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Vol. 48, No. 2
(Founded in 1972—Our 557th Consecutive Issue)
F E AT U R E S
February 2019 A Hatton-Brown Publication
Phone: 334-834-1170 Fax: 334-834-4525
www.southernloggintimes.com
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Ray Dotson Logging Life’s Dream Achieved
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L&R Enterprises Cobb Family Venture
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 Online Content Manager
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 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
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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Ashton-Lewis Lumber Doubled Drying Capacity
Southern Stumpin’ . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6 Bulletin Board . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30 Based in the Lynn Haven/Panama City vicinity, Florida logger Hayes Morris has spent the last few months cleaning up debris left in the wake of Hurricane Michael, which struck the area on October 10 last year. Story begins on Page 8. (Jessica Johnson photo)
Industry News Roundup . . . . . . . 36 Safety Focus . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46
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
ForesTree Equipment Trader . . . 47
CLASSIFIED ADVERTISING
Coming Events . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 54
Tel: 1-800-669-5613 • Tel 334-699-7837 Email: bdevane7@hotmail.com
Bridget DeVane
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
No Stopping Him n one of my favorite of their fingers or anywhere else. The songs, the band Alabama sings young man had ahead of him a about how you can’t keep a long and painful row to hoe, good man down. The logging relearning how to move and how industry is full of examples of to live, strengthening the musthis. I’ve said it before and I’m cles he could still use. It might sure this won’t be the last time I have been easy for a lot of peosay it: loggers are a breed apart. ple to give up, to call it a day on It’s in their blood, many of them living independently. But not are fond of saying, and in a way I this guy. At first he could barely think that’s true. It’s in their DNA. lift paperclips; by the end of his They seem to be born with this rehabilitation his strength and passion for the woods, and it’s in coordination had improved suffitheir nature to work hard. It’s not ciently that he was able to pull for money or glory, it’s for the the therapists off their feet. love of the work itself, and it’s the That wasn’t enough for him, work that often defines them. though. He wanted to get back to They’re not ordinary men. They work with his family. In 2005 he can’t be, because it takes someone was able to return to the woods. exceptional to do this job. The family modified the loader But there’s exceptional, and such that he could operate it then there’s exceptional. entirely with his arms, and Let me introduce you to Josh rigged a winch with which he Truck and loader modifications allowed Josh Woodcock to work despite spinal cord injuries. Woodcock, 34, Summersville, can pull himself into the cab Mo. Josh isn’t that different from the untold hun- spin on a back road. They had it up to about 118 from his truck, also modified so he can drive MPH when a tire blew, and Josh wasn’t wearing dreds of loggers I’ve written and read about in himself. On top of that, when he comes home at his seat belt. these pages in the last 14 years. He operates a night he does all the bookwork for the company. The car flipped; Josh actually went through the loader for his family’s company, Woodcock LogAnd he still manages to enjoy his great hobby: passenger door, and they think that’s when he ging, LLC, where he works with his dad and hunting. He has a rifle rigged with pneumatic three brothers. He spends his days in the cab of a broke his neck. His cousin was unharmed when device so that he can pull the trigger by blowing the car stopped. He found Josh lying face down 2002 model Timberjack 430B, sending out three into a tube. He killed two deer and was able to loads of mostly red and white oak a day on aver- in the mud on the side of the road, and he wasn’t go on an antelope hunt in Wyoming last year. responding. age. He’s also noticeably articulate when he There’s just no stopping this man. “What happened next was a miracle, a series of speaks, clearly educated and thoughtful. Raised What amazed me the most when I was talking in the Summersville Mennonite Church, Josh is a miracles, really, that kept me alive,” Josh says. The to Josh was his energy, his enthusiasm and his first person who came upon the scene of the acciman of faith and is actively involved in outreach attitude. There was no complaining, no feeling dent was a LifeLine flight nurse. He was off duty ministry to youth and prisoners. He teaches hissorry for himself. In fact, I don’t know how tory at the church school from which he received and just happened to be driving by. After that, a many times he talked about how lucky he is. hospital nurse happened by, followed by a surhis own education. Oh, and also, he’s a quadriLucky! Not just lucky, either, but grateful; he’s geon’s assistant. Three good Samaritans just happlegic, affected by paralysis in all four limbs. grateful to be alive, he’s grateful for his family pened to by riding by, and all of them had exactly Yes, you read that right. and his job. the skills needed to keep Josh in this world. As a kid, Josh attended the Summersville I know a lot of us who want to get angry at God, Josh wasn’t breathing, so the flight nurse, Jim Mennonite Church school, where he was able to asking why this or that in our lives doesn’t go the Lawrence, tried to administer CPR, but his jaw finish early, receiving his diploma at age 14. He way we want. Not Josh. He’s thanking God for the was clenched, shut tight. They got to work Macwent to work in construction, but knew he wantopportunity, and he finds ways to give back. That’s ed to start his own company. When he was 18, in Gyvering a makeshift tracheotomy using a huntwhy he teaches history classes at Summersville ing knife the RN had in her car and the outer 2003, he and his family went in together to form Mennonite School on Tuesday nights, and goes Woodcock Logging. They’d only had the compa- case of a ballpoint pen. Lawrence cut a hole in around speaking in churches and in prisons, sharhis throat, inserted the case and got him breathny operation for about nine months when Josh ing his story and hoping to encourage or inspire ing, four breaths a minute. But the case was fillhad his accident. people, maybe even turn someone’s life around. ing up with blood and the nurse figured he had “After you go in one of those prisons, when you 30 seconds left before he’d breathe his last. That walk back out, I tell you, my life feels pretty good Accident was just about the time the ambulance arrived. by comparison,” he told me. “We wanted to see how fast we could go,” Josh Surviving the accident, of course, was just the So, the next time you hear someone making an recalls now. They were just kids being kids, doing first step. His spine had been severed at the C5 excuse why they can’t work, or, the next time the kind of thing a lot of us have done in our vertebrae. Josh spent the next eight weeks at St. you’re tempted to make your own excuses or comyouth, me included. There were no drugs or alcoJohn’s Regional Health Center in Springfield, plaints about whatever might not be going to suit hol involved. It was January 23, 2004, and he and Mo., and another year in physical therapy. He you, do me a favor and try to think about Josh ➤ 42 his cousin decided to take his dad’s BMW for a had some movement in his arms, but not in his Woodcock. We could all use a little of his
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The Mightiest Winds ■ A cat 4 hurricane rips through close to 2 million acres of prime timberland in the Florida Panhandle. By Jessica Johnson PANAMA CITY, Fla. don’t ★ know where to start. The internet estimates the damage caused by Hurricane Michael, the category 4 hurricane that ripped across the Florida Panhandle on October 10, 2018, is greater than $15 billion right now. I don’t think that accounts for the nearly 2 million acres of prime timberland in the tri-state area of Florida, Alabama and Georgia that is currently laying on the ground in various con- Hayes Morris figurations literally rotting away. I spent three and a half hours rid- seven” when he was finally able to ing around the cities of Lynn Haven get out and assess damage outside and Panama City, Fla. and fought of his own street. That’s how he tears in January—90 days after the speaks of the days following Octostorm. When I met with Hayes Mor- ber 10, post storm day seven, post ris, logger and owner of timber storm day two, post storm day 45. dealership Morris Forest Products, The 20-mile-wide eye of the storm based in Lynn Haven, Fla., he told first hit in Mexico Beach, Fla. but me it was looking good compared quickly kept its strength and traveled to what it was like “post storm day right through the home Morris has
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“We all feel like we’ve been running a marathon for three straight months and doing it with limited resources,” Morris comments on the storm’s aftermath. known (and worked) his entire life. Michael devastated everything in the 40 miles across its path. Morris says he doesn’t know of a single building that didn’t sustain some sort of damage. His father, who lives in Jackson County, further up from Morris’ home in Bay County, closer to the Alabama line, still has a barn in a pond on his property. “A lot of people
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are just going to take the insurance settlement, if they had insurance on their property, and walk away,” Morris explains. The cost of rebuilding and the lack of jobs in the area from those business that are now piles of debris as well will be insurmountable for many. Driving around Lynn Haven and Panama City, you can see where buildings once stood on bustling roads and vibrant neighborhoods. Now, for every house that is still standing covered by a blue tarp, there is also a vacant lot with a pile of debris at the curb or a dumpster filled with what was someone’s home and all of their belongings. “That’s what has had to happen, scrape everything off into a dumpster,” Morris Timber Products forester Flint Norris says. Norris was one of the unlucky ones. Michael took everything he owned. Shortly after the storm, he had a Morris Timber Products excavator on his land to scrape and pile debris so he could begin rebuilding. While he has a good attitude about it
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For most of his career, Morris relied entirely on contract trucks, but now owns several of his own trucks as well.
now, laughing as he says he went on a hunting trip in December (post storm day 65) and “hunted like I was homeless.” In the immediate aftermath, though, he was devastated. Morris Timber Products didn’t have any losses on equipment and the shop is somewhat okay. All five of the company owned trucks and all four contract trucks did not end up with a tree on their trucks. For the first 25 years of being in business, Morris Timber Products used 100% contract trucking. Morris says now he’s just not able to make that work and he added company trucks in the last few years. “I am not really sure how we are going to make doing our own trucking work because the cost numbers are so skewed,” he admits, but in the grand scheme of things, he has a few other things to make work first. “People are just leaving and you can’t blame them,” Morris tells me and I honestly agree. Michael ripped a path so vast that most of the homes are rendered uninhabitable. Insurance claims are slow to process and while everyone is deal-
Two Cat track cutters with rotating heads allow operators to get trees laying on the ground.
ing with their personal losses, the businesses are also trying to fight their ways back. Many small businesses are just too devastated. I visited with a chain saw dealer—the only one who is still currently open as he was blessedly on the beach side of the storm and therefore basically untouched damage-wise— who explained that while he can’t keep saws in stock, he can also see
where tree guys, loggers and landscape crews have been completely gutted by workers leaving. Morris believes that there will be some loggers who close up shop in the area because they are near or at retirement and are tired. “We all feel like we’ve been running a marathon for three straight months and doing it with limited resources,” he adds.
But as to the in-woods help, or younger loggers? Morris just isn’t sure. Like so many things with the timber industry in the Panhandle now, Morris doesn’t even know what will happen next week, much less long term. Everything is a wait and see scenario; pray for the best, be prepared for the worst. Beard Equipment, the John Deere dealership for the area, sustained
Hurricane Michael laid waste to the woods in a 40-mile-wide stretch, and the difficulty of salvage efforts has been compounded by additional challenges, including wet ground and an insufficient number of people to tackle the problem. Morris has chosen to focus his efforts on helping small, private landowners.
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The logger says his production is down about 20% post-storm.
damage and is operating at a significantly slower pace. Thompson Tractor, the area’s Caterpillar dealer, is basically a shell. Morris laughs as he explains that there is no such thing as an in-stock part anymore. Things overnighted via any of the carriers is at best a crapshoot. The post office has a little trailer set up in its parking lot to help customers. Walgreens is dispensing medicine in the parking lot under a tent with a trailer. There are countless places like that. A family member of Norris owns a pizza and hot wing restaurant that was also spared from major damage. She was able to reopen shortly after the storm. In the month of November she sold close to $70,000 in pizza. Little else is open for a hot meal— lines for lunch are long and most places, if they are open, have been known to run out of food. I asked Morris how long it took him to wrap his brain around everything. His response? “Get back to me. I haven’t totally wrapped my brain around it. I was completely and utterly shell shocked for about three weeks.” He says he thinks every day about how they are going to have to deal with the community’s complete and total infrastructure collapse. Pile that on top of his anxiety of does he buy a new $350,000 shovel machine that may or may not be able to work in six months when the payment is four years long. Morris and many other loggers in the area were thinking they had about eight weeks after the storm to get the saw timber up off the ground before it would be blue stained, and rendered basically value-less pulpwood. Instead, the picture is quite different.
“Get back to me. I haven’t totally wrapped my brain around it. I was completely and utterly shell shocked for about three weeks.” widow maker. Morris notes that there just aren’t enough people that can come and cut them all down. As far as the eye can see the trees are either completely blown down or broken into triangle shapes. Many places look as if a buzz saw came straight through the plantation and cut everything at 12 ft. It is eerie. In places where Morris’ three crews,
two company owned shovel operations and one contractor, have been able to begin cleaning up and picking up, it looks like a clear-cut from the 1990s. A really, really bad clear-cut. Morris Timber Products is operating at the same level it was before the storm in terms of machinery, though production is down about 20%. Morris says he’s running the crews as hard as he can, and everyone is aware of the time sensitive nature of the work. The unfortunate part is that everything is time sensitive. Everyone needs things done immediately. Morris’ mechanic doesn’t have windows in his house. He has holes. “We made some bad assumptions at first,” Morris admits. “We were all of the opinion that the sawmills were going to be full forever and everything was going to be congested.” The exact opposite is true. Since the ground is so wet, most of the rubber tire crews cannot work anywhere but sand pine—a product no good to a sawmill—and shovel crews are in high demand as the mills are starving for wood. The nature of the work
is time-consuming though. Shovel operators must make mats for the skidders, and try to clean up stumps as possible. Morris has his Barko 595 track shovel machines outfitted with topping saws in order to also clear up trees that are broken to save the cutter some time. Morris has his shovel operator trying to handle cutting and pushing stumps as best as he can—with the agreement that stumps are going to be one of the biggest challenges to those who decide to replant. The crews aren’t having trouble finding something to do. Instead, Morris has been in regular contact with his go-to contract chipping crew
What’s Left Of The Woods The sight of the cities is disarming, but the woods are downright Biblical. It is quite literally impossible to find a spot that doesn’t have a 10
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Like most other businesses in the area, John Deere forestry dealer Beard Equipment suffered extensive damage.
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because of the volume—but the chipping crew is just too busy and backed up to hop over to Morris right now. The difficulty Morris’ crews are having is finding something that fits the product specifications that he wants to pursue that has enough diameter. Unfortunately, the bulk of juvenile timber in the area has all blown down and can’t be sorted. It will break when picked up. The Barko 595 track shovels with topping saws were purchased from Knight Foresty in Georgia in January—an essential purchase Morris says with so many trees down. Otherwise, the crew is making heavy use of two Caterpillar 521 track cutters, with Caterpillar 360 rotating saw heads, which allow operators to flip the head over and cut trees laying on the ground—another essential purchase, Morris thinks, for storm clean up, having purchased one in late October 2018. Morris tells me he didn’t think they would be shoveling as much with so many broken trees, but everywhere is wet, creating another layer of problems to a situation that resembles a Super Bowl seven-layer dip. The rest of Morris’ iron lineup includes a John Deere 748; a Caterpillar 525C; Cat 525D; two John Deere 437 loaders; Komatsu road
can get to quickest. A lot of it is mobilization; I don’t want to spend a lot of time moving way over there, when I’ve got a landowner right here,” he adds. As to the products, Morris is focusing on three sorts and that’s it: 5 in. chip-n-saw, 8 in. grade logs and pulpwood. Hauls are close—all less than 60 miles. The sawmills are taking treelength and 16 ft. 6 in. wood; the pellet plant and paper mills are taking smooth cut bunk wood and treelength. Morris and others are trying to get out as much as they can before it's too late.
grader, backhoe, excavator (used some as a backup shovel machine with a grapple) and bulldozer, as well as a John Deere road grader. Morris also has a Cat 320 DFM shovel, which he is selling to his regular contract crew to help them work on wetter ground and process storm wood more efficiently. When it came time to purchase another track shovel machine, Morris didn’t spend much time thinking—he says he knew he wanted another Barko, believing the undercarriage is the best on the market. As to where Morris is cutting, he’s tried to take care of those that have
traditionally been customers. But he admits, he has shied away from timber REITs, and made the decision to help smaller, private landowners. “The timber REITs are massive corporations that have a lot of resources and investments in a lot of places. When you’ve got a little old lady in Jackson County with 80 acres, that’s all she’s got. That’s her retirement. So, we’ve been hopping from private to private,” he tells me with a little bit of pride in his voice. Helping the smaller landowners is sort of like helping his neighbors. It is important to him and to the community. “I’m just trying to help those I
Timeline As we were riding to his second shovel crew, I asked Morris why additional logging crews from close by weren’t helping pick up the wood on the ground. With time being so sensitive, it made sense to me to get some extra helping hands, just like the construction industry has done with the homes and businesses. He candidly admitted it was another mistake the area loggers made in the beginning. In the beginning, local crews were worried that the mills would be swamped and they wanted to get their own trucks unloaded first. “This guy that works for me who lost his house and has to rebuild, he needs a job—
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bad. Real bad. So, we wanted to take care of our guys first. And they all agreed; no one argued. No one could predict the volume of rain and the way this thing has shaken out. If they lose their jobs right now a lot of them are going to pack up and leave,” Morris explains. So, now that everyone has a slightly better handle on the situation, and the rains have kept the wood from completely drying out, some additional crews have been brought in. Morris knows of two shovel crews
from Mississippi helping in the region. But timber still sits on the ground. Lots and lots of it. He doesn’t know the timeline as to when striking a match on 2 million acres will be the best choice. No one does. But the bad assumptions are gone, and sawmills are taking grade logs with blue stain. In some conversations, comments have been made that sawmills will take grade logs even after the bark falls off. Though, when that point is reached, Morris is mainly concerned about size. He
doesn’t think chip-n-saw will hold together, but big timber might. Everything of course is predicated on if the timber dries out. Coastal Plywood Co. in Havana, Fla. is already reporting problems trying to peel drier wood. Morris is worried that with pulpwood, the paper mills will not be able to take the drier wood as wood loses its value in tallow and other chemicals. Long term, Morris thinks his crews will cut hardwood for some of the landowners in Jackson Coun-
ty because he can always haul hardwood to GP in Cedar Springs, Ga. and Brewton, Ala. and be out of the way. Additionally, on the far western side of the storm into Alabama and on the east side in Georgia and Florida, Morris believes he will be okay in pine there. But once the pine deteriorates he’ll go back to hardwood. He tells me he feels like the hardwood is going to last a lot longer than the pine. Additionally, and perhaps thankfully for Morris, sawmill demand on hardwood is high; hardwood pulpwood is excruciatingly high. But he has a home in hardwood many loggers won’t—good hardwood here is wet and it won’t be a viable alternative for most loggers. Morris believes that people aren’t putting the focus on timber because its too difficult to do. And, mainly because while the money is okay in some cases, it’s not as fast as going to a person with five acres of wood, debris and stumps, telling them, “Give me $10,000 and we’ll clear it for you with two employees and two machines.” In terms of the longer term future, Morris is concerned about those who might not replant. He told me he wasn’t sure if more than 10% of the 1.9 million acres was going to be picked up. Of the 1.9, half is devastated and most are small landowners. If they don’t replant they are probably not going to clean it up, which will be a biomass nightmare in the short term that could create a biomass bonanza in 20 years. Florida needs help in so many ways. Morris would love to talk to anyone who thinks they might have an idea (good, bad or ugly) to keep this acreage from literally going up in smoke. Please, reach out to him at morristimberco@comcast.net. And please, remember them in your prayers; the entire community is #850strong, but they still have a SLT long way to go.
May 3-4 Is your company in? Your competition is. Jack Swanner: 828-421-8444 www.malbexpo.com 12
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Building Blocks ■ Ray Dotson and his son Jonathan haven’t wavered in their love for logging.
By Jay Donnell DOVER, Ark. ★ t a young age many sons of loggers have a chance to go to the woods with their fathers and relatives to see everything that goes on in their family logging outfit. They have the opportunity to witness the big machines firsthand and get a glimpse of how their families have made a living for generations. Some kids fall in love with logging the first day they step foot in the woods, while others may take more convincing. For Jonathan Dotson it was love at first sight. When the 22year-old was just six years old he would play with logging toys and let his imagination run wild.
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SLT SNAPSHOT Ray Dotson Logging Dover, Ark. Email: bigjohn5052@yahoo.com Founded: 1962 Owner: Ray Dotson No. Crews: 1 Employees: 6 Equipment: 1 feller-buncher, 2 skidders, 2 loaders, 2 trucks Average Production: 35-45 loads per week Average Haul Distance: 50 miles Tidbit: Dover has a population of 1,407.
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Dotson already knew the routine at that age. Cut trees, then skid, delimb, load, and haul the logs. He loved to recreate a logging job with his own toys. At the ripe age of six he made his first logging equipment purchase, a Prentice grapple skidder toy, from Suttle Equipment in De Queen, Ark. Dotson saved up for the skidder with his own hard earned money, but he didn’t have quite enough to make the purchase. The young boy negotiated with Suttle sales rep Mike Kaiser and the two eventually came to an agreement. He signed the invoice himself. To go along with the skidder Dotson also had a Timberjack cable skidder, a homemade delimber (part of a Hot Wheels case), homemade loader and a toy truck (complete
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Second cousin Keith Dotson knows his way around a feller-buncher.
with a folding pole trailer). Jonathan would “skid” pre-cut logs (1014 in. long) and load the truck. Before the load was “hauled,” he would secure it with two small bungee cords. Now that is some impressive attention to detail. There was never any doubt that Dotson would become a logger. His grandfather Vester and grandmother Dorothy established a logging business in 1962. Dorothy, now 74, used to drive a skidder, operated a chain saw and drove trucks for the small business. It was just Dorothy and Vester for many years until Dotson’s father, Ray, came into the picture. Like his son, Ray watched as his father and mother ran a logging busi-
ness. Often he would sit and watch from the family pickup truck while the two were working. Ray, 55, eventually established his own business, Ray Dotson Logging, a name that remains today. His father Vester, now 75, still works on the job every day and runs a skidder while Jonathan runs a loader. Ray keeps a watchful eye on the business while sometimes driving a truck. When he’s away from the job looking at tracts of timber Jonathan, 22, makes sure everything stays in order. Jonathan’s attention to detail was evident at an early age as he made sure to secure his toy logs in his toy truck in order to meet proper regulations. Now he’s tasked
with making sure his real life logs are properly secured in his real life trucks.
Operations Ray Dotson Logging (RDL) was clear-cutting a 60-acre tract on some rough and muddy terrain when Southern Loggin’ Times visited the operation. Terrain can be tricky at times as the company works on all different types of ground. It can often be pretty rough and hilly and they even venture into some mountainous areas. RDL works on a lot of clear-cut jobs, but they also do their fair share of thinnings. The timber on the job was mostly
pine, which is what RDL cuts most of the time. They expected to be on the tract for a few more weeks depending the amount of rainfall in the area. RDL saw a tremendous amount of rainfall in 2018 which meant some days off for the crew, but it also meant the company wasn’t put on quota as much by the mills. Dotson believes the fall and winter months are often the most productive time of the year for RDL. “With all the rainfall we’ve had the mills have been pretty wide open,” Dotson says. “They don’t keep us on quota much this time of year, but during the summer they get filled up pretty quick.” RDL frequently logs for for West
Left to right, Keith Dotson, Jonathan Dotson, Vester Dotson, Jerry Hughes and Kenny Williams
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Ray Dotson Logging maintains a positive outlook even during wet winter months: “The mills have been pretty wide open.”
Fraser out of Russellville, but they also buy some of their own stumpage. Pulpwood goes to Green Bay Packaging in Oppelo. The business generally produces 35-45 loads per week and there are times when they could produce more, but Dotson notes they don’t like to jump around and try get a high amount of loads one day and then a low amount the next. Consistency is key. West Fraser generally builds the roads when RDL moves on to a new tract and when they close it out they make sure to do all the BMP work necessary. When Dotson is getting ready to finish up a tract someone from West Fraser will come out and look it over to make sure everything is good to go before they move on to their next job. Ray Dotson might have preferred for his son to do something else, but he likes having his son work for the company and knows he can trust him to run things. “I enjoy having my son out here,” he says. “I trust Jonathan to look over everything himself when I’m out looking at tracts of timber.” Employees generally arrive on site around 6:00 a.m. on most days and the last truck is usually filled up by 3:30 p.m. They’re granted time off for all major holidays and they get roughly a week off when deer season begins. Employees are paid by the day while truck drivers are paid by the load. Occasionally workers are paid a bonus when things are going well for the business or just when the “boss man” 16
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(Ray) feels like being generous. Safety is important to everyone at RDL and crew members often talk about the importance of safety each week. They’ve been fortunate to avoid any major accidents in the woods and on the roads.
Iron Lineup RDL generally buys its equipment from Suttle Equipment in De Queen, the same company that Dotson negotiated his skidder logging toy purchase with 15 years ago. They have a strong relationship with salesman Steven Graves. The company runs a 2012 Cat 573C
feller-buncher with Prentice SC-57 sawhead, 2015 2384C Prentice loader, 2006 Cat 525C skidder and a 2005 Cat 525B skidder. They also run two trucks, a Western Star and Peterbilt, pulling Pitts trailers with Vulcan scales on board. The company’s most recent equipment upgrade was the Cat feller-buncher. It was purchased from a logger in Oklahoma who buys used logging equipment, fixes it up and then resells it. The fellerbuncher did not have many hours on it so the purchase made plenty of sense for RDL. They had previously been using an older model HydroAx feller-buncher. “We’re steadily
trying to upgrade our equipment,” Dotson explains. “Our old fellerbuncher had a steering wheel in it and this has a joystick so you don’t have to be reaching around the steering wheel all day long.” Machines are greased each week and oil is changed every 250 hours. The company has used Rotella 15W-40 oil since Dotson was a kid when he used the oil to make his slide slippery. Dotson’s second cousin, Keith Dotson, operates the newly acquired feller-buncher. Vester Dotson and Jerry Hughes run the skidders and Dotson operates the loader. Ray Dotson and Kenny Williams
Left to right, three generations of logging: Melissa Dotson, Jonathan Dotson, Dorothy Dotson, Vester Dotson and Ray Dotson
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The operation is known for its consistency, and produces 35-40 loads weekly.
drive the company trucks. Dotson’s mother, Melissa, does most of the bookkeeping and payroll for the business. Insurance is through American Interstate Insurance Co. Jonathan reports that DOT can be pretty strict in northeast Arkansas, but just like the loggers they have a job to do. One way to make sure the business stays in good standing with DOT is the addition of Vulcan scales on the trucks. RDL switched over to scales in 2015. “I don’t know what we did before them because they’re a life saver,” Dotson says. “You’re accurate on every load and you can be consistent with how many tons you haul. You don’t have to worry about being overloaded with DOT and you always meet your standards.”
Wood Industry Jonathan believes the logging industry has been pretty steady. While RDL is on the smaller side they have stayed consistent. He likes the size of his father’s company right now because the employees aren’t having to break their backs just to make ends meet. When Dotson graduated high school in 2015 he was out in the woods working full time the very next day. He had a dream of being a professional fisherman at one time, but he knew he would have to catch a lot of breaks in order to make it in professional fishing circuits. “It would have been easy for me to go to college and try to find another career, but this is where I’ve always been so this is where I’m at,” Dotson says with a smile. “I’ve watched them (his family) ever since I was a little kid and when they’d come home after a long day I’d want to know how the day went and all that.” He adds, “I ask a lot of questions, but it’s for a good reason. I just try to learn and then I don’t say much. I watch everything that everybody does to see what the best moves are.” After learning how to run a skidder he quickly learned how to operate the loader and he’s been on it ever since. Dotson notes the hardest part of the job is keeping up with equipment maintenance and making sure there are no hydraulic leaks or hoses about to blow. Dotson has learned many lessons from his father, mother, grandfather and grandmother. When he eventually takes over the business he’ll have many years of experience to lean on during the hard times so there’s no doubt Ray Dotson Logging will continue to thrive for many years to come. When Dotson is not in the woods he enjoys bass fishing and deer hunting with his father. SLT 18
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Step By Step ■ No one thought he could make it, but Ray Cobb has been proving the haters wrong for almost 20 years.
By David Abbott BRUNDIDGE, Ala. he first job undertaken by L&R Enterprises, LLC, when it came into exis★ tence some 19 years ago this June, turned out to be something of a family adventure. “They put me on a tract by a river bank at Tallapoosa, in Tallassee,” recalls owner Lonnie Ray Cobb, 46 (now). The tract was nearly 100 miles from his home in Brundidge, near Troy, so commuting would have meant several hours
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a day lost to driving, time that could have been better spent, or at least more productively spent, working. So the fledgling logger, his wife Valerie, their son Brian (who was 6 at the time) and Ray’s brother Jeremy Cobb set up tents on the river bank and spent the summer basically living on that riverbank, camping during the week and only going home on weekends. “It was like an old logging camp 100 years ago,” Cobb notes. “That’s what my dad and granddad did. They used to have to go stay in the woods all week and go home on the weekends.” The Cobb brothers
worked all day, while Valerie took care of Brian and the food; she also tried to lend a hand with a chain saw occasionally, though her husband wouldn’t have it. They managed to put out 20 to 30 loads a week, just the two of them. After that tract was finished at the end of that first summer, Ray and Jeremy moved a little closer to home and, very gradually, the company grew. That must have come as a surprise to a few people. “Everybody told us, ‘Oh you won’t make it,’” Cobb remembers well. “I said I would prove them wrong, somehow.” It was a struggle, but, his determina-
L&R Enterprises started in 2000 with just Ray Cobb and his brother Jeremy. It has grown since then.
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tion fueled by his detractors, Cobb found a way, one step after another. Cobb might have been new to owning a business, but he wasn’t exactly a rookie that summer of 2000. He and Jeremy grew up around logging. Their dad Lonnie and granddad Frank had both worked for C.R. Pate in Brooklyn, another 75 miles southwest of the Brundidge/Troy area, between Brewton and Andalusia. Ray and Jeremy worked for Pate, too, when they were old enough. But the elder Cobbs never owned a company; that was Ray’s dream. “They worked for other people, so nothing
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was handed to me,” he says. “I just grew up around it, and I knew from a young age I wanted to have my own stuff.” Much like Johnny Cash did with that custom Cadillac in that song, Cobb put his dream together one piece at a time. “When we started, I just had a pickup truck, and had to buy the tools as we needed them,” he says. “We bought an old 643D cutter, a 210 Prentice and a 648G skidder, and had no limbing gate or delimber, so we used a chain saw to trim limbs. We didn’t have a shop or land, and we rented where we lived. So when we could, we had to buy land, and then build a shop. It has been slow.”
Equipment One of the many things he had to work toward was getting newer equipment, which was something of a foreign concept to him at first. “For a long time I worked with C.R. Pate, and they didn’t believe in buying anything new,” Cobb says. At some point he had an epiphany: he could keep making payments on used equipment and have to work on the machines, or he could just make payments. Moreover, he realized that the amount of money he was spending on repairs, plus the used equipment payment, together was not much less than the cost of a new machine payment. “I figured out you still have the (amount of) new equipment payments, you just don’t have the new equipment.” So, six years ago he bought his first new machine. “You know what? It’s a whole lot easier to just crank it up and work, and you have your warranty. It is easier to run equipment than work on it.” With the somewhat bigger payments, he admits, his bottom line profits may not be much more, but there is less headache. “With old equipment, it put me working nearly every weekend, from daylight to dark, Friday, Saturday and Sunday, and you’re wondering if you’ll be able to get back in the woods to work by Monday morning,” he says. “It impedes your quality of life. You spend a little more on payments but you get more productivity, and these days, companies want huge production. It’s hard to do that with older stuff. And you don’t have the oil leaks; people don’t want you on their land leaking oil. To me, it seems like a win-win.” For all those reasons, Cobb is now firmly in the new equipment camp. He added three 2018 John Deere pieces last year: a 437E loader, 648L dual arch skidder and 843L cutter. The logger also fields a second 648L skidder, his oldest piece, a ’16 model. His most recent acquisition, just a few weeks old, is a ’19 Deere 650K LGP dozer. For trucks, Cobb runs four Freightliners and one West-
Cobb is a believer in keeping newer machines to save on downtime and repair bills.
SLT SNAPSHOT L&R Enterprises, LLC Brundidge, Ala. Email: Valcbb7674@gmail.com Founded: 2000 Owner: Ray Cobb No. Crews: 1 Employees: 9 Equipment: 2 skidders, 1 cutter, 1 loader, 5 trucks 5 log trailers and a lowboy and 1 dozer Average Production: 55 loads/week (varies) Average Haul Distance: 65 miles Tidbit: Ray Cobb has a long-standing friendship with his equipment salesman, John Witherington of Flint Equipment in Troy, Ala. Both men used to work on the crew for another logger in the mid-late ’90s, before either of them started their current careers, when their paths crossed again.
ern Star, pulling three homemade trailers plus one Magnolia and a Pitts, both bought used. Ken’s Welding shop in Brantley built the first three and rebuilt the other two, which Cobb says were in bad shape when he bought them. “Ken reworked them and now they’re basically new trailers, they just didn’t cost that new price,” Cobb laughs. Equipment investment is somewhere around $1.2 million with trucks included. Cobb bought all his woods machines from salesman John Witherington at John Deere dealer Flint Equipment in Troy. Flint Equipment is maybe 25 miles from the tract Cobb and crew were clear-cutting on the mid-January day when Southern Loggin’ Times paid him a visit. Cobb and Witherington have a friendship that goes back over 20 years, to before Cobb started his own crew and long before Witherington started selling machinery. In fact, they worked together on a logging crew for about two years. By the mid-’90s, Cobb had left
Crew, left to right: Freddy Cummings, Brian Cobb, Jeremy Cobb, Ray Cobb, Don Chapman
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Ray Cobb, left, with Flint salesman and longtime friend John Witherington, center, and Daniel Wilson, forester with Sorrell Lumber Co.
Pate and Brooklyn and moved to the Troy area so his wife could finish nursing school at Troy University. “I met John probably not a month after moving here,” he says. Cobb had gotten a job working full-time for logger Ron Morgan. Witherington joined the crew part-time, decking wood on weekends and holidays while he was in forestry school. Witherington went on to work as a forester in landowner assistance for Stone Container. Shortly after the Stone merger with Jefferson Smurfit, Witherington went to work at Flint, in product support before joining the sales team two years ago. Cobb worked for Morgan for three years. In 2000 his wife’s grandmother passed away, leaving a small inheritance to her parents. They in turn gifted their daughter and her husband with enough to help them make the initial investment to get the company started. It was enough for the down payment on the used machines he bought from Pate’s son Joel. He talked to W.J. Sorrell, the timber dealer for which Morgan contracted, and it so happened they needed to put on another logger. Sorrell is who sent him to that riverbank tract that summer.
Operations The crew works from 7 a.m. to 5 p.m. and generally tries to stay out of the woods on weekends. That
Ray Cobb uses buys all John Deere machines from Flint Equipment in Troy.
leaves Cobb and son Brian, now 24 and on the crew, some time to work on trucks and trailers, if needed. “That’s another reason for buying new equipment,” Cobb says. “I can’t work on equipment and trucks both, and with the DOT like it is, you have got to stay on top of your trucks.” These days it doesn’t take up the entire weekend, though. When he does have a job too big for them to handle, he turns to mechanic Scott Hudson in Luverne.
He has added four new machines in the last year.
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L&R has two 648L skidders, '16 and '18 models.
Operators grease equipment every other day and change oil every 500 hours. That makes it easy to track when it’s due at every 500-hour interval—when it rolls over on 500, 1,000 hours, 1,500 and so on. Cobb keeps a service trailer on the job site for routine maintenance and minor repairs, and he also now has a 40x65 shop near his house, on the property he owns. The loggers buy DEF and fuel, on- and off-road, in bulk from May’s Distributing in Union Springs. He has
500-gallon, 1,000-gallon and 2,000gallon tanks at the shop, and a 100gallon tank in his pickup to transport fuel to the job site—a small enough amount that it doesn’t require a HAZMAT permit. One day Cobb hopes to add scales and dash cams to his trucks, but he’s not there yet. “We’re still working toward that,” he says, illustrating that the process is always ongoing. In the woods, brother Jeremy still mans the loader, while son Brian gen-
Ray Cobb, right, with his brother Jeremy, left, and son Brian, center
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erally runs the cutter. Don Chapman and Freddy Cummings drive the skidders. Truck drivers are Eugene Silar, Sammy Green, Leland Dewberry, Ricky Carter and Greg Stinson. Silar has been driving for Cobb for 18 years, and Green for 16. One contract hauler, Ricky (T Bone) Thomas, has been with Cobb for three years. The crew has safety meetings once a week, using materials from the Forest Resources Assn. web site, and they discuss any problems on the spot. They all wear proper
safety gear on the job, including high visibility shirts or vests. Cobb has had his workers’ comp and general liability insurance with Hawkins and Rawlinson since L&R Enterprises started, and just in the last year went to them for his truck insurance as well. “They had been trying to get my truck business for years, and the rates where I was kept going up and were going to double this year, so I talked to Chase Rawlinson and he got me a better rate,” Cobb says.
Wife Valerie is a nurse practitioner. She finished nursing school and helped with L&R work after they got the business going, then went back to nurse practitioner’s school, graduating cum laude, and also had two more kids during that time— quite a lady. The two younger kids are Alexis, 16, and Colin Ray, 15. Ray was 20 and Valerie 19 when they got married just over 26 years ago; they had their first date on October 2, 1992, and were married on December 26th of the same year,
just a few months after they met. “That was another thing where everyone said it won’t work,” Cobb recalls. “And I said well, we’ll see.” Clearly it was also another thing everyone was wrong about. In their free time, the Cobb family likes to go to Lake Eufala and tend to their garden. They also keep a few cows, not for beef or dairy but to cut down on the bush hogging on their land. “They keep it clean, and hey, every now and then if beef gets a little slack we can grind one up and make some hamburger meat and steak,” Cobb laughs.
Land Cobb still works for Sorrell Lumber Co. In January he was clear-cutting, performing a final harvest on a privately-owned tract of 35-40year-old pine that had already been thinned three times. It will be replanted. Daniel Wilson is the forester with Sorrell Lumber Co. which is managing the timber. The crew hauls to WestRock mills in Cottonton and Abbeville, to Browder Veneer in Montgomery and to Scotch Plywood in Beatrice. Depending on weather, they generally haul at least 45 and up to 65 loads in a week. “We have to stay on the higher end because that’s the only way to make payments,” he says. The South endured a tremendous amount of rain this winter, enough that Cobb says the crew may have missed two weeks of work in recent months, in addition to days off for the holidays. “It is luck of the draw as far as the type of dirt you’re in,” Cobb says. “If you’re on a good place you can work when it is raining but if not then you just have to go home.” That’s why, he says, it is so important for loggers to manage money well. “When you have a good week you have to put it back for payments, because there will be rain days and things you don’t SLT account for.”
May 3-4 Is your company in? Your competition is. Jack Swanner: 828-421-8444 www.malbexpo.com 26
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‘Experienced’ Wisdom
Classic Quotes From Winston Churchill
—I talk to myself because there are times when I need expert advice. —I consider “in style” to be the clothes that still fit. —I don’t need anger management. I need people to stop ticking me off. — My people skills are just fine. It’s my tolerance for idiots that needs work. —The biggest lie I tell myself is, “I don’t need to write that down. I’ll remember it.” —I have days when my life is just a tent away from a circus. —These days “on time” is when I get there. —Even duct tape can’t fix stupid, but it muffles the sound. —Wouldn’t it be wonderful if we could put ourselves in the dryer for 10 minutes, then come out wrinkle-free and three sizes smaller? —Lately, I’ve noticed people my age are so much older than me. —‘Getting lucky’ means walking into a room and remembering why I’m there. —When I was a child, I thought nap time was punishment. Now it feels like a mini vacation. —Some days I have no idea what I’m doing out of bed. —I thought growing old would take longer. —Aging sure has slowed me down, but it hasn’t shut me up. —I still haven’t learned to act my age.
A Lesson Never Forgotten During my second semester of college a professor surprised us with a pop quiz. I was a conscientious student and had breezed through the questions until I read the last one: What is the first name of the man who cleans this classroom every day? I had seen him several times. He was tall, had dark hair, and appeared to be in his 50s, but his name? I had no clue. I handed in my paper, leaving the last question blank. Just before class ended one student asked if the last question would count toward our quiz grade. “Absolutely,” said the professor. “In your careers, you will meet many people. All are significant. They deserve your attention and care, even if all you do is smile and say ‘hello.’” I’ve never forgotten that lesson. I also learned that his first name was Daniel.
An Exam To Remember After a man experienced the most thorough prostate exam of his life, the man in the white coat left the room and immediately a nurse came in. After she shut the door she asked, “Who was that guy with the huge hands?”
Diplomacy is the art of telling people to go to hell in such a way that they ask for directions. You will never reach your destination if you stop and throw stones at every dog that barks. Fear is a reaction. Courage is a decision. A nation that forgets its past has no future. The positive thinker sees the invisible, feels the intangible and achieves the impossible. If you’re not a liberal at 20 you have no heart; if you’re not a conservative at 40 you have no brain. Socialism is a philosophy of failure, the creed of ignorance, and the gospel of envy. Its inherent virtue is the equal sharing of misery. There is nothing government can give you that it hasn’t taken from you in the first place. The best argument against democracy is a five-minute conversation with the average voter. Success consists of going from failure to failure without loss of enthusiasm. A good speech should be like a woman’s skirt: long enough to cover the subject and short enough to create interest. A pessimist sees the difficulty in every opportunity; an optimist sees the opportunity in every difficulty. One man with conviction will overwhelm a hundred who have only opinions. However beautiful the strategy, you should occasionally look at the results. You don’t make the poor richer by making the rich poorer. A lie gets halfway around the world before the truth has a chance to get its pants on. Life can either be accepted or changed. If it is not accepted it must be changed. If it cannot be changed, then it must be accepted. We contend that for a nation to try to tax itself into prosperity is like a man standing in a bucket and trying to lift himself up by the handle. I’d rather argue against a hundred idiots than have one agree with me. In the course of my daily life, I have often had to eat my words, and I must confess that I have always found it a wholesome diet. Life is fraught with opportunities to keep your mouth shut. An appeaser is one who feeds a crocodile, hoping it will eat him last. I like pigs. Dogs look up to us. Cats look down on us. Pigs treat us as equals. (Source: AZ Quotes)
Super What? A little old lady was walking up and down the halls in a nursing home, flipping up the hem of her nightgown and saying “super sex, super sex, super sex.” She walked up to an elderly man leaning on a walker. Flipping her gown at him, she again said “super sex.” He remained silent for a few seconds, then responded, “I’ll take the soup.”
How To Tell It’s Winter
Contrasts Of The Ages
Bogged Down Express Lane
CHILDHOOD INJURIES: I Fell Off My Bike. I Fell Out Of A Tree. I Twisted My Ankle. ADULT INJURIES: I Slept Wrong. I Sat Down Too Long. I Sneezed Too Hard. 30
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I was in the ‘10 items or less lane’ at the grocery store, quietly fuming. Completely ignoring the sign, the woman ahead of me had slipped into the lane pushing a cart piled high with groceries. Imagine my delight when the cashier beckoned the woman to come forward, looked into the cart and asked sweetly, “So which six items would you like to buy?”
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Projects Abound ■ Projects Abound Ashton-Lewis Lumber has been in upgrade mode as of late and it’s paying off.
By Jessica Johnson GATESVILLE, NC ichael Lancaster, the General Manager of Ashton-Lewis Lumber, has been around sawmills his entire adult life. He’s racked up quite the impressive resume with stops at Georgia-Pacific and Bibler Bros., to name a couple. Originally built in 1952, the sawmill here was rebuilt in 2006, so when Lancaster made the move to Gatesville, NC several years ago, he had a few things on his mind in seeking to improve both the performance and efficiency of this specialty pine mill. “It was built new,” he explains, “and it’s well-designed, but we just had to start replacing some things.” In his new position, he didn’t dive head first into any projects. Instead, Lancaster says he took a year to watch how the mill ran, learn the people and then see about using his experience to make tweaks. A handful of things have been done in specific areas in the facility, like adding all LED lighting to the property, but Lancaster says the biggest investment has been in a continuous kiln. The first large project the mill considered was replacing the double track kiln and package kilns with a continuous kiln. After a period of testing on some 1 in. lumber, and Ashton-Lewis’ Controller Conner Good crunching some numbers, they decided to pull the trigger. Before the upgrade, Ashton-Lewis was drying between 20 and 22MMBF annually using up to six package kilns at one time, including single track and double track models. With the upgrade, one Stiles continuous kiln with ARS controls replaced the six package models, doubling drying capacity to 40MMBF. Though drying capacity has doubled with the new kiln, Lancaster says Ashton-Lewis won’t double its production at this point. “We dry our lumber at a lower temperature than other mills” he says. “We’ve
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Ashton-Lewis has made a big transition in its drying operations.
It’s bandmills galore in the Ashton-Lewis green end, including a tilted headrig, horizontal resaw, linebar resaw and center split resaw.
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had to do some experimenting. We get a little better standard deviation and grade out of it.”
TECH FOCUS For Lancaster, replacing computers and controls that had become obsolete over the years was his second biggest investment and priority after the kiln. Ashton-Lewis had been making use of an aging Inovec system mill-wide. Lancaster leaned heavily on USNR to provide MillExpert optimization in many areas. The mill’s original lineal edger was replaced with a McDonough slew and skew shifting saw box with MillExpert and new laser heads. Lancaster says this gave Ashton-Lewis the ability to enter in some export markets in the European Union, North Africa and the Middle East previously not open to them. MillExpert from USNR was also upgraded on an existing Newnes trimmer and Cleereman carriage. Good and Lancaster are in the testing and “let’s see” stage of adding an autograder to the mill. “We don’t have a lot of volume, obviously, but we grade in the rough a lot so we need accuracy for our molders,” Lancaster explains. While not quite ready to make the decision, the pair has met with suppliers VAB Solutions and Lucidyne Technologies about the idea. On the wood yard, the knuckleboom was replaced a year ago, and they purchased a used Nicholson debarker from a mill in Montana. Rolling stock and log loaders are being constantly rotated. “We’re always working on something,” Good says.
New Armstrong and Vollmer equipment has enhanced filing room operations.
Majority of the gatewood comes from a core group of six to eight contractors. All pine comes in either 12 ft. or 16 ft. lengths. Once trucks enter the wood yard, all logs are measured, graded and inputted into a lumber tracker. To help the headrig sawyer, wood yard graders paint a blue dot or red stripe on logs before they are entered into inventory and loaded onto one of two decks. Of the two decks feeding the
McDonough edger fits neatly into the flow on the sawmill floor.
MILL FLOW Ashton-Lewis processes 16 trucks per day. Log supply is 60/40 mix of gatewood and company tracts. With tight specs required for the needed grade lumber AshtonLewis produces, the two logging contractors are kept busy with timber bought up to 18 months ahead.
mill, one makes use of a butt reducer. Logs are sawn by a tilted Cleereman carriage and McDonough bandmill with optimization. According to Lancaster, this is where the blue dot/red stripe marking helps the carriage operator: “The way it’s set up now, if it’s a blue dot log, he literally has a blue dot button to push and we have a set
pattern to go with.” Of course, the operator can override it, but it helps production to have these patterns programmed into the carriage system. Flitches go to a McDonough horizontal bandmill to make either 4⁄4 or 6⁄4 for export before edging, though some flitches bypass the horizontal and go straight to the edger— it just depends on the piece, Lancaster says. Logs coming off the carriage are broken down to cant size before hitting a McDonough linebar resaw. “We’re a McDonough showcase,” Lancaster laughs as he describes breakdown machinery. Since Ashton-Lewis cuts strictly for grade, there is a grader looking at lumber as it comes off the McDonough resaw who makes secondary cutting decisions by making grade marks. A 4⁄4 double piece is processed using a McDonough center bust saw, which takes pressure off the linebar. Cants that are taken down to 6 in. are sawn through the McDonough 6 in. gang. If pieces have wane, they go to the McDonough edger. Lancaster estimates 50% to 60% of pieces go through the edger eventually. At the Newnes trimmer, graders sort knots from clear, to help the molder operation. Following the trimmer, lum-
ber is sorted into a Newnes J-bar sorter and stacked using a Newnes stacker, with an operator hand laying sticks. Lumber rests in the green yard before being dried in the continuous kiln, powered by one of two woodfired Hurst boilers. A dry shed holds lumber before it’s processed in the planer mill where it is graded rough to make molder stock, or run through the Yates A-20 planer to make S4S depending on current orders and pack grades. Inside the planer mill, a vintage Hi-Tech sorter and stacker aids operators. Packs are manually strapped. Inside the molding operation, Ashton-Lewis makes knotty and clear flooring, as well as beaded board products on two Weinig molders. Of the sawmill’s 22MMBF production, Lancaster estimates 11MMBF went through the molders last year. The remaining production runs the gamut: 4⁄4 in 1x3, 1x4, 1x5, 1x8, 1x10, and 5⁄4 x 12 for steps. Export products account for about 15% of production and are 6⁄4 in 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10 in. widths, with some vertical grain as well. Most lumber is graded to inhouse grades, though a fair amount of production is sap, clear 1, D, #2 and #3; prime, merch and select covers export grades. Wood yard rolling stock includes Cat 966s as well as a Hyundai HL975.
FILING, SAFETY Ashton-Lewis does almost all its own filing work, with the exception of a few circles. Recent additions to the extensive filing room include an Armstrong grinder and a Vollmer CHC 840 for circles, which has helped bring a lot of circle work back in-house. Filers also use two Armstrong and one Wright side grinders. All benching is done in-house. The addition of a saw control system from Saw Control Systems has helped gain a line a minute, Lancaster says as it watches for the deviation of the saw, at the carriage. Since the installation two years ago, Ashton-Lewis went from saw deviation between 5 and 6 thousandths to 4 thousandths. Four people staff the filing room right now, with one being trained ahead of a retirement. According to Lancaster, the company keeps a constant focus on safety. “If you don’t see safety as a moral issue, if you are doing it just to please people, you’ll never improve,” he believes. The entire program has been revamped in the last few years, and the sawmill participates in North Carolina’s voluntary SHARP inspection program,
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Fortunately, Good reports the mill is below the industry standard for recordables. That’s still not good enough for Lancaster, though. “I’m never satisfied,” he says, “and we preach safety every day. No board foot is worth someone getting hurt. It’s not easy and takes a total commitment to do it well.”
PEOPLE POWER Connor Good, left, and Michael Lancaster credit their team at Ashton-Lewis for the many successes the plant has seen in the last few years..
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which audits the health and safety of the mill. The safety committee, composed of personnel from each key area, meets monthly. Good says the purpose of the committee is to put safety back in the hands of the employees. In turn, the safety committee meetings have evolved into more openforum type discussions on areas that can be improved upon centered around a mill checklist Lancaster created. “Safety is something you’ve got to fight for every day,” Lancaster says. “If you ever think you’ve got it, it will bite you later on.”
Lancaster and Good agree without the staff of Ashton-Lewis the sawmill is nothing. Caring about their employees is part of why Lancaster pushes so hard for a safe work environment. As the largest employer in the county, AshtonLewis keeps about 95 on the payroll, mainly to stay ahead of retirees with a solid succession plan in place for key positions. L.T. Downs serves as Plant Manager, supporting Lancaster in daily operations. His staff is lead by Kenney Cowper, log scaler; Dwight Everette, sawmill supervisor; Jim Brown, planer supervisor; Ricky Page, molder supervisor; David Whitley, kiln supervisor; and Pat Floyd, trucking and rolling stock manager. “I’m the General Manager,”
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Lancaster jokes, “but Patty runs the place.” Patty Ballard is transportation manager with Lindsey Elstrodt as office staff. Veteran Bill O’Berry serves as sales manager. David Spence oversees wood procurement. “We do such a special product. If we don’t saw it right or grade it right—that’s on our people. I can buy the equipment. You’ve got to have people who know how to operate it,” Lancaster says of his team. Each person in the mill has the authority to throw away any board they deem to be subpar quality. Lancaster estimates that at least seven people in the mill know grades well enough to grade any piece. He continues, “The carriage operator needs to understand the knot structure, so that can help the linebar resaw. When you talk about molding it’s down to the thousandths, we’re not worrying about if it is an inch and a half. Everything has to look good. Tongue and groove has to all fit. You’re not just nailing it like a 2x4. It takes people SLT to do all that.” This article previously appeared in Timber Processing magazine, an affiliate of Southern Loggin’ Times.
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INDUSTRY NEWS ROUNDUP
As We See It: It’s Time To Educate, Again By Danny Dructor On April 4-6, members and guests of the American Loggers Council (ALC) will once again travel to Washington, DC in hopes of making a Dructor difference for the timber and log trucking industry. Our issues remain basically the same as they have for the past several years, but one thing has changed since November that should give us all a little encouragement. Last November the U.S. replaced 100 House members and 10 Senators. To our knowledge, none of them has any experience in the logging business and it is highly doubtful that any of the incoming members have ever hauled a load of logs. While we do not anticipate seeing a lot of significant legislation being passed in the next several months due to the highly partisan politics that are still in play in Washington, we do see this as an opportunity to be the first organization to address the new members on what the issues and concerns are for the logging community, as well as work with the administration to effect change in the industry. It is up to us to educate them on what professional timber harvesting is, and the how and why of the process. If we don’t continue to do it, somebody else will, and that is not something any
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of us would like to see happen. ALC President Chris Potts has already stated that we will continue to work on truck weight and Commercial Safety Administration (CSA) issues. He has also indicated a desire to continue to pursue the Future Logging Careers Act that would give the 16 and 17-year-old sons and daughters the opportunity to legally work in their parents’ logging business. With a new Chief of the U.S. Forest Service, and the authorities that have managed to pass through Congress over the past couple of years, we hope to further engage that agency to assist in their modernization efforts to both expedite and implement all of the authorities now given to them by Congress to increase the pace and scale of forest restoration efforts, including timber harvesting. By the time this article goes to press, there should also be a new Secretary of Interior, whom we should also seek out and familiarize with our issues. Energy will still be a priority in order to help develop new markets that we all need for our smaller diameter wood, as will deregulation and lessening of the tax burdens that all of our businesses face. Last year we asked and you responded favorably in looking at logging as a part of agriculture, and we intend to continue to follow up on that as well. Even with the change in leadership in the House, there is still hope that
those who are elected will once again follow the wishes of their constituents and lay partisan politics aside. The “Swamp,” as President Trump has called it, has been draining, but there are still those who hold on to the idea that party politics should take priority over policy issues. November 2020 is not that far away and you should be paying close attention to what your representatives in Washington are doing to deserve your vote again. Meanwhile, let’s continue to educate those who have been elected to serve, so that the excuse of “I don’t know” cannot be used when questioning them about a vote.
The American Loggers Council is an 501(c)(6) not for profit trade association representing professional timber harvesters throughout the U.S. Dructor is executive vice president of the ALC. For more information, phone 409-625-0206, email americanlogger@aol.com or visit amloggers.com.
Georgia-Pacific Plans Port Hudson Closures Georgia-Pacific announced it is exiting the communication papers business following an assessment of its long-term competitive position in a declining market. As a result, the company will permanently shut down the communication papers machines, related converting assets, as well as the wood yard, pulp mill and a significant portion of the energy complex
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at its Port Hudson, La. facility. Approximately 650 jobs at the facility will be impacted by the communication papers and pulp asset closures. About 40 business and sales jobs also will be affected by this decision. Georgia-Pacific will continue to operate and invest in the Port Hudson mill to support its growing consumer tissue and towel business. The company will retain approximately 300 employees to manage those operations. Employees will continue to operate the Port Hudson communication papers and pulp mill until midMarch. Georgia-Pacific has begun discussions with union leadership and the hourly and salaried workforce on how the process will work for employees affected by the job reductions, including the potential to transfer to other Georgia-Pacific locations. Meanwhile a report by an economist at the LSUAgCenter says the closure could cost another 2,150 jobs, including businesses that directly feed into the paper mill such as commercial logging, truck drivers and businesses that are buttressed by the paper mill, such as nearby restaurants and stores.
Pre-registration Opens For Mid-Atlantic Expo Pre-registration is now underway for the Mid-Atlantic Logging & Biomass Expo, set for May 3-4 near Laurinburg, NC. Individuals who pre-register will not only shave $5 off the gate admission but will
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receive their badges through the mail and can access the show without delay. Pre-registration is $20 per person and applies to all persons 18 and older. Visit malbexpo.com and click on the word registration. Preregistration closes April 18. Now that the new year is well underway, exhibitor interest in the Mid-Atlantic event has picked up. More than 25 companies had opted to participate as of late January. Most major harvesting manufactur-
ers and regional dealers signed up late last year and major manufacturers of attachments, trucks, trailers, tires and other products are now coming aboard. Rental fees for sites still available range from $2,200 to $700. Full details are available on the web site listed above. Show Manager Jack Swanner can be reached at 828421-8444. Held biennially in September since 2011 in the Selma-Smithfield
area, the venue is switching to a new location and spring date this year. Thousands typically attend the family-friendly show, which blends the latest in harvesting and transportation equipment technology with updated products and services. Extra attractions include a loader contest and special entertainment for children.
Dave Cupp, president of Walsh Timber Co. Loggers Zack Meyers, Jason Tew and A.J. Keating will participate in a Q&A session. Evening festivities include a reception, awards banquet, live auction and entertainment by rural North Carolina comedian Jerry Carroll. For more information, visit ncloggers.com
Meeting Agenda Set For Carolina Loggers
Next Enviva Mill May Be Lucedale
Vendor displays, special reception, several guest speakers, logger panel, awards banquet, live auction and entertainment are highlights of the upcoming annual meeting of the Carolina Loggers Assn. (CLA), set for February 22-23 at the Hotel Ballast in Wilmington. Ahead of the CLA meeting by one day at the same hotel is the semi-annual meeting of TEAM Safe Trucking. To register for that event, visit teamsafetrucking.com. CLA gets things underway with a ‘Hogs, Loggers & Lagers’ reception beginning at 6 p.m. It will feature a pig picking and North Carolina craft beers. The Saturday meeting begins with a 7 a.m. breakfast followed by a brief business session and guest speakers. They include Scott Bissette, Assistant Commissioner, NC Forest Service; DK Knight, Executive Editor, Hatton-Brown Publishers; transportation defense attorney Stephen Setliff; and
In early January George County and Jackson County in Mississippi each voted to approve incentive packages, which are contingent on Enviva making a final investment decision to proceed with building a wood pellet mill at Lucedale and a shipping terminal at Pascagoula, respectively. The final investment decision may be contingent on approval of all necessary permits, according to a statement by Enviva, which expects capacity to be consistent with Enviva’s other large-scale production plants. “Although we are still proceeding through the permitting process and will shortly make a final investment decision, I can tell you that we are excited to build on our success in Mississippi by investing in new facilities in George and Jackson counties,” comments Enviva Chairman and CEO John Keppler, who notes that Enviva’s very first facility, a small plant in Amory, produced its one millionth ton of wood pellets in early January. Enviva operates seven pellet mills with stated production capacity of 3.3 million metric tons and one is starting up this year in Hamlet, NC, which will add another 600,000 metric tons. On top of that, Enviva has announced it will increase production capacity by 400,000 metric tons between its plants in Northampton County, NC and Southampton County, Va. The company ships its pellets to overseas markets and has recently signed off-take contracts with Japanese customers. Enviva continues to look at other Southern U.S. sites for possible new plant construction.
Morbark Acquires Denis CIMAF Morbark, LLC completed the acquisition of Denis CIMAF, Inc., based in Roxton Falls, Quebec. The company manufactures three main lines of products: the DAH series industrial mulcher attachments for excavators; DAF series attachments for skid steers and other dedicated carriers; and the EWF series 38
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dedicated hydraulic power packs. The company celebrated its 20th anniversary last summer. The transaction represents Morbark’s second acquisition since pri-
vate equity firm Stellex Capital Management LP acquired Morbark in 2016. The acquisition of Rayco Manufacturing in October 2017 brought in stump cutters, aerial
trimmers, forestry mulchers and crawler trucks. Morbark will operate Denis CIMAF as a new division maintaining its brand identity. Denis CIMAF’s management team will continue to manage its operations.
Blue Wolf Capital Donates $1 Million Blue Wolf Capital Partners, a New York-based private equity firm, announced that its portfolio company, BW SLC Holdings, LLC, will donate $1 million from the proceeds generated by last year’s sale of Suwannee Lumber Company, LLC to Conifex Timber, Inc. The donation will be allocated to local charities in Dixie County, Fla. over the next five years under the supervision of the Board of Managers of BW SLC Holdings, LLC. The first four donations—of $50,000 each— will be presented to Dixie County’s Anti-Drug Coalition, Fellowship of Christian Athletes, Education Foundation, and Dixie County High School’s AVID program. The first recipients were selected by the Board of Managers of BW SLC Holdings, LLC under the leadership of its Chairman, Frank (Bump) Faircloth, for their valuable work and dedication in Dixie County—one of the least populated and lowest income counties in Florida. The donations are driven by Blue Wolf’s belief that corporate owners have a responsibility to support the local communities where their operations are located. “Suwannee Lumber Company has been a part of the soul of Dixie County for years, and I am truly grateful to Blue Wolf and the other
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owners of BW SLC Holdings, LLC for giving back to the community that has sustained us all of these years,” says Faircloth, former chairman and CEO of Suwannee Lumber. “When we faced challenges, our friends at Blue Wolf came aboard and gave us the boost we needed to remain a fixture of this community.”
GP Closes Plywood Mill In Georgia Georgia-Pacific reported it is closing its plywood facility in Warm Springs, Ga., impacting 300 employees. The company stated that plywood continues to be challenged by competing products and imports, but is still focused on its eight remaining plywood mills across the U.S. GP started up the Warm Springs plant in 1974.
May 3-4 Is your company in? Your competition is. Jack Swanner: 828-421-8444 www.malbexpo.com
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6 ➤ spirit. If you’d like to contact Josh, his email is 430josh@ gmail.com.
Oooops… I’ve claimed before, privately and in these pages, that if I see I’m wrong, I won’t just admit it, I’ll go out of my way to point out my mistakes. In fact I take great pride in being so humble… So, here’s the thing; on the cover
for the December 2018 issue of SLT, we let something slip past us: a lodged, hung up, “widowmaker” tree lurking in the background. When we posted the image on our social media accounts, several of our followers noticed it and called us out on it. “Come on SLT staff, you’re better
than that!” according to one commenter. Well… I’d like to say we are, but, in this case, obviously we weren’t. That’s completely on me. Honestly, I didn’t even notice it. I’m the one who took the picture, who selected the photo and who gave it final approval, and when the cover
came across my desk, I was only thinking about if the words were spelled correctly and if the image was in focus. I completely missed it. And it’s no reflection on Mr. Breazeale, either; this was an active working site, he took a few minutes out to talk to me and let me take pictures; I’m sure they took care of that tree as soon as they saw it. As for getting it in the picture and on the cover of the magazine, it just completely slipped past me. I’ll try to be more observant in the future.
Congrats Clemson, Crad Yes, well, while I’m eating my delicious humble pie, I might as well say this, too. I’ve mentioned in the past that I am a lifelong (read: before Nick Saban) fan of the Alabama Crimson Tide college football program, even though my family is originally from Arkansas. I know the rest of the country, or at least the people who follow college football, are sick of us. And I understand; we’ve played in 7 of the last 10 national championship games, and won 5 of them. It’s gotten to the point that even a lot of my fellow Bama fans have gotten bored with it, taking the success for granted (not me; I savor every touchdown). So I do understand the Bama fatigue. But I also don’t care; I hope we win every game every year and I would hope you all want the same thing for your teams. So far we’ve been in all five college football playoffs (2014-2018 seasons), and have played in the last four national championship games. And, for the fourth consecutive year this year, either in the semifinal or the final, on Monday, January 7th, 2019, we played the Clemson Tigers. And…if you don’t know…they beat us. Beat us bad. BAD. They beat us like nobody has beaten us before, at least not in a really long time, and that was to cap off a season in which, outside of Georgia in the SEC Championship game when our starting quarterback was injured, we had seemed to be almost unstoppable. But Clemson sure stopped us; they made us look like we didn’t even belong on the same field with them. In fact, they basically did to us what we had been doing to almost everyone else this year. Now my friend Crad Jaynes, the executive director of the South Carolina Timber Producers Assn., is a big Clemson fan. Crad, his son Jason and his daughter Erin are all Clemson graduates. So, I just want to say congratulations to Crad and to Clemson. They were clearly the better team…the much better team, at least on that night, and they deSLT serve it. See y’all next year! 42
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Lodged Tree Breaks Loose And Injures Timber Cutter BACKGROUND: On a clear, dry, spring afternoon in the southeastern U.S., a logging crew was select cut thinning on a tract with mixed hardwoods and pines. The timber cutter had just manually felled an 18-inch poplar along a
property line, but the tree became lodged at a point about 50 ft. high in another tree near the fence line. PERSONAL CHARACTERISTICS: The 48-year-old timber cutter had worked for his current
logging employer for 21 years. He was considered a safe and welltrained cutter and had received chain saw training on directional felling techniques. He wore the appropriate personal protective equipment. UNSAFE ACTS AND CONDITIONS: The timber cutter walked away from the lodged tree to wait for the skidder to come and pull down the tree. He failed to move a safe distance (a minimum of “twice tree height”) away from the lodged tree. His escape route left him approximately 75 ft. away, at a right angle to the lean direction of the hung tree, rather than a safer 45º diagonally backward direction. He thought he was safe as there were several other trees between him and the lodged tree, but he was still within the danger zone of the lodged tree. ACCIDENT: Before the skidder arrived, he heard the tree snap and come loose from the snagged position. As the tree fell, it contacted another tree and fell towards the stumper. The top branch hit him and knocked him to the ground. INJURY: The impact of the branch broke two bones in his left leg. He lost seven months of work. RECOMMENDATIONS FOR CORRECTION: Make sure all on-the-ground workers move and stay at least “twice tree height” away from a lodged tree until it can be grounded by a skidder or other mechanical means. Ground personnel must always be aware of overhead hazards, including snags, dead branches, lodged trees and power lines. When manually felling trees, use a proper escape route—move a considerable distance diagonally backward from the direction of the tree fall. Continue to observe the falling tree during your retreat, remembering that even if the tree does not fall in your direction, limbs and tops can break free and be thrown in different directions. Supplied by Forest Resources Assn.
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Call or Text Zane 334-518-9937
3939
RECONDITIONED DELIMBINATORS!!
770
562
2016 John Deere 750KLGP, only 2010 HRS, powertrain warranty until 8-19, VERY NICE ........................................................$147,500
4275 Moores Ferry Rd. • Skippers, Virginia 23879 PH./FAX (day) 1-434-634-9836 or Night/Weekends • 1-434-634-9185
13289
903-728-5973 13570
FOR SALE
• Weigh boy scales, used 6 months....................$12,500 obo • 94 450C double arch skidder, 9,000 hrs.................$20,000 obo • 93 Bell Fellerbuncher ................................$17,000 obo
256-479-5036
PARTS MANUALS/ DEALER MASTER
2016 Caterpillar HF201B sawhead. Full rotation wrist. Approx. 400 hours. Like new .........$60,000 obo
Prentice, Franklin, John Deere, Barko, Timberjack, Waratah, CTR, Hydro Ax, Quadco 1970’s-2000 models Also have many service manuals, call for more information
945
South AL 251-513-7001
6209
FOR SALE
• 98 Franklin, cab excellent condition, both doors good .....................$1000 • Franklin cradles not broken up....$750 • Barko 160A & 160B Pin Boss ..................................................$600
Call 423-715-6834 or 423-715-6835
3651
Parting out: Tigercat 720B w/5400 head, 240B, 635 and 845B. Deere 437D, 648G, 748G, and 843. Prentice 310E, Cat 522B, Timberking 360, and Timberjack 735.
3034
2004 Tigercat 640C Clambunk. 8200 actual hours, 30.5 front with 24.5 duals, 28Lx26 on rear including duals, bogies in excellent condition, runs great, just don’t need anymore ................................................$140,000 obo
Visit ForesTreeTrader.com for online listing opportunities.
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ADVERTISER American Logger’s Council American Truck Parts Around The World Salvage Big John Trailers BITCO Insurance Caterpillar Dealer Promotion John Deere Forestry Doggett Machinery Service Eastern Surplus Equipment Linc Flint Equipment Forest Chain Forestry First Forestry Mutual Insurance G & W Equipment Granger Equipment Hawkins & Rawlinson Interstate Tire Service Ironmart Kaufman Trailers Komatsu Forestry Division Mike Ledkins Insurance Agency LMI-Tennessee Magnolia Trailers Maxi-Load Scale Systems Mid-Atlantic Logging & Biomass Missouri Forest Products Association Moore Logging Supply Morbark Olofsfors Peterson Pacific Corp Pitts Trailers Prolenc Manufacturing Puckett Machinery Quadco Quality Equipment & Parts River Ridge Equipment Southern Loggers Cooperative Stribling Equipment Tidewater Equipment Tigercat Industries Timberland TraxPlus Trelan Manufacturing Vermeer Manufacturing W & W Truck & Tractor Waratah Forestry Attachments Waters International Trucks J M Wood Auction
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COMING EVENTS February 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.
30-May 3—Virginia Forestry Assn. Summit, Sheraton Norfolk Waterside, Norfolk. Call 804-2788733; visit vaforestry.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 sfpa expo.com.
20-22—Hardwood Manufacturers Assn. National Conference & Expo, Hyatt Regency Savannah, Savannah, Ga. Call 412-244-0440; visit hmamembers.org.
July
April 2-4—Kentucky Forest Industries Assn. annual meeting, Embassy Suites, Lexington, Ky. Call 502695-3979; visit kfia.org.
southernloggintimes.com
ADLINK is a free service for advertisers and readers. The publisher assumes no liability for errors or omissions.
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.
September 5-7—Great Lakes Logging & Heavy Equipment Expo, UP State Fairgrounds, Escanaba, Mich. Call 715-282-5828; visit gltapa.org. Listings are submitted months in advance. Always verify dates and locations with contacts prior to making plans to attend.
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