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Vol. 49, No. 11
(Founded in 1972—Our 578th Consecutive Issue)
F E AT U R E S out front:
November 2020 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
16 For Veterans Day this month, SLT profiles Marine Captain Kirk Sanders, who served in Desert Storm in 1991 before starting a logging business with his late brother Bill. Today Kirk works a CTL crew in Alabama using a pair of Ponsse machines. Story begins on Page 12. (Photo by Patrick Dunning)
Tony Hooper Sawmills Focus On Crossties
Art Director Ad Production Coordinator Circulation Director Online Content/Marketing
Cindy Segrest Patti Campbell Rhonda Thomas Jacqlyn Kirkland
ADVERTISING CONTACTS DISPLAY SALES Eastern U.S. Kathy Sternenberg Tel: 251-928-4962 • Fax: 334-834-4525 219 Royal Lane Fairhope, AL 36532 E-mail: ksternenberg@bellsouth.net Midwest USA, Eastern Canada John Simmons Tel: 905-666-0258 • Fax: 905-666-0778 32 Foster Cres. Whitby, Ontario, Canada L1R 1W1 E-mail: jsimmons@idirect.com
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Spotlight On: Trucks, Trailers, Etc.
Southern Stumpin’ . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6 Bulletin Board . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24 From The Backwoods Pew . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26 Industry News Roundup . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28 ForesTree Equipment Trader . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40 Safety Focus . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45 Coming Events/Ad Index . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46
Western Canada, Western USA Tim Shaddick Tel: 604-910-1826 • Fax: 604-264-1367 4056 West 10th Ave. Vancouver, BC V6L 1Z1 E-mail: tootall1@shaw.ca Kevin Cook Tel: 604-619-1777 E-mail: lordkevincook@gmail.com International Murray Brett Tel: +34 96 640 4165 +34 96 640 4048 58 Aldea de las Cuevas • Buzon 60 03759 Benidoleig (Alicante), Spain E-mail: murray.brett@abasol.net 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 ® 2020. 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’
Storm Season NOTE: Editors Jessica Johnson and Dan Shell contributed these hurricane damage reports, versions of which previously ran in other HattonBrown digital and print publications, including Timber Harvesting magazine, the Logger News Online e-mail newsletter and the Southern Loggin’ Times web site.
Laura Lashes Louisiana
W line near Cameron, La., on August 27 as a
hen Hurricane Laura slammed into the shore-
Category 4 hurricane, it brought with it 160 MPH winds and maintained hurricane status (80+ MPH winds) all the way to the Arkansas state line. It’s been more than 150 years—before the Civil War, even—since the last time this region experienced such powerful wind speeds. Before Laura, the Last
Laura hit Louisiana hard.
Island Hurricane in 1856 was the strongest storm to make landfall in Louisiana history, and the fifthstrongest to hit the continental U.S. on record. The damage for loggers and timberland owners equaled a year of timber harvests in a single night. More than 758,000 acres of timberland were badly damaged, including more than 3.5 billion BF of sawtimber (pine: 2.8 billion; hardwood: 740 million), with heavy timber damage reported in 20 parishes. According to a report by Jeff Zeringue in the Louisiana Logging Council’s Louisiana Logger publication, more than 39 million tons of wood came crashing down. In an economic impact study that cited reports from the LSU AgCenter, industry analysts Forest2Market pointed out that the storm’s $1.1 billion impact on timber inventories was almost double that of 2005’s Rita and Katrina, combined. LSU AgCenter economist Kurt Guidry figures that, based on the amount of infrastructure damage and timber-related losses, “The total economic impact to the food and fiber sector from Hurricane Laura will be as large as or larger than 6
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any storm that I have developed estimates for since my time with the AgCenter.” On the ground, loggers are looking to salvage what they can, but over-saturated timber markets mean a big drop in prices. According to Forest2Market’s report, Laura will drive stumpage prices down in the near-term as too much wood, much of it low grade, chases too few market outlets. Longer-term, the report predicts, “Stumpage prices will become more volatile and likely trend higher thereafter—once the market works through the usable salvaged timber—and the regional supply chain adapts to new operating conditions that reflect the loss of over $1 billion in timber resources.”
Unsalvageable Salvaging wind-blown timber is slow and dangerous, and standard mechanized logging equipment isn’t designed for horizontal stems. Robbie Hutchins, extension forester for the LSU AgCenter Extension Service, says it’s not as simple as just bringing in chain saw crews because of how the wood is twisted. “It becomes a safety nightmare,” he says, and that will balloon insurance costs. Moreover, a report from the AgCenter determined that only 10% of the downed pine and none of the hardwood can be salvaged. The same dynamics came into play two years ago after Hurricane Michael hit northwest Florida and southwest Georgia: huge amounts of timber in barely salvageable condition, with overall market conditions making it barely worthwhile to cut and haul any of it. Noting that the parishes hit hardest contain the most productive timberlands in Louisiana, Louisiana Forestry Assn. and Louisiana Logging Council Executive Director Buck Vandersteen says “Unfortunately, most of this will be unsalvageable. Making matters worse is most mills are already carrying a full wood inventory.”
Available Help
ter conditions and may provide up to 75-90% of cost-sharing. The EFRP provides payments to eligible owners of nonindustrial private forest (NIPF) land to carry out emergency measures to restore land damaged by a natural disaster. Local FSA County Committees determine land eligibility and, if applicable, an on-site damage inspection to assess the type and extent of damage. Eligible forest restoration practices include debris removal, such as down or damaged trees, in order to establish a new stand or provide natural regeneration; site preparation, planting materials and labor to replant forestland; restoration of forestland roads, fire lanes, fuel breaks or erosion control structures; fencing, tree shelters and tree tubes to protect trees from wildlife damage; and wildlife enhancement to provide cover openings and wildlife habitat.
Michael: 2 Years Later
Rstarted, but two years after her cousin Michael
ecovery from Laura in Louisiana is just getting
hit Florida, loggers in that state are still dealing with the damage. When it made landfall on October 10, 2018, Hurricane Michael raged at 160 MPH. Barely missing the major Panama City population center that would have made the human toll much worse, the storm churned through north Florida and southwest Georgia for 150 miles before furious hurricane-force winds finally dissipated. It was the fourth-strongest wind speed landfall hurricane in contiguous U.S. history. Michael’s eye ripped right through the center of a 98,000-acre tract in the Bear Creek watershed, leaving in its wake a scene of blast-zone devastation. In mere hours a thriving, working forest that had been growing everything from seedlings to 35year-old sawtimber was reduced to an epic disaster of downed and windblown trees. According to a report by industry analyst Forest2Market, the most heavily affected areas lost the equivalent of 10-15 years of timber inventory removals, all concentrated into several hours. TIMO Forest Investment Associates (FIA) man-
Several relief programs are available. Vandersteen reported in his Louisiana Logger column that loggers should look into the federal Small Business Administration disaster loan program that offers low-interest loans up to $2 million for businesses impacted by the hurricane. The Louisiana Treasurer’s Office also administers a small business grant program for businesses affected by the coronavirus that could also be helpful, he added. The USDA Farm Service Agency (FSA) in Louisiana is accepting applications in eligible parishes for the Emergency Conservation Program (ECP) and Emergency Forest Restoration Program (EFRP). The ECP helps to Disaster drove innovation in Florida's Bear Creek. restore damaged farmland to pre-disas-
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ages the Bear Creek tract. With a 33year track record and $4.7 billion in timberland assets under management in North and South America, FIA’s largest investment area is the Southeast U.S., where it manages 1.7 million acres. Roughly 37% of those assets are within 60 miles of the Gulf or Atlantic coasts. There have been plenty of hurricanes over the years, but the damage to the Bear Creek tract “was unlike anything ever experienced on our properties,” says Mike Clutter, FIA Vice President, Director of U.S. Investments and Operations.
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According to Clutter, at Bear Creek 3.4 million merchantable pine tons were removed due to storm damage, and 7,500 acres of pre-merchantable plantations were lost. Overall, he says, Michael took about 92% of the tract’s standing inventory. It took the better part of a month’s hard work for American Forest Management (FIA’s on-site field service provider) and the Florida Forest Service to reopen the primary woods roads and allow up-close inspection. The closer all involved got to the disaster, the bigger the challenge grew.
Once assessments were made and inspections completed, the magnitude of the task became clear: the complete re-establishment of 55,000-60,000 acres of bedded plantations on low wet ground—as soon as possible. In spring 2019, the FIA team hoped the job would take five years to complete.
Hammered “The eye of the storm centered (the tract), so you had wind going east to west, then the eye went over
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and you had wind going west to east,” says Frank Corley, forest engineer, longtime logging industry veteran and owner of Corley, Inc., who was brought in as a consultant for the recovery project. Corley and Clutter have worked together several times over the course of their careers, including 14 years when both were with Union Camp. “I had no clue what to do the day I arrived,” Corley admits. “Nothing was obvious. Only some of the youngest stands, about five years and younger, were able to carry forward. The rest of it was gone.” Forestry specialists Larson & McGowin used digital modeling software to predict debris loads remaining on the ground, and the Silvics Solutions S2 program identified many areas of older merchantable plantations that had 150-200 green tons of debris per acre that had to be otherwise dealt with before plantations could be re-established and the tract placed back into production. Much of the merchantable timber was broken off in snags, jumbled on the ground in pieces, extremely unsafe to log conventionally and virtually unsalvageable. Working with local contractors, AFM was able to harvest a small amount, but with the WestRock paper mill at Panama City down due to storm damage and other wood consumers either operating at greatly reduced capacity or not operating at all, wood prices dropped drastically. Corley says even if more could have been salvaged, “People don’t realize how the mills were impacted too, so the markets weren’t really there for a while.” It became apparent that the remaining timber and debris, snags and leaners had to be taken to the ground before anything else could happen. And the tremendous amount of debris made windrowing unfeasible because of handling and piling costs and lost planting space. Trying to devise a plan of action, Corley brought in several others to give perspective, among them Mark Sauer, President of Savannah Global Solutions, and Johnny Boyd, district manager with Tigercat Industries. Disaster drove innovation as the group developed systems to handle the various conditions on the tract and ultimately re-establish plantations in the debris fields. For example, a modified Tigercat sawhead was developed with the bunching arms removed and a custom housing with v-blade added atop the tower to take down much of the smaller pre-merchantable material. The machine goes down each row, “mowing” as close as possible to the ground and letting
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the trunks and snag stems just fall away. This leaves the bed in place and makes for quicker replanting. Another example: a push-bar system—simply a 22 ft. piece of heavy square-tube steel with a slight bow on each end mounted to the front of a D6 dozer—is being used to take down material that’s just at thinning age or a bit below. Some of these stands were the toughest to deal with, Corley says. Presenting the biggest overall challenge were the older age stands, some up to 35 years old. These had
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the highest debris loads. Savannah Global has a reputation as a major mass land-clearing specialist, having worked typhoon recoveries in Australia and reservoir land clearing in Africa among other recent offshore jobs and projects in 35 countries. Sauer advised the group to try chaining: dragging a large ship chain between two D8s to knock the debris onto the ground. The recovery team settled on a 450 ft. deep sea ship anchor chain pulled between two Cat D8s running parallel roughly 60-80 ft. “You
pull it behind in a u-shape, and the chain sort of sags behind,” Corley explains. He bought the massive chain from a shipyard in Louisiana, and it weighed only a couple hundred pounds short of highway weight limits to get it hauled to Bear Creek. “It’s a slow process and can be dangerous,” says Quint Crager of Quinco Contracting in Chatom, Ala. “Ground conditions are pretty rough; there’s lots of really heavy debris in most areas.” Noting the extra guarding all around the dozer,
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he adds, “A main concern is safety of the guys operating. We’ve never done the chain pull before.” Crager says that as time has progressed and the timber has deteriorated, it’s lighter and can work easier; some of the wetter areas where fallen material has more green volume continue to be a hard, slow pull. Another issue is keeping equipment cooling systems running smoothly in all the debris. “You can’t take just anybody who operates a machine and put them in this, but we’ve got some really good operators,” Crager notes. This summer there were five main contractors on the site doing chaining, push bar or sawhead work. As each system is applied to the tracts where it works best, the big chunk of remaining work continues to be the areas that need chaining. Wet ground is a big issue yearround for all the crews. Super low elevation and flat terrain make any form of precipitation problematic for operations, and some areas are wetter than before the storm because there’s no timber and cover to help absorb groundwater. Taking advantage of any short-term dry conditions, crews try to cover as much of the low ground as possible, when possible, but some areas may have to wait for an extended dry spell to be worked. “This is by far the biggest project we’ve ever taken on,” says Travis Buck of Tree Farm LLC in Fosters, Ala. “Trying not to get stuck—that’s the biggest issue because there’s mud and water everywhere and it’s all flat ground.” Once all material is on the ground, there’s at least one pass with a shear v-blade required to open it up, and another pass with a bedding plow to get the row ready to replant. The crews are going with slightly wider row spacing due to the remaining debris, which is several feet high on each side of some planting rows. Looking ahead, there’s plenty of work left to do. Clutter believes it’ll take four more years to completely regenerate the 55,000 acres of plantations that had to be put back into production, and the project is moving along roughly on schedule. He notes that even with years of hurricane impacts around the Southeast, an event like what hit the Bear Creek tract emphasizes that geographical diversity is important for timberland investors. Strategies like standing timber insurance policies and pursuing shorter rotations to reduce hurricane exposure are other options to consider, he says. “Very large contiguous holdings close to the coast need to be viewed as more risky than those that are geographically dispersed,” Clutter adds. SLT
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Brotherhood ■ Marine vet Kirk Sanders specializes in CTL logging, and honors his late brother/partner Bill.
Photo courtesy of Ponsse North America
By Patrick Dunning PINSON, Ala. hen he was ★ young, not so very many years ago, Kirk Sanders didn’t foresee his future being in logging. He and his big brother Bill had spent some summers working for forester Ken Smith, who was employed at Buchanan Lumber in Montgomery at the time. But a summer job wasn’t necessarily something he envisioned turning into a long-term career. When he was still a freshman studying mathematics at Montgomery’s Huntingdon College in 1981, Sanders enlisted in the Marine Corps Reserves as an infantry rifleman attached to the 3rd Battalion, 23rd Marine Hotel Company based in Montgomery. After earning his bachelor’s degree in 1984, Sanders went active duty as a commissioned infantry officer. Similar to numerous infantrymen trying to boost their real-world experience on the civilian side, Sanders put in for a lateral move to change his MOS (military occupational specialty) to data systems officer—now referred to as IT (Information Technology). “I figured it would be worthwhile for me to have some additional knowledge and experience when I got out,” Sanders says. After the request was approved, he transferred to I MEF (Marine Expeditionary Force) in San Diego, Calif.
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Sanders targets high-grade logs.
Sanders was later relocated to Air Station El Toro in Irvine, Calif., where he worked for the automated service center and ultimately was placed in charge of the information resource center for five years. “IBM-PC were talked-about items coming online so we were right in the middle of that development,” he reflects on his time there. “Microsoft was bidding for the operating system, which ended up being Microsoft DOS 1.0.”
Down Range The Marine Corps paid for Sanders to go to graduate school at Auburn University if he drilled with the local reserve unit once a month and two weeks each summer. He had been in grad school less than a year and home from desert training northeast of Twentynine Palms, Calif., for scarcely 48 hours when he got the call. “We came home from the desert on the last day of July and August 1, Iraq invaded Kuwait,” Sanders recalls. “I
said wait a minute, I’m a student! They said no you’re not, you’re a Marine. Pack your bags and let’s go.” In August, 1990, the Iraqi military invaded the sovereign country of Kuwait under Saddam Hussein’s dictatorship in a bid to gain more control over oil supplies along the Persian Gulf coast. Hussein refused to withdraw his troops from Kuwait after being condemned by the United States and UN Security Council, igniting the Persian Gulf War. Sanders deployed overseas to Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, attached to the 8th Marine Regiment, 2nd Marine Division, Hotel Company, 1st platoon. His company was transported five miles from the Kuwait-Saudi border around 9 p.m., rucked at pace-count to the border, established a right flank for the battalion and dug in. “We were close enough that you could see the Iraqis across the border in daylight,” Sanders says. “We lived in a hole all day.” At night they provided interlock patrols or relocated positions and dug new foxholes before the sun came back up. Sanders says his command in Saudi Arabia referred to them as the “speed bump” because they were non-mechanized infantry displaying a show of coalition forces. “We were strict infantry so if they would have attacked with armor they would have went right through us without slowing down.” The 8th Marine Regiment was in Kuwait longer than any other U.S. combat unit, Sanders says, not leaving till June 1, 1991, even though President George H. W. Bush had declared a ceasefire on February 28. “We went 91 days without hot food, light, no heat, and no change of clothes, living in a hole in the ground,” Sanders says. “You find out pretty quick you can’t get any nastier. But it was a
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wonderful lifestyle, believe it or not; I enjoyed the hell out of it.” Sanders received the Navy Achievement Medal, given to junior officers for outstanding achievement, and retired as a Captain.
New Direction When Sanders got back from his tour, his brother Bill asked what he was going to do next. Kirk admitted he didn’t know. The Sanders brothers were considering options over a few beers when Bill had an epiphany. “We had what I like to call a once a great notion,” Sanders laughs, referring to the 1971 logging movie Sometimes a Great Notion (also released under the alternate title Never Give An Inch), starring Paul Newman and Henry Fonda. (Notably, the movie is an adaptation of the 1964 novel by author Ken Kesey, whose first published work was 1962’s One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest. Though that earlier story is of course more famous due to the Jack Nicholson film, many critics considered this novel about a family of stubborn Oregon loggers to be Kesey’s finest work, and the film adaptation was also wellreceived, garnering Academy Award nominations.) The great notion the Sanders brothers had, Kirk explains: “Bill suggested we get into the logging business and I figured, why not?” They bought a loader, a Mack truck, one skidder and a cut-down machine. Buchanan Lumber donated a trailer and just like that, the newly formed Sanders Timber started logging for the Montgomery mill. Bill had cruised timber for Buchanan Lumber in the past but other than those summers spent working for Ken Smith, neither of them had a tremendous amount of experience in the woods. They hadn’t grown up in it; their dad was actually a prominent physician. But there was no reason for that to stop them. They were both smart and well educated— both were Huntingdon graduates. Both were artistically talented—Bill was an accomplished painter and Kirk is a writer. Both had served in the military—Bill was an Army Green Beret with the 20th Special
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Forces group, Birmingham, one of two National Guard groups for the U.S. Army Special Forces. There was no doubt they could succeed here as they had done elsewhere.
Hard Hit In the spring of ’96 an F2 tornado hit Montgomery, resulting in loss of life and damaged timber. Buchanan Lumber owned a parcel of land along the Macon/ Montgomery county line by Line Creek in Shorter that was damaged. While helping clean up the tract, Kirk was walking through the woods when a wind gust shook a 30 in. pine log out of the canopy above him. It drove him into the ground, immediately knocking him unconscious and into a two-week coma. The crew had carved a road with a dozer that wasn’t on any map. Even so, “from the time Leroy Howell called 911 to the time I was in the back of the ambulance was eight minutes,” Kirk says. Paramedics conveniently received the call while refueling at a truck stop off the same exit where the Sanders crew was logging. Just as fortunately, the ambulance driver had a hunting lease adjacent to the tract and knew exactly where Kirk was located. They transported him to Jackson Hospital in Montgomery, where he was admitted to intensive care. Once they had him stabilized, he was moved again to the UAB (University of Alabama Birmingham) hospital for surgery. When he came out of the coma, Kirk couldn’t walk or use his hands. “The doctors thought I was going to die so they didn’t bother amputating my arm,” Sanders says, noting the 19 pins he now has in his right arm. On heavy doses of pain meds, he was under hospital care for the first year-plus of his rehabilitation. He made good use of the time, though: he wrote a book. It started with audio recordings he made dictating his memories of his life. Later, to rebuild dexterity in his fingers, he typed a transcription of those tapes. The typing helped repair nerve damage in his hands, he says. The eventual result was a manuscript entitled C.O.T.F.C.:
Kirk Sanders then
Short Stories of a Marine, a raw and vivid account of his time in the service. The book is now in the Library of Congress. It took him about five years to fully recover from his injuries, but his outlook on the entire experience remains tellingly sanguine, revealing a lot about the man’s character. “I tell everybody, I had a good day,” he sums it up. “But that tree died.”
CTL, Ponsse At the turn of the century in 2000, Sanders heard that Finlandbased cut-to-length machinery manufacturer Ponsse was looking to expand its presence in the southeastern United States. The logger jumped at the opportunity presented by Ponsse North America President Pekka Ruuskanen. “Pekka said, ‘Why don’t you come with us to Finland,’ so I went.” At the time, Kirk’s friend Deck Trevitt, the owner of Georgia’s Quality Forest Products, had Ponsse machines but, like many Southern loggers who have tried it, struggled to make the CTL system work in his markets, Sanders says. “I was in a meeting together with the company owners and told them, ‘I’ll go back to Georgia and show Deck how to run the Ponsses if you will make Deck the representative for the Southeast and when you need to do a demo, use Deck’s machines and don’t worry about transporting machinery because we already got the crew.” They struck a deal and Kirk went to work for Ponsse. Later, in 2016, Bill bought a Ponsse harvester/forwarder team and the brothers went to work conducting high-grade thinning prescriptions exclusively, which Kirk believes is the future of logging. “We supply grade and preserve a stand of timber,” he says. “We can go in and cut all grade hardwood and in 10 years come back and do it again.” Now 59, Sanders prefers not to be locked into a fiber contract with surrounding mills, a trick he learned from his brother. “Bill always dealt in hardwood and realized it’s the only way to make money,” Kirk says. “When you have a machine
Kirk Sanders now
heart problems a few years back that can find a log in a tree that and went to the UAB hospital to would otherwise be put in a pulphave a stent put in. The doctors wood stack, that tree just went up 10 times in value. The way we cut a concluded that only three of his valves were functioning; the fourth tree, we cut the logs out and leave was closed off. “The doctors told the tops sitting there. Only thing him he had some sort of heart traucoming out is the grade log.” The harvester, a Ponsse Bear 8WD ma as a young man and the valve scarred over and rerouted the blood with two bogies, weighs 62,000 lbs. somehow,” Kirk says. “The doctors Its 300HP Mercedes-Benz engine told him they didn’t know if he had burns about four gallons an hour. five days or five months.” In fact, Kirk says he uses no more than 500 Bill lasted another three years. gallons of fuel a week in both machines combined. A 33 ft. C5 crane boom supports a 4,000 lbs. H8HD processing/harvesting head with four top-andbottom knives cutting both directions and 10 knives total. Equipped with a gyroscope that keeps the machine level, the H8HD has up to 36,000 lbs. of pulling force and can process 17 ft. a second. The 40-ton capacity Ponsse’s Elephant can carry a truckload each trip. Elephant forwarder is capable of bringing out a When Bill was alive, the brothers full truckload at a time. Its KL100 owned Sanders Timber equally, but crane features 36 ft. boom reach and 17,000 lbs. of lift capacity with they had an agreement that after Bill’s death, Kirk would sign full a 48 in. wide bunching grapple. ownership of the company over to “It’s way easier when you’re stackBill’s daughters, Lou Anne Owens ing wood, and then you separate and Mary Buxton, and he was your high-end logs and next lower happy to do so. Mary has followed logs,” Sanders explains. Kirk typically mans the harvester in the family’s other tradition— she’s a First Lieutenant in the U.S. while John Porter drives the forwarder, but both men can run either Marine Corps, 5th Marine Regiment stationed in Hawaii. Lou Anne machine. Jamie Parnell at Equiphandles all the bookwork for ment Linc Inc., in Maplesville repSanders Timber. With primaries resents Ponsse for the Southeast. Richie Smith and John Porter superSanders changes oil and filters vising the crews and their uncle every 300 hours with Mobil 1 synKirk describing his role now as thetic 10w-40. They use ISO-68 “support,” the girls’ inheritance and hydraulic oil, grease the head and their father’s legacy seem to be in fill up bar oil daily. Sanders adds that workers’ comp good hands. When Bill and Kirk went to work is considerably less on the CTL for Ken Smith all those years ago, operation than with conventional equipment because there’s only two he was good friends with timber cruiser Buddy Fuzzell. Those two machines in the woods, thus fewer men had gone to college together, people, lowering the chance of and they maintained a friendship injuries. Sanders Timber also fields a tree- with both Sanders brothers through length crew with three Tigercat cut- the years. Even after Smith’s death, Fuzzell continued to serve as a menters, two Tigercat loaders with delimber/slasher packages, five Cat tor to the Sanders. Now, Kirk says, the long-time family friend is taking skidders and a Cat dozer, motor an active role in seeing Bill’s daughgrader and excavator. While the ters succeed as well. “He’s helping CTL crew does strictly select cuts guide them down the steep and narof high grade logs, averaging 15 loads a week, the conventional crew row path.” Through all he’s done in his life, hauls 15-20 loads daily of pulpSanders has maintained the same wood, chip-n-saw and everything worldview that sustained him in that else. Foreman Richie Smith superhole in the desert almost 30 years vises the treelength side. ago. “It’s all a matter of belief,” he confesses. “I believe in God, country Not Forgotten and family. There are three things in Bill Sanders died in May this every man’s life: faith, hope and year at age 60; Southern Loggin’ love. And the greatest is love. Faith Times published a tribute to him in in God, hope in your country, love SLT the July issue. He’d been having for your family.” Southern Loggin’ Times
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Hands On
■ Tennessee’s Hooper operation is growing despite changes in market demand.
By Patrick Dunning TOONE, Tenn. he Hooper ★ family and kin are renowned in the Tennessee Valley region for being a friend in each step of the wood harvesting and sawmilling process. Their portable sawmill tradition began almost a century ago with Malcolm Hooper, father of Tony Hooper, 64, owner of Tony Hooper Sawmills, Inc., hauling logs in an old pickup truck to his all-manual groundhog diesel sawmill. Tony has built on his father’s foundation and pursued crosstie markets heavily since the company’s founding in 1970, including the installation in 2018 of a second sawmill company and site, Northside Lumber & Sawmill LLC in Bolivar, Tenn., only seven miles to the south of Toone. Crossties are revered as their bread and butter and for good reason: the area’s Hatchie River bottoms are perfect
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for large growth and the Hooper sawmills are set up to take advantage of the big logs to produce crossties as well as cants. “We learned a long time ago that we like to take the tree to the finished product,” Tony’s nephew and timber procurer Timmy Hooper, 54, says. “That’s our goal.” Tony’s two sons-in-law manage his sawmills: Blake Sowder at Northside Sawmill & Lumber in Bolivar, and Richard Crowley at Tony Hooper Sawmill in Toone. The family dynamic works well for the business. Two of Tony’s nephews oversee hauling procedures from the logging site. His brother-in-law is a foreman, and Tony’s other nephew, Timmy Hooper, is the company’s timber buyer. The Hoopers capitalize off owning sawmills, but their presence in the woods is making the difference with soft red oak markets steering Tony’s logging crew toward tracts dense with a white oak population. “It works better for me to buy
Hooper's most recent acquisition, a 2020 Tigercat skidder, is fitted with Eco-Tracks.
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land, timber and all, turn around and harvest the wood, then resell the land so somebody can see what they’re getting,” Tony says. He owns several thousand acres across Tennessee. Species harvested include red and white oak, gum, beach, birch, cottonwood and other mixed hardwoods. The crew targets timber 14 in. on the stump and greater, sticking to hardwoods that will make at least a crosstie.
Operations Southern Loggin’ Times found Tony Hooper Sawmills, Inc. in August doing a select-cut on a 620acre hardwood tract along the Tennessee-Alabama state line. The stand is divided down the middle by a creek and includes a portion of crop land. Timmy says they’ve been trying to avoid tracts with red oak and had to change up the area where they purchase property. “The tracts
we’ve been buying lately are in this region because of the white oak that’s on it.” The region’s Hatchie River bottoms are perfect for producing crossties, and gum trees grow faster than in Missouri, Arkansas and Kentucky, Timmy suggests. “It’s a hotspot to grow tie trees, that’s one thing that’s helping us,” Timmy says. “The gum grows fast so tie companies target this area. There’s a little more toward middle Tennessee and we are having to travel farther because of the markets but we’re steadily going after it.”
Machinery Row Tony’s equipment lineup includes: ’18 and ’19 model John Deere 948L skidders, ’19 Tigercat 234B loader, ’18 Tigercat 726G cutter, ’19 John Deere 544L dozer, and their newest addition, a ’20 Tigercat 635G six-wheel skidder equipped with Eco-Tracks. “Our Tigercat skidder is made to
Tony’s crew averages 75-80 loads weekly and occasionally up to 100 loads a week.
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climb those rough hills, it’s nies owned or operated in kind of unstoppable,” Tennessee,” Timmy says. Timmy says. “It works very To compensate for the gap well in swampy terrain but between consumer and supalso very well in these hills. plier, Tony recently completIt’ll go where other skidders ed installations of a two-line, wouldn’t think about turnkey stave operation feagoing.” turing Brewer equipment. Tony deals directly with The 13,000 sq. ft. facility is Donnie Kirk at Stribling attached to Northside LumEquipment, Jackson, Tenn., ber and will begin producing for John Deere and Clint stave logs early next year. Montgomery at B&G Tony Hooper Sawmill and Equipment, Iuka, Miss., for Northside Lumber sell 7x9, Tigercat. 8x6 crossties, and 10 ft. All woods equipment is switch-ties to Classic AmeriFrom left: Soul Garcia, Sergio Garcia, Steve Hooper, Placipo Rubio, Kevin Elders, Javier Servin, Mathew Simserviced every 250 hours can Hardwoods Inc., Memmons, Tony Hooper, Timmy Hooper, David Pichard using Rotella. Truck oil is phis; Somerville Tie Compachanged at the 10,000-mile mark. nies, Holly Springs, Miss.; and Kopround shafts, pins; we can use a plas- ed to 7x9s and 8x6s for crosstie Tony has a couple mechanics on the ma cutter or weld some parts togeth- markets. pers, Inc., Jackson, Tenn. “Selling lumber two years ago payroll, Craig Wilson and Chris Lumber is sold green to Ashley’s er, tap some holes, it’s too easy.” brought in twice what it brings now,” Furniture manufacturing plant, Ecru, Kelly, who have been with the comTony says of recent red oak deprecipany for decades and work at the Miss. and Bruce Hardwood Flooring, Markets ation. Effects of the US-China trade shop in Toone. Cape Girardeau, Mo. Local pallet Tony’s crew targets 75-80 loads war bleeding into the novel coron“When Tony buys a new piece of stock companies purchase 4x6 cants. avirus pandemic were felt by Northequipment, whether it’s John Deere, weekly and occasionally gets up to Sawmilling has been in their fami100 loads a week when harvesting side Lumber. In spite of soft red oak Tigercat, whatever, he brings it in ly for generations. “The sawmills are bottom timber. markets, Timmy believes white oak here and our guys beef it up,” something we’ve always done,” Tony Their fleet of trucks includes two markets are the hottest he’s ever Timmy explains. “They put brush says. When it’s cold and wet his log’15 and ’16 Freightliners, ’19 and seen. “The white oak market is really ging crew builds 2 in. thick, three-ply guards on machines to keep them ’20 Western Stars, pulling a collechot right now,” he says. “It’s kind of from getting scratched up, beef up heavy-duty mats. “It gives my guys tion of Pitts and McClendon trailers been saving us.” the blades, bumpers on the back of something to do in the winter time to the Hooper and Northside sawMajority of stave and veneer logs dozers in case you back into a tree, because we use so many of them. I mill locations. go to American Stave Co., Marshall all kinds of neat extra stuff to the use them a lot for my trucks where They supply their own mills that County, Ky., to make stave logs for machines.” it’s muddy so you don’t have to produce 4x6 cants, grade lumber, whiskey barrels. The demand for Between both mechanics they’re worry about getting stuck. In the winand random lengths and widths that stave logs is a major reason white oak ters we stay close to the road anyway responsible for servicing 10 trucks, markets are thriving, leaving the fam- and mat the whole road.” 20 trailers, and all woods equipment are sold green to cabinet, flooring, furniture and stave markets while a ily wondering why there aren’t many as recommended by manufacturer. Tony spends his days on the login-state stave markets. Tony’s mechanics use a computer portion of the Hooper and Northging site, at the sawmill, or in his side Lumber product mix is dedicat“There’s barely any stave compato administer oil changes to their truck going to-and-fro. He says peoequipment. “If the dozer holds 10 ple in the area prefer both gallons, you hit a button and it autosawmilling and logging to eliminate matically puts 10 gallons exactly in the middle man. “A lot of mills are the tank,” Timmy says. “It’s pretty dependent on gatewood from other neat and saves a lot of waste and loggers, and loggers are hard to when they drain oil they process it come by so that’s why we have our and sell it back to refiners.” own,” he says. “We’re in a comfortWilson and Kelly also have the able niche.” ability to make certain parts, a plus The company’s insurance is with the increase of back orders and through Forestry Mutual. late deliveries due to supply chain Tony’s logging roster includes: disruptions related to COVID-19. David Pichard, foreman; Michael “If we need a part and can’t get Simmons, Kevin Elders, Eric Cartaour hands on it, we can simply build gena, skidder operators; Steve Hoopthe part,” Wilson says. “Most of the er, nephew and loader operator; Javtimes it’s simple parts, something we Together the sawmills produce an average of 250MBF a week. ier Servin, Soul Garcia, Sergio Garcan manufacture pretty quick, like cia, Placipo Rubio, saw hands. SLT
Chips and sawdust are hauled to Hood Container, New Johnsonville, Tenn.
The Hatchie River bottoms are ideal for quick hardwood growth.
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Spotlight On: Transportaion SLT invited manufacturers/dealers of forestry transportation products/services to submit information about their offerings.
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, transmission 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, balance 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 americantruckparts.com to search our inventory or call us with your truck part needs at 888-383-8884.
Big John Trailers Big John Trailers has 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, knuckleboom 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 10-ton tagalong 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 and continues to manufacture at its facility in Folkston, Ga. For more info, call 912-496-7469 or 1-800-771-4140 or email info@bigjohntrailers.com.
Carter Enterprises
SI and Vulcan scale parts in the United States. We try our best to keep everyone in the logging and trucking industry moving no matter where they are. Our employees are greatly experienced in tarping system installs and servicing them when needed. Carter Enterprises also has experienced employees in the welding and fabrication field and will always make sure the customer is satisfied with their work before they leave. We hope you are interested in the services we provide for not only our local customers but also new and distant customers. Thank you for your time and we hope to hear from you soon!
FMI Trailers Fryfogle Manufacturing Inc. was established in 2018 under the operation of Gordon Fryfogle as president and Larry Williamson as sales manager. Together, they have over 65 years experience in the forestry trailer market. Located in Lucedale, Miss., FMI carries a full line of new and used trailers as well as parts and is an authorized Vulcan and SI on-board scale dealer. Please visit FMITrialers.com for photos and standard specifications, or call Gordon at 601-508-3333 or Larry at 601-508-3334.
Kaufman Trailers Since 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: 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. 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. 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. Dump—Low profile dump trailers are available in bumper pull and gooseneck hitch options. Weight ratings range from 10,000 to 17,000 GVWR. 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. 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 kaufmantrailers.com for more.
Magnolia Trailers
Carter Enterprises, LLC specializes in truck and trailer on-board scale systems, roll over tarping systems, fabrication, and welding repair. We are an authorized Vulcan and SI on-board scale dealership. We are also an authorized Roll Rite automated covering system, Shur-Co tarping system, and Mountain Tarp tarping system dealer. We have expanded and now have two locations in Alabama: in Grove Hill, Ala. and Stanton, Ala. We have also developed an online store (carterscalesandtarps.com) for all our customers from across the United States to purchase any part they may need! We want online shopping to be easy for this industry. We also offer free shipping on all 20
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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 (601) 947-7990; toll free: 800-738- 2123; fax: (601) 947-4900; e-mail: info@magnoliatrailers.com or visit magnoliatrailers.com for more.
Maxi-Load Platform Scales Maximizing payloads is what we do. A Maxi-Load platform scale provides a time proven solution to controlling your truck weights and safely maximizing your payloads. Our scales are accurate, durable, and trouble-
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free. They come with a comprehensive 2-year warranty. We have 24 years of proven performance weighing log trucks. The first scale we built in 1996 is still weighing log trucks daily. Our scales are working on over 800 logging jobs throughout the southeastern United States. Mills only pay for what crosses their scale. Under-loaded trucks are a missed opportunity. A fully loaded truck would have paid more money. Overloaded trucks are a liability. If one has an accident you can be dealing with a serious issue. Tally your weekly load tickets. What tonnage did you get paid for? What could you have been paid for? The difference between being almost loaded and fully loaded: about $1,000 per week. A Maxi-Load platform scale can be installed on your job in two hours. From that point on you can safely maximize the payload on every truck serving your job, your trucks, and contract trucks. Financing is available. Delivery and installation are part of the sale. Contact your forestry equipment supplier or Maxi-Load at 1-877-265-1486 or on the web at Maxiload.com.
The four-pin auto-lock system allows a driver to easily ensure that both sides of the landing gear are securely engaged without circling or crawling under the trailer. It also helps secure the load and protect the trailer from unnecessary wear and tear. The pioneering Load Payin’ Series, introduced in 1994, is the number one selling logging trailer in North America. This line introduced a fully fabricated frame made of high-yield materials with a continuous submerged arc welding process, allowing customers to haul more wood and less steel, while maintaining the highest performance standards available in the industry. Pitts revolutionized loader carrier manufacturing with the development of Crawler Suspension, providing the smoothest, most stable transport available for safety both on- and off-road. The military-derived, patent pending design delivers double the ground clearance of traditional spring singlepoint suspension. And the rocking beam construction eliminates spring bounce effect, protecting the load from unnecessary impact and vibration. Family owned and operated since 1976, Pitts Trailers is the world’s largest and only complete-line forestry trailer manufacturer. Pitts offers a wide variety of truck trailers, including logging trailers, hydraulic elevating loader carrier trailers, open and closed top chip vans, moving floors vans, hydraulic removable neck lowboys, fixed neck lowboys, hydraulic folding tail lowboys and construction grade tagalong lowboys. “Pitts Trailers has made many contributions to the industry over the years,” says Pitts, “but what we’ve really done is take care of our customers.”
Pitts Trailers For decades, Pitts Trailers has pulled the industry forward with innovative designs and high quality products built for optimal performance. According to President and CEO Jeff Pitts, every innovation, every manufacturing advancement starts with a single person in mind—the customer. “The people who use our trailers go to work every day in one of the toughest, most demanding industries,” Pitts explains. “Our number one goal is to supply them with high performance trailers to make their work as efficient, convenient and safe as possible.” The most recent Pitts innovation, Lock ’N Go landing gear was introduced in 2018 to significantly enhance operator safety and convenience.
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What Does Love Mean?
Timeless Church Messages
(Answers from kids 4-8 years old) “When my grandmother got arthritis, she couldn’t bend over and paint her toenails anymore. So my grandfather does it for her all the time, even after arthritis affected his hands too. That’s love.” Rebecca, age 8 “When someone loves you, the way they say your name is different. You just know that your name is safe in their mouth.” Billy, age 4 “Love is when a girl puts on perfume and a boy puts on shaving cologne and they go out and smell each other.” Karl, age 5 “Love is when you go out to eat and give somebody most of your French fries without making them give you any of theirs.” Chrissy, age 6 “Love is what makes you smile when you’re tired.” Terri, age 4 “Love is when my mommy makes coffee for my daddy and she takes a sip before giving it to him to make sure the taste is OK.” Danny, age 8 “Love is what’s in the room with you at Christmas if you stop opening presents and just listen.” Bobby, age 7 “If you want to learn to love better, you should start with a friend who you hate.” Nikka, age 6 “Love is when you tell a guy you like his shirt, then he wears it every day.” Noelle, age 7 “Love is like a little old woman and a little old man who are still friends even after they know each other so well.” Tommy, age 6 “During my piano recital, I was on a stage and I was scared. I looked at all the people watching me and saw my daddy waving and smiling. He was the only one doing that. I wasn’t scared anymore.” Cindy, age 8 “My mommy loves me more than anybody. You don’t see anyone else kissing me to sleep at night.” Clare, age 6 “Love is when mommy gives daddy the best piece of chicken.” Elaine, age 5 “Love is when mommy sees daddy smelly and sweaty and still says he is more handsome than Robert Redford.” Chris, age 7 “Love is when your puppy licks your face even after you left him alone all day.” Mary Ann, age 4 “I know my older sister loves me because she gives me all her old clothes and has to go out and buy new ones.” Lauren, age 4 “When you love somebody, your eyelashes go up and down and little stars come out of you.” Karen, age 7 “Love is when mommy sees daddy on the toilet and she doesn’t think it’s gross.” Mark, age 6 “You really shouldn’t say ‘I love you’ unless you mean it. But if you mean it, you should say it a lot. People forget.” Jessica, age 8 A four-year-old child's next-door neighbor was an elderly man who had recently lost his wife. Upon seeing the man cry, the little boy went into the man’s yard, climbed onto his lap, and just sat there. When his mother asked what he had said to the neighbor, the little boy said, “Nothing, I just helped him cry.”
You May Be From Louisiana If... l The l You
crawdad mounds in your front yard have overtaken the grass. greet people with “Howzyamomma’an’dem?” and hear back “Dey
fine!” l Every so often, you have waterfront property. l When you refer to a geographical location as “way up North,” you are 24
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referring to places like Shreveport, Little Rock or Memphis. l Your burial plot is six feet over rather than six feet under. l You’ve ever had Community Coffee. l You can pronounce Tchoupitoulas, Thibideaux, Opelousas, Ponchartrain, Ouachita and Atchafalaya, but cannot spell the words. l You don’t worry when you see ships riding higher in the river than the top of your house. l You judge a po-boy sandwich by the number of napkins used. l The four seasons in your year are: crawfish, shrimp, crab and King Cake. l The smell of a crawfish boil turns you on more than HBO. l You “wrench” your hands in the sink with an onion bar to get the crawfish smell off. l You’re not afraid when someone wants to “ax you something.” l You don’t learn until high school that Mardi Gras is not a national holiday. l You don’t realize until high school what a “county” is. l You push little old ladies out of the way to catch Mardi Gras beads. l You believe that purple, green and gold look good together (and you will even eat things those colors) l Your last name isn’t pronounced the way it’s spelled. l You know what a nutria rat is but you still pick it to represent your baseball team. l You have spent a summer afternoon on Lake Pontchartrain seawall catching blue crabs. l You describe a color as “K&B Purple.” l You like your rice and politics dirty. l You worry about a deceased family member returning in spring floods. l You pronounce the largest city in the state as “Nawlins.”
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FROM THE BACKWOODS PEW
Blowouts My job causes me to drive a lot, and not all of it is on pavement. Actually, a fair amount of it is not even on dirt or gravel. Many days it seems to be on Antill wood. Back in the day, when they needed to go into the swamp to log, they did not have the high-tech logging equipment of today. Instead, they had mules. Problem in the swamp was that the water
level in places could exceed one’s vertical integrity, and mules can’t swim. But the mule could pull the logs, if the crew could keep his feet dry. What they needed was a path through the swamp, a means to allow the mule to pull the logs, and not get wet; and thus, the tram road came into existence. A tram road in the swamp is essentially a road created out of wood. The loggers wanted the mule to be dry, but they also realized that if they could get a flat wagon or some such cart behind the mule when he wasn’t paying attention, they could load the cart with logs and then persuade the
mule to haul the load out of the swamp. Thus, they began cutting logs and trees and laying them side by side across the swamp, forming a large wooden sidewalk passing through the swamp. They would often put dirt on the logs, creating better footing for the mule, for which he was grateful. But the logs were heavy and the cart’s wheels wouldn’t turn very well. As an answer to that problem, and to keep the mule happy, they decided to lay down small gauge rail, creating a very efficient railroad, crisscrossing the swamp. The carts now had wheels adopted to ride on the rails, and the mule was very happy. Later, the loggers created a smaller version of a steam engine, and backed it into the swamp on the tram road. They loaded the cars, and then steamed out of the swamp. It is an important point to remember that these old rails, put down upon the wood-based tram road, had to be secured so as to prevent derailing. To this end, they adopted the same practices used by the railroad: spikes. Time passed, and many of these tram roads, so well-constructed, became natural travel routes to get from one side of the swamp to another. Soon you had a road to be used by the new “horseless carriage,” and after many years, and more dirt, my truck. But what was never salvaged from the old tram road were the spikes. Those old spikes, refugees from a previous century, eventually break the road surface, and there they wait. At times you can spot them, so you stop and remove it from the road. Other times you don’t see it sticking up, and then it’s too late. Your once inflated tire now has a gaping hole,
and no air. You have a flat. We run into little reminders of our past at times, and like that old railroad spike, our past reaches out and cripples us. We are trucking down the tram of life, all is well, and then it is “blow-out city.” Our past has wrecked us. The feelings of failure and remorse overwhelm us, and what we once considered a dramatic victory has turned back into defeat. The prophet Zechariah dreamed about Joshua, a servant of God, who is covered in filthy garments (Zechariah 3: 3). The filth is the result of his failings, and he is being accused before God’s thrown. His life is one of sin, and the filthy garments stand as testimony to a life lived in pride. The accuser stands beside him as if claiming ownership, listing all the times Joshua has failed ripping holes in his character, slashing his hope. You can almost see the shoulders begin to sag. The weight of the dirty clothes seems to increase even as the accuser flips his pad and starts page two. But the Lord intervenes. With a rebuke to the accuser, he turns his attention to Joshua. Then He answered and spoke to those who stood before Him, saying, “Take away the filthy garments from him.” And to him He said, “See, I have removed your iniquity from you, and I will clothe you with rich robes.” Zechariah 3: 4 The Lord desires to remind us that he has paid the price for our sins. Our filthy garments do not have to cling to us. He has a new robe, rich and luxurious, awaiting us. Don’t let the spikes from the past deflate you, or worse yet, cause you to wreck along the path that God has placed you on. You have enough to worry about when walking that road, especially if Uncle Mordecai’s mule has been walking the road in front of you! I will greatly rejoice in the LORD, my soul shall be joyful in my God; for He has clothed me with the garments of salvation, He has covered me with the robe of righteousness, jewels. Isaiah 61:10 Excerpted from: Reflections on Rebellion and Redemption Brad Antill, author; find it at www.onatreeforestry.com Brad Antill has been a forester in the woods and swamps of the Southeast Coastal Plain for over 30 years. Besides being a forester, he is also an ordained minister of the Gospel, and together they combine as his two passions. He and his wife Cindy created On-A-Tree Forestry as a way of sharing his unique views of the gospel story. They share the fingerprints of God that are revealed every day in those same woods and swamps. Brad is a graduate of The Ohio State University forestry program, and a registered forester in North Carolina and West Virginia.
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INDUSTRY NEWS ROUNDUP Shannon Jarvis for a great job along As We See It: Serious Hints with Danny Dructor for steering the 2020...Who knew this is where we would be as a nation when the year started?? The American Loggers Council has had to adjust to the many distancing requirements, meeting rules and so Christopherson forth. There are some big
changes in the works at the ALC and COVID 19 is putting tank traps in our road but we will work around them. As the incoming President of the American Loggers Council, the first thing I’d like to do is to thank
ALC through this mess and keeping things working without any face to face meetings in 2020. Thank you to Shannon and Danny. I started working at Dabco Inc., the family’s logging business, when I was 15 1/2 years old, you know, before the Fair Labor Standards Act said we couldn’t do that (hint—help
us get the Future Careers in Logging Act passed in Congress). During summers and school breaks I could be found sweeping the shop, greasing the log trucks, busting tires (fixing flats) and helping the mechanics work on equipment. In 1985 my cousin Rick and I bought out our parents and logged until we downsized in 2018. Now I primarily focus on log hauling at a time when it is getting more difficult to find qualified drivers (hint—help us get the Safe Routes Act passed through Congress). The ALC continues to work on timber and timber related issues in Washington, DC, including the Logger Relief bill which is at the top of the list at this moment to try and financially assist those loggers impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic (hint—help us get the Logger Relief Act passed in Congress). This being an election year who knows where this bill will end up and the challenges our industry will face in 2021. GO VOTE!!! In 2021 the ALC will be looking at trying to replace Danny Dructor as our long-time Executive Director. The Executive Board has been working on the transition plan to make this transition as smooth as possible in the next year and I plan on continuing those efforts with the committee to make the transition as seamless as possible. As members, if you have any input on this subject, do not keep it a secret, let the Executive Committee know. Danny and Doris are ready to go fishing! Along with this transition, there have been a lot of other changes in my almost 50 years working in timber. Why just yesterday I fixed a log truck tire, greased said log truck and other maintenance items. In this industry you never stop learning new stuff...and you don’t forget the old stuff you learned 50 years ago! I have thrown a few hints at you as to what our agenda will look like in 2021 and look forward to serving you as your 27th President. I am honored to be representing you through the American Loggers Council. Loggers working for loggers, that’s who we are. Tim Christopherson is co-owner of Dabco, Inc. based out of Kamiah, Idaho and serves as the President of the American Loggers Council and President of the Associated Logging Contractors, Inc. in Idaho. For the past several years he has walked the halls of Congress in Washington, DC with members of the American Loggers Council advocating for issues that would benefit the logging and log trucking profession.
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ALC Virtually Holds Annual Meeting American Loggers Council (ALC) had planned to hold its 26th Annual Meeting this year on the last weekend of September, as per tradition, in the home state of the current/outgoing President—in this case, Missouri’s Shannon Jarvis. Those plans were shelved due to ongoing concerns about the coronavirus pandemic. Instead the ALC Executive Board conducted a virtual board meeting on Saturday morning, September 26. Attending the Zoom video conference call from phones and laptops at home offices were 50 members and supporters. The three-hour meeting included the election of officers and regional delegates to lead the organization during the 2020-2021 period. The Board of Directors elected Tim Christopherson, co-owner of Dabco, Inc. from Kamiah, Id., to serve as President; and Andy Irish, owner of Irish Family Logging from Peru, Me. to serve as the 1st Vice-President. Other officers elected included Mike Albrecht with Sierra Resource Management
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in Sonora, Cal. as 2nd Vice President and Josh McAllister with McManus Timber in Winnfield, La. as Secretary/Treasurer. Regional delegates elected include David Cupp with Walsh Timber out of
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Zwolle, La.; Chuck Ames with SDR Logging out of Sebec, Me.; and Bruce Zuber with Zuber & Sons Logging from Wetterburn, Ore. While officers and delegates usually serve a one-year term, given the
unusual circumstances of this year, status of logger relief funding, which the Board made an exception and ALC and its state and regional mempassed a motion for this group to ber organizations have been working serve two-year terms. This extended on since mid-May. The goal has been term allows the organization to make to assist those logging and log haulup for this year’s cancelled Branson ing businesses that have seen a drop meeting by holding its 28th Annual in revenue in 2020 as compared to Meeting there in 2022. As the 27th 2019 due to loss of markets that have Annual Meeting in Coeur d’Alene, been impacted by the COVID-19 Idaho has already been booked for pandemic. Mississippi’s Ken Martin fall 2021, rescheduling this year’s pointed out that it seems most of the cancelled meeting for two years commodities included in the relief from now helps prevent ALC from package to get USDA funding— incurring any potential financial Christmas tree farming, for instance penalties from the Branson Convention Center at which the event would have been held. Another aim of the two-year term was to make for a seamless transition over the next two years as ALC anticipates the arrival of a new Executive Direc- ALC executive board Zooms in on the immediate plans of tor in 2021. Danny the organization. Dructor, who has served as Executive Vice President of —are industries that are members of ALC since 2001, plans to retire next Farm Bureau. Forestry is part of year. Unsurprisingly, much of the dis- Farm Bureau in some areas, but not cussion at this year’s meeting surat the national level. Congress failed rounded plans for this transition and to pass a second relief package before for the selection of Dructor’s replace- recessing in August; with election ment. President Jarvis appointed year politics doubtless a factor, comcommittee members to serve on the pounded by the death of Supreme Executive Director Search ComCourt Justice Ruth Bader Ginsberg, it mittee and the Bylaws Committee to seems unlikely anything will happen review and make recommendations on this front yet. Still, ALC has conto the Board of Directors. tinued to actively engage its contacts A related topic of much discusamong the staffs of the White House, sion was strategic planning for Congress and USDA, and this has ALC’s future. Retired John Deere been successful in increasing awareman Tom Trone detailed plans to ness of logger issues. revise ALC’s purpose, mission, Incoming ALC President Christostrategic goals and priorities. pherson wrapped up the meeting by In other business, the Governmenexpressing his thanks to his predecestal Affairs Committee reported on the sor, Shannon Jarvis, for a job well
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done during his term and stated that he looks forward to leading the organization through the transition that will be taking place while continuing the ongoing work of the American Loggers Council.
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John Porter Price Dies At Age 80 John Porter Price, an inventor of the rotary drum debarker for debark-
ing treelength logs and who developed a highly successful business on the concept of starting up independent chip mills to supply contract chips to paper companies, died October 13 in Biloxi, Miss. He was 80.
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The second son of Olyn Stephens and Helen Morrison Price, Price was born in Monticello, Ark. His older brother Ben taught him the love of the outdoors and hunting, hobbies that subsequently led him
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to the timber industry, following in the footsteps of his father. Price, better known as John Porter, grew up working at his father’s transportable sawmill in the woods. After putting himself through college at Arkansas A&M by cutting pulpwood, Price served a stint in the Air National Guard before returning home to work for L. D. Long, first as a logger and subsequently to build a hardwood sawmill. Price later purchased the sawmill in 1965 and started his own
company at the age of 25 as J. P. Price Lumber Company. Price often commented that although he had a college degree in forestry, he learned more about the timber industry from watching and working for his father and L. D. Long, as well as working among the loggers deep in the woods of southeast Arkansas. By the late 1970s, in addition to producing lumber he had pieced together a chip mill and become a major chips supplier to the Interna-
tional Paper plant in Monticello. But as bark requirements became more severe, he realized conventional debarking wasn’t going to do the job. Then, as Price said, “Necessity got us into the drum debarker business.” In 1981 he started up a drum debarker built mostly with parts Price fabricated himself. The 9 ft. diameter by 60 ft. long debarker operated with hydraulic drive and was mounted on truck tires. The setup also enabled more efficient merchandising of the sawlog butts
off larger pulpwood logs. Always the entrepreneur, Price saw an opportunity to market the design, fabrication, erection and installation of chip mill equipment. He formed Price Industries, Inc. and sold his first drum debarker in 1983. By the late 1980s he had sold 30 drum debarkers and related chip mill machinery. “We’ve made improvements to every one of them,” Price said, pointing to modifications to the bark chute and infeed hopper and also building drums as large as 12x90 ft. Price’s visionary thinking did not stop there. He believed the paper companies would move from their own chipping operations to out-sourcing the wood yards and chips production, just as
Price formed Firehunt Duck Club in the 1960s.
the industry had shifted from company logging crews to contractors. Price formed The Price Companies, Inc. and in 1988 started up his first two chips mill operations: Coastal Chips in Fernandina Beach, Fla. as a supplier to ITT Rayonier, and Gloster Chips supplying James River in Gloster, Miss., the latter also where Price provided his first rotary log crane. The Price Companies ultimately became one of the largest chip producers in the world. In 2007, Price retired, handing over the reins to his right-hand man, Dick Carmical. Price created a culture in the company that still bears his name to always take care of the customer. Price went on his first duck hunt when he was 11 years old and never lost the love of seeing mallards land in the green timber. In the 1960s, he formed Firehunt Duck Club, which is well known today for its management programs for wildlife and for always leaving the land “better than you 36
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found it.” He had an incredible sense of humor. He was a prolific reader of books and a philosopher. Carmical says that Price during his retirement continued reading, hunting, fishing. “He loved to travel. He would drive cross country listening to audio books to explore some old cavalry trail or some old historical point of interest,” Carmical says. Carmical adds of Price, “Above all else he was a gentleman.” Those he mentored in his business life all say they are “standing on the shoulders of a giant.” Price is preceded in death by his parents, Olyn and Helen Price; his brother, Dr. Ben Olyn Price; and a granddaughter, Savannah Ashley Dearman. Survivors include his beloved wife, Kay Reed Price, of Monticello, Ark.; his daughter, Mary Ashley Price, Biloxi, Miss.; one granddaughter, Alexandra Nicole Dearman, Barcelona, Spain; two step-daughters, Lauren Ashley Gober, Columbia, Mo., and Kallie Michelle Gober, Nevada, Mo.; and a step-grandson, Oakley James Gober, Nevada, Mo. Memorials may be made to: Delta Waterfowl Foundation, 1412 Basin Ave.; Bismarck, ND 58504, 888-987-3795; or to: Children’s Hospital Foundation, Attn: Foundation Department, 1 Children’s Way, Little Rock, Ark. 72202.
sippi Development Authority; The Alliance of Corinth, including President Clayton Stanley; Alcorn County Board of Supervisors; city of Corinth and the Tennessee Valley Authority. TIR decided to locate the mill in Corinth due to the rail and road access it offers to growing population centers like Memphis, Nashville, Birmingham and the lower U.S. Midwest—all areas where lumber demand is high and is projected to increase in the future due to com-
mercial and population expansion. In addition, the area surrounding Corinth, which sits where the state lines of Tennessee, Alabama and Mississippi intersect, also is a prime timber-growing region that currently is underserved with sawmilling capacity despite the plentiful inventory of high-quality timber that is growing in its vast forestlands, which are generally owned by local families and large institutional investors, such as those TIR represents. TIR also was attracted to the
Corinth area because it has a skilled forest products workforce—one that includes well-trained and highly experienced mill workers and other forest products professionals like loggers, truckers and silvicultural contractors. “Agriculture is Mississippi’s top economic driver, and our abundance of forestland—nearly 20 million acres statewide—provides tremendous opportunities for economic growth and job creation in this vital sector,” comments Governor Tate
Timberland Firm Plans Sawmill In Corinth Mission Forest Products, a subsidiary of Timberland Investment Resources, LLC, plans to build a sawmill in Corinth, Miss., costing $160 million, creating 130 jobs at the mill and providing economic and employment opportunities for forest products firms and workers based in north Mississippi. Mission Forest Products, which expects to be operational by 2022, will be capable of producing 250MMBF annually. The state-ofthe-art pine sawmill will be financed through capital provided by investors that TIR represents. “Our objective is for this mill to become one of the lowest-cost and most reliable suppliers of highquality dimensional lumber products in North America,” says TIR Managing Director Christopher Mathis. “We intend to do this by capitalizing on three things—the abundance of high-quality timber in the area, Corinth’s proximity to the growing housing markets of the U.S. South and lower Midwest, and the low-cost, high-efficiency nature of the mill’s design.” Mathis says the project has received tremendous support from Governor Reeves and the MissisSouthern Loggin’ Times
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Reeves. “I am honored to welcome Mission Forest Products to our state and look forward to the economic ripple effect the opening of this state-of-the-art sawmill will have on the local economy of Alcorn County, and all of Mississippi.” “The decision by Timberland Investment Resources to locate a state-of-the-art sawmill in Corinth demonstrates to companies here and around the world that Mississippi has robust natural resources that allow for the growth and long-term success of companies in the agribusiness industry,” says MDA Interim Director John Rounsaville. “The addition of 130 new jobs in particular is paramount to rebuilding our state’s economy and communities during these challenging times.” Mississippi Development Authority is providing assistance for infrastructure improvements. The company also qualifies for the Advantage Jobs Rebate Program, which provides a rebate to eligible businesses that create new jobs exceeding the average annual wage of the state or county in which the company locates or expands. Alcorn County and the city of Corinth are providing grant funds and inkind assistance for infrastructure improvements. ARC and TVA also are providing grant assistance for the project.
Dadeville Pole Announces Facility Dadeville Pole Co. plans to construct a new $5 million facility to manufacture and distribute power poles at the William Thweatt Industrial Park in Tallapoosa County, Ala., according to the Lake Martin
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Area Economic Development Alliance. Dadeville will initially create 12 direct jobs to operate the mill and dry kilns, as well as sustaining and promoting numerous indirect jobs with local wood suppliers and loggers. With construction on the new building beginning in late September, the facility will be in full operation by the end of 2020. “You can tell that the economic development office surrounds themselves with a great team; they were able to pull all the players to the table, the county engineer’s office, the commissioners, Alabama Power, the city of Dadeville, no matter what our questions were, the EDA team was able to find an answer for us,” says Mark Byal, General Manager, Dadeville Pole. A subsidiary of Alabama-based Ziebach & Webb Timber Co., the company signed an agreement to acquire 23 acres in the Thweatt Industrial Park.
Enviva Reports On New Projects Enviva reports that civil work continues at the new wood pellet production plant project in Lucedale, Miss. and at the new deepwater marine terminal in Pascagoula, Miss. Enviva expects the construction of the Lucedale plant and the Pascagoula terminal to be completed during mid-year 2021. Enviva also reports it expects to make a final decision on developing a new wood pellet production plant in Epes, Ala. around the end of this year. The company continues to evaluate additional sites for wood pellet production plants in Alabama
and Mississippi, the production of which would be exported through the Pascagoula terminal.
CORE Carbon May Benefit Landowners Finite Carbon, a developer and supplier of forest carbon offsets, announced it will launch the first web-based global platform that enables small landowners to access the carbon offset market. The platform, known as CORE Carbon, will make it possible for millions of small landowners to generate new annual income through long-term commitments to good stewardship, helping to sustain the legacy of their land for future generations, according to Finite Carbon. When CORE Carbon launches in late 2020, landowners will be able to get a real-time value assessment of how much income their forestland could generate in the voluntary carbon market. If the landowner chooses to enroll their property, they will lock in multiyear payments for the resulting carbon offsets from buyers seeking to offset carbon emissions. There is no cost to landowners to use CORE Carbon. Visit finitecarbon.com.
Tragic Accident Claimed Sisk Jacob Clifton Sisk, 44, of Leon, Va. lost his life in a logging accident on Monday, September 21, 2020. Born on September 27, 1975 to Johnny Lee Sisk and Janet Marie Jenkins Sisk, Jacob was a deacon and member of Thoroughfare Bible
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Church. He loved God and his family. Jacob enjoyed cutting timber, hunting, and riding horses with family and friends. In addition to his parents, he is survived by his wife, Mandy Shairee Rankin Sisk; son, Daniel Emery Sisk; three daughters, Ashley Marie Sisk, Lindsey Elizabeth Sisk, and Emily Brooklyn Sisk; brother, Virgil Sisk and his wife Vickie; Mandy's parents, Fred and Belinda Rankin; brother-in-law, Marq Rankin and his wife Nicole, and several nieces and nephews. A funeral service was held on Saturday, September 26, one day before what would have been his 45th birthday, at Thoroughfare Bible Church, Leon, Va. with Pastor Neal Warner officiating.
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Minimizing Vandalism And Responding To Protests BACKGROUND: During the winter logging season in the Lake States Region, logging equipment was vandalized by protesters of a nearby project. The vandalism resulted in damage to logging equipment and caused significant downtime for the logging business owner. The day prior to the incident, an equipment operator for the logging business was confronted by protesters. The logging business has been in operation for nearly 25 years. VANDALISM AND PROTESTS: Often logging equipment is left in the field unsupervised and on occasion is subject to vandalism or theft. Measures can be taken to minimize the risk of vandalism and theft of logging operations, tools, and equipment. Vandal-
ism may also be associated with a protest. It is important that employees know how to respond when confronted by protesters. Your response to a protest should strive towards de-escalating the confrontation. MINIMIZE VANDALISM AND THEFT: ● Equipment, trailers, and buildings should have high-quality locks with case hardened chains that cannot be cut with normal chain cutters. ● Equip logging equipment with anti-theft devices such as hydraulic cylinder locks. ● Install secondary fuel switch to avoid hotwiring of equipment. ● Do not park equipment close together so a fire cannot spread between them.
Remove keys from the ignition of all equipment. ● Etch tools with your name or business. ● Contact authorities of suspicious activity. HOW TO RESPOND TO A PROTEST: ● Train employees on how to respond to a protest. ● If you suspect a protest on your ●
site, let authorities know. ● Do not engage in verbal confrontations, and do not physically engage the protestors. ● If you are personally confronted, remain calm and try not to raise your voice or escalate the situation. ● If you choose to record video or take photographs of the protestors, do not put yourself in harm’s way. ● If you cannot ignore the protesters, listen, be respectful, and give protesters a chance to air their view. ● Avoid a conversation with a protester, especially if media is present. ● If protests become violent, immediately contact authorities. Have a prepared statement, in the event the media contacts you after the protest. Supplied by Forest Resources Assn.
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A D L I N K ●
ADVERTISER American Logger’s Council American Truck Parts Around The World Salvage B & G Equipment Bandit Industries Big John Trailers BITCO Insurance Carter Enterprises Caterpillar Dealer Promotion Cleanfix North America John Deere Forestry Doosan Infracore North America Eastern Surplus Flint Equipment FMI Trailers Forest Chain Forest Pro Forestry First Forestry Mutual Insurance G & W Equipment G&R Manufactured Solutions Granger Equipment Hawkins & Rawlinson Interstate Tire Service John Smith Jr Logging K&R Weigh Systems Kaufman Trailers Komatsu Forestry Division Mike Ledkins Insurance Agency LMI-Tennessee Loadrite Southern Star Magnolia Trailers Maxi-Load Scale Systems Moore Logging Supply Olofsfors Peterson Pacific Pewag Chain Pitts Trailers Ponsse North America Puckett Machinery Quality Equipment & Parts Southern Insurance Southern Loggers Cooperative Stribling Equipment Tidewater Equipment Tigercat Industries Timberblade TraxPlus W & W Truck & Tractor Wallingford’s Waratah Forestry Attachments Waters International Trucks J M Wood Auction Yancey Brothers
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409.625.0206 888.383.8884 936.634.7210 601.656.7011 800.952.0178 800.771.4140 800.475.4477 205.217.1644 919.550.1201 855.738.3267 800.503.3373 877.745.7814 855.332.0500 229.888.1212 601.508.3333 800.288.0887 434.286.4157 803.708.0624 800.849.7788 800.284.9032 870.510.6580 318.548.5977 888.822.1173 864.947.9208 843.893.7156 800.910.2885 336.790.6800 888.285.7478 800.766.8349 800.467.0944 256.270.8775 800.738.2123 877.265.1486 888.754.5613 519.754.2190 800.269.6520 304.641.3132 800.321.8073 715.369.4833 601.969.6000 386.754.6186 601.932.4541 318.445.0750 855.781.9408 912.638.7726 519.753.2000 519.532.3283 601.635.5543 800.845.6648 800.323.3708 770.692.0380 601.693.4807 334.264.3265 800.282.1562
COMING EVENTS February 2021
July 2021
24-28—Appalachian Hardwood Manufacturers annual meeting, Ponte Vedra Inn & Club, Ponte Vedra, Fla. Call 336-885-8315; visit appalachianhardwood.org.
25-27—Appalachian Hardwood Manufacturers Summer Conference, The Greenbrier, White Sulphur Springs, WV. Call 336-885-8315; visit appalachianhardwood.org.
March 2021
August 2021
3-5—SLMA Spring Meeting, Hyatt Regency Savannah, Savannah, Ga. Call 504-443-4464; visit slma.org.
5-8—Virginia Loggers Assn. annual meeting, Hotel Roanoke, Roanoke, Va. Call 804-677-4290; visit valoggers.org.
24-26—Forestry Assn. of South Carolina annual meeting, Myrtle Beach Marriott at Grande Dunes, Myrtle Beach, SC. Call 803-7984170; visit scforestry.org.
April 2021 30-May 1—Mid-Atlantic LoggingBiomass-Landworks Expo, near Laurinburg, NC. Call 919-2719050; visit malblexpo.com.
May 2021 17-19—Forest Resources Assn. annual meeting, DoubleTree Nashville Downtown, Tenn. Call 202-296-3937; visit forest resources.org. 21-22—Expo Richmond 2021, Richmond Raceway Complex, Richmond, Va. Call 804-737-5625; visit exporichmond.com.
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11-13—Forest Products Machinery & Equipment Expo, Georgia World Congress Center, Atlanta, Ga. Call 504-443-4464; visit sfpaexpo.com. 13-14—Southwest Forest Products Expo, Hot Springs Convention Center, Hot Springs, Ark. Call 501-2242232; visit arkloggers.com. 24-26—Louisiana Forestry Assn. annual meeting, Golden Nugget Hotel & Casino Resort, Lake Charles, La. Call 318-443-2558; visit laforestry.com.
September 2021 9-11—Great Lakes Logging & Heavy Equipment Expo, UP State Fairgrounds, Escanaba, Mich. Call 715-282-5828; visit gltpa.org. 17-18—Mid-South Forestry Equipment Show, Starkville, Miss. Call 800-669-5613; visit midsouth forestry.org. 29-October 1, 2021—North Carolina Forestry Assn. annual meeting, Grandover Resort & Conference Center, Greensboro, NC. Call 800231-7723; visit ncforestry.org.
October 2021 7-8—American Loggers Council annual meeting, Coeur d’Alene, Idaho. Call 409-625-0206; visit amloggers.com.
March 2022 29-30—Wood Bioenergy Conference & Expo, Omni Hotel at CNN Center, Atlanta, Ga. Call 334-834-1170; visit bioenergyshow.com.
August 2022 23-26—IWF 2022, Georgia World Congress Center, Atlanta, Ga. Listings are submitted months in advance. Always verify dates and locations with contacts prior to making plans to attend.
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