FROM THE BACKWOODS PEW The Bog

Scattered throughout the woodlands of the South, and other regions as well, is an occasional mixing of water and soil to the extent that the weight of a passing forester cannot be supported. Like the eager young groom who sweeps his bride from her feet to carry her across the threshold, only to find that each step brings his love closer to the floor, so the forester finds himself walking across a bog, only to find himself slowly sinking. The miry mixture of soil and water begins to give way to the weight of the forester, and while he accelerates in order to “walk on top of the soil” in such a manner as to get to something solid fast, it is usually without success. He is sinking. He is stuck.

If he is fortunate, he may only “bog down” to mid-calf level, but that is usually the case only if he skipped lunch that day. The depth of any bog is directly proportional to the weight of the forester in question. It is one thing to have water in your boots because the swamp was deeper than expected, but it is another issue altogether where a bog is concerned.

The bog desires to devour.

The forester must find a means to break the suction created by the bog, if he desires to again see his family. Unlike quicksand, the bog is made up of dirt, debris, peat, small living and dead animals, and of course, water (or some form of semi-liquid, black, odiferous substance). All of these ingredients mix together, creating suction, a grip on whatever is suspended in the bog.

Now would be a good time for prayer, prayer that the flies and mosquitoes who are calling their friends to the feast, would be blown away by a strong breeze. A prayer that the cottonmouth moccasin you just spotted on a root a few feet away will continue to snooze; a prayer that your new boots are still attached to your feet when you eventually extract yourself from this mess. A prayer that the circling turkey buzzard doesn’t know something you need to know.

Save me, O God! For the waters have come up to my neck. I sink in deep mire, where there is no standing; I have come into deep waters, where the floods overflow me. I am weary with my crying; my throat is dry; my eyes fail while I wait for my God. ~ Psalms 69:1-3

Maybe you have found yourself in a bog; confined to a hospital bed, stuck in a house, or perhaps chained to a system of treatments that seems to be draining away more life than it is restoring. It was hidden from you, you didn’t purposely choose this path, and suddenly, you aren’t moving anymore. Progress has stopped, and in its place is instant fear. Will I survive this bog? What the forester has learned about the bog is that it does not discriminate. It will take whatever or whomever, and pull them into its suffocating ooze. The results are the same: you are stuck.

Logging equipment, large and expensive, designed to leave the lightest footprint in the woods, will hit these bogs, and like the forester on foot, they will begin to sink. With no bottom, the machine will sink until it finds buoyancy, and there it will stop. It will take another machine to get them out. I have seen entire bulldozers, skidders, excavators, and cutters all buried so far down in the bog that only their antenna was sticking out. One skidder stuck in southern North Carolina tried to wench itself out of a bog by running a cable to a nearby tree, a 90-foot-tall tree, only to pull the entire tree down on itself, roots and all, and still be stuck in the bog.

The muddy side of life is no respecter of persons. The bog will pull on the wealthy, the poor, the healthy, and the weak. It is the curse of sin in this world; it is not part of the original plan, yet as we travel through life, we will step into the bog at some point. Like the forester or the heavy equipment operator, we must cry out, we must seek help.

But as for me, my prayer is to You, O LORD, in the acceptable time; O God, in the multitude of Your mercy, hear me in the truth of Your salvation. Deliver me out of the mire, and let me not sink; let me be delivered from those who hate me, and out of the deep waters. Let not the floodwater overflow me, nor let the deep swallow me up; and let not the pit shut its mouth on me. ~ Psalms 69: 13-15

What a resource the children of God have, to call out in prayer to their Father.

Hear me, O LORD, for Your loving kindness is good; turn to me according to the multitude of Your tender mercies. And do not hide Your face from Your servant, for I am in trouble; hear me speedily. ~ Psalms 69:16-17

There is good news, even when the bog is all around you. When you feel like you’re about to suffocate because of the grip of the bog upon you, when you think no one is hearing you; know that the Father hears the cries of his children. He will respond to you in your hour of need.

When the forester has finally extracted himself from the bog, there is a certain spring in his step. Sure, he lost a boot, and he is covered with slime, but the snake never moved, and a breeze did blow away the bugs. God is in the swamp with us, he is aware of our pain, our fear. Yet he desires to use us, to show others in the bog that there is hope. If you claim God as your Father, then he wants you to be a clanging cymbal of God’s mercy, to show those who are not, that they are missing the love of a lifetime.

But I am poor and sorrowful; let Your salvation, O God, set me up on high. I will praise the name of God with a song, and will magnify Him with thanksgiving. ~ Psalms

69:29, 30

Bradley Antill is a forester and an author. Excerpted from Pine, Prayers, and Pelts. For more see www.onatree forestry.com

Clutter Was Leading Forestlands Expert

Dr. Michael Lee Clutter, who served as Dean of the University of Georgia Warnell School of Forestry and Natural Resources from 2007-2015, and was a noted expert in his field, died on December 24. He was 63.

Born in Durham, NC, Clutter grew up in Athens and attended Clarke Central High School, where he graduated with honors in 1977, was captain of the soccer team, and lead trumpeter for the school’s band. He pursued his undergraduate education at Ohio University, playing collegiate soccer, and later at

Mississippi State University, where he earned a bachelor’s degree in forestry resources in 1981. Returning to his hometown, Clutter received a master’s degree in 1982 and a doctoral degree in 1991, both from Warnell.

Clutter was considered an authority on the eco- nomics of the forestry industry, including finance, budgeting, timberland management and timber supply and sizing trends. Early in his career he held various management positions with Georgia-Pacific Corp. and Union Camp Corp. in Savannah.

Joining Warnell’s faculty in 2001, he was later named the Hargreaves Distinguished Professor of Forest Finance and received the Warnell School’s Faculty Award for Outstanding Teaching.

Assuming the role of Dean on August 15, 2007, Clutter was determined to keep students at the forefront of his scholarship and research, continuing to teach forestry courses until his departure in January 2015. Along with his Warnell classes, he also was an adjunct professor at the Terry College of Business, where he taught corporate finance. One of his proudest accomplishments was his lifetime affiliation with Warnell as a dean, professor, student, and the son of a professor at the school.

Desiring to return to the private sector, Clutter became an executive with Forest Investment Associates Timber Partners, a timber and timberland investment fund. He worked there until 2021, when he was named Chief Analytics Officer at F & W Forestry, a position he held until his death.

Along with his academic and professional accomplishments, Clutter was the co-editor of a book on timberland investment, author of numerous articles and other publications, a recipient of several research grants, an editorial board member of the professional journal Forest Science, a member and past chair of the American Forest and Paper Assn.’s forest inventory committee, and a member of the U.S. Forest Service’s forest inventory and analysis review committee. He was an inductee of the Georgia Foresters Hall of Fame.

He is survived by his wife of 38 years, Catherine (Cathy) Nemetz, and their three children, Matthew, Emily, and Maggie. Clutter was predeceased by his father, Dr. Jerome Clutter, also a leading professor at Warnell for 20 years.

Visitation was held January 6 in Watkinsville, and a funeral mass was January 7 at The Catholic Center at the University of Georgia. Interment was at Oconee Hill Cemetery.

In lieu of flowers, the family kindly requests that donations be made to: The Dr. Michael L. Clutter Fellowship, University of Georgia Warnell School of Forestry and Natural Resources, attention: Bridget Harden (bharden@uga.edu). In addition, donations may be made to Trout Unlimited, at gifts.tu.org.

Waratah Forestry Celebrates 50 Years

Waratah Forestry Equipment is celebrating 50 years of innovation in the forestry industry in 2023.

Established in 1973 in Tokoroa, New Zealand, the company manufactured a delimber-feller-buncher with a four-roller fixed head to meet local loggers’ heavy-duty delimbing needs. Following that innovation, a red grapple processor manufactured for the Canadian markets marked the start of the 600 Series line.

Today, Waratah’s full line of harvesting, processing and felling heads are used in a variety of logging applications from cut-to-length hardwood harvesting at the stump, to processing on a landing, felling on steep slopes or debarking on plantations.

“Waratah heads are designed well, tested well and built well,” comments Pasi Volotinen, managing director of Waratah OM, Finland. “We are always aiming for best-in-class. We are happy when our customers are feeling good in the forest.” Visit Waratah.com

Doosan Changes Name To DEVELON

Doosan will now be called DEVELON throughout the world and will continue providing innovative products and solutions in construction and other heavy equipment industries.

Work began to identify a new brand name to replace Doosan following the August 2021 sale of Doosan Infracore to HD Hyundai, formerly Hyundai Heavy Industries Holdings Co. The name DEVELON was chosen to convey the company’s drive to develop onward to bring innovative solutions through technological transformation and the development of exceptional equipment and services.

“We believe the new DEVELON brand will help us build on the success we’ve had in North America over the past 30 years and throughout the world for more than 80 years,” says Todd Roecker, Vice President of growth initiatives.

DEVELON products and services will help customers and partners become industry leaders in construction, logging, recycling, mining, rental and agriculture. Efforts will also be placed on advancing sustainable development through alternative energy sources of power for construction equipment.

In North America, DEVELON will continue supporting its more than 180 dealer locations while

DEVELON North American operations will remain headquartered near Atlanta, in Suwanee, Ga., where the company continues to offer a training center for dealership service technicians. The company will maintain parts availability through its two regional parts distribution centers: one in Atlanta and a second in the Pacific Northwest. A customization plant in Savannah, Ga. will still play a key role in supplying machines to DEVELON dealers and customers.

DEVELON will continue as a subsidiary in the Hyundai Genuine group alongside Hyundai Construction Equipment (HCE). These two subsidiaries will remain independent construction equipment companies under HD Hyundai.

Long-Running SAF Project Has Life

LanzaJet, a sustainable fuels technology company and producer, joined government officials, industry leaders, and investors in mid-December to celebrate a major construction milestone at the LanzaJet Freedom

Pines Fuels facility in Soperton, Ga.

LanzaJet Freedom Pines Fuels is building an ethanol-based alcohol-tojet sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) production plant. Construction will be completed in 2023, according to the company. The plant will produce 10 million gallons of SAF and renewable diesel per year from ethanol, using a range of sustainable, low carbon intensity ethanol, including from waste-based feedstocks. LanzaJet Freedom Pines Fuels reports it will approximately double the amount of current SAF production in the United States.

LanzaJet was joined at the event by its shareholders International Airlines Group (IAG), LanzaTech, Mitsui & Co., Shell, and Suncor Energy, investors including Microsoft Climate Innovation Fund, Breakthrough Energy, and All Nippon Airways (ANA), and government representatives from the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE), and the U.S. Dept. of Agriculture (USDA) as well as representatives from the State of Georgia and local and county officials.

In 2012 LanzaTech purchased the bankrupt Range Fuels facility in Soperton at auction for $5.1 million. Range built the biomass gasification plant with the intention of making ethanol from wood chips, but the firm was unable to produce the biofuel.

Arkansas Group Receives Grant

Dr. Homer Wilkes, Under Secretary for Natural Resources and Environment at the U.S. Dept. of Agriculture (USDA), met with faculty from the University of Arkansas at Monticello (UAM) and the Arkansas Forest Resources Center (AFRC) of the University of Arkansas System Div. of Agriculture housed at UAM to award them a grant for $3.7 million. The meeting took place at Five Oaks Ag Research and Education Center in Humphrey, Ark., where part of the work for the project will be conducted.

The grant provides funding for USDA Partnerships for Climate-

Smart Commodities projects, which are aimed at supporting sustainability in agriculture. AFRC at UAM is the lead on the project and will partner with the University of Arkansas at Pine Bluff (UAPB) and Texas A&M University (TAMU), as well as with recruited landowners. Dr. Nana Tian, assistant professor of natural resources economics and policy at UAM, developed the proposal for the grant and will serve as the project director.

The project will support small and underserved landowners in the riverinfluenced forest regions of Arkansas to develop and harness climate-smart commodities from restoration of the region’s hardwood forests. Bottomland hardwood forests have shown high potential for producing climatesmart commodities including carbon sequestration and storage, wood products, wildlife and other ecosystem services. Despite their importance, 70% of bottomland hardwood forest areas have been lost in the past 100 years.

The project aims to plant 500 to 600 acres of oak forests in the agriculturally dominant floodplain of the Red River Valley of southwestern Arkansas, the Ouachita River Valley of southcentral Arkansas and the Bayou Meto Watershed in eastern Arkansas. The project will also quan- tify and demonstrate the ecological and economic benefits of bottomland hardwood forest restoration on working lands and help landowners manage the plantations and market climate-smart commodities.

West Fraser Timber Idles Florida Sawmill

West Fraser Timber Co. announced in January it will indefinitely curtail its sawmill in Perry, Fla., citing high fiber costs and softening lumber markets.

The indefinite curtailment will impact 126 employees and reduce West Fraser’s U.S. lumber production by 100MMBF. West Fraser expects to mitigate the impact on effected employees by providing work opportunities at other West Fraser operations.

Drax Announces Aliceville Expansion

Drax has announced a $50 million expansion at its wood pellet plant in Aliceville, Ala., which will increase production capacity by nearly 50% from 250,000 tons to 380,000 tons.

Aliceville is well-positioned as a growing hub for sustainable forestry and the biomass industry, according to Drax. “The region boasts of a high concentration of existing sawmills that produce the residuals necessary to support sustainable wood pellet production.”

The expansion will include upgrades to existing systems as well as new truck dumps and pelletizer units, which will allow for an increase in the amount of sawmill residuals processed. The additional capacity is expected to begin commissioning in 2024.

Drax also operates a wood pellet plant in Demopolis, Ala. and has 19 operational pellet plants and developments with nameplate production capacity of around 5 million tons a year in North America. Drax is targeting 8 million tons of production capacity by 2030.

Timber Companies Will Combat CWD

Seven timber companies and four conservation organizations are joining together to fight the spread of chronic wasting disease (CWD) among deer, elk and other species of the deer family (known as “cervids”). The new CWD coalition will promote practices that help discover, manage, and mitigate the negative impacts of CWD. The Coalition includes the Forest Investment Associates, Molpus Woodlands Group, PotlatchDeltic, Rayonier, Resource Management Service, The Westervelt Company, Weyerhaeuser, Alabama Wildlife Federation, Boone and Crockett Club, Georgia Wildlife Federation and National Deer Assn. This footprint spans to well over 20 million acres across the nation.

“We are pleased to join with so many other private landowners and other stakeholders in addressing this critical problem,” comments Brian Luoma, The Westervelt Company President and CEO. “Federal and state agencies, the U.S. Congress, state legislatures, researchers and sportsmen conservationists are all doing their part in educating the public about this critical issue. We are fully supportive of all efforts to prevent further spread and are grateful to everyone who is participating in the coalition.”

The group has developed a list of voluntary best management practices to help monitor, manage and prevent the spread of CWD.

Chronic wasting disease is transmitted animal-to-animal and from contact with infectious material. No treatments or vaccines are currently available, and CWD is 100% fatal to cervids.