Industry News Roundup

INDUSTRY NEWS ROUNDUP

As We See It: Serious Hints Shannon Jarvis for a great job along with Dan ny Dructor for steering the ALC through this mess and keeping 2020...Who knew this is changes in the works at the things working without any face to where we would be as a na - ALC and COVID 19 is put- face meetings in 2020. Thank tion when the year started?? ting tank traps in our road but you to Shan non and Danny. The American Loggers Coun- we will work around them. I started working at Dabco Inc., cil has had to adjust to the As the incoming Presi- the family’s logging business, when many distancing require- dent of the American Log- I was 15 1/2 years old, you know, ments, meeting rules and so Christopherson gers Coun cil, the first thing be fore the Fair Labor Standards Act forth. There are some big I’d like to do is to thank said we couldn’t do that (hint—help

us get the Future Careers in Logging Act passed in Congress). During sum mers 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 cou sin 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 dri vers (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.

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

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

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

un usual circumstances of this year, status of logger relief funding, which the Board made an exception and ALC and its state and regional mempass ed 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 pan demic. Mississippi’s Ken Martin fall 2021, rescheduling this year’s pointed out that it seems most of the can celled 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 in stance penalties from the Bran son Convention Cen ter 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 an ticipates the arrival of a new Executive Direc- ALC executive board Zooms in on the immediate plans of tor in 2021. Dan ny the organization. Druc tor, who has serv ed as Executive Vice Pres ident 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 sur- at 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 ap point ed year politics doubtless a factor, comcommittee members to serve on the pounded by the death of Supreme Executive Director Search Com - Court 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 discus- among the staffs of the White House, sion was strategic planning for Congress and USDA, and this has ALC’s fu ture. 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 Governmen- expressing his thanks to his predecestal Affairs Committee reported on the sor, Shannon Jarvis, for a job well

done during his term and stated that he looks forward to leading the or gan ization through the transition that will be taking place while continuing the ongoing work of the American Loggers Council.

John Porter Price, an inventor of the rotary drum debarker for debarking 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 Oct ober 13 in Biloxi, Miss. He was 80.

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

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 al though he had a college degree in for estry, he learned more about the timber industry from watching and work ing 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 pro ducing lumber he had pieced to gether a chip mill and become a ma jor chips supplier to the International Paper plant in Monticello. But as bark requirements became more se vere, he realized conventional de barking 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 de barker built mostly with parts Price fabricated himself. The 9 ft. diameter by 60 ft. long debarker operated with hy draulic 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 im provements 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 com panies 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

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 be loved wife, Kay Reed Price, of Mon ticello, 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, Neva da, Mo.; and a step-grandson, Oakley James Go ber, Nevada, Mo.

Memorials may be made to: Delta Waterfowl Foundation, 1412 Basin Ave.; Bismarck, ND 58504, 888-987-3795; or to: Children’s Hospital Foun dation, Attn: Foundation Department, 1 Children’s Way, Little Rock, Ark. 72202.

Timberland Firm Plans Sawmill In Corinth

Mission Forest Products, a subsidiary of Timberland Investment Re sources, LLC, plans to build a saw mill in Corinth, Miss., costing $160 million, creating 130 jobs at the mill and providing economic and em ployment 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 fi nanced 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 in tend 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 re ceiv ed tremendous support from Governor Reeves and the Mississippi De velopment 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 ac cess it offers to growing population centers like Memphis, Nashville, Birm ingham and the lower U.S. Midwest—all areas where lumber de mand is high and is projected to in crease in the future due to commercial 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 ca pacity 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 ex perienced 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

Reeves. “I am honored to welcome Mission Forest Products to our state and look forward to the economic rip ple 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 In vestment 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 com panies in the agri business 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 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 Luce dale, Miss. and at the new deepwater marine terminal in Pasca goula, Miss. Enviva expects the construction of the Luce dale 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

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 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.