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SOUTHERN STUMPIN’ By Patrick Dunning • Associate Editor • Ph. 334-834-1170 • Fax: 334-834-4525 • E-mail: patrick@hattonbrown.com
1 Month, 2 ALC Meetings J
ust two weeks after convening the American Loggers Council’s 27th Annual Meeting in Coeur d’Alene, Id., on October 7-9 (see coverage of that meeting on page 18; Southern Loggin’ Times and Timber Harvesting editors David Abbott and Dan Shell attended), ALC’s new Executive Director Scott Dane traveled to Prattville, Ala., just a few miles north of our publishing headquarters in Montgomery, to address the 2021 Annual Meeting of another ALC, the Alabama Loggers Council. SLT/TH editor Patrick Dunning attended this meeting. While the national organization formed in 1994, Alabama’s group was founded in 1992 to represent and give voice to the state’s roughly 1,500 timber harvesting and hauling professionals as part of the Alabama Forestry Assn. On October 23, Alabama Loggers Council Chairman Freddy Tidwell and Executive Director Joel Moon welcomed Dane and nearly 150 logging industry professionals from around the state to the Marriot Prattville Hotel and Conference Center. Much of the day’s discussion focused on methods of relieving transportation ailments in the Heart of Dixie. A panel of industry professionals discussed solutions to rising insurance premiums, truck driver shortages and frivolous lawsuits by integrating scales and in-cab camera systems. Vestige In-Cab Camera Systems national account manager, Derek Breedlove, discussed equipping fleets with up to eight HD cameras with audio, 4G LTE remote livestream and GPS tracking. “It gives the driver the ability to bring footage to the forefront in case something happens,” Breedlove explained. “All of it is relayed from cell towers to the portal so when you log in from any device, phone, tablet or computer, you’re going to see full GPS and video.” The Vestige application is an event-based system that automatically records hard brakes, turns and accelerations. Cameras are weatherproof, industrial grade and include night vision. Vestige is a Google Maps customer and all footage is time-stamped along with the speed. “If you want events to come to your cell phone every time an event happens, it can send you a link,” Breedlove continued. “We can set it up to automatically send reports. Geo-fence reports tell you how often you went to the mill that week to verify against tickets.” The group also recognized Lowe Brothers Logging, Inc. in Reform, as the 2021 Alabama Logger’s Council’s Distinguished Logger of the Year. Steve Lowe founded the company with his two brothers, Terry and Eddie Lowe, in 1992. Gee Allgood Jr., of McShan Lumber, for whom the Lowe brothers contract in Pickins County, presented the award. “They are farmers, timberland owners and loggers,” Allgood said. “They have a vested interest in 6
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the work that’s been done on the ground. It’s easy to acknowledge a group that’s so deserving. The work they do is professional in every manner. They demonstrate this in their community.” Steve thanked his employees, family and God for continued support over the years. “We’d like to give honor to God, for without him none of this would be possible.”
Great Dane Dane delivered the keynote address, focusing on the American Loggers Council’s long-term vision to improve trucking conditions in logging. “The transportation challenge isn’t exclusive to the timber industry but we are looking for a different caliber of trucker for the timber industry,” Dane said. “It’s not your typical inter- Scott Dane state travel between loading docks, so the skillset is even greater and more challenging to address in the timber industry.” He added, “Participating in the TEAM Safe Trucking program will improve safety aspects of our industry. We’re going to have to begin being competitive if we are going to get people to drive logging trucks instead of freight.” Dane’s 17-year tenure as Executive Director of the Associated Contract Loggers and Truckers of Minnesota equipped him well to help steer ALC where it needs to go to address the current and wide-spread driver shortage. “I’m not a logger, I’ve never been a logger. I’m not a truck driver, I’ve never been a truck driver,” Dane was quick to admit when he was tapped to take on the job in Minnesota. “They said, ‘Scott, we don’t need you to log; we already know how to do that. We need you to represent us, build our association and give us a voice.’” Dane recalled the moments leading up to his speech at the 2020 Republican National Convention where he wore a “Make Logging Great Again” hat. “I knew nobody was going to remember my name. Nobody would even remember what I said. What they’ll remember is someone from the logging industry, doesn’t matter who it was, and they’ll remember the hat. That opportunity was not because of who I am but because of who you are, the American logging and trucking industry.” Dane and the ALC worked with the Biden Administration and the U.S. Forest Service to develop the Pandemic Assistance for Timber Harvesters and Haulers (PATHH) program, which provides $200 million in financial relief to timber harvesting and hauling businesses that experienced losses during the pandemic. Dane says Alabama is the third highest recipient of PATHH assistance behind Mississippi and Maine. “It started a year ago with a commissioned
NOVEMBER 2021 l Southern Loggin’ Times
study to determine the impacts of Covid-19 on the timber industry,” he recalled. “As a result, Sen. Susan Collins of Maine worked closely with the Professional (Logging) Contractors of Maine. Sen. Tina Smith of Minnesota, at the request of the Associated Logger and Truckers of Minnesota, introduced the initial logger relief act that did not pass, but was the basis for the $200 million included in December. “In the six-month process of putting the PATHH program together, the FSA and U.S. Forest Service reached out to ALC and said, ‘We want your people to look at the program before we roll it out.’ We had a logger from Oregon, logger from Minnesota, trucker from Wisconsin and Maine all participating in the program. It’s because of that participation that they excluded PPP funding as part of the calculation of income, and excluded the sale of logging equipment as income.” Biden officials convened a virtual meeting with homebuilding stakeholders in July 2021 and ALC was the only logging organization invited to participate. ALC made it clear to those at the meeting that recently high lumber prices have not reflected the logger rates, later following up with members of Congress to explain the Canadian softwood situation. Canadian lumber products account for 1⁄4 of all lumber in the U.S., Dane says, though the U.S. has the ability to produce a significant portion of that lumber domestically. “Trains pass through northern Minnesota multiple times per day heading south with railcars loaded with Canadian lumber,” he says. “The trains return north empty and without U.S. lumber. ALC supports tariffs imposed on Canadian softwood production due to the unfair market advantage they receive as a result of subsidized stumpage.” Dane encouraged Alabama logging professionals in attendance to get involved and support the forest products sector by collaborating with others in the industry. “Loggers are considered to be the bottom of the food chain, but it is the logger and trucker that are the first link in the supply chain. Without SLT them, there is no forest products industry.”
Alabama Logger of 2021, Lowe Brothers Logging, from left: Stephen Posey, Terry Lowe, Steve Lowe, Eddie Lowe
