Industry News Roundup

INDUSTRY NEWS ROUNDUP

As We See It: Impact Of COVID-19 (USDA) have provided funding for numerous agricultural categories, they have not yet classified timber

Countless businesses value of log ger/truckerwithin the category that qualifies for across the spectrum of indusdelivered wood. The report, COVID-19 assistance. According to tries have been impacted by conducted by the analytics 7 U.S.C§1518, timber and forest are COVID-19 and now can tell firm Forests2Market, found described as an agricultural comstories about how governthat raw wood material conmodity along with fruits, vegetables, ment assistance rescued sumption between Januaryand other common agricultural them from the brink of colDructor July 2020 was 6.7% less goods. Danny Dructor, Executive lapse; but there are some than the same period in Vice-President of American Loggers stories left untold. 2019— dropping 21.4 million tons Council, states that, “Given the fact

A recent analysis generated for the of material. This resulted in a 13% that wool, cut flowers, aloe leaves, American Loggers Council (ALC) reduction ($1.83 billion) in value of and upland cotton are included in the shows that this year’s decrease in the delivered wood. USDA’s Coronavirus Food Assisraw wood material consumption has While Congress and the United tance Program (CFAP), it is a realed to a $1.83 billion reduc tion in the States Department of Agriculture sonable request to ask that timber

and logging be covered under the program as well.”

The USDA’s Coronavirus Food Assistance Program (CFAP) received $16 billion to provide direct support to certain agricultural producers based on actual losses where prices and market supply chains have been affected. The program will assist producers with additional adjustments and changes in marketing costs that result from oversaturated markets and lack of demand for the 2020 marketing year as a result of COVID-19.

ALC created SaveOurLoggers.com as a new web site to highlight the impact of COVID-19 on the logging and wood products industry. The web site features testimonial stories and videos directly from those who have experienced difficult circumstances.

The current conditions loggers are facing due to the COVID-19 pandemic have left them in dire economic straits. Many loggers have shared their stories of how COVID19 is affecting their businesses on SaveOurLoggers.com.

Bobby Goodson, star of the Discovery Channel’s hit show Swamp

Loggers, describes how, as a fourth generation logger with more than 35 years in the business, his company has never experienced a situation as threatening to their existence as an industry as during the

COVID-19 pandemic. He describes how logging is essentially farming with harvesting trees as an agricultural commodity.

Dale Heil of Stratford, Wis., gives one example of how the pandemic is bleeding out a vital American industry: “The closing of the

Verso mill caused by COVID 19 took away 70% of my market.”

Justin Yale of Gwinn, Mich., who has provided trucking services for the logging industry for 10 years, gives further insight into the peril the pandemic has sent the industry into: “I provide trucking services to the raw timber product producers. Tonnage hauled so far this year is down 72% from this time last year.”

Without assistance from the

CFAP program loggers have turn - ed to Congress and the Administration seeking help from the next

COVID relief package through the

Logger Relief Act.

Bipartisan Logger Relief bills were introduced in the Senate (S.4233) by Senator Susan Collins (R-ME) and Senator Tina Smith (D-MN), and in the House (H.R. 7690) by Representative Jared

Golden (D-ME) and Representative David Rouzer (R-NC).

Specifically, the bills would

direct the U.S. Department of Agriculture to make economic relief payments to logging and log trucking businesses who experienced losses of greater than 10% in the first two quarters of 2020 (as compared to 2019). The program would be similar to others already enacted by Congress for agricultural producers such as CFAP. Members of Congress from 13 states have cosponsored the Logger Relief Act.

American Loggers Council is an 501(c)(6) not for profit trade association representing professional timber harvesters throughout the United States. For more information please contact the American Loggers Council at 409- 625-0206, or americanlogger@aol.com, or visit our website at amloggers.com

Carolina Loggers Assn. (CLA) and Professional Logging Contractors of Maine (PLC) have released video statements from stars of the American Loggers and Swamp Loggers reality television series calling for action from Congress and the Trump Administration to provide pandemic relief to the nation’s struggling loggers and timber haulers.

Eldon and Rudy Pelletier of Maine, stars of American Loggers, and Bobby Goodson of North Carolina, star of Swamp Loggers, recorded the statements in late August following months of market declines and job losses in the nation’s logging industry due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.

The effects of the pandemic have crippled loggers across the U.S., and though separated by hundreds of miles, the Pelletiers and Goodson describe similar scenarios of job losses, revenue losses and unprecedented challenges. They also agree that while loggers never ask for help and have never received any, they need help now like that already provided to farmers and fishermen by Congress and the Trump Administration.

“Logging is farming,” Goodson says. “Loggers in North Carolina, we’re hurting right now, and we need some help.”

Eldon Pelletier adds, “We’re not asking for handouts but we know the government has helped the maple syrup people, and we feel that being in the logging and the woods industry that maybe there would be something there that could be given to us to help us. Any help we can get would be a big plus...we’ve never needed it more than now.”

Adel Moves Forward On Pellet Plant

A proposed 450,000 metric tons per year industrial wood pellet mill to be built in Adel, Ga. is gaining steam. On September 21 the Adel City

Council voted to annex a 171-acre industrial park area in Cook County into the city of Adel and to re-zone the property from agricultural to heavy-industry. Meanwhile the wood pellet plant project owner, Renewable Biomass Group, has applied for air construction permitting for the plant, which would export its wood pellets to overseas markets as fuel for electricity generation.

The company hopes to commence construction in the fourth quarter of this year with commercial production beginning in the first quarter of 2022. It plans to operate 11 pelletizers, one dryer, an RCO and RTO for air emissions control.

The Renewable Biomass Group web site indicates the company wants to develop 2 million metric tons per year of industrial wood pellets projects over a seven-year period.

The RBG web site also shows Craig Whitlock as CEO with experience in international business development; Jeremy Ham as CFO with experience in capital raising; and Patrick Madigan as general manager and director.

Madigan was head of Ireland electricity producer Bord na Mona’s bioenergy division when that company announced its intention to build an industrial wood pellet plant in Georgia in 2017. The company ultimately backed away from the project. Bord na Mona has traditionally used sod peat for electricity

generation, but is turning away from peat in favor of wood and other biomass fuel while also delving heavily into wind-based energy.

At an earlier city council hearing the executive director of the Cook County Economic Development Commission, Lisa Collins, spoke in favor the project, calling it “monumental for Adel.”

Dogwood Alliance, the Southernbased environmental group, has taken an aggressive stand against the plant. Dogwood Alliance promotes only solar and wind renewable energy while alleging environmental dangers of wood harvesting.

The RBG air permit application indicates the plant will procure 1.1 million tons of softwood annually.

On September 5 the family and friends of Harlowe Bowling gathered to celebrate the life of the veteran logger, who died on September 1 in Harlowe Bowling his sleep at his home near Ridgeway, Va. He was 81.

Born near Stuart, Va., Bowling grew up in a sawmill-logging family and developed a love for the woods at a young age. Interestingly, he spent a lot of boyhood time with the Wood brothers—Glen,

Leonard, Delano, Clay and Ray

Lee—sons of a nearby farminglumbering family. Early on, all the youngsters became skilled mechanics, a talent that served them well in their careers: Bowling in logging and the Wood brothers on the NASCAR circuit.

After completing high school in 1958, Bowling remained with the family business but in 1962 started

Bowling Logging with Roy Goins, a close friend. The business eventually expanded to include chipping operations and at one time multiple crews and contract crews.

More recently, Bowling had turned day-to-day operations over to his son Tim Bowling, and his wife, Diana, grandson Matt Bowling, and his wife, Lauren.

Known as a conservative who was slow to change and frugal with finances, Bowling built and maintained a solid reputation with

area landowners. At the same time, he enjoyed traveling to evaluate new and improved harvesting machines and methods. One mill procurement official, upon hearing of Bowling’s death, said: “He was a

pioneer in chipping and debarking and a true Southern gentleman.”

He was proud of his family and fond of his collection of some 300 antique cars and trucks, the first of which was bought by Tim Bowling as a gift in 1994. “I guess that sparked a fire in him for old cars and trucks,” Tim says. “He loved to search for them. He’d find one he wanted, go check it out and often come back with three! I think he liked the trading part and meeting new people to add to his long list of friends. He loved for people to come here and see that collection.”

Alabama Timber Owners Receive Some Relief

Alabama forest and landowner groups welcomed news of $10 million in state coronavirus relief to help forest owners impacted by the pandemic.

Alabama Farmers Federation President Jimmy Parnell thanked Governor Kay Ivey and State Forester Rick Oates for working to provide relief for landowners who sold timber at reduced prices due to market disruption.

“COVID-19 has hit Alabama’s forest industry hard,” Parnell says. “Prices have decreased for timber used for lumber as well as pulpwood used to make paper. We appreciate Gov. Ivey recognizing the importance of private forest landowners to our economy and environment. This funding will help lessen the blow for those who sold timber this spring.”

Alabama Forestry Commission (AFC) will administer the Assisting Alabama Timber Owners Impacted by the COVID-19 Pandemic program. It will provide payments to landowners who harvested timber during the months of March through July 2020. The payment rate will be $1 per ton of timber sold. Initial payments will be limited to not more than $10,000 per applicant, pending evaluation of program participation and available funding.

“The Alabama Forestry Commission understands that forest landowners in the state have been negatively impacted by the coronavirus. These assistance payments will not make landowners whole, but they will help,” Oates comments.

www.southernloggintimes.com

INDUSTRY NEWS ROUNDUP

Make Logging Great Again

Dear SLT:

As I walked through a wooded area the other day, I saw some beautiful, big old trees. I walked around admiring the beauty of the place, and then I looked down and saw some cute little tree sprouts. They were already standing straight, green, and even a little majestic for such a little tree. I thought about how if it were nurtured and left to grow, in years to come it would become shade for rest and refuge. This tiny sprout could become a home for birds, squirrels, opossums, or even a treehouse for children to climb and play. Working for a logging company I also thought about how it could provide shelter as wood for building homes, or pulp for paper or even chips to be made into toilet paper. If you live in a home and get the privilege to use toilet paperthank a logger!

The logging business could also be considered a farm industry. We might cut down the trees, but we also plant them. It might take some time (even a generation) before we harvest, but these trees are our future. We are more than loggers, we are “tree farmers.” Our “crops” just take a little more time to reap what we sow. But without us tree farmers who is going to provide what we provide (think toilet paper)?

Running and maintaining a logging business has become increasingly more challenging. We are limited by quotas on what we can bring to the mills. Some mills have closed completely. The severely depressed and diminishing log markets mean that an entire valuable supply chain could be disrupted. Loggers and log trucking companies face high operating costs, our insurance is astronomical, and lately we have seen a drastic loss of return on our investment. Logging throughout the United States is being reduced and new investments in the logging sector are extremely limited.

On July 21, 2020 bills H.R. 7690 and S. 4233 were introduced to Congress, and both were immediately sent to committee. Did you know that 90% of all bills die in committee? Languishing there with no thought, discussion, or action. The logging and log trucking industry is suffering and needs the help these bills would provide.

The American Loggers Council has urged all loggers to write or call their congressmen and the President and urge them to consider logging as important as farming, and to pass the “Loggers Relief Act.” It will allow the USDA that already oversees forestry services to provide grants and loans that will help companies that have seen a 10% revenue decline due to COVID-19 and have been hit hard by this pandemic. The Loggers Council has told lawmakers, “This program is intended to ensure that contractors can have the opportunity to remain in business over the next 12 months and to adjust their operations as markets begin to stabilize.”

During this pandemic we definitely learned from the great “Toilet Paper Shortage of 2020” how important TP is to all of us. We urge you to assist us loggers, or “tree farmers,” who bring this vital resource to you to get HR 7690 and S.4233 out of committee to the House and Senate floors for a vote, have it pass and go to President Trump to sign into law. Write or call your congressmen. Flood them with emails and messages imploring them to get it done. Remind them that they, too, use what we provide, and they need to help a logger—so we can keep helping you!

Kathy Hunter Wade T. Biggs Logging, Inc. Pinetown, NC