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Vol. 48, No. 11
(Founded in 1972—Our 566th Consecutive Issue)
F E AT U R E S
November 2019 A Hatton-Brown Publication
Phone: 334-834-1170 Fax: 334-834-4525
www.southernloggintimes.com Publisher David H. Ramsey Chief Operating Officer Dianne C. Sullivan Editor-in-Chief Senior Editor Managing Editor Senior Associate Editor Associate Editor
Rich Donnell Dan Shell David Abbott Jessica Johnson Patrick Dunning
Publisher/Editor Emeritus David (DK) Knight
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American Loggers Council 25th Annual Meeting
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Spotlight On Trucking
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Cindy Segrest Patti Campbell Rhonda Thomas Jacqlyn Kirkland
ADVERTISING CONTACTS
out front: 8
Art Director Ad Production Coordinator Circulation Director Online Content/Marketing
This month, in honor of Veteran’s Day, SLT pays tribute to loggers who have served in the military. Featured are brothers Linwood Johnson (top left), a Vietnam veteran, and J.T. Johnson (top right) who served in Germany; Danny Johnson (bottom left) and Hulet Moore (bottom right), both Iraq veterans from 1991 and 2003, respectively. Stories begin on Page 8. (Photos by David Abbott and Patrick Dunning)
Southern Stumpin’ . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6 Bulletin Board . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30 Industry News Roundup . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38 Machines-Supplies-Technology . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 48 ForesTree Equipment Trader . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55 Coming Events/Ad Index . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 62
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 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 Western Canada, Western USA Tim Shaddick Tel: 604-910-1826 • Fax: 604-264-1367 4056 West 10th Ave. Vancouver, BC V6L 1Z1 E-mail: tootall1@shaw.ca Kevin Cook Tel: 604-619-1777 E-mail: lordkevincook@gmail.com International Murray Brett Tel: +34 96 640 4165 +34 96 640 4048 58 Aldea de las Cuevas • Buzon 60 03759 Benidoleig (Alicante), Spain E-mail: murray.brett@abasol.net CLASSIFIED ADVERTISING
Bridget DeVane
Tel: 1-800-669-5613 • Tel 334-699-7837 Email: bdevane7@hotmail.com
Southern Loggin’ Times (ISSN 0744-2106) is published monthly by Hatton-Brown Publishers, Inc., 225 Hanrick St., Montgomery, AL 36104. Subscription Information—SLT is sent free to logging, pulpwood and chipping contractors and their supervisors; managers and supervisors of corporate-owned harvesting operations; wood suppliers; timber buyers; wood procurement and land management officials; industrial forestry purchasing agents; wholesale and retail forest equipment representatives and forest/logging association personnel in the U.S. South. See form elsewhere in this issue. All non-qualified U.S. subscriptions are $65 annually; $75 in Canada; $120 (Airmail) in all other countries (U.S. funds). Single copies, $5 each; special issues, $20 (U.S. funds). Subscription Inquiries— TOLL-FREE 800-669-5613; Fax 888-611-4525. Go to www.southernloggintimes.com and click on the subscribe button to subscribe/renew via the web. All advertisements for Southern Loggin’ Times magazine are accepted and published by Hatton-Brown Publishers, Inc. with the understanding that the advertiser and/or advertising agency are authorized to publish the entire contents and subject matter thereof. The advertiser and/or advertising agency will defend, indemnify and hold Hatton-Brown Publishers, Inc. harmless from and against any loss, expenses, or other liability resulting from any claims or lawsuits for libel violations or right of privacy or publicity, plagiarism, copyright or trademark infringement and any other claims or lawsuits that may arise out of publication of such advertisement. Hatton-Brown Publishers, Inc. neither endorses nor makes any representation or guarantee as to the quality of goods and services advertised in Southern Loggin’ Times. Hatton-Brown Publishers, Inc. reserves the right to reject any advertisement which it deems inappropriate. Copyright ® 2019. All rights reserved. Reproduction in whole or in part without written permission is prohibited. Periodicals postage paid at Montgomery, Ala. and at additional mailing offices. Printed In USA.
POSTMASTER: Send address changes to: Southern Loggin’ Times, P.O. Box 2419, Montgomery, AL 36102-2419 Member Verified Audit Circulation
Other Hatton-Brown publications: ★ Timber Processing ★ Timber Harvesting ★ Panel World ★ Power Equipment Trade ★ Wood Bioenergy
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SOUTHERN STUMPIN’ By David Abbott • Managing Editor • Ph. 334-834-1170 • Fax: 334-834-4525 • E-mail: david@hattonbrown.com
Southern Loggin’ Vets W
hen we talk about “veteran loggers” in these pages, we usually mean loggers who have been in the business a long time. This month, the phrase takes on a different meaning here. Veterans Day is November 11, and with that in mind, we wanted to dedicate our November issue to profiling some of those in the logging profession who are also veterans of the United States Armed Forces. I think it’s a great idea and I wish I could say it was mine, but none of us here can take credit for it. It was the suggestion of Danny Johnson, owner of Freedom Logging, one of the veteran loggers featured this issue. Our editors set out to find suitable candidates, and we were not disappointed. On September 11, of all days, I drove through Washington, DC and met with three different Johnsons, only two of them related: the aforementioned Danny Johnson in Maryland, and brothers J.T. and Linwood Johnson in Virginia. Meanwhile, our resident true freshman editor Patrick Dunning went to Mississippi to see Hulet Moore. A ton of other suggestions came to us, but we only had enough room and time to get to a few of them. Hopefully we’ll get back to see some of them for the November issue next year.
Freedom Logging’s Danny Johnson, who suggested the Veterans Day issue, has this on one of his trucks.
For me it was both a pleasure and an honor to meet all of these gentlemen, and I’m not just saying that. I thoroughly enjoyed the time I spent talking with each of these brave men. I can only hope that, in attempting to use my feeble abilities to tell their stories, I have done those stories some measure of justice. Coincidentally, on the same trip to Maryland and Virginia, I stopped in Georgia to tour Varn Wood Products for an article appearing in the November issue of Timber Processing (another Hatton Brown publication). George Varn, Sr. (with other members of his family) started the mill 51 years ago (the Varns had been in the turpentine business for 30+ years before that). Mr. Varn, a Harvard graduate, turns 99 in December (he was born in 1920, just three months after my grandfather), and he, too, is a veteran, of World War II; he was in Naval intelligence. I'm going to take this opportunity to shine a spotlight on some other veterans I know, not all of whom have any connection to our industry necessarily, but who were gracious enough to help me prepare this issue by telling me about their experiences. Take, for instance, my old friend and former coworker Candace Wallace, who has been an Army kid, an Army wife, and an Army soldier, because women can do it all (even more so if her daughter Ridleigh makes her into an Army mom one day). All of 4'11 and fierce, Candace joined the Army and was deployed to Iraq in 2008. Service is in her blood: her dad, Charles Wallace, retired from the Army, while her grandfather, Jack McCurdy, served in the Navy in World War II, Army in Korea and Air Force in Vietnam. ➤ 46 6
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They’re not a logging family, but I asked a military wife I know to write about her experience: My name is Cassie Wise and I am the wife of SSG Willie Wise of the United States Army National Guard. We have three beautiful children: Cooper (15), Jaden (11), and Callie (7). We have been together for a total of 15 years and married for 11 years. My husband has served with the Army National Guard for 12 years. Our family has been through three separate year-long deployments and we are currently separated for his duty of border patrol for six months. He was sent to Afghanistan in 2009, Kuwait in 2013, and again to Kuwait in 2017. Let’s not forget the time away from home for drill, summer training, continuing education, and all the things necessary to prepare our men and women for such times. This life definitely has its ups and downs. It is mentally and physically exhausting for us both for different reasons. As a soldier, it is the memories and milestones you are missing with your wife and children while trying to focus on the job at hand. These men and women sacrifice not only their lives to protect us but their time away from their loved ones. All of this to not only make a safe place that we get to call home but to provide for their family. As a spouse, not only are you trying to work and provide but you have the added stress of trying to do it on your own at home. For me, not only am I doing this but I am trying to be strong and supportive for my husband when he needs me the most. In the end, we all just want the same thing. We want to be together. For my family, the distance for so many years in such a small time frame has brought out the best in us. Yes, we have our inner battles and fight through those every single day but, it has brought us closer together. It has made us stronger. We appreciate the small things life has to offer. When he is home, we choose to make the most of every single opportunity we have and we are grateful that Daddy gets to share those moments with us. When he is away, the phone calls, text, pictures, and Facetime help us get by and we are grateful to even be able to do that. Seeing his face or hearing his voice on the other end of the phone seems so small but means so much. It is hard. There is no denying that. But we choose to make the best of it, we choose to fight through it together, and we wait patiently for that moment when he walks through those doors and we get to jump in his arms again. At the end of the day, we could not be more proud of our hero. He is an amazing father, husband, soldier, and person who is always willing to do for others and his country. He continues to make us proud every single day and we could not be more grateful for the continuous sacrifices he makes not only for our county but for our family as well. Take one minute out of your day today and thank a soldier. Not only for their service but for their sacrifice as well. We never know what these men and women may be dealing with and a simple gesture of this sort can truly go a long way. God Bless America!!!
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Happy Trails ■ Logging wasn’t his first choice, but Vietnam vet Linwood Johnson has made a good life with his family.
By David Abbott CHARLES CITY, Va. e’s still got a few reels to go ★ before his final act, but Linwood Johnson has already had a long and colorful life. A logger from a big family of loggers, Johnson is also a Vietnam veteran and a horse expert who, on the side, works in movies and TV shows. He’s 71 now—“Almost old enough to retire,” he says with a grin; almost, but not quite yet. Johnson was 19 and fresh out of high school when he joined the Army; rather than wait to be drafted, he volunteered. Hoping that by signing up he’d get to choose his MOS (military occupation specialty). At least, that’s what he’d been told was often the case; it didn’t work out for him. “I volunteered for quartermaster school because they had a quartermaster school in Fort Lee, which is nowhere from me,
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and I thought maybe I’d get to go there,” he says. Instead, he ended at the quartermaster school in Fort Polk, Louisiana. “When I got there, they had signs everywhere that said, ‘Fort Polk: Stepping Stone to Vietnam.’ That was no lie.” He enlisted in July 1967, and by December, he says, “I was headed to sunny Vietnam.” He was stationed at Củ Chi, a rural district of
Ho Chi Minh City that served as base of operations for the U.S. Army’s 269th Aviation Battalion. The Củ Chi tunnels were also the headquarters of the Viet Cong. His arrival came at a bad time, he recalls. “It seemed so quiet at first, but they were basically lulling everybody to relaxation, getting ready for the Tet Offensive.” The Tet Offensive lasted from January
The Johnson family crew, from left: Damon, Linwood and Morgan Johnson
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30-September 23, 1968. Johnson was at first assigned to an office job: typing, ordering supplies. That didn’t suit him; he’d always been an outdoor person. “They needed someone to load ammo, and I said I could do it. The wreckers had booms, like a knuckleboom loader. I went to the supply department, got and read a manual, and that evening I went out and loaded the ammo.” Having proved himself, he soon found himself in a new job in the recovery section, retrieving heavy equipment from the field. With no formal training in that area, he developed a reputation as a guy who could get the job done and ended up as the unit leader. He relates one incident as an example: three tanks had set up in a rice paddy and gotten stuck after a heavy rain, and he and his crew were sent to get them out. It took them a while to find the tanks, and when they did, Johnson realized they had a new problem. “I remember the first night,” he says. “I said
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we had to get off the road because if they (the Viet Cong) came through and saw us, they would just kill us.” His unit had no security, just the four of them on their tank retriever with only their own weapons: two M60 machine guns, a 50 caliber M2 Browning, M16 and a grenade launcher. “If they had come in they would have killed us so easily, it would have been a shame. We would have been sitting ducks.” Johnson backed the tank retriever up to get some room and then sped it up to attempt to cross the water onto an island in the middle of the rice paddy. “She just did make it,” he says. “The water gave us a little buffer from the road so that if they didn’t see us, I said we might make it till morning.” They waited through the night, trying to sleep and hoping their luck would hold out and the enemy wouldn’t spot them. Was he afraid? He’s man enough to admit that he was. “You know, you’re always scared in stuff like that,” he says. “You’re basically a child at 19, 20 years old, and now you have your life in your hands, and other people’s lives, too.” It took two days to pull the tanks out. “It was a rough go. Those tank retrievers didn’t have but only 200 feet of cable,” Johnson explains. “I called base camp and they flew out a quarter mile of 2 in. cable. Vietnamese Rangers parachuted it in. It took us all of the first day to pull one tank out, and when it was coming out you could see the ground moving on each side for 20 ft. The next day, those Vietnamese Rangers were there with us, so we had security. I did quite a few recovery missions like that. That’s basically what I did the whole time I was there.” Johnson spent his entire enlistment, after training, in Vietnam— just over two years. After his first year there he put in for a transfer to either Germany (where he had brothers stationed) or anywhere on the East Coast, where he figured he’d have been close enough to visit home—but instead they only offered him a transfer to Fort Riley, Kansas in the winter. “I wasn’t Dorothy and I sure wasn’t Toto,” he says. “Kansas didn’t have anything for me.” So he opted to stay in Vietnam for six more months. When that was done, he tried again for Germany or the East Coast, but this time was only offered a transfer to Ft. Carson, Colorado. Since that also didn’t interest him, he figured that if he did one more tour in Vietnam he would shave five months off of his total commitment, so he spent more time in country to have less time overall. He left for home in February 1970. How does he feel about the experience, looking back from the safe distance of time? “I wouldn’t do it again
Johnson recently replaced his old trucks with three automatic transmission Volvos after finding a good deal in a trucking magazine.
The logging vet buys Deere machines from James River in Ashland.
SLT SNAPSHOT Johnson’s Logging Charles City, Va. Email: sbjohnson48@aol.com Founded: 1981 Owner: Linwood Johnson No. Crews: 1 Employees: 3 in woods, 3 truck drivers
but I wouldn’t trade anything for the experience,” he considers. Thinking about the war itself, in the big picture, he says, “With guerilla warfare it is hard to win unless you just take them out, and the U.S. plays by the rules. So we spent a lot of money and it wasn’t a clear victory.” His own experience, however, was more personal. “I remember one night looking up at the sky thinking about all these guys I grew up with who were looking at that same sky without a care in the world, while we were over there not knowing if we would be alive the next day. It’s hard to explain. I was hoping that something good would come out of it.” What good came of it for him? “It makes you appreciate things, makes you appreciate home.” Back at home, Johnson wasn’t married yet when he left for the war, but he did leave behind a high school sweetheart, Sandra, whom he married after he returned. He had two older brothers, Stanley and J.T., who were also in the military, both stationed in Germany. He advised his younger brother, Charles, to volunteer, believing the Army usually wouldn’t send two brothers to war at the same time, especially if he volunteered. Unfortunately, Charles didn’t enlist in time, his number got called up and he ended up in Vietnam too. Mercifully, both of them made it home alive and in one piece.
Logging Roots
Equipment: 2 skidders, 2 cutters, 1 loader, 3 trucks Average Production: 50 loads Average Haul Distance: 75 miles Tidbit: Johnson has loved horses since childhood, when his dad logged with horses. Trail riding is still one of his favorite hobbies, and his equestrian expertise has led him to a side job wrangling and driving horses for various movies and TV shows. His cell even has the sound of a horse neighing for a ring tone.
“We came from a big logging family,” Johnson says. His father, Stanley, was one of 12 children: nine boys and three girls. All the sons were loggers, most had their own businesses; one of the girls married a logger who had his own company. “When my daddy was living, in the summers we’d go in the woods, and they were loading everything by hand and limbing trees with
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axes,” Johnson remembers. “The other children were glad for the summer to get here so they’d be out of school. I wasn’t glad because I knew we’d have to go to work.” Linwood was only 11 when his father was killed in a logging accident in 1959. At that time they pulled logs out with a Farmall Super M tractor. That evening one truck got stuck in a bad spot, and Mr. Johnson took the Farmall to pull it out. The tractor went backwards and ran over him; he died in the hospital a few days later.
After War “When I was in high school, I said if I ever grow up, I never want to cut another stick of pulpwood as long as I live,” he relates with a laugh. So returning to the woods was not in his post war plans. When he re-entered civilian life, the Army told him that, as a veteran, he’d be the first hired and the last fired. “All they told us and a dollar would get you a cup of coffee—just make sure you got the dollar.” Johnson soon got a job at a DuPont plant. “Those three swing shifts didn’t bother me a bit because in Vietnam you worked every day,” he says. But after six months, DuPont laid him off. He tried his
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things turn around. Right now it’s turning around and you can make decent living.”
Uncivil
Johnson trusts his crew, including employee Jeffrey Crewe and sons Damon and Morgan (pictured here).
hand at carpentry for his wife’s uncle, and he liked that and wanted to learn more, but the home building market soon went sour. He then found work at the Ethyl Corp. in Richmond, where he did the same job he’d done at DuPont, but for $1 less an hour—and he had only been making $2 an hour at DuPont. “It looked like things were on a downward spiral,” he thought, with his income reduced by half. So he went back to DuPont and insisted on speaking with someone in charge. After pointing to the company’s stated policy of preferred hiring for veterans and calling their atten-
tion to the fact that he knew non-veterans who kept their jobs when he was laid off, Johnson convinced the company to hire him again. And yet, he says, “Every day I went in, I hated it.” Eventually, he quit, determined to make it on his own. He started working with two of his brothers, James (J.T.) and Charles, who were already logging together. They worked together for quite a few years and did all right, but by 1981, the Johnson brothers opted to start separate companies. “I haven’t regretted it,” he says. “Things have gotten tight at times but if you stay in it long enough,
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Johnson has vivid memories of being a black child in the segregated South. “They had water fountains labeled ‘white’ and ‘colored.’ I remember going to Providence Forge to a little diner where blacks could buy food at the window but you couldn’t sit inside and eat.” After integration, he took his future wife to the first interracial prom. “There was more police there than people, looked like. It was not a good time to be black.” One might think wearing the uniform of the U.S. Armed Forces and volunteering to serve in a war on behalf of his country would have earned him more respect, but one might be surprised. Johnson did his basic training in Fort Benning, Georgia. One of the top sergeants there was married to a girl from Charles City, a girl Johnson knew. The sergeant took a liking to Linwood and made him an offer. He said he could arrange it so that Johnson could serve his entire enlistment in Georgia. “After your first four weeks you can get a weekend pass, so a bunch of
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With three truck drivers, the four-man crew can easily put out 50 loads a week, and more when not hampered by quotas.
us were going to take the pass to go home.” But the sergeant wouldn’t let anybody go until everybody passed inspection, and by the time the last man was finished, Johnson’s group had missed their flight in Columbus. They got on an alternate flight leaving from Atlanta and hired a cab to get them there. Since they had time, the driver suggested they stop at a diner on the way. “We went in this place that had swinging doors, like a saloon; we thought that was cool,” Johnson recalls. The young soldiers were all dressed in uniform. “A couple of white guys were with us, but it was mostly blacks headed back to Richmond. This one white guy, Roundtree was his last name. We sat down, and the guy behind the counter at this café never came by to wait on us. Old Roundtree said ‘Are we invisible?’ And the guy came over there and said, ‘We don’t serve n—gers here.’ Old Roundtree said, ‘That’s all right, we don’t want n—gers, we want food.’” Seemingly placated, the waiter took everybody’s orders and went behind the counter. “All of a sudden those doors swung open; in stepped four men in white robes and pointed hats, and each one of them had a double barreled12 gauge. They never said a word, just stood by the door, and I said to myself, ‘This is it.’ The guy behind the counter came out with his robe and threw it down on the counter, and said, ‘Didn’t I tell you, we don’t serve n—gers here.’ He pulled his pistol out and put that barrel up Roundtree’s nose, and he said, ‘You little white n—ger, I could blow your brains right out the top of your head. But this is y’all’s lucky day. You got five seconds to get out of my place and don’t ever come back.’” As they left, the soldiers had to walk past the Klan members with the shotguns. “We just knew as soon as we got past them they were going to kill us,” Johnson recalls. “We made it to that van and didn’t get shot at, but 12
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we were scared to death. I told that driver: don’t stop this thing till we’re in Atlanta at the airport. And that did it for Georgia for me. When that guy told me I could pull my tour in Georgia, I said I will take my chances in Vietnam.” After he finished basic training in Georgia, he went to Fort Polk, Louisiana. “We got a new commander, who was black, from Michigan,” Johnson says. “He said he got his introduction to Fort Polk when he stopped at a police station
to ask for directions. The cops beat him up. He was a captain. I decided, I won’t leave this base again till I go to Vietnam. There was no place safe to go.” Things have changed for the better since then, he says, but adds that it’s sad to think how many people still won’t like another person because of skin color, even if they’re usually more subtle about their prejudice now. “People aren’t born hating,” he believes. “Hatred is taught. I saw it a lot coming up. It
Horses And Hollywood
Linwood Johnson grew up in a family of loggers, but he didn’t love logging as a child. One thing he did like: they logged with horses. “I enjoyed that. I used to like driving those horses. I have memories of my daddy getting home late in the evening with horses on the back of the truck, and we’d run out to go across to where he led them to the trough. I’ve always had a love of horses. I’ve owned quite a few since.” Johnson does a lot of trail riding, and he was president of the horse club in Charles City. He’s also worked in several movies because of it. In fact when Southern Loggin’ Times called to set up the interview for this article, he initially couldn’t take the call because he was on the set of a Showtime series being filmed in Richmond that day. He appeared in Steven Spielberg’s movie Lincoln a few years ago, driving a carriage when the Confederates surrendered at Appomattox. He has worked in a few movies that didn’t have horses, but said that was boring so he told the agency not to call him unless the part involved horses. On his first movie, they wanted to hire him as an extra. “I told them we’re not extras; if you want someone to handle these horses, we aren’t going to do it for extra pay.” Since, he’s been credited, and paid, as a horse wrangler. He also recently had a chance to get an all-expenses-paid trip to appear in an upcoming Tom Hanks movie, News of the World, which has been filming in New Mexico this fall. He was willing to make the trip, but didn’t really want to—he’s a busy man—so he was relieved when producers found someone else in New Mexico who could do what they needed. Based on the 2016 novel of the same name, the movie is set in the aftermath of the Civil War and is scheduled to premiere on Christmas Day, 2020. Johnson would have been seen driving the wagon carrying the leading lady. In the next scene the wagon was to be overturned and Johnson’s character would have been seen hanging, lynched. “I will definitely be going to see it when it’s released,” he says. He recalls having been on the set of another film wherein a young black man was hanged, and the scene was so emotional it brought tears to the eyes of many on set. The director handed the actor an extra $500 from his own pocket. Johnson notes that some of his friends refuse to be in similar period movies, as he has done, because they don’t want to be portrayed as a slave. Johnson’s view: “I tell them that it’s history and it needs to be told. So many young children coming up now have no idea what struggles peoSLT ple went through.”
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always seemed like the people with the least education were the most vocal.” That much hasn’t changed. One lesson from Vietnam has always stuck with him, and he relates it to troubling trends he sees in America today. When he arrived, his group was told they were going to be taught something about staying alive over there. They were shown a man who was going to hide, and once he was hidden, each soldier was asked where they thought he was: behind a rock, maybe, or a bush or tree. “They said we were all wrong, and we would be the first ones killed. ‘When I told you to look for him, you all looked out there.’ So they had him stand up. He was in the bleachers with us. They told us the first thing you have to learn: when you look for the enemy, look at the guy next to you.’”
Family Ties Linwood and his wife Sandra were high school sweethearts, same age, same grade, and they married after he got home from Vietnam. “My family was six boys and one girl; hers was one boy and six girls,” he explains. “She came from a real good family; the whole family was really smart.” Her father, Richard Bowman, was a local historian. “He did so much for the county. We are a small county and we just got our library completed, and a lot of that was dedicated to him. He was the first black chairman of the board of supervisors.” Mr. Bowman was active in the civil rights movement at a national level. He was in Dr. King’s march in Washington, DC, and he had a hand in Brown v. Board of Education, the landmark Supreme Court case that established racial segregation as unconstitutional in 1954. “If Brown’s case had lost, they had backup plans, and his was the next case that would have been heard,” Linwood says. His activism was local, too. “When they integrated the schools here, he spearheaded that, so his children could go to what at the time was a school only for whites.” Sandra’s oldest sister was the first of the family to graduate from a predominantly white school; she had the highest GPA, but wasn’t allowed to be valedictorian. (Sandra was nearly valedictorian of her class as well, but another student was allowed to drop a class that would have dragged down her GPA). Johnson’s father-in-law also had a photographic memory, and his knowledge of the histories and connections among the families of Charles City was unparalleled. “When people from everywhere else came to Charles City looking for family, they would talk to him, because he knew everybody in the
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county,” Johnson says. “One day I was saddling a horse when a Cadillac pulls up and out steps Uncle Phil.” James Avery, the actor who played Will Smith’s Uncle Phil on the ’90s NBC sitcom The Fresh Prince of Bel Air, was trying to trace his own family tree, and his research led him to Bowman. “He had his mom and Will Smith’s mother with him, and he had been told if anyone could find them it would be Richard Bowman.” The historian knew the families in question and put Avery on the right track. After that, Johnson says, “Anytime they were back in the area they would come by to see him.”
path he wanted for them, but he’s happy they’re with him. “I don’t care how old they get, they’re still your children. As long as they stay out of trouble, that’s the main thing. There are so many vices with drugs and everything else, so I am just proud to have them.” “When I get old enough to retire, I will,” he says; he’s waiting for his older brother J.T. to retire first. “He’s a year older than me so I have to stay a year longer after he retires. Every year he says he is going to
hang it up at the end of the year, but he never does. He won’t give it up.” Damon and Morgan do a great job, their dad says, and soon he plans to make them his equal partners to make for a smooth transition when he does finally step down. “I’ll still do some hauling for them and move equipment, anything they need I will step in and do,” he expects. “But I want to get away from it some so my wife and I can do more travelling and horseback riding. We have a horse trailer, 44
ft. long with a slide-out on it, and I really enjoy trail riding.” Johnson and Sandra have two granddaughters. Morgan’s daughter Alexus is in college and Damon’s daughter Dana just started prekindergarten this fall. Linwood and Sandra started taking Alexus riding with them when she was three; now she wants to get back to it, and Dana wants to learn, too. “So that will be great to have them riding with me,” the proud grandfather says. It sounds like a good plan. SLT
Family Business Linwood has run two crews in the past, but today he has a single crew running wo John Deere skidders (2015 648L and ’17 648L-II), two Deere cutters (’14 643 and ’17 643L) and ’14 Caterpillar 559C loader with 426 CTR delimber. He has three Pitts trailers, one from 2000 and two ’17s. Trucks are all Volvos, ’13, ’14 and ’15 models, and all three are automatics, just purchased late this summer. “I love them,” Johnson says. “They pull great, they’re quiet. I haven’t seen anything I don’t like about them yet.” He says he ran across a deal on the Volvos he couldn’t pass up from McBride Mack in Paducah, Ky., right on the Missouri line. Equipment dealers are James River in Ashland for Deere and Carter in Richmond for Cat. Production is primarily pulpwood, hauled to WestRock in West Point and Hopewell; pine and hardwood logs go to local sawmills within a 75-mile radius. They average 50 loads a week when they have the timber to cut and are not held back by quota. Linwood says quotas have caused him some “terrible weeks” when he didn’t make enough to pay for fuel, but other weeks they have gotten as many as 130 loads. Linwood has a crew of three in the woods: employee Jeffrey Crewe, and Linwoods’ two sons. He admits that he didn’t really want his sons Morgan, 39, and Damon, 43, to follow the family logging tradition. “I sent both of them to college, and they didn’t want to go,” their dad says. “So I just threw away money.” Morgan is a good mechanic on cars and trucks and tried making a career of that, while Damon worked at what was then the Stone Container pulp mill in Hopewell, but both eventually came to work in the woods. It may not have been the career Southern Loggin’ Times
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Big Brother ■ One of seven kids, losing his dad young forced J.T. Johnson to become a man when he was still a boy. By David Abbott CHARLES CITY, Va. ames Thomas (J.T.) John★ son came from a family of six boys and one girl. Five of the brothers served in the military: J.T., Stanley, Linwood and Charles were all in the Army, Clarence in the Air Force. Their sister, Elsie, has worked at the post office almost since she got out of high school. Her husband was a military man, too. Two of the Johnson brothers have already died. Oldest brother Stanley, named for their father, died a few years ago, and younger brother Charles was killed by his own wife. J.T., 72, is the oldest Johnson spends most of his time driving his truck, trusting woods operations to his employees. living Johnson brother, followed by Linwood, Clarence and Robert. The Johnsons have also been a family of loggers—their dad, grandfather and many of their uncles and cousins were loggers. “Our dad J.T. Johnson Logging, LLC. logged with horses, and he planted Charles City, Va. his own garden and raised pigs and Email: 1947jtjohnson@gmail.com cows,” J.T. says. “We really didn’t have to worry about anything then Founded: 1971 because he was so successful at what he was doing.” Owner: J.T. (James Thomas) Johnson Four of the six brothers would No. Crews: 1 eventually make careers in the woods. J.T. and Linwood both still Employees: 4 own logging crews, and Charles Equipment: 1 skidder, 1 cutter, 1 loader, 1 truck was J.T.’s partner at Johnson Brothers Logging before his death. Average Production: 50 loads/week Youngest brother Robert was also a Average Haul Distance: 50 miles logger for a while, before suffering a back injury in a car accident that Tidbit: Army vet J.T. Johnson has been drag racing for left him on disability. 50 years. Despite all that, logging was hardly
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J.T. Johnson
in J.T.’s blood, or in his plans. He never wanted to be a logger when he was young. In fact, he admits, “I pure hated it.” It’s not hard to understand why: a logging accident took their father’s life. In years that followed, the woods also claimed one of their uncles and a few cousins. Stanley Johnson, Sr. was 37 when he died, leaving behind a widow with seven kids, the oldest of whom, Stanley, Jr., was 14. “My mother was 34 and couldn’t work because she had real bad arthritis, and she was trying to raise six hardheaded boys and a girl,” J.T. considers. “It was tough. I don’t see how she managed it. I don’t. Sometimes I would think about what she had to go through just to keep us clothed and fed and in school, and it would make me cry.” J.T. was 13 when he lost his father, and he struggled to cope with the pain. “My dad was my world, so I went through a lot of emotions.” At 14 he dropped out of school. “I was a good student, too. I read all I could read, but after dad died, everything bothered me.” He
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explains, “I was still a child but what was funny to the other kids annoyed me. They giggled and laughed, and I should have been giggling and laughing too, but I couldn’t. It just got on my nerves. All my brothers and my sister finished school, and did well, but I was the black sheep I guess. I was just going through so much I couldn’t take.” Hurting and hoping to help out, J.T. quit school and got a job helping one of his uncles in the woods. “Biggest mistake of my life,” he calls it now. “It was something I said I would never do after daddy got killed, but my uncle needed me, so I went.” Still, he enjoyed the work itself. “We were pulling timber with horses and loading by hand all day. It was tough but it was a lot of fun to me back then.”
Loader operator Montey Cotman
was dangerous was the type of job he had, stuff I wouldn’t want to mess with,” J.T. says. It also helped that he was able to bring his family with him. He hadn’t been married to his wife Brenda for long when the Army sent him to Europe. She and their daughter Jamie, just a baby then, were able to live with him in Germany. Brenda and J.T. have been together over 50 years now. Johnson loved being in the Army, and wanted to be the best soldier in
Service J.T. volunteered for the Army and served from 1965-1968. “Because I dropped out of school early, this was more like an education to me than anything else, and I thoroughly enjoyed it,” he says of the military. “I made rank real fast and I enjoyed what I was doing.” His rank was E5, Specialist 5th class. Johnson actually wanted to go to Vietnam. “I was ready to fight for the country,” he explains. But, the Army needed him in Germany. “The French were in an uproar and told the U.S. we had six months to get all our equipment out of France. They bought 1,500 road tractors and we moved it to Belgium, to Holland, Munich, Austria, all over Europe. We were pulling container trailers to different ports in Rotterdam and Belgium.” During the Cold War, Germany was still divided, of course, at the Berlin Wall; East Germany was with the Soviets, while West Germany was one of our biggest allies. “The French were, too, but they got upset about something and demanded we get out. We left billions of dollars of equipment because we couldn’t move it all in that amount of time.” Johnson ended up spending 31 months of his deployment stationed in Germany. Making his assignment there more enjoyable for J.T. was the fact that his oldest brother Stanley was also stationed in Germany at the same time. They were even stationed in the same barracks for a few months, and the rest of the time they were close enough to visit each other every weekend. While J.T. worked as a transport specialist (which, incidentally, must have been fair preparation for his future career hauling logs), Stanley specialized in handling chemicals and hazardous materials. “Anything that 18
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his company at all times. “The two or three companies I went to, I always got awards for outstanding soldier in that company,” he says. “I felt good, with my limited education, that I was being advanced as fast as I was.” He considered staying in and making a career of it. “They told me if I reenlisted they would send me to warrant officer candidate school and make me a helicopter pilot. But I was overwhelmed by my lack of education.” Racial tensions were high in many parts of the U.S. in the ’60s, and J.T.
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was aware of prejudice back home. A grand wizard of the Ku Klux Klan reputedly lived nearby, and he’d heard of black people being stopped on that road, taken from their cars and beaten. “But I never experienced anything like that.” In the Army, he says, “I got treated well, yes I did. When I got in, I met these white guys from California, and we were in there together like brothers.” Johnson still feels strongly that kids today should spend a year in the military after high school, especially
if they don’t go to college. He believes fewer young people would turn to crime. “It teaches so much discipline,” he says.
Logging After the war, J.T. worked for tobacco company Phillip Morris in Richmond. By 1971, J.T.’s brothers Charles and Linwood had come back home from Vietnam, where they both had served their time in the Army. J.T. by then was driving a truck for
the Estes company hauling whiskey to the ABC stores in Virginia, but says he wasn’t making enough money. “I said I’d never log,” he admits, but, he had to do something. So he and Charles bought a six-wheel truck and started Johnson Brothers Logging. They loaded wood by hand. As time went by they added tractor trailers, loaders and skidders. Sometime later, their brother Linwood joined them for a few years, before eventually going his own way. J.T. and Charles continued to work
together until Charles’s death. Today, what was Johnson Brothers Logging is now J.T. Johnson Logging, LLC. Johnson usually drives his log truck, but mans the loader when needed. His crew includes loader man Montey Cotman, all-around guy Wendell Hampton, cutter operator Kenneth Johnson and the newest recruit, Boo Johnson, driving the skidder. Equipment includes a 2015 Tigercat 620 skidder, Tigercat 724 fellerbuncher and John Deere 437D loader. Johnson’s truck is a Mack CH613 with a Sapco trailer, and he keeps two or three contract haulers hired. He buys Tigercat machines from the Tapscott brothers at Forest Pro in Richmond (and Bullock Bros. before that), while for Deere his dealer is James River Equipment, also in Richmond. Production averages 45-50 loads a week when quota allows it, Johnson says, but adds, “When we’re allowed to run wide open we can get 60 loads, easily.” He logs for Canal Wood, tackling both thinning jobs and clear cuts, pine and hardwood. He hauls pulpwood to International Paper in Franklin, GeorgiaPacific in Emporia, Arbor Tech Forest Products in Blackstone and WestRock in Hopewell and West Point. Logs go to Charles City Forest Products. Distance to most markets is usually at least 50 miles, though in late October it was 76 miles from his job site to the West Point mill. Johnson has no plans to expand his operations, and no desire to, either. “I wouldn’t want to see another logging crew,” he says. In addition to all his loved ones who have died, he says he’s been broken up pretty badly over the years, too. “I broke my femur once, and one of my truck drivers hit me a few years ago and tore my back up. I had to have surgery for that.” All in all, he says, he doesn’t have many fond memories of his life in logging. For him, “It is just a job.” His real passion? Drag racing. He’s been doing it for 50 years, at races in St. Louis, Illinois, Kentucky, Tennessee, Alabama, Georgia and both Carolinas. “I’ve won quite a few races, and lost a lot, too,” he admits. “In 2004 I won $20,000 and a brand new Corvette. But the next morning, well, logging wasn’t going good, so I auctioned the Corvette off to a millionaire from New Mexico who gave it to his wife.” He was also featured in a few racing magazines in years past. At one time he had his own car, a ’65 Plymouth Belvedere with a 582 cu. in., 1,000 HP Indy cylinder head motor. He had to sell that beauty a few years ago, but he still drives cars for other people and competes SLT in races any chance he gets.
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Freedom Rings ■ Always faithful family man Danny Johnson has lived a life devoted to duty, honor and service.
By David Abbott MECHANICSVILLE, Md. s a learned virtue, patriotism ★ is not always instilled at a young age. Many don’t come to appreciate or develop any desire to serve their country until they get much older—some, unfortunately, never at all. That wasn’t the case for Danny Johnson, 51, the owner of Freedom Logging, Inc. He recalls the first time he really became aware, in a small way, of his duties as a citizen to his country: in the second grade. “Every morning they would have a student go raise the flag,” Johnson remembers. “None of the other kids ever wanted to do it, so one other friend and me, we basically did it all year. The teacher said it was an honor to do it.” That thought—that it was an honor to serve the flag, and what it represented—that stuck with him. Not too many years later, Johnson, still little more than a kid, saw that a Harrier pilot sometimes attended his hometown Baptist church in his Marine dress blue uniform, and that made an impression on the young man. “I talked to him and he showed me a folder about the Marine Corps.,” Johnson says. By the time he
ronment. As it turned out, cold weather training proved of little use in the theater of combat wherein his service was ultimately required.
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The Call
From left, Alan, Danny and Kevin Johnson
was in high school, he and a friend decided to join the Marines. The friend ended up not going in till later, but Johnson signed up two months after graduation. Full-time active duty had been his plan, but something happened the summer between high school and basic training that changed his mind. He met Julie, the girl who would later be his wife. He must have known right away that she wasn’t going to be just some girl, because meeting her is what prompted him to opt for the Marine Reserves instead. After he completed his 20 weeks of training (12 weeks of boot camp and 8 weeks of specialty school) in
the latter half of 1986, Danny went back to work full-time for his dad’s crew, Wallace Johnson Pulpwood Co., which was featured in Southern Loggin’ Times once or twice. For the next four years, the Marines only demanded from him one weekend a month and two weeks every summer for training—mostly cold weather exercises in Wisconsin and Norway. Training in frigid temperatures made a certain sense. In the ’80s, with the Cold War still dominating U.S. foreign policy and our primary enemy in the often frostbitten Soviet Union, it must not have seemed too unlikely that Johnson could have been called to duty in such an envi-
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Johnson was on a hunting trip in West Virginia the week of Thanksgiving in 1990 when he got an urgent message at his hotel to call home. His wife (he and Julie married in ’87, when they were 19) informed him the Marines had called and he needed to be at a meeting with his reserve unit on Wednesday. This was Monday night. The hotel gave him his money back for the rest of the trip and he headed home. At the meeting Wednesday, he learned that he would be leaving that very Saturday for desert operations training at Camp Lejeune in North Carolina. They were calling him up for active service in what would be Operation Desert Storm. That didn’t give him or Julie much time to prepare. On Monday he was going about his life as normal when he got the call to come home. Wednesday was the meeting; Thursday was Thanksgiving; Saturday he left for training. It was unexpected. “In fact, they had told us a month earlier that we had no chance
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of going,” he says. Johnson had wanted to serve his country since second grade, but now it wasn’t hypothetical anymore. It was about to become very real. There was every reason for him to expect to see combat. He was only 22, and no one knew then how bad this war might be or how long it would last. “In all the training we did that month, the big thing was they didn’t know if he would use nerve gas.” Before the call came, he and Julie had been planning to start a family. While he was at Camp Lejeune they learned she was pregnant with their first child. He knew there was a chance he might not ever get to meet his son. “I had a Geo Tracker then and I put it up for sale because I didn’t know what was going to happen and I wanted to leave as much money as I could for my wife, in case I might not make it back.” That West Virginia hunting trip the week before Thanksgiving was a regular annual thing, and normally Julie went with him. For whatever reason he no longer remembers, she didn’t that year. If she had, he might not have even gotten the call. This was, after all, in the days before everyone carried cell phones. Everyone in his unit did get the message though, and by the end of the week they were all gone, off to prepare for war. After a month of training through the holidays, they left on December 31st and landed in Saudi Arabia on New Year’s Day. Happy New Year and welcome to 1991.
In The Sandbox Once he got over there, Johnson had his own Humvee to haul officers around. “I took care of it,” he says. “Every day I looked under hood. People asked why. I said it was my only way in and out. No one took care of their stuff, they just ran it as hard as they could. I want to make sure mine would last.” Once he was tasked with transporting an officer to a meeting. “I knew we would be driving back in the dark, so I turned the truck around to face the direction we needed to go.” When
Danny’s son Kevin owns KDJ Trucking.
SLT SNAPSHOT Freedom Logging, Inc. Mechanicsville, Md. Email: Freedomlogging@yahoo.com Founded: 2006 Owner: Danny Johnson No. Crews: 1 Employees: 2 Equipment: 2 skidders, 1 loader, 1 cutter Average Production: 25 loads weekly Average Haul Distance: 20 miles for logs, 130 miles for pulpwood Tidbit: Gulf War vet Danny and his wife Julie named their younger son, Alan Johnson, after neo-traditionalist country singer Alan Jackson, one of the most popular artists of his generation. Alan (Jackson) had already found great success and several chart-topper singles with his first two albums since 1989, but really hit the stratosphere in 1993 when he released the song “Chattahoochee” from his third album, “A Lot About Livin’ (And A Little ‘Bout Love). Alan (Johnson) was born in 1994. the officer returned from the meeting, he insisted they were going the wrong way. Danny tried to respectfully correct his superior, but, “He wouldn’t take my word for it and I have to follow his orders. So we
Danny’s wife Julie, left, holds granddaughter Noelle, while grandson Kip stands.
ended up staying in the desert overnight.” They made it back to camp the next day…after returning through the meeting site in the direction Danny had tried to take them in the first place.
His unit moved from camp to camp, getting closer and closer to the Kuwait border. He remembers the night was pitch black and all he could see as they travelled through the desert were the little red dots, the tail lights of other Humvees, barely visible in the distance of the great dark expanse. Officially, Operation Desert Shield, the buildup of coalition troops in Saudi Arabia, began the day Iraq invaded and annexed Kuwait on August 2, 1990. It ended on January 17, 1991, the day Operation Desert Storm, the combat phase of the Persian Gulf War, began. The night before breaching the mine fields to enter Kuwait, Johnson and the men with him received instructions to write letters for their loved ones at home, just in case. “I had a cassette player so I recorded a tape for my wife,” Johnson recalls. “I was crying through half of it, trying to talk, because I didn’t know what was going to happen the next day.” In Kuwait, his unit travelled the “Highway of Death,” Highway 80, a six-lane road between Kuwait and Iraq. “Helicopters shot up one end, blocked off another and blew up everything in the middle,” he says. “We got there the day that happened. We saw body parts everywhere. We found crates of brand new AK47s that had never even been fired. The officers told us we could tag them and they would demilitarize them and ship them home to us, but it never happened.” He did, however, find a brand new bayonet that he sent home rolled up in rug he bought for Julie after the war was over. “It has a plastic handle and is not made very well,” he says of his souvenir. As it turned out, Johnson never actually saw combat. “People at home probably saw more of it on T.V. than I did,” he says. When they returned to the rear, at the camp in Saudi Arabia, they did hear a gunshot. A guy at the camp, not someone he knew, learned his girlfriend at home had cheated on him, so he shot and killed himself. “I was lucky that I served during the time that I did,” he says. “All these other veterans had it way worse
Danny, left, and his dad Wallace Johnson
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in different wars. I kind of feel bad about it.” Understandable, but he shouldn’t; he did what he was asked to do when he was asked to do it. Desert Storm officially ended on February 28, 1991. Johnson left the Persian Gulf in the middle of April 1991. He was home in time for the birth of his son, Kevin Daniel Johnson, Jr., on August 29, 1991. Another son, Alan, followed three years later, and that was when Danny left the service. “I got out because of the kids,” he says plainly. His time in the Marine Reserves lasted from 1986 till 1994, and he was only called to active duty the one time, spending about five months in Saudi Arabia and Kuwait. “I decided to get out for my family’s sake, but to this day I say that if they asked me to come back, now that the kids are grown, I would do it.”
Logging Danny started spending his summers working in the woods for his dad, Wallace Johnson, when he was 13. That first summer, he actually cut his leg behind the knee with a chain saw; they didn’t wear chaps at the time (they do now, he emphasizes). The injury required 13 stitches but caused no permanent damage. In 2003 Danny and his brother Randy bought their dad out. The Johnson brothers worked together for three years, then chose to split things up. Randy kept the original company and Danny started Freedom Logging. For the first three years he worked all by himself, other than an occasional truck driver and the summers when older son Kevin would come out to help. That changed when he bought a new skidder in 2009 and decided he needed to hire some help so he could produce enough to pay for it. He hired one, then another and went from there until at one point he had two crews. After Kevin broke a leg trimming a gum tree that snapped back on him, Danny decided to look into a cut to length (CTL) system. He and Kevin, on crutches, went to Pennsylvania and West Virginia to check out two CTL operations using Timber Pro machines, but they ended up buying a John Deere harvester/forwarder team, and this became the second crew. “The money just wasn’t there,” he says. “In the tracts we were on, it just couldn’t produce enough to pay for itself.” After selling the CTL machines, he kept running the older conventional equipment on his remaining crew until his cutter burned up five years ago. At that point he bought a trio of 2014 John Deere machines— 748H skidder, 843K feller-buncher and 437 loader— from salesman Tim Feathers at James River Equipment in Ashland. 22
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Johnson had just signed the papers for the Cat on Monday, September 9, two days before SLT visited.
Late this summer Johnson added a new 535D Caterpillar skidder to serve as the main skidder, with the 748 in a backup role. The Cat came at a price tag $60,000 cheaper than on a new Deere or Tigercat, due to the switch to Weiler this fall. The dealer, Alban Cat in Waldorf, guaranteed continued support for the machine, but wanted to get rid of its Cat inventory in anticipation of the coming Weiler lineup. It had a mere 17 hours when delivered, but it had racked up 348 hours by the time SLT visited in early September. Johnson figures his equipment investment at close to a million dollars. Along with preventive maintenance—oil changes every 500 hours—he tackles as much as he can of routine repairs, but does turn to Alban Cat and James River for help, as well as to JESCO Equipment in Waldorf. He had just gotten the cutter operating the same morning of SLT’s
visit. The day before he had to fell with a chain saw—this time wearing saw chaps! These days the crew is only Danny and his sons. Kevin decided after a half a semester that college wasn’t for him and has been here full time ever since. Alan, who has a degree in exercise science from Towson University in Baltimore, works in the woods part-time in the woods and part-time as a fitness instructor at a gym. He also has his own business offering customized workout and diet plans from his web site, AJTrains.org, and he teaches a men’s fitness training class at his church, Hollywood United Methodist, on Sundays. Generally, Kevin runs the loader, Danny mans the cutter and Alan is on the skidder. Kevin is also a contract hauler for Freedom Logging under his own company KDJ Trucking. Danny owns a Peterbilt but usually drives Kevin’s truck;
Rudy Baliko, left, is a consulting forester from Chesapeake Forest Land Services who has been buying timber for three generations of Johnsons (Wallace, Danny and Kevin) since 1971, almost 50 years. He is consulting on this tract for Herbert Redmond, right, who owns the land with his sister, Betsy Franklin. Both men are also veterans: Redmond in the Air Force, 1962-68, and Baliko in the Army, 1961-63.
Johnson bought three new Deere pieces in 2014.
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Freedom Logging pays KDJ as the trucking contractor, and in turn Kevin pays Danny as his driver. In addition, Danny’s dad, Wallace, also drives his own contract tri-axle truck for Freedom Logging, operating as Liberty Trucking. A third contract hauler, father-son team Charles and Reggie Francis, hauls pulpwood for Freedom Logging. Danny belongs to both the Virginia and Maryland Forestry Associations as he works on both sides of the state line. He buys some of his own tracts and contract cuts for Sutphin Lumber Co. in Charlotte Hall, where he hauls hardwood and pine logs. The mill recently burned and is under reconstruction, and was already replenishing its log inventory in September. Freedom Logging also cuts for Beethoven Hardwoods, an Amish mill in Charlotte Hall. Pulpwood goes to the Pixelle (formerly Glatfelter) paper mill in Spring Grove, Pa. It’s usually around 20 miles from most job sites to Sutphin Lumber and 130 miles to Pixelle. “And you have to go through two beltways, in Baltimore and Washington, DC, so it’s a big hassle,” he laughs. When he’s hauling to Spring Grove, Johnson says he gets up at 2:30 a.m., gets to the mill and sleeps till the line starts moving, then waits an hour to be unloaded. He measures production at about 130,000 board feet of logs (much of it hauled on Wallace’s triaxle) and seven loads of pulpwood, or roughly equivalent to 20-25 total truckloads, weekly. Danny and Julie have two grandkids: Kevin’s baby daughter Noelle, who will be 1 in December, and son Kevin Daniel III, who turns 4 in December and goes by Kip. Danny was just wrapping up his interview with SLT when there was a knock on his truck door. It was Kip. “So what are you guys doing in here?” he wanted to know. When told about this article, Kip, clearly unimpressed and perhaps mindful of the daylight steadily burning, just shrugged and replied, “Yeah, but Pop and me are about to haul some logs.” And so the fourth generation of Johnson loggers is already eager to get to work. Right SLT on, little man, haul away.
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Two Worlds ■ Iraq vet Hulet Moore’s life still revolves around completing the task-at-hand. By Patrick Dunning ★ BRUCE, Miss. unrise isn’t for at least another hour, but Hulet Moore, 63, owner of Moore’s Logging Inc., is already commuting an hour and 15 minutes to the tract to begin the day. A man of few words, he’s lived through some profound experiences, having held not just one but two of the most dangerous jobs in the world. Having served 32 years in the Mississippi Army National Guard, Moore recalls the most memorable “present” he’s ever received on his birthday: the summons to a 14-month tour of duty in Iraq at the beginning of Operation Iraqi Freedom. On January 21, 2003, Moore was deployed about 35 miles northeast of Bagdad to Ba’qubah, with the 4th Infantry Division, 223rd Engineer Battalion, B Company. His Military Occupational Specialty (MOS) as a combat engineer consisted foremost of meeting the needs of the Army, which Moore says involved a little bit of everything, even felling trees. Fortunately, he had a lot of experience in that arena. Moore quit school at 17 and left for basic training on October 12, 1973, with written consent from his parents. When he returned from Advanced Individual Training (AIT) in February 1974, Moore began working a full-time logging job for a hometown friend who paid him $12 a day to pull chokers. One of the few vocations available was in the pulpwood market, where his father and older brothers had worked when Moore was too young to contribute. There wasn’t much work for
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Johnny Moore (operating skidder) helped keep the business running while his brother Hulet was deployed.
a man without an education, Moore reflects. “(There are a) few things I wish I could go back and change, one of them being school,” he admits. “But you can’t go back.” Moore reported for duty to his unit from Calhoun City one weekend a month and two weeks during the summer for annual training in different locations. Meanwhile, he spent the next two decades in the woods working for others before starting Moore’s Logging, Inc. in
Moore didn’t waste any time getting back in the woods.
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1998. The knowledge he gained operating machinery and maximizing productivity would prove pertinent in his role overseas later. Operations in Iraq officially began in March 2003. After the coordinated terrorist attack on American soil on 9-11, former President George W. Bush mobilized troops to terminate Saddam Hussein’s regime, in part due to fears that the dictator may have been developing weapons of mass destruction.
While downrange, he often interacted with the locals.
The only fear Moore had before deploying downrange was the chance of a physical burden disqualifying him from going alongside his men, whom he considers kin. “I had 27 people directly under me looking at me for guidance,” Moore says. “Most of our unit were close friends because we were all from around home. We knew each other for several years.” Their brotherhood would only deepen. Before leaving, he placed the log-
The 223rd Engineering Unit formerly functioned out of Calhoun City.
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ging business in the hands of his brothers, Johnny and James Moore. Moore says he would have had to shut it down if not for them stepping up. “They didn’t make much money while I was gone but kept everything going, which was more than I could do,” he says.
In-Country Experience Moore’s attachment to B Co. was the first from the 223rd engineer battalion to fly into Camp Wolf, Kuwait, which was being used as a staging area for military operations taking place in the region. It was located on the grounds of Kuwait International Airport. The first thing he remembers after stepping off the plane was how dark the night was. “We didn’t know anything,” Moore says. They immediately started an assembly line unloading ammo crates, duffle bags and other gear off the plane through the night. They moved to port for five days and split 12-hour shifts unloading incoming aircraft carriers while waiting on the rest of the division to arrive. “I had the night shift, but you might as well have worked 24hour shifts because it’s too hot during the day to sleep,” Moore adds. When they left Kuwait, he and his men knew it was going to be their last hot meal for a while. They headed into Iraq and set up shop at Camp Warhorse in Ba’qubah. Moore developed little hacks to make his life there more comfortable. For instance, ice is a commodity in the desert; he learned quickly that placing frozen water bottles inside a cooler keeps the drinkable water colder longer than a bag of ice ever could. It’s something he still does to this day. One characteristic Moore was known for: He’d never ask his men to do something he wasn’t willing to do himself. Most of the tasks he did weren’t part of his job description. First a vertical platoon sergeant, then a combat engineer, Moore also served
The tract was logged before so his crew uses previously constructed roads to access timber.
SLT SNAPSHOT Moore’s Logging, Inc. Bruce, Miss. Email: Huletmoore1956@icloud.com Owner: Hulet Moore No. Crews: 1 Employees: 8 Equipment: 1 skidder, 1 cutter, 1 dozer, 2 loaders Trucks/Trailers: 3 trucks, 3 trailers Average Production: 40 loads/week Average Haul Distance: 50 miles Tidbit: A retired combat veteran, Hulet Moore spent 32 years in the Mississippi Army National Guard as a combat engineer. He served one 14-month tour in Iraq during the start of Operation Iraqi Freedom, attached to the 223rd Engineer Battalion. as field ordering officer and motor transport operator. He even set up camps while deployed. “I wasn’t supposed to be driving all the convoys but I told them if something comes up and nobody wants to take it, to give it to me,” Moore says. “When a man sits down, he has too much time to
Moore’s Logging Inc. averages 40 loads a week in Itawamba County.
think about things back home, and your mind doesn’t need to be on that.” Highway 1, running straight through the heart of Baghdad and scuffing the Iranian border, is dubbed one of the world’s scariest roads. Moore logged a lot of miles in convoys on Highway 1 trying to keep his mind occupied—26,000
miles and 167 missions to be exact. Enemy combatants placed improvised explosive devices (IEDs) inside animal carcasses, blown-out tires or anything that could be perceived as normal. Staged alongside frequently traveled roads, IEDs have been responsible for more than half the U.S. deaths in Iraq. “The kill radius is 10 ft., so I started running in the middle of the road because four to five feet makes a world of difference on something coming in on you,” Moore says. Running 50 to 60 miles per hour, with no less than three vehicles in a staggered formation and minimum of three soldiers per, Moore kept his eyes peeled for anything that didn’t look normal. “A man with common sense can spot things that aren’t right. When you saw one you’d have to stop and call them in to the demolition guys and they’d come out and defuse them.” The degree of poverty in Iraq didn’t make sense to Moore. Between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers that stretch the entire length of Iraq sits some of the most fertile land in the world according to the Bible, Moore says. Aside from the predominately dry part of western Iraq, Moore notes there was plenty of water and farming. “There were all kinds of cotton fields, grapes, cauliflowers and other fruit growing,” he says. “Saddam had
From left: David Howard, Elvy Moore, James Moore, Hulet Moore, Johnny Moore
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a concrete canal built that was flowing water from Turkey, and it stayed full the entire time I was there.” The main goal of the operation was to eliminate Hussein’s government and establish a sovereign democracy for the Iraqi people to rule themselves. Moore took a liking to locals, often intrigued by their way of life. “I noticed the way they plant cotton in a circle, pick the cotton then tie a string around the stocks, pull it tight and they’d have a bundle of firewood.” Frequently going downtown and doing business with the civilians in Iraq, Moore tried to help them with anything they needed. He even negotiated the purchase of a refrigerator for the Forward Operating Base. He operated a dozer on the Tigris River, cutting down a river bank to stabilize a bridge for a fuel truck to cross. Moore was also part of several recovery operations and the transportation of men to and from sensitive areas. The chain of command reached out to Moore after a guard tower complained the perimeter was compromised because of foliage blocking the visibility of the road. Rebel vehicles were driving down the road firing mortar tubes out of the bed of the truck. “These trees were like slick
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bark sycamores but they had leaves on them that looked like willows,” Moore says. “They told me to cut it. I said I’m not cutting nothing without somebody guarding me.” With a chain saw, six machine gunners and an M1 tank detached to Moore, he felled several trees to open the view up. As he began notching the first tree, a local came up to him and insisted that the trees had to remain. “I told him I didn’t care, this tree has to go. Shortly after, he’s giving me tips on how to cut the trees, and I’m wondering how this guy knows anything about cutting a tree.” After cut- Moore poses with close friend since 1974, SFC Jerry Ward. ting down the trees, they left them there. Three to four days later, the stuff you can’t control, you can’t Moore says the locals didn’t waste a worry about. Stuff going on back single part of the tree, even taking the home is less important than what leaves. “It was interesting. They’re you’re doing here. There’s a lot more more resourceful than they let on.” to be concerned about here,” he says. A lot of men would get flustered “That went over well with my guys, with affairs happening back home, they received it well.” Moore says. They had 10 minutes Moore’s main motivation to enlist allotted to call home. With a ninewas financial stability, although his hour time difference, family members perspective is that freedom isn’t were often woken up. When Moore free and is worth fighting for. Like a would call his wife Deborah, he lot of servicemen and women who made a note not to discuss his logsign that dotted line and raise their ging business. “I used to tell my men, right hand in oath of protecting the
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Constitution of the United States, Moore says he’d do it again. “I don’t regret going at all.” He returned from abroad in March 2004, and came straight back to the woods. In 2005, on the anniversary of his 32nd year in the National Guard, Moore retired. He knew if he stayed in he’d have to do another rotation in Iraq, and his logging business probably wouldn’t survive much longer.
Operations Previously featured on the cover of Southern Loggin’ Times October 2007 issue, Moore has maintained his style of logging with one crew. The lingering heat encompassing the South this fall reminds him of the intense temperatures he endured in Iraq. “If you consider the humidity here, the temperature is about the same as overseas.” During the dog days of summer in Iraq, Moore remembers temperatures approaching 150˚ under a camouflage net. When SLT visited Moore’s Logging, Inc., in September in Itawamba County, outside the city limits of
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Fulton, the skidders were producing massive trails of dust due to the dry spell taking place throughout the Southeast. The crew was harvesting pulpwood on a 180-acre tract split into two parts by an SMZ. A clearcutting prescription by a private landowner was underway with 40 acres left. Culverts were constructed by Moore down in the hardwood bottoms to access the far hill. Springs pop up near the SMZ, making some areas damp and rutted, but overall the land was bone-dry.
Moore’s equipment inventory includes a 2008 John Deere 437C loader with CSI delimber, ’12 Caterpillar 559B loader, ’16 Caterpillar 525D skidder, ’15 Tigercat 726G feller-buncher, and ’14 Deere 700k dozer. Averaging 40 loads a week, Moore owns three hauling trucks: ’05 Freightliner, ’08 Sterling and a ’06 Western Star, pulling three Magnolia trailers from ’03, ’04 and ’05. Moore’s John Deere dealer is Stribling Equipment in Tupelo, while Thompson Machinery of Tupelo sup-
In free-time, Moore spends time with family and his granddaughter, Joci, 13.
ports all things Caterpillar. B&G Equipment, Inc. in Philadelphia handles Tigercat. Doing 90% of maintenance inhouse, Moore says it is preventive. Woods machinery is serviced every 250-300 hours while truck oil is changed every 18,000-20,000 miles. Without the rain, air filters are replaced almost every day in trucks for optimal performance. Moore contracts through Abbeville Forest because of the timber dealer’s relationship with Mississippi’s mills. He hauls pulpwood to Cooper Marine & Timberlands Corp. in Bay Springs and Norbord in Guntown. Pine logs go to Hankins, Inc., in Ripley, Miss. He also hauls to Homan Forest Products in Fulton, Domtar Paper Co. in Amory and C&S Sawmill in Pontotoc. Employing eight people, Moore is more than satisfied with his single crew. “We do what we have to do,” he says. “With all of us working together you can pretty much make it happen. You make it work with the people helping you.” The roster is loader operator Elvy Moore, cutter operator James Moore, skidder operator Johnny Moore, saw hand David Howard and welder Gerald Hubbard. Truck drivers are Melvin Lay, Evan Weeks and contract hauler Raymond Washington. Ledkins Insurance Agency covers all of Moore’s insurance needs. The logger holds monthly safety meetings with his crew. Moore is proud to say he hasn’t had any on-site accidents in a long time.
Life At Home Moore retired a Sergeant First Class and was awarded the Bronze Star for heroic service in a combat zone. Adjusting to life back home after returning from war is never easy; Moore says in some ways he’ll never be the same. “I never got completely back. It’s hard to explain; you just have to experience it.” But, he adds, “You can make a good thing out of a bad thing. We had a pretty good time over there.” When he came back from Iraq he tried not to become overly consumed by the news, particularly the news pertaining to Afghanistan and Iraq. “We’ve been over there too long,” he believes. “There’s nothing that needs to go on that long. We need to get out of there, and do whatever we need to do to establish peace.” Moore is the seventh son and the 11th of 14 siblings. He and his wife have one daughter, Jessica, 36, and one granddaughter, Joci, 13, with whom he enjoys spending family-time in their hometown of SLT Bruce. 28
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Remembering Those Who Defend(ed) Our Country In 1919, President Woodrow Wilson proclaimed November 11 as the first commemoration of Armistice Day—the ending of hostilities in World War I—with these words: “To us in America, the reflections of Armistice Day will be filled with solemn pride in the heroism of those who died in the country’s service and with gratitude for the victory, both because of the thing from which it has freed us and because of the opportunity it has given America to show her sympathy with peace and justice in the councils of the nations...” Armistice Day was changed to Veterans Day, a national holiday, in 1954. It’s fitting that all Americans take time to honor those who defended, or continue to defend, the precious freedom Americans enjoy and often wrongly take for granted. Here are some inspirational quotes to support you in your time of reflection. l It is foolish and wrong to mourn the men who died. Rather we should thank God that such men lived. (Gen. George S. Patton) l They died hard, those savage men, like wounded wolves at bay. They were filthy, and they were lousy, and they stunk. And I loved them. (Gen. Douglas MacArthur) l Leadership is a potent combination of strategy and character. But if you must be without one, be without the strategy. (Gen. Norman Schwarzkopf) l The valor and courage of our young women and men in the armed services are a shining example to all of the world, and we owe them and their families our deepest respect. (Senator Bill Frist) l There is a certain enthusiasm in liberty, that makes human nature rise above itself, in acts of bravery and heroism. (Statesman Alexander Hamilton) l I’m trying to raise the awareness of the troops that, when they deploy and go to war, it’s not just them at war; it’s also their family. Their family is having to go through all the hardships and the stresses. (Navy SEAL Chris Kyle) l The sanctity of our battlefields, monuments, and veterans’ institutions is of utmost importance to preserve military history and pay respect to those who fought. (Congressman Henry Waxman) l Never was so much owed by so many to so few. (Sir Winston Churchill) l Some people live an entire lifetime and wonder if they have ever made a difference in the world, but the Marines don’t have that problem. (President Ronald Reagan) l In war, there are no unwounded soldiers. (Writer José Narosky) l The willingness with which our young people are likely to serve in any war, no matter how justified, shall be directly proportional to how they perceive the veterans of earlier wars were treated and appreciated by their nation. (President George Washington)
The Story Behind Cash’s Patriotic Song Following President Richard Nixon’s resignation in 1974, Johnny Cash reacted with Ragged Old Flag, using country music to communicate what he was feeling. Cash had met with Nixon at the White House two years earlier and among other songs performed the anti-Vietnam War song What is Truth? Cash released a statement song yet again, showcasing his patriotism and faith in the U.S. Ragged Old Flag became extremely popular with fans and was a staple at 30
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Cash’s shows. Cash would introduce the song with this opener at his concerts: “I thank God for all the freedom we have in this country; I cherish them and treasure them—even the right to burn the flag. We also have the right to bear arms and if you burn my flag, I’ll shoot you.” The song was included on Cash’s 1974 album of the same name. It continues to be as relevant as ever. The song is regularly performed on Veterans Day and is used to honor the armed forces.
Ragged Old Flag I walked through a county courthouse square On a park bench an old man was sitting there I said, your old courthouse is kinda run down He said, naw, it’ll do for our little town I said, your old flag pole has leaned a little bit And that’s a ragged old flag you got hanging on it He said, have a seat, and I sat down Is this the first time you’ve been to our little town? I said, I think it is He said, I don’t like to brag But we’re kinda proud of that ragged old flag You see, we got a little hole in that flag there when Washington took it across the Delaware And it got powder-burned the night Francis Scott Key Sat watching it writing say can you see And it got a bad rip in New Orleans With Packingham and Jackson tuggin’ at its seams And it almost fell at the Alamo Beside the Texas flag, but she waved on though She got cut with a sword at Chancellorsville And she got cut again at Shiloh Hill There was Robert E. Lee, Beauregard, and Bragg And the South wind blew hard on that ragged old flag On Flanders field in World War One She got a big hole from a Bertha gun She turned blood red in World War Two She hung limp and low a time or two She was in Korea and Vietnam She went where she was sent by Uncle Sam She waved from our ships upon the Briny foam And now they’ve about quit waving her back here at home In her own good land here she’s been abused She’s been burned, dishonored, denied, and refused And the government for which she stands Is scandalized throughout the land And she’s getting threadbare and wearing thin But she’s in good shape for the shape she’s in ‘Cause she’s been through the fire before And I believe she can take a whole lot more So we raise her up every morning We take her down every night We don’t let her touch the ground and we fold her up right On second thought, I do like to brag ‘Cause I’m mighty proud of that ragged old flag
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ALC At 25 ■ American Loggers Council held its 25th Annual Meeting in September.
At the President's Awards Luncheon, American Loggers Council named Southern Loggers Cooperative's Assistant Director B ill Jones, in the center with the ax, the National Logger Activist of the year, while SLC presented him with this ALC 2 5 th anniversary commemorative saw from the auction. Jones is fl anked here by his Co- op colleagues, Executive Director T odd Martin, far left, and Chief O perating O fficer Jason Slatten, far right; by ALC President Chris Potts, center right; and by his lovely bride R achael, center left.
By Dan Shell and David Abbott ORANGE BEACH, Ala. or those of us old enough to remember the year well and perhaps fondly, it may be hard to imagine that 1994 was already a quarter cen★ tury ago. Among other things, it was the year that saw the founding of the American Loggers Council, and, as such, that organization has indeed turned 25 in 2019. In its silver anniversary year, ALC hosted its annual meeting September 26-28 in Orange Beach, Ala., the home state of outgoing President Chris Potts. As always, the event included a Thursday visit to the job site of a logger from the host state. This year that host was Mid Star Timber Harvesting of Toxey, Ala., a diversified operation that features eight harvesting crews and two trucking companies, one for logs and the other for
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Mitchell Presley of Mid Star T imber H arvesting hosted the j ob site tour.
OTR cargo. Weyerhaeuser provided the tract for the logging tour demo, a nice stand of 27-year-old saw timber that had been pruned and fertilized, just north of Uriah, Ala. The site is part of the company’s extensive
Mid-South Region that on any given day manages 50 logging crews and 250 trucks producing almost 700 loads of logs. Mid Star owner Mitchell Presley noted the company’s eight crews produce around
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700,000 tons annually. Thompson Tractor also helped host the tour and provided lunch, with delicious barbecue pork, chicken and sausage grilled on site by the Thompson Tractor event crew. Skip Plumlee, Thompson Tractor Southern Region Manager, noted that the three-man crew was running some of the first true Weiler Forestry machines that rolled off the line in LaGrange, Ga. just days after Weiler took control of the plant there in early September after acquiring Caterpillar’s purposebuilt forestry line. Equipment on site included a Weiler S250 skidder and K560 loader, and Weiler Vice President Bill Hood and additional factory personnel were on site to help loggers go over the machines. After noting how Weiler came to acquire the Cat product line and the extensive negotiations that took the better part of a year, Hood said, “I’ve been in enough meetings for the rest of my life and we’re ready to go to work and do
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Keith Urban-autographed guitar sold at the ALC auction for $3,700.
The new Weiler machines at Presley's job site are fresh from the factory.
Hand-crafted cedar cutter was donated by Hawkins & Rawlinson Ins.
Friday's all-star panels were a big hit.
Auctioneer Bryant Wood kept the bidding high and the crowd entertained.
Presidents Potts, right, and Jarvis, left
something productive for a change.” He added that the Weiler team truly enjoys visiting job sites and seeking to make improvements that improve logger success. “You tell us what you want, because you pay the bills,” Hood told the
assembled loggers. The value of having one of Weiler’s top executives on site was emphasized when a logger looking at the skidder asked Hood about getting a subcomponent on the grapple replaced: Hood said that
should be a serviceable item, but the logger noted he was told he’d have to buy the whole tong. Hood replied: “The good news is I can fix that tomorrow.” The annual Friday night auction, conducted by auctioneer Bryant
Wood from J.M. Wood Auction in Montgomery, Ala., raised $10 thousand for Log-a-Load for Kids and another $27 thousand to fund ALC priorities, according to Executive Vice President Danny Dructor. At Saturday morning meetings,
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President Potts presented California's Myles Anderson with the President's Award.
At the board meeting, at left, incoming President Shannon Jarvis sat by outgoing President Chris Potts, center, and ALC Executive Vice President Danny Director, right.
ALC board members received reports and engaged in open discussion on a wide array of timely topics, including a vigorous debate about the pros and cons of Chinese tariffs and the potential effects on hardwood export markets. After, at the awards luncheon, Myles Anderson received a President’s Award and Bill Jones was named the National Logger Activist of the year. At the President’s farewell banquet on Saturday night, Hatton Brown Publishing’s Timber Harvesting magazine managing editor Dan Shell and senior associate editor Jessica Johnson presented the Timber Harvesting Logging Business of the Year award to 2019 recipient Miller Timber Services of Philomath, Ore. The full article about the company is the cover story in the September/October 2019 edition of Timber Harvesting. After, 2019 ALC President Chris Potts handed the President’s gavel to his successor, 2020 President Shannon Jarvis of Missouri. Next year’s ALC Annual Meeting will be in Jarvis’ home state on the last weekend of SLT September.
ALC Communications Specialist Nick Smith delivers his final ALC report, as he is leaving the organization at the end of the year.
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INDUSTRY NEWS ROUNDUP As We See It: Follow the Plan, Achieve the Goal By Shannon Jarvis As loggers we have a cutting plan whenever we’re felling a tree. We know where we want the tree to fall. Sometimes it may not go perfectly as planned despite Jarvis
our best efforts. It might get hung in another tree, or it may go the wrong way completely. All sorts of things can and will happen. In the end, however, we focus on achieving the goal and we get the tree down.
Having a plan and achieving the goal is my approach to logging. This will also be my approach over the next year as President of the American Loggers Council. My name is Shannon Jarvis. I am a 5th generation logger from the great state of Missouri, and I am my state’s
first certified Master Logger. I own and operate Jarvis Timber Company in Potosi, Missouri. I am a husband and a father of five. I am honored to have been chosen by my peers to serve as ALC president. I am grateful to follow in the footsteps of past presidents who have founded and grown the only national organization that’s led by loggers for loggers, and I will seek to set an example for those who will follow after my term is complete in 2020. My presidency will focus on executing ALC’s “five-year plan,” with the goal of strengthening its status as a national organization and an influential voice in forestry and natural resources. The goals of our plan are to attract more individuals to the timber industry; improve public relations and views on the timber industry; and build the Master Logger program, promote it, and help recognize the loggers who are doing the right thing. I never set out to become the leader of this amazing group of individuals. I joined 10 years ago at the request of my state organization because they were interested in implementing the Master Logger program from the ALC. Along the way, I was inspired by the many great leaders that have been associated with this organization. I found that their causes became my causes. The ALC is a unique assembly of many similar, and yet vastly different people. The concerns of the Western members are drastically different from those in the Deep South. The same could be said for every region that collectively gathers under the banner of “American Loggers Council.” As an organization with a wide variety of issues and interests, from tariffs to excessive environmental regulations and everything in between, my approach to the ALC presidency will be to follow the plan and strive to find common ground. I will encourage each logger to walk a mile in their fellow loggers’ boots, and try to see things from a different point of view other than their own. No matter what challenges may arise, we will put our boots on, lace them up tight, and go to work together. Then when the time comes for us to step down from our roles and pass the torch to the younger generations, be able to look back and proudly say that we left it better than we found it. We executed the plan and “got the tree down,” and as a result we positioned the logging industry for a great future. Shannon Jarvis owns and operates Jarvis Timber Company in Potosi, Missouri.
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Enviva Plans Pellet Operation In Alabama Enviva expects to invest $175 million to construct a wood pellet production plant in Sumter County, Ala. The proposed facility, to be located at the Port of Epes Industrial Park, is expected to create a minimum of 85 full-time jobs and generate an estimated 180 additional jobs in logging, transportation and local services in the region. Enviva, whose industrial wood pellets are used for renewable power generation, expects construction to be ready to begin on the facility in early 2020, subject to receiving the necessary permits. Enviva expects construction to take
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between 15 and 18 months. Enviva states the facility would principally utilize a mix of softwood and scrap from mills sourced from within a 75-mile radius. The sustainably sourced pellets produced at the plant would be transported by barge via the TennesseeTombigbee Waterway to the terminal at Pascagoula, then exported to Europe and Asia. Enviva owns and operates eight plants in the Southeast that produce more than 3.5 million metric tons of wood pellets annually. The expected Sumter County facility will be constructed to initially produce 700,000 metric tons of pellets annually, though production could eventually be increased to 1.15 million tons per year.
The company does not own forestland but works with suppliers that meet its sustainability criteria. The company states it takes only wood from responsibly managed working forests and it does not take wood from forests that are being converted out of forest use.
Appalachian Honor Goes To Glotfelty Forest Resources Assn. and Stihl Inc. honored Donald “Butch” Glotfelty and Eric Glotfelty of Glotfelty Lumber Co., Inc. in Oakland, Maryland, as the Appalachian Region 2019 Outstanding Logger at FRA’s Appalachian Region (AR) Awards Dinner in Washington, DC on September 18. FRA’s AR Past Chairman Jay Phaup presented Butch and Eric with a wooden crosscut-saw plaque, and Stihl’s Product Manager John Allen presented them with a Stihl MS 462 chain saw gift certificate and a $250 check. Glotfelty Lumber is a third-generation logging company that was founded in the 1950s by Butch’s father, Donald. Butch and his son Eric are the primary in-woods operators, with Butch handling multiple product sorts on the loader and Eric harvesting the timber using a tracked feller-buncher. Their fully mechanized operation has an excellent safety program and has not had a lost-time accident in decades. The Glotfeltys operate in the mountainous, far western side of Maryland, with occasional harvesting activities in West Virginia and Pennsylvania. Much of their work occurs on western Maryland’s Potomac-Garrett State Forest, where a large number of outdoor
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enthusiasts and the public eye make attention to harvesting aesthetics important.
Future Forests + Jobs Combats Untruths Future Forests + Jobs is a new intiative to advance a fact-based conversation around renewable wood energy and hold those who spread misinformation about the industry to account. For years activist organizations such as the Dogwood Alliance, Southern Environmental Law Center, and Environmental Integrity Project have waged a misinformation campaign against the wood biomass industry as well as the entire forest products sector, the new initiative states. These efforts mislead the public about the integrated forest products industry—including timber and renewable wood energy—and its role as a necessary solution to mitigate global climate change, which has been repeatedly affirmed by the world’s leading climate research authority, the UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. “These activist groups ignore the science and advance policies that would result in burning more coal and losing more forests—exactly the wrong approach we need to fight global climate change today,” says Future Forests + Jobs spokesman Brian Rogers. “Our mission is to set the record straight and expose the well-funded and coordinated misinformation campaigns targeting this industry, and to stand up for the hundreds of thousands of forest products workers across America.” Future Forests + Jobs will combat misinformation through a new web-
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site – FutureForestsAndJobs.com – as well as through media engagement and other grassroots activities. Future Forests + Jobs is supported by the U.S. Industrial Pellet Assn., and will be led by Rogers, who served as a senior staffer to U.S. Senator John McCain (R-AZ) for nearly a decade, and previously worked as Research Director for former Vice President Al Gore’s Repower America campaign for comprehensive climate and energy legislation.
Tree Distribution Remembers Michael Florida Forest Service hosted a tree distribution in Bristol in October. Area residents were invited to attend and receive free ready-toplant trees to replace those lost during Hurricane Michael. “As we reflect on the anniversary of Hurricane Michael, we must not forget the work ahead of us in the
Florida Panhandle,” said Agriculture Commissioner Nicole (Nikki) Fried. “These Community Tree Recovery events are part of countless efforts to help re-establish communities and bring hope to Floridians as they rebuild their lives.” The event was in partnership with the Arbor Day Foundation and sponsored by AT&T and FedEx/Arborists, foresters and environmental professionals were on-site to answer questions about tree planting and care.
“The loss of tree coverage due to Hurricane Michael resulted in significant damage to local economic and ecological resources in hundreds of communities across the Florida Panhandle,” said Jim Karels, State Forester and Director of the Florida Forest Service. “Reforesting these communities will take time, and we are committed to helping ensure the long-term success of recovery efforts.” Since January, the Florida Forest Service and partners have given more than 11,000 native trees to area residents. Additional tree distribution events are planned in the 11 Florida counties impacted by Hurricane Michael. The Florida Forest Service, a division of the Florida Dept. of Agriculture and Consumer Services, manages more than 1 million acres of state forests and provides forest management assistance on more than 17 million acres of private and community forests.
GP Has Long-Range Plans For Gurdon Georgia-Pacific is investing $70 million in upgrades at its lumber and plywood operations in Gurdon, Ark. Some of the improvements include an advanced merchandiser, new panel assembly stations with state-of-the-art scanning systems, an upgraded power plant and software and security enhancements. Work on the projects will be completed by 2020. The investments will sustain the more than 700 jobs at the two facilities. “We are making state-of-the-art improvements that will transform our Gurdon facilities, greatly
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improving the utilization of raw materials and overall operating efficiencies, making jobs more meaningful, and turning us into an even stronger competitor,” says Mike White, Western Regional Operations Manager. The company is also contributing $100,000 over five years to Gurdon and Clark County schools to help install a multi-use playing field that will be used by the three schools and the city for community events. “The Gurdon schools have been such a cooperative, helpful and successful partner in ensuring we have the talented people we need,” says Carrie Wilkins, Regional Human Resources for GP’s Plywood and Lumber divisions. “We want and need them to continue to be successful, so our aim is to contribute meaningfully to our schools every year.”
Rotochopper Hosts Ninth Demo Day Rotochopper hosted customers and prospects from around the world at its 9th Annual Demo Day. The excitement and energy of the Rotochopper team and more than 200 guests was not hampered by the inclement weather in St. Martin, Minn. on Demo Day, with the schedule of machine demos, factory tours and networking filling the day. The event was organized around the theme “Partnership Through Innovation,” which is a
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More than 200 guests attended Rotochopper Demo Day.
key value of the work that Rotochopper does every day. The day began with tours of the state-of-the-art manufacturing facility, providing attendees with the opportunity to see the process behind the manufacturing of Rotochopper grinders, from cutting to final inspection and testing. The facility tours provided guests the opportunity to meet the on-site teams who design, build and support their Rotochopper equipment. Shawn Matthuis, Owner of 815 Mulch It in Mokena, Ill., comments, “I just love how much effort is put in across the board from everyone at Rotochopper. It is a great event and I absolutely love coming.” President and CEO Tosh Brinkerhoff welcomed attendees with remarks focused on his excite-
ment about experiencing his first Demo Day event and the relationships created among event attendees. He also announced a new partnership between Rotochopper and Lindner Recycling to sell and service low speed, high torque shredders, saying, “We look forward to a strong partnership! We have the same focus on high quality machines and excellent customer service.” The demonstrations kicked off with the entrance of the B-66 LSeries track and dolly grinder, showing the versatility and ease of the Rotochopper Gen II Track & Dolly system. Once tracked to the demo location the B-66 L-Series grinder worked through green waste, logs, cutoffs and brush. The FP-66 B-Series grinder, enhanced
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with new featured and design updates, showed off its place as the grinder for those that need a full-feature grinder for high volume, mid horsepower applications. The afternoon was filled with additional demos, showcasing a variety of use cases and applications of Rotochopper equipment. The 75DK shredder from Lindner and the MC-266 horizontal grinder took the stage mid-afternoon, providing attendees with a view of turning stumps and mixed C&D into coarse fiber with great efficiency. The day ended with a head-to-head grind off between the B-66L and FP-66.
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6 ➤ Much like me, my uncle Larry Langley had wanted to join the military and become a pilot back in the ’60s, but couldn’t because of his poor vision (same here). Instead, his older son lived out his dream. My oldest cousin on my mom’s side, Scott Langley graduated from Annapolis in 1986 (I vividly remember attending the ceremony when I was 7; I kept one of the hats the graduates threw). In ’91 he flew helicopters from ships in Desert Storm, and returned to Iraq in 2008 for a year. Scott retired in 2014 after 26 years in the Navy. I remember when my classmate Jessica Williams started dating Billy Golden in 1993, when Jessica and I were in the 9th grade; Billy was a year older. They were married in 1997 and are still going strong today, with four kids ranging from age 5 to 21. Billy joined the Marines in 1996, then enlisted in the Army. As a criminal investigator in the Army, Billy was fortunate to have been able to stay home for six straight years. He spent four months assigned to the Pentagon after 9/11, nine months in Iraq in 2003 and a year in Iraq in 2010, before retiring in 2017. I remember Billy’s classmate Jake Porter as a good-natured, rubber-faced funny guy who shared with me a love for Clint Eastwood westerns. After earning a history degree at Oklahoma’s Oral Roberts University in 2000, Jake followed in the footsteps of his father and grandfather by signing up for the Air Force in 2001, then transferred straight to the Army in 2008. Deployed to Iraq (2009-2010), South Korea (2012-2014) and twice to Afghanistan (20112012 and 2016-2017), he’s currently a Major in the Military Police Corps stationed at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas.
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Since he is from a military family, I asked our newest editorial team member, Patrick, to write something about his experiences growing up with an Army dad: Military service has always been deeply ingrained in my family. Both of my great grandfathers served in the Army. My grandfather, Willie Dunning III, was an active duty Marine for four years, then Mississippi Air National Guard before retiring. My oldest sister, Michelle Day, served in the Army from 2008 to 2011 and did a tour in Afghanistan. My dad, Willie Dunning IV, enlisted in the Army in 1986. He flew Black Hawks for 25 plus years as a crew chief and did three tours (Germany, Iraq and Korea) before retiring in 2011 as a CW4. He instilled in my siblings and me a lot of life lessons by virtue of the standards he lived by. Things like, “Don’t lie, cheat, steal or tolerate those who do,” “Choices and consequences,” or the notorious, “Live within your means.” He always said when my frontal cortex fully developed I’d understand why he did things the way he did. Being that I’m only 23 I think I still have a couple years to go. But, I’d like to think things are starting to come full circle. I know it wasn’t easy missing little league games, first-day-of-school pictures and Christmas mornings. What made it all worth it, though, were memories with my old man, like being coached up to take the shot at my first deer. Or going to my first memorable college football game in Tuscaloosa as a kid and watching Terrance Cody block the game-winning field goal against Tennessee (War Eagle though). Through his sacrifices he made sure our needs were met and we never went without. —Patrick Dunning, Associate Editor There are so many others, like my grandfather, Elzie Crace, who was at Pearl Harbor; my own dad, retired logger Bill Abbott, who served in the Army National Guard from 1964-1970; my uncle, Floyd Abbott, who was in Korea; my cousin, Mark Barentine, who is currently in the Air National Guard; and my good friend Nick Fank, who was in the Marines for five years and the Army for another 10. And on and on. All of
those who made themselves available to serve deserve our respect and gratitude. As we’ve highlighted before, the good people at logging company M.A. Rigoni of Perry, Fla. have been showing their gratitude by hosting events for soldiers and their kids for six years. Rigoni is planning its next wounded warrior week for March 29th -April 5th, 2020, with fishSLT ing, hog and turkey hunting.
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MACHINES-SUPPLIES-TECHNOLOGY
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Tigercat Wheel Harvester
cally designed cab. The hooked crane design and large windows provide a clear line of sight to the attachment’s working area and surrounding terrain. The 360° continuous swing upper turntable supplies strong swing torque. Leveling capacity is 24° backward, 18° degrees forward and 18° side/side. Visit tigercat.com.
Tigercat introduces the 1165 wheel harvester, a mid-sized harvester well suited for thinning, selective cut and final fell applications. With strong swing and leveling capabilities, the 1165 is well suited for steep slopes. The machine is available in six-wheel and eightwheel drive configurations. Powered by the Tigercat FPT N67 engine, the 1165 provides full emissions compliance for Tier 4 final regions, along with excellent fuel economy, all in a simple and reliable package. Both Tier 4f and Tier 2 options deliver 210 kW (282 HP) at 2,000 rpm. The 1165 wheel harvester uses the same swing components as the larger 1185, as well as oscillating and articulating center section components used on Tigercat forwarders. Dedicated attachment and carrier pumps provide ample oil flow for uninterrupted power and multifunctioning capability. Many hydraulic components are common with other Tigercat machines, and efficient hydraulic system design and plumbing help the 1165 deliver exceptional productivity and optimal fuel economy. Operator visibility is unmatched in the quiet, comfortable, ergonomi-
Weiler Track F-B’s
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Weiler Forestry launches two reduced tail swing track fellerbuncher models, the B457 and B458. These productive new machine platforms feature excellent multi-function capability with dedicated pumps, a new cab that maximizes operator experience, field proven components, and excellent serviceability. The Weiler B457 and B458 track feller-buncher models have the latest Cat C9.3 engine that produces 298 HP (222 kw) and meets U.S. EPA Tier 4 Final emission standards. A Tier 3 engine option is also available. The B457 is a non-leveling model best suited for plantation thinning, biomass harvesting, and mediumproduction select or clear-cut applications; the B458 is a leveling machine for steeper terrain and excels in select or clear-cut logging. The B458 has an extended track roller frame option that includes two additional bottom rollers for a total of 11, enhancing overall machine stability in steep terrain. In addition, a standard or heavy counterweight option is available for a diversity of harvesting conditions. Unobstructed ground clearance enables unimpeded travel over stumps, rocks and other debris. The spacious cab maximizes operator visibility by providing an open field of view to the work area and upwards through a large skylight. An optional 14 LED light package is available for improved productivity in night shift operations and an optional heated and cooled seat keeps operators comfortable all day long. The cab also features a front window emergency escape, a 7" (178 mm) intuitive color touchscreen monitor, multiple storage compartments, and numerous charging ports. Excellent service access is provided by a gull-wing engine enclo-
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MACHINES-SUPPLIES-TECHNOLOGY sure that provides maximum access to components, while the integrated counterweight walkway allows operators machine level access from the cab. Upper frame access ports allow for efficient debris clean out and component access. Visit weilerforestry.com.
JD Swing Machine
Utilizing invaluable customer feedback, John Deere is rolling out increased options on its G-Series forestry swing machines to help lower daily operating costs, boost productivity, and increase uptime. The improved machine design includes changes to the boom and arm cylinder guards, hood and underdecking. Additionally, the larger undercarriage offered on the 3754G and 3756G swing machines is now available on the 3145G and 3156G models, increasing produc-
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tivity. A new front sunshade increases operator comfort and visibility in sunny conditions. The inclusion of a deck handrail increases operator safety while traversing the upper deck, and the redesigned 7" tool tray improves access and security. Three previously optional features are now available as standard offerings. Available on all Final Tier 4 engine models, a standard precleaner for engine air intake extends filter life and minimizes service frequency. The auto-reversing fan, now standard on all machines, is controlled by a dash-mounted button that reverses airflow to eject debris from the cooler cores, reducing cooler-maintenance frequency. Finally, the extremely effective and durable LED light package, which includes access and service compartment lighting, is now standard. Visit johndeere.com.
John Deere Felling Heads John Deere’s new FS50/FR50 felling heads build upon the successful qualities of previous models for increased productivity, range
rotation. Additionally, the FS50/FR50 models provide excellent visibility to the cutting area. Visit johndeere.com.
Nokian Tyres Intuitu and visibility. The new felling heads are compatible with the 800M- and 900M-Series tracked feller-bunchers and feature in 30° and 310° wrist configurations, respectively. The FS50/FR50 features superior alignment of bunched timber to allow for optimal harvesting. The new felling heads provide a taller horn that works together with the pocket and arms to collect larger, tighter bunches. The horn delivers excellent handling of tall trees, which improves skidder productivity during tree removal. Both models also include arm cylinders mounted high for impressive wear protection of the saw housing, and can easily hold up to 15 six-inch trees. The FR50 configuration maximizes versatility when positioning bunches in both plantation and thinning conditions due to the increased
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Nokian Tyres has taken the first step toward digital, real-time tire management. Nokian Tyres Intuitu combines sensor-equipped smart tires with a mobile application that records the sensor data from tires, keeping the user informed with the vital tire pressure and temperature data. Nokian Tyres Intuitu is based on IoT sensors installed in the tires. The first version of the sensors will send out tire pressure and temperature data, which are transmitted to the application running on a mobile device and cloud-based data storage. Visit nokiantyres.com.
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Spotlight: Hauling SLT invited manufacturers and dealers of products and services related to the transportation sector of the forest products industry to submit information about their offerings. All that responded are included here.
American Truck Parts
American Truck Parts, Inc., established in 1997, located in Douglas, Ga., is a worldwide supplier of new and used heavy duty truck parts. We specialize in used and rebuilt engines, transmissions and rear ends. We also carry body parts including a full line of new and used hoods. We clean DPFs for trucks and heavy equipment as well. Our full-service shop also repairs, balances and manufactures drive shafts. Our heavy-duty wreckers and lowboys provide 24-hour service. Owned and operated by staff formerly in the timber business, we appreciate loggers and understand the business. Check out our website at www.americantruckparts.com to search our inventory or call us with your truck part needs at 888383-8884.
10-ton tag-a-long style to 50-ton fixed neck lowboy style models. The standard lowboy for most loggers and contractors is the 35-ton fixed neck lowboy. All log trailers and lowboys come standard with unimount hubs with outboard brake drums, D.O.T. spec lights and reflective tape, radial tires, and one of the best warranties in the business. Big John also offers custom building for those customers who have special trailer requirements. Loader trailers and self-propelled carriers are another very important part of Big John's product line. These trailers are primarily sold to equipment dealers and range from a basic chassis to more complex designs to handle heavier loaders and delimbers. After over 30 years of manufacturing trailers, Big John has become a well-known name in the logging industry. Today Big John continues to manufacture its popular line of trailers at its facility in Folkston, Ga. For more info, call 912-496-7469 or 1-800-771-4140 or email info@bigjohntrailers.com.
Big John Trailers
Evans Trailers
Big John Trailers has now been manufacturing some of the finest trailers for the forest industry since 1973. Because we have been around longer than many of our competitors, and because of the fact that we work directly with loggers on design and customized options, Big John is the obvious choice for your log trailer, loader/delimber trailer and lowboy needs. Products offered by Big John include log trailers, lowboys, knuckle boom loader trailers and self-propelled loader carriers. These products are marketed mostly by a dealer network throughout the United States and Canada, with the strongest market area being in the Southeast. The log trailers offered by Big John cover a wide range of designs. However, the most popular are the "Full Load Series," or lightweight, low profile plantation and four bolster styles. Lowboy trailers manufactured by Big John range from 52
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Evans Trailers has been manufacturing the finest logging and flatbed trailers in Sumter, SC since its founding in 1919. We currently offer a full line of logging and flatbed trailers to meet the various needs of our customers. Our log trailer designs include plantation, drop center and straight frame models and come standard with spring-ride suspensions and 11R24.5 tires. Weighing approximately 10,600 lbs., the plantation trailer is our most popular model and provides the maximum cubic capacity for harvested timber. Our drop center trailer weighs approximately 9,800 lbs. and provides
clearance in the beam for loading and unloading long wood. Our straight frame trailer also weighs approximately 9,800 lbs. and comes standard with four bolt-on bolsters. For customers with immediate needs, our dealers keep a variety of standard models with premium features in stock. For customers with specialized needs, our engineers are ready to go to work designing products that meet just about any requirement. Among other options, we offer air-ride suspensions, single point spring-ride suspensions, onboard trailer scales and removable headboards. All the main beams of our trailers are made using our state of the art automatic I-beam fabricating machine. We paint all our trailers with a marine-grade paint system that includes a 70% zinc-primer and a urethane topcoat. Visit www.evans-trailers.com.
Kaufman Trailers Since our humble beginnings in 1987, our products have become the standard of excellence for the industry. If Kaufman sells it, you can depend on it being the best value available. Our rigorous internal standards as well as NATM certification assure you of a durable, long-lasting, great investment. We specialize in the following types of trailers: l Gooseneck – We offer gooseneck trailers in multiple types. These include a flatbed version with the floor over the tires, equipment hauler style with fenders, and tilting deck in both deck-over and floor between the fenders configuration. l Flatbed – We define this family as a trailer having the floor over the tires. These models start at 14,000 GVWR with electric brakes and go up to our 62,000 GVWR tri-axle air brake model. l Equipment – All our equipment trailers have fenders and swing-up ramps in ratings ranging from 7,000 to 17,000 GVWR. With our extensive range of models, we have an equipment trailer to fit every need. l Dump – Low profile dump trailers are available in bumper pull
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and gooseneck hitch options. Weight ratings ranging from 10,000 to 17,000 GVWR. l Heavy Haul – We offer a full range of heavy haul products ranging from 30-ton capacity lightweight commercial trailers up to 55-ton commercial trailers and everything in between. l Logging Trailers – We offer a full range of forestry trailers with about any option you can dream up: 2-axle, 3-axle, plantation, straight frame, sliding bolsters, scales, multiple suspension styles, the list goes on and on. It will be hard to find something we can’t do. Kaufman Trailer’s friendly, specially trained customer service staff can help answer your questions and assist you in finding the perfect trailer for your needs at a price you will love. Call 336-790-6807 or visit www.kaufmantrailers.com for more.
Lonestar Truck Group
Lonestar Truck Group | TAG Truck Center owns and operates 22 full service heavy duty truck dealer locations in 8 states: Arkansas, Texas, Louisiana, New Mexico, Missouri, Tennessee, Kentucky, and Mississippi; in addition to a Glider production facility and yard spotter refurb center located in Texarkana, Tex. We stock Freightliner, Western Star, Thomas Built Bus (NM), Fuso, Sprinter, and Autocar Terminal Tractors along with multiple trailer brands such as Viking, Globe, Transcraft, Manac, Travis, Reitnouer, Benson and CPS. We have over 40 years’ experience in the timber industry specializing in spec’ing and servicing new log trucks, used trucks, New Glider Kits and 4 bunk log and lowboy trailers. We offer a full range of insurance products and finance options from national and regional lending sources. Let our finance professionals help you
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choose a finance or lease package that is perfect for you and your business. No matter how small or large the transaction we have the experts and experience to handle your needs. Vulcan Scales, Cab Guards, half or full fenders? We have those too and can include with your purchase. Lonestar Graphics is our in-house custom apparel and graphics division that can offer turn key computer design for your business needs. In need of a vehicle, trailer or truck wrap? Door decals, graphics, signs, hats, shirts or logo’d coolers with your company logo? We have that covered. Lonestar Truck Group Graphics Division is an authorized Orca dealer and stocks a full line of inventory for your needs. Lonestar Truck Group – TAG Truck Center can also provide custom quotes on extended warranty options to protect your new or used truck or Glider with various extended base vehicle to power train options including engine with after treatment systems to protect your investment and help prevent costly unscheduled repairs and downtime. In need of support? Our LTG Solutions Center can help 24/7 at 1888-600-1365. Our focus is simple: we are customer advocates and our
goal is to maximize your uptime. Call us today to learn more about our services. Check us out online or view our inventory at lonestartruckgroup.com, tagtruckcenter.com or follow us on Facebook and Instagram.
Magnolia Trailers Established in April 1993 to service the forestry and equipment hauling industry, Magnolia Trailers Inc. builds all types of forestry, logging and equipment trailers. We also offer
a complete line of conventional pole, loader, delimber or your own specially designed trailer, including a great inventory of used trailers. Principals Robert and Connie Langley welcome you to call today to discuss your equipment needs. Call
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(601) 947-7990; toll free: 800-7382123; fax: (601) 947-4900; e-mail: info@magnoliatrailers.com or visit www.magnoliatrailers.com for more.
Maxi-Load Scale Systems
Controlling log truck weights is what we do. Every truck that leaves the woods with less than a full payload is money lost. You have paid the full expense of running the truck but only received partial pay for what you have done. Every truck that leaves the woods overloaded is a serious potential liability. If an overloaded truck is involved in an accident, it is a lawyer’s dream come true. D.O.T. penalties on overloaded trucks can easily absorb the profits of a full day’s work. Mill penalties on overloaded trucks range from fines, reduced quotas, time off from work, and in extreme cases being banned from certain mills. Maxi-Load Portable Platform Scales is a concept that is accurate, durable, and has been proven to work on over 800 logging jobs throughout the Southeastern United States. Maxi-Load is an “all-terrain” product. If you can work there, we can weigh there. The very first Maxi-Load Scale put into operation in 1996 is still weighing log trucks daily. A Maxi-Load Scale will put your load weights within 1% of the mill scale weight. Maxi-Load can be installed on your job in two hours. From that point on, you have total control of all trucks serving your job: your trucks, your contract trucks, dispatch trucks, and even a truck that may stop by one time and pick up a special load. Financing is available. Delivery and installation are also available. Contact your local forestry equipment supplier or Maxi-Load @ 1-877-265-1486 or on the web at maxiload.com
Pitts Trailers
Founded in 1976, Pitts Trailers built a reputation on four decades of manufacturing durable, dependable forestry trailers, designed to perform in one of the toughest, most demanding industries. Pitts Trailers are built for the road. Beginning with our first handcrafted trailer, Pitts has maintained a reputation for innovation, pulling the industry forward again and again. In 1994, the pioneering
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Loadpayin’ Series introduced a fully fabricated frame made of High Yield Materials with a continuous submerged arc welding process that allows you to haul more wood and less steel, while maintaining the highest performance standards available in the industry. Pitts Trailers is the largest manufacturer of forestry trailers and hydraulic elevating load carrier frames in the U.S., offering a full line of truck trailers, including log trailers, chip vans, knuckle booms, and lowboys. Our roots run deep in truck trailer manufacturing— born in the woods, built for the road and boss on the job site. Visit www.pittstrailers.com for more.
TEAM Safe Trucking NEW: TEAM Safe Trucking makes it easy! Never has it been easier to have such a positive impact on our forestry transportation industry! TEAM Safe Trucking (TST) makes it easy for drivers to join, for sponsors to sponsor, and for others to help in strengthening our industry! DRIVERS: Train online. Join 6,555 of your fellow forestry transportation professionals in accessing online resources on your own schedule. Visit www.teamsafetrucking.com to set up an account, and download the TalentLMS app to access trainings right on your phone! Available now is the Refresher Driver Training, and on February 7th Entry Level Driver Training will launch. Training prevents accidents, decreases insurance costs and adds dollars to your bottom line! SPONSORS: Giving is receiving. TST is gaining momentum by building a framework of supporting businesses that join up for unlimited company access to training. For the annual fee of $3,400 companies can train an unlimited amount of drivers through TST Entry Level Driver Theory Training Courses to be released February 2020, realizing thousands of dollars in savings, while working to strengthen the industry.Reach out to Miranda Gowell via email (miranda.gowell @teamsafetrucking.com) today and start doing your part to strengthen the forestry transportation industry. SEE YOU THERE! Join our network of Forestry Transportation professionals who believe the future lies in making training accessible to those who want and need it. Visit the TST website (teamsafetrucking.com) to register for upcoming trainings and meetings. -May 20th & 21st in Austin, Texas Immediately following the FRA Annual Meeting -September 23rd & 24th TST Semi-annual Meeting and Training Day
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PRINT CLASSIFIED AD RATES: Print advertising rates are $50 per inch. Space is available by column inch only, one inch minimum. DEADLINES: Ad reservation must be received by 10th of month prior to month of publication. Material must be received no later than 12th of month prior to month of publication.
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CONTACT: Call Bridget DeVane at 334-699-7837, 800-669-5613, email bdevane7@hotmail.com or visit www.southernloggintimes.com
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FOR SALE
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2013 John Deere 648H, dual arch, winch, 8k HRS, NEW RUBBER, VERY NICE ......................................................$90,000 Call or Text Zane 334-518-9937 Maplesville, AL
Hose, Fittings & Crimpers
Want 0 Downtime? Repair Your Own Lines In The Woods! Start-up Kit Less than $5,000! 8309
Contact: Chris Alligood 1-252-531-8812 email: chrisa.cavalierhose@gmail.com
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2290
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2016 Deere 803M • $175,000 STK# LT288727 • 7,256 hrs
2016 Deere 803M • $225,000 STK# LV290856 • 4,021 hrs
2016 Deere 843L • $177,000 STK# LT676363 • 4,216 hrs
2015 Deere 843K • $68,000 STK# LT665362 • 7,174 hrs
2014 Deere 437D • $75,000 STK# LU270732 • 9,861 hrs
2015 Deere 748L • $150,000 STK# LT667210 • 6,472 hrs
2016 Deere 648L • $142,000 STK# LT674592 • 5,848 hrs
2015 Deere 748L • $155,000 STK# LT669606 • 6,329 hrs
2012 CD1 Chambers • $30,000 STK# LTD10356 • 4,943 hrs
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94 Timberjack 450C 9,400 hrs. with 3800 hr. on new eng......$25,000 Firm Call Wood Movers 256.479.5036 3034
IF YOU NEED
To buy or sell forestry, construction, utility or truck equipment, or if you just need an appraisal, contact me, Johnny Pynes with JM Wood Auction. Over 25 years experience.
RECONDITIONED DELIMBINATORS!! In addition to new machines, CHAMBERS DELIMBINATOR, INC. now has factory reconditioned DeLimbinators. These units have been inspected, repaired, and updated as needed. Call us and we will help you select a DeLimbinator for your need.
EUREKA! EUREKA! EUREKA! OWNERS HAVE OVER 30 YEARS COMBINED EXPERIENCE!
N
We can save you money on Saw Teeth. Hundreds of satisfied ACC OW EP customers. Rebuilt Exchange or New. We specialize in rebuild- CRE TING DIT ing Koehring 2000, Hurricana, Hydro Ax split teeth and all CARDS other brands. Call Jimmy or Niel Mitchell. Quantity Discounts!
EUREKA SAW TOOTH CO., INC.
7180
FOR SALE
4275 Moores Ferry Rd. • Skippers, Virginia 23879 PH./FAX (day) 1-434-634-9836 or Night/Weekends • 1-434-634-9185
WE ALSO BUY USED DELIMBINATORS Call: 662-285-2777 day, 662-285-6832 eves Email: info@chambersdelimbinator.com 1123
FOR SALE
770
Day 334-312-4136 Night 334-271-1475 or Email: johnwpynes@knology.net
Weigh Boy Scales Used 6 months ....................................$12,500 OBO Call Wood Movers 256.479.5036 3034
6209
93 Bell Fellerbuncher .....$20,000 OBO Call Wood Movers 256.479.5036 3034
Straightening Of All Types Of Fellerbuncher Saw Disks One Piece Or Segmented Each Will Be Balanced Carver Sawdisk Repair 543 Havens Street Washington, NC 27889 (252) 945-2358 566 13289
7393
FOR SALE
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A D L I N K ●
ADVERTISER Alex Lyon & Son Auctioneers American Logger’s Council American Truck Parts Around The World Salvage Bandit Industries Big John Trailers BITCO Insurance Bright Star Realty and Auctions Caterpillar Dealer Promotion John Deere Forestry Doggett Machinery Service Doosan Infracore North America Eastern Surplus Flint Equipment FMI Trailers Forest Chain Forestry First Forestry Mutual Insurance G & W Equipment Granger Equipment Hawkins & Rawlinson Interstate Tire Service Ironmart John Woodie Enterprises Kaufman Trailers Komatsu Forestry Division Mike Ledkins Insurance Agency LMI-Tennessee Magnolia Trailers Maxam Tire North America Maxi-Load Scale Systems Moore Logging Supply Morbark Olofsfors Peterson Pacific Pewag Chain Pitts Trailers Puckett Machinery Quadco Quality Equipment & Parts River Ridge Equipment S E C O Parts & Equipment Southern Loggers Cooperative Stribling Equipment Tidewater Equipment Tigercat Industries Timberblade Timberland Titan/Goodyear® Farm Tires TraxPlus Trelan Manufacturing VPG Onboard Weighing W & W Truck & Tractor Waratah Forestry Attachments Waters International Trucks J M Wood Auction
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315.633.2944 409.625.0206 888.383.8884 936.634.7210 800.952.0178 800.771.4140 800.475.4477 574.825.0704 919.550.1201 800.503.3373 225.368.2224 877.745.7814 855.332.0500 404.859.5790 601.508.3333 800.288.0887 803.708.0624 800.849.7788 800.284.9032 318.548.5977 888.822.1173 864.947.9208 888.561.1115 704.878.2941 336.790.6807 888.285.7478 800.766.8349 800.467.0944 800.738.2123 1.844.MAXAM.NA 877.265.1486 888.754.5613 800.831.0042 519.754.2190 800.269.6520 800.445.2895 800.321.8073 601.969.6000 800.668.3340 386.754.6186 855.325.6465 800.733.7326 318.445.0750 855.781.9408 912.638.7726 519.753.2000 519.532.3283 912.283.1060 800.872.2327 601.635.5543 877.487.3526 800.237.0022 843.761.8220 770.692.0380 601.693.4807 334.264.3265
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COMING EVENTS November
May 2020
6-8—Forestry Assn. of South Carolina annual meeting, Wild Dunes, Isle of Palms, SC. Call 803-7984170; visit scforestry.org.
1-2—Expo Richmond 2020, Richmond Raceway Complex, Richmond, Va. Call 804-737-5625; visit exporichmond.com.
February 2020
18-20—Forest Resources Assn. annual meeting, Omni Austin Downtown, Austin, Tex. Call 202296-3937; visit forestresources.org.
19-23—Appalachian Hardwood Manufacturers annual meeting, Naples Grand Beach Resort, Naples, Fla. Call 336-885-8315; visit appalachianhardwood.org.
March 2020 5-7—Southeastern Wood Producers Assn. annual meeting, Okefenokee Fairgrounds and Exchange Club, Waycross, Ga. Call 904-845-7133; visit swpa.ag. 6-8—Carolina Loggers Assn. annual meeting, Hotel Ballast, Wilmington, NC. Call 828-421-8444; visit ncloggers.com. 25-27—Hardwood Manufacturers Assn. 2019 National Conference & Expo, JW Marriott, Nashville, Tenn. Call 412-244-0440; visit hmamembers.org.
April 2020 7-9—Kentucky Forest Industries Assn. annual meeting, Brown Hotel, Louisville, Ky. Call 502-695-3979; visit kfia.org.
southernloggintimes.com
NOVEMBER 2019 ● Southern Loggin’ Times
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September 2020 24-26—American Loggers Council annual meeting, Hilton Branson Convention Center, Branson, Mo. Call 409-625-0206; visit amloggers.com. Listings are submitted months in advance. Always verify dates and locations with contacts prior to making plans to attend.
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