead to extend the tire’s lifecycle. The tire is available in many sizes and ply ratings to fit the right environment.

Please visit bkt-tires.com for more information.

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FROM THE BACKWOODS PEW

How Deep Is Your...

If you grew up as I did in the ’60s and ’70s, you probably filled in the missing word from the title based on the popular song sung by the Bee Gees. It was no Antill doubt a question to be asked, one of great importance. It was the question that needed to be answered. Some other questions that need to be known include: How deep is your…stump hole?

This is important information to know, as your foot feels no resistance as you walk through the woods. Plunging forward into the unseen hole, the question becomes very important to you. A shallow stump hole may drop you down a foot, and give you a jar, and possibly cause you to stumble. If the hole is two-feet deep, you will swear your knee is snapping in half. If the hole is without end, you pray someone in China doesn’t take your boot.

How deep is your…lunch bag?

When working out in remote areas, and your partner forgets to bring his lunch, it is surprising how shallow a lunch bag seems. If the partner is

young, and fresh out of college, or worse yet, still in college and eating noodles every night, the opportunity for him to reach his hand into your lunch bag will quickly reduce your lunch into a snack. That’s providing you can get your hand in quick enough to grab a can of beans.

How deep is your…tool box?

Out in the backwoods, you find you have a flat tire. Trying to find the one tool you need in a tool box can be a feat worthy of finding the Holy Grail. This is especially true if it is raining sideways and the river you have to cross is rising, and hordes of biting flies are attacking your neck. Not only will the needed tool hide in the very bottom, it will also change colors and shape.

How deep is your…voice?

When you find yourself setting a beaver trap in the opening of a lodge and a cottonmouth moccasin swims out through your legs into the creek behind, you will jump, and you will emit a half-scream, a half-stammer which is several octaves higher than you thought you were capable of.

How deep is your…road?

Maybe you haven’t had to drive across submerged roads, but some areas in the Coastal Plain have roads under water year-round.

These submerged roads, called fords, cross small creeks draining into larger rivers. They will at times throughout the year be covered by water of varying depths. Thus, how far underwater the road is becomes an important question. If you have water breaking over the hood of your truck, back up! (Just trust me on this one.) Is water coming in the side through your closed doors?

Back up and just trust me on that one too. Did you feel the front of your truck slide just a bit as you entered the current? Back up, back up now!

How deep is your…beaver pond? When water comes in over the top of your waders and it was not because you wanted to get cooled off and broken ice follows the water down your backside, just a hint, that water is too deep. Water depth around a beaver pond is measured as follows: “just right,” followed by “I will need dry clothes,” followed by “notify next of kin.”

How deep is your…chasm with God? “And besides all this, between us and you there is a great gulf fixed, so that those who want to pass

from here to you cannot, nor can those from there pass to us.”

—Luke 16:26 Jesus is teaching his followers of the condition of man without God, and of man who rejects and abandons his Creator. Jesus did not leave anything unknown as to the depths we have sunken.

How deep is your…sin? …who were dead in trespasses and sins, in which you once walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit who now works in the sons of disobedience, among whom also we all once conducted ourselves in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, just as the others.

—Ephesians 2:1b-3 Our condition is critical, the chasm is un-crossable; it is too deep, too wide, for us to cross. Our sins are too great, our guilt too heavy.

How deep is…HIS Love?

But God, who is rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in trespasses, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved), and raised us up together, and made us sit together in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, that in the ages to come He might show the exceeding riches of His grace in His kindness toward us in Christ Jesus.

—Ephesians 2:4-7 No hole is too deep. The hunger in our soul, he can satisfy. No tool in your possession can fix the problem. He hears your cry, the terror, the anguish, and the pain.

He sees a better road, a pathway he will walk with you. He will be there beside you, even in the difficult challenges you face, when these experiences threaten to overwhelm you. Because no chasm, no amount of sin, was too deep that HIS LOVE wasn’t greater. Jesus, the embodiment of his Father’s love, freely came to give himself for you and me, so that we might be overwhelmed by HIS LOVE. That we might know what we didn’t know; that in HIS LOVE is the freedom we so desperately seek; and in HIS LOVE we find the encouragement to take HIS LOVE to others who are asking SLT the same question.

Excerpted from Side Roads, Snares, and Souls Brad Antill, author, available at www.onatreeforestry.com

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INDUSTRY NEWS ROUNDUP of our life together manifested As We See It: Life Is A Christmas Tree ture in the ornaments hanging on each

By Scott Dane While in DC I had the opportunity to visit the National and Capitol Christmas Trees, a symbol of the Christmas season. I reflected upon the many symbolisms that the Christmas tree Dane

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represents and how it can display the true meaning of Christmas. Of course, the correlation to the logging industry was not missed either.

When I watch my wife decorate the Christmas tree, I can’t help but see the pic-

JANUARY 2022 l Southern Loggin’ Times

branch. The branches themselves represent the growth of our marriage and family.

There are two bears and a heart that says, “Scott and Melody – 1988,” the year we met. Then there is a crystal ornament with two doves that is inscribed “Our First Christmas – 1989,” the year we were married. In 1992 we added a

“Baby’s First Christmas” for the birth of our first son, and another “Baby’s First Christmas” ornament in 1994 for our second son. Homemade Popsicle stick ornaments with glued on buttons were made by the boys. Sand dollars and seashells hang on the tree from the years we lived on a tropical island. Ornaments from other areas mark travels to Maine, Minnesota and Arizona.

The “Nutcracker” ornament is a souvenir from attending the Nutcracker Ballet on Christmas. The ornaments on the Christmas tree chronicle the joyous events of our life and family. We added a new ornament with a “C” which represents our foster son.

The Christmas tree is a symbol of the Christmas holiday, which celebrates the birth of Jesus Christ.

The perpetual green of the evergreen represents the eternal life of our Lord and Savior. The Christmas tree lights are for the stars of the universe created by God. The gifts beneath the tree are worldly tokens of the blessings bestowed upon us, much like the frankincense, gold and myrrh brought as gifts to the baby Jesus.

Many years ago, I was working in the Persian Gulf and made ports of call to Oman, Bahrain and the United Arab Emirates. In the market there was frankincense and myrrh for sale. I bought some for Melody as a souvenir and to round out the gifts of frankincense, gold, and myrrh I bought an eternity ring that Melody wears as a wedding band.

These gifts brought to the baby Jesus represent the following: l Myrrh is an aromatic gum resin from a small shrubby tree that was used as a healing stimulant and as a burial spice. Myrrh, like frankincense, also is the sap from a tree that is hardened and then used. However, unlike frankincense, which is sweet, myrrh has a bitter taste to it. Myrrh was mostly used to embalm the dead because it had the property to preserve. It was also used as a perfume, an ingredient of holy ointments mentioned in Exodus, but its most practical use for Mary and Joseph would be its medical uses. Lastly, myrrh represents the bitter cup that Christ had to drink in suffering for our sins and the healing for us that his death brings. l Frankincense is a fragrant gum resin obtained from certain trees, frequently associated with myrrh. It was used in the making of perfume and in sacrifices. Frankincense is made by cutting a tree named “Arbor Thurisfrom” found in Persia, Arabia and India. It’s like

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a sap that is gathered and then dried for three months and becomes like a hardened resin or gum. Frankincense is used as a perfume but mostly it was burned as a sweet incense during worship. During the Exodus,

Aaron would burn frankincense at the alter as a sweet offering to the Lord. Practically frankincense would be a familiar smell to baby Jesus as this was the same God that was worshiped in the Old Testament. Sym-

bolically frankincense represented the divinity of Christ because as mentioned frankincense was burnt as an offering to God. l Gold represents kingship, the King that Christ is for us. It also represents the purification process we go through in our trials as a Christian. Gold is one of the only metals that when heated with fire will not lose anything of its nature, weight, color, or any other property. Genuine faith is the same way. Gold is used in scripture when talking about the strength of someone’s faith. Job refers to gold after he has been through all his trials. In Job 23:10, Job says, “But He knows where I am going. And when He tests me, I will come out as pure gold.”

But even these gifts, like those beneath our Christmas trees, pale in the light of the gift of forgiveness and eternal salvation given to us through Jesus Christ.

Atop the Christmas tree is a star depicting the star that the scripture tells us marked the birth of the Savior. The tree itself symbolizes our Lord and Savior. The branches reaching out like our Lord’s arms stretched out and nailed to the cross.

Hanging on those branches are the ornaments that represent our family, love and life. But without those blessings being supported by the branches they are just meaningless trinkets. This makes me remember that family, love and life are not complete without Christ as the center on which all the rest is built.

From myself and the American Loggers Council, I wish you each a Merry Christmas and encourage you to take a moment to reflect upon what and Who the “Christ”mas season celebrates.

Scott Dane is Executive Director of

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the American Loggers Council. ALC is a 501(c)(6) trade association representing the interests of timber harvesting and timber hauling businesses across the United States. For more information visit www.amloggers.com.

Beardsley Named SWPA Executive Director Southeastern Wood Producers Assn. (SWPA), a non-profit organization founded by loggers with a mission to represent and support professional timber harvesting businesses in Georgia and Florida, named Michael Beardsley as Executive Director, responsible for leading all aspects of the association and reporting to the executive board of directors.

Jerry Gray, Vice President of SWPA, says, “We are very excited to have Michael as our new Executive Director. I look forward to working with him as we lead our organization forward.”

Prior to joining SWPA, Beardsley served as Vice President for business development for Paragon Insurance Holdings’ North American Timber, Precision Manufacturing, Landscape & Arborist, Pest Control, Equipment Rental and Work Comp programs in the eastern half of the U.S. Beardsley also served as senior policy advisor for Natural Resources for Maine Governor Paul LePage, as a member of the U.S. Dept. of Energy & Dept. of Agriculture’s Biomass Research and Development (BR&D) Technical Advisory Committee, and as the national director of marketing and sales for Santee Risk Managers, providing insurance products to logging contractors nationwide. He also erved as the Executive Director of the Professional Logging Contractors of Maine.

“I am excited and honored to have been selected by the Southeastern Wood Producers Assn.’s board of directors for the opportunity to lead this dynamic organization and serves its more than 700 members,” Beardsley says.

“Since 1990, SWPA has been the leading voice for logging companies in Georgia and Florida. The SWPA’s primary objective is to protect the interests and stability of reputable harvesting-transport companies and to support proactive positions on issues that affect the forest products industry in Florida, Georgia and nationally and I look forward to building upon this legacy with SWPA’s board of directors, our members, and our staff.”

A graduate of Franklin & Marshall College in Pennsylvania with a Bachelor of Arts in sociology, and a minor in history, ➤ 36

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34 ➤Beardsley and his wife, Leslie are relocating to northern Florida.

ALC Seeks Additional PATHH Funding The need and success of the Pandemic Assistance for Timber Harvesters and Haulers (PATHH) was demonstrated by more than 5,600 applications representing eligibility for $385 million in aid, according to American Loggers Council. Unfortunately, this figure is nearly double the $200 million appropriated for the program.

As a result, the Farm Service Agency had to implement an assistance formula modification which

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resulted in reduced financial assistance ranging from 10%-57% compared to initial estimates. This adjustment was a necessary action to ensure that all eligible applicants received some level of assistance.

American Loggers Council anticipated this might be the case based on multiple economic impact studies conducted by ALC and the U.S. Forest Service, which indicated that COVID-19 induced negative economic impact to the timber industry exceeding $1 billion.

Upon this final determination the ALC traveled to Washington, DC and met with key Congressional Appropriations Committee members and expressed a need for supplemental funding to ensure full assistance is

JANUARY 2022 l Southern Loggin’ Times

provided to the timber industry as originally intended. This information and message was also conveyed to the White House.

ALC Executive Director Scott Dane, in a letter to Congress, while noting the success of PATHH, also pointed out that due to the adjustments “in many cases the amount of financial assistance was reduced to less than half of what the applicant would have been eligible for. As an example, an applicant that would have been eligible, based on their gross income loss multiplied by 80% (original formula), for $180,000 would have been limited to the maximumof $125,000.”

Dane noted that the new formula, due to the excess request for assis-

tance, limits the maximum to $75,000 and then applies a multiplier of 70.5% to that figure resulting in a maximum limit of $52,875. This is 42% of the original formula assistance level. Additionally, where the original assistance formula would have provided for 80% of the gross revenue loss, the new formula only provides 70.5% of the gross revenue loss.

“This level of need is evidence of the economic impact that the COVID-19 pandemic has had on the American timber industry,” Dane stated. “Multiple economic analysis reports indicated that the economic loss exceeded $1 billion. Now that the real economic need has been verified, and to meet the intent of Congress in providing adequate assistance to this vital industrial sector, a supplemental appropriation of $185 million (as per Farm Service Agency data) needs to be appropriated.”

Dane pointed out that additional supplemental appropriations have been provided for other disaster and assistance programs when the demand exceeded the initial funding appropriation.

“The American Loggers Council, and the timber industry that we represent, is extremely appreciative of the PATHH program assistance.

The program’s success has exceeded expectations and has received bi-partisan support in both the Senate and House, as well as administration support. Unfortunately, the success of the program has also revealed the extent of economic impact, loss and need within the timber industry sector. Therefore, the American Loggers Council respectfully requests an additional supplemental appropriation of $185 million.”

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Drax Plans More Wood Pellet Punch Major North America industrial wood pellet producer and United Kingdom-based wood biomass-based electricity producer Drax plans to expand biomass pellet production capacity.

The Group has 13 operational pellet plants with nameplate capacity of 4 million metric tons, plus another two plants currently commissioning which along with other developments/expansions will increase this to 5 million.

Drax is now targeting 8 million metric tons of production capacity by 2030. To deliver this additional capacity Drax is developing a pipeline of projects, principally focused on North America.

Underpinned by this expanded production capacity, Drax aims to double sales of biomass to third parties to 4 million metric tons by 2030, developing its market presence in Asia and Europe, facilitated by the creation of new business development teams in Tokyo and London.

Drax expects to sell all the biomass it produces, based on an appropriate market price, typically with long-term index-linked contracts.

Southern Loggin’ Times

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Morbark Reveals Wheel Loader Morbark, LLC, debuts the Rayco 4000AWL articulated wheel loader.

The 4000AWL is the second model in Rayco’s articulated wheel loader line and is designed to meet the material handling needs of landscape contractors, tree services, rental companies, municipalities, and agricultural businesses. This turf-friendly, highly maneuverable articulated wheel loader offers a light footprint and heavy workload.

The 4000AWL is outfitted with a standard skid steer attachment plate and can accommodate many attachments. The quick-attach system enables users to quickly and easily switch from a bucket to forks or other

tools for optimum on-the-job flexibility and performance.

The telescoping boom provides excellent lifting and dumping height, enabling loading on high-sided trucks and other applications that require extended reach. The 4000AWL has a maximum lift height (measured at the hinge pin) of 126” (320.7 cm). With its 48 HP (36-kW) Isuzu 4LE2T diesel engine, the 4000AWL generates a working lift capacity of 4000 lb (1814.4 kg).

The 4000AWL has been built with operator comfort and safety in mind, including a low-profile suspension seat within the ROPS/FOPS-certified roll cage. Open-air design provides a clear view of the worksite in all directions, and easy-to-use controls make these machines simple to operate.

Visit Morbark.com.

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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.

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CONTACT: Call Bridget DeVane at 334-699-7837, 800-669-5613, email bdevane7@hotmail.com or visit www.southernloggintimes.com

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Ready To Place Your Classified Ad? Call 334-699-7837, 800-669-5613 or email class@southernloggintimes.com for print ads.

In addition to new machines, CHAMBERS DELIMBINATOR, INC. now has factory reconditioned DeLimbinators. These units have been inspected, repaired, and updated as needed. Call us and we will help you select a DeLimbinator for your need.

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A D L I N K ●

ADVERTISER American Loggers Council American Truck Parts Around The World Salvage B & G Equipment Bandit Industries Big John Trailers BITCO Insurance BKT USA Caterpillar Dealer Promotion Cleanfix North America Eastern Surplus Flint Equipment FMI Trailers Forest Chain Forestry First Forestry Mutual Insurance Forestry Systems G & W Equipment G&R Manufactured Solutions Golden Rule Equipment Hawkins & Rawlinson Hitachi America Interstate Tire Service Kaufman Trailers NC Mike Ledkins Insurance Agency LMI-Tennessee Loadrite Southern Star Logger Associations Magnolia Trailers Maxi-Load Scale Systems Mid-Atlantic Logging & Biomass Midsouth Forestry Equipment Moore Logging Supply Morbark Olofsfors Pemberton Attachments Pitts Trailers Ponsse North America Prolenc Manufacturing Quadco Equipment Quality Equipment & Parts Southern Loggers Cooperative Stribling Equipment Tidewater Equipment Tigercat Industries Timberblade TraxPlus W & W Truck & Tractor Wallingford’s Waratah Forestry Attachments Waters International Trucks J M Wood Auction Yancey Brothers

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PHONE NO.

46 36 44 29 47 5 20 38 13 34 26 10 16 38 44 2 14 37 38 15 22 25 42 3 35 31 30 26 39 32 45 35 36 1,11 21 between 8 & 9 48 17 36 12 42 34 43 41,43 7 33 37 40 28 23 42 27 28

409.625.0206 888.383.8884 936.634.7210 601.656.7011 800.952.0178 800.771.4140 800.475.4477 888.660.0662 919.550.1201 855.738.3267 855.332.0500 229.888.1212 601.508.3333 800.288.0887 803.708.0624 800.849.7788 800.868.2559 800.284.9032 870.510.6580 717.933.4007 888.822.1173 914.332.1031 864.947.9208 336.790.6807 800.766.8349 800.467.0944 256.270.8775 800.738.2123 877.265.1486 919.271.9050 870.226.0000 888.754.5613 800.831.0042 519.754.2190 800.393.6688 800.321.8073 715.369.4833 877.563.8899 800.668.3340 386.487.3896 318.445.0750 855.781.9408 912.638.7726 519.753.2000 519.532.3283 601.635.5543 843.761.8220 800.323.3708 770.692.0380 601.693.4807 334.264.3265 800.282.1562

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

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JANUARY 2022 ● Southern Loggin’ Times

COMING EVENTS January

April

22—Southeastern Wood Producers Assn. annual meeting, Rainwater Conference Center, Valdosta, Ga. Call 904-845-7133; visit swpa.ag.

29-30—Mid-Atlantic Logging-Biomass-Landworks Expo, near Laurinburg, NC. Call 919-271-9050; visit loggingexpo.com.

February

May

25-27—South Carolina Timber Producers Assn. annual meeting, DoubleTree Resort by Hilton, Myrtle Beach, SC. Call 800-371-2240; visit scloggers.com.

20-21—Expo Richmond 2022, Richmond Raceway Complex, Richmond, Va. Call 804-737-5625; visit exporichmond.com.

March 3-6—Appalachian Hardwood Manufacturers annual meeting, The Diplomat Beach Resort, Hollywood, Fla. Call 336-885-8315; visit appalachianhardwood.org.

11-13—Carolina Loggers Assn. annual meeting, Hotel Ballast, Wilmington, NC. Call 828-4218444; visit ncloggers.com.

16-18—2022 SLMA & SFPA Spring Meeting & Expo, Hotel Monteleone, New Orleans, La. Call 504-4434464; visit slma.org.

29-30—Wood Bioenergy Conference & Expo, Omni Hotel at CNN Center, Atlanta, Ga. Call 334-834-1170; visit bioenergyshow.com.

29-31—Kentucky Forest Industries Assn. annual meeting, Embassy Suites, Lexington, Ky. Call 502-695-3979; visit kfia.org.

July 25-27—Appalachian Hardwood Manufacturers Summer Conference, The Homestead Resort, Hot Springs, Va. Call 336-885-8315; visit appalachianhardwood.org.

August 11-14—Virginia Loggers Assn. annual meeting, Williamsburg Lodge, Williamsburg, Va. Call 804-677-4290; visit valoggers.org.

23-26—IWF 2022, Georgia World Congress Center, Atlanta, Ga. Call 404-693-8333; visit iwfatlanta.com.

Listings are submitted months in advance.

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

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