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Vol. 43, No. 11
(Founded in 1972—Our 506th Consecutive Issue)
F E AT U R E S
NOVEMBER 2014 A Hatton-Brown Publication
Phone: 334-834-1170 Fax: 334-834-4525 www.southernloggintimes.com
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Thomas Rivers Avoids Rat Race
B&M Wood Forester Turned Entrepreneur
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The Rivers family keeps rolling on in western Louisiana, with several members running their own logging businesses around Zwolle. Pictured from left are Henry Rivers and two of his uncles, Lindsey and Thomas. Story begins on PAGE 8. (David Abbott photo)
Eastern U.S. Kathy Sternenberg Tel: 251-928-4962 • Fax: 334-834-4525 219 Royal Lane Fairhope, AL 36532 E-mail: ksternenberg@bellsouth.net Midwest USA, Eastern Canada John Simmons Tel: 905-666-0258 • Fax: 905-666-0778 32 Foster Cres. Whitby, Ontario, Canada L1R 1W1 E-mail: jsimmons@idirect.com Western Canada, Western USA
D E PA RT M E N T S Southern Stumpin’. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6 Bulletin Board . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30 Industry News Roundup. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32 Safety Focus . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38 At The Margins. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42 Machines Supplies Technology . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44 IronWorks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47 Coming Events/Ad Index . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 54
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Southern Logginʼ 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 nonqualified 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—TOLLFREE 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 Logginʼ 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 Logginʼ Times. Hatton-Brown Publishers, Inc. reserves the right to reject any advertisement which it deems inappropriate. Copyright ® 2014. 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 Logginʼ Times, P.O. Box 5613, Montgomery, AL 36103-5613 Member Verified Audit Circulation
Other Hatton-Brown publications: ★ Timber Processing ★ Timber Harvesting ★ Panel World ★ Power Equipment Trade ★ Wood Bioenergy
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SOUTHERN STUMPIN’ By David Abbott • Managing Editor • Ph. 334-834-1170 • Fax: 334-834-4525 • E-mail: david@hattonbrown.com
More Fun Than Homework O
n my way back from a recent trip through Mississippi and Louisiana, I knew I would pass through Mobile. I have a good friend who lives outside Mobile, whom I haven’t seen, in person, in over four years. It would be a good opportunity to stop and have lunch with her. I texted her to ask if she’d have time to get together. “Normally I just do homework during lunch,” she answered—she’s working on her Ph.D. “But you’re more fun than homework.” I think I will start putting that on my business cards: “David Abbott—more fun than homework.” I suppose it’s kind of an endorsement… The trip in question started nine days earlier, when I left for the Mid-South show in Starkville, Miss. You can check out the pictures and videos we took on the Southern Loggin’ Times web site and Facebook pages, on my Facebook page, on YouTube, or in the Logger News Online email, if you’re subscribed. If you were at the show, there’s a good chance you or someone you know is in some of those pictures, or on the video. Also, speaking of the Mid-South show video we posted on YouTube, if you do watch it you’re sure to note that the host/interviewer is a devilishly handsome, talented, young-ish fellow sporting a really cutting edge hair style. I could very much see that guy having a really bright future for himself in broadcast television, covering football games preferably, if anyone from ESPN happens to be reading…
After Show And speaking of football, and Mississippi… since I was heading out to see loggers elsewhere in Mississippi and on into Louisiana on Monday, it didn’t make sense for me to head back to sweet home Alabama when the show ended Saturday afternoon, like most of my colleagues. Instead I spent the weekend right there at the La Quinta Inn in Starkville. Now, as I’m sure some of you are aware, Starkville is the home of one Mississippi State University. After I watched my Alabama Crimson Tide take on Florida, I joined a few Mississippi State students and fans to watch their Bulldogs take on this little school from Baton Rouge (where I would be heading a few days after). Since I had no dog in the fight, I was cheering for the local team. I thought they might have a narrow shot of getting lucky against Les Miles’ purple-and-gold crew. It’s Mississippi State versus LSU…everyone knows how that is supposed to go, right? It was a really fun game to watch with the local fans (apologies to my friends in Louisiana). I love to see that kind of thing in college football. Of course, I was a little less happy two weeks later when that other Mississippi school did something similar to my team. But even so, con6
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gratulations to the fans throughout the state for the success both schools have earned this year. I hope it continues… except on November 15…
Hospitality I left Starkville Monday morning to meet two loggers our SLT crew had met at the Mid-South show. First up was Joey Johns, who was using a processor head on a John Deere track carrier to merchandise wood at the stump. Johns was working just a little south of Starkville. The second, Derreck Beall, was a good bit further away—a little too far to get to by Monday afternoon. I had met some of Beall’s family under the Vermeer tent at Mid-South, so on Tuesday morning I went by the crew’s job to see their Vermeer in action. Tuesday afternoon I went to see Bob Wall and his family, based in Osyka, Miss.—right on the Louisiana line. They have multiple crews stretching across both states. Wall and his wife run the company together, with help from their two sonsin-law. After we finished the interview at their shop, the Walls invited me back to their house, a beautiful place just behind the company office/ shop complex. They introduced me to their daughters and grandchildren, and treated me to a delicious home-cooked meal and friendly conversation. Wednesday I headed west to see Andrew Tant’s logging crew in Georgetown, La. Again, a second consecutive night I was invited back to his family’s place for food and fellowship with Andrew’s parents, wife and baby. Once again, the food and the conversation were outstanding. Turns out the Tants and I share a mutual love of seeing older country musicians in live concert. I enjoyed comparing notes with them on our past experiences of George Jones, Willie Nelson, and Hank Williams, Jr. They’ve been to the Hank Williams museum in Montgomery a few times, and I was able to recommend a good local catfish restaurant the next time they come this way. I really enjoyed my time visiting each of these loggers, and I especially want to thank the Walls and the Tants for their hospitality. You can look forward to seeing their stories in coming issues of Southern Loggin’ Times and its companion periodical, Timber Harvesting.
A Lot Of Rivers Now I have that Oak Ridge Boys song stuck in my head… On Thursday I headed for Zwolle, La., not far from the Texas state line. It had been a few years since I had been to this small community near the Toledo Bend Reservoir and the Sabine River, but I remembered that it was famous for its hot tamales—Andrew Tant had reminded me of the
“Zwolle Tamales” the night before. When I arrived at the job site of Thomas Rivers, I thought he looked really familiar—so much so that I started to worry. I wondered, have I already done a story on this guy and forgotten it? As we talked, though, I realized what the connection was. I had in fact written a story on his older brother, Sam Rivers, Jr. It was the cover story of the August 2007 issue of SLT. The family resemblance was strong enough to jog my sometimes-slow memory. There are, and have been, several members of the Rivers family operating around Zwolle for decades. Our original plan for this issue was to devote it entirely to articles on different Rivers companies. That didn’t quite pan out—instead of four Rivers features, we have two. As it turns out, oldest brother Sam, Jr., on whom I wrote the story seven years ago, retired last year. His son, Henry Rivers, already had a company of his own, but took over Sam’s assets and added it to his own. His story is on page 8 this issue. Two of his uncles, Vernon and Lindsey, now work for Henry. Another uncle, Thomas—mentioned above—is featured on page 14. Still another, Wade Rivers, also runs a logging crew in the area. In all there are 13 Rivers children born to clan patriarch Sam Rivers, Sr. Of the 13 kids, Sam had seven sons: Sam, Jr., 68; Vernon, 66; Chris, 64; Lindsey, 58; Wade, 56; Stanley, 54; and Thomas, 48. Almost all of them are or have been in logging at one time; only Chris, an electrician, has avoided it entirely. Stanley has mostly been a truck driver, sometimes driving log trucks, and he also spent some time in Iraq as a contractor. All the other brothers have made their careers in the woods. All of them spent at least a few years working for their dad before he retired and passed the company on to Sam, Jr. in the late ’80s. When Sam, Jr. retired in 2013, Henry absorbed the original company. Lindsey came out of retirement and joined Vernon in working for their nephew. Thomas and Wade still run their crews separately, and Stanley still occasionally drives a log truck. In addition, Henry’s son Lance owns some equipment that he subcontracts to his dad—the start of a fourth generation of Rivers loggers. It also bears mentioning that the Rivers family has suffered more than its fair share of personal tragedy. Sam, Jr. lost three of his seven children. His son Jordan died as a baby in 1969; daughter Christine was killed in a car accident in 1988, during her senior year of high school; her sister Leslie was paralyzed and later killed in yet another car accident in 2004. Sam also lost a son-in-law in 2004. Along with three of his siblings, Henry lost a child of his own. His oldest son Jacob died at the age of 12 in 1998. Despite these losses, the Rivers SLT family keeps moving on.
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Big Rivers ■ Third-generation Henry Rivers carries on family tradition, but does it his own way.
With the expansion from one crew to six over the past two years, Henry Rivers has added four new skidders in that time.
By David Abbott ZWOLLE, La. ack in 2007, ★ Sam A. Rivers, Jr. said of his son, Henry: “He’s the gambler of the family. He’ll try anything.” More recently, in September of this year, Henry’s uncle Thomas called him “a hell of a businessman.” The owner of R&R Fuel Suppliers, Inc., Henry Rivers, 49, is an entrepreneur at heart. Still, although he grew up in a logging family, Henry didn’t immediately follow in the footsteps of his father, grandfather and uncles. After graduating from Zwolle High School in 1983, Henry went to work for Willamette Industries for 12 years, then started an auto and heavy duty truck parts store in 1995, which he continued to run until 2003. At the same time, Rivers and his then-part-
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ner Donald Remedies started R&R Fuel Suppliers in 1999. Rivers eventually bought Remedies out and phased out the fuel focus, but the name remained. Remedies was brother-in-law to Garrett Walsh at Walsh Timber Co., the Zwolle dealer with which Henry’s father contracted. R&R was originally set up to go behind logging and chipping jobs working for Walsh to grind up the residuals—originally with a Morbark tub grinder, later with a Bandit and then a Peterson-Pacific. They sent fuelwood to International Paper in Mansfield and Boise in DeRidder. It wasn’t until 2003 that Henry actually started logging. When the market for fuelwood dried up, he switched gears, getting out of the auto parts store and remaking R&R into a logging crew. It now does no chipping or grinding. “It was profitable, but I have no interest in mov-
Henry Rivers
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ing back into that now,” he says. Between 2013 and 2014, R&R grew from one crew to six. The expansion came partially in response to new opportunities and markets— Hancock Forest Management/Hancock Timber Resource Group (Shreveport) needed another crew, and he just added the sixth crew in late September for Boise. But the major impetus for growth was his father’s retirement in 2013. When Sam Rivers, Jr., decided it was time for him to hang up his hard hat, he didn’t want to leave all his men without jobs, so Henry partially absorbed the blow. He bought some of the equipment and kept many of the employees, splitting up what had been one large crew into several smaller crews. Rivers laughs about the sudden and rapid growth of his company. “I’ve had to buy a lot of new equipment in the last year,” he says simply.
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New Iron Rivers prefers to buy a mix of both used and new machinery, but with all the recent expansions, 75% of his current equipment registry was bought new in the last year. Of his six John Deere 648H skidders (one on each crew), two are 2014 models and two are 2013s; the other two are a 2012 and a 2011. In fact, he had just come from signing papers on a new 2014 skidder the morning Southern Loggin’ Times visited at the end of September, and earlier this year he added a new Prentice 2570 feller-buncher. The rest of his equipment lineup is filled out with Prentice 2670 cutters and Prentice 2384 loaders. He buys the Deere skidders from salesman Johnny Jones at Doggett Machinery in Shreveport, La., and his Prentice cutters and loaders from salesman Marty Hensley at Texas Timberjack in Lufkin, Tex. Incidentally, the equipment dealer now has a similar arrangement with Caterpillar that it had for years with John Deere after it bought Timberjack. This is why the new Cat cutters and loaders Rivers buys are still branded as Prentice machines. Not all of that equipment be-
Rivers and contract trucker Bo Ezernack have worked together since both got started in 1999; he also contracts Benny Remiedez, the brother of his original partner.
Rivers buys Prentice-branded Caterpillar cutters and loaders from Texas Timberjack in Lufkin.
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Henry’s uncle Lindsey Rivers subcontracts for his nephew, bringing his own Prentice 2384C to the crew.
longs to Henry, though. He subcontracts some of the in-woods work, along with trucking. One of his uncles, Lindsey Rivers, brings his own Prentice 2384 loader to the job; Henry’s son Lance owns two of the skidders and hires his own operators; and his main independent trucker, Bo Ezernack, contracts two of the cutters to R&R. Only on a rare occasion does Henry find it necessary to look to his dealers for service jobs. Instead he hires a local independent mechanic for most repair work, and R&R has a shop of its own. Routine service and maintenance falls to the operators on each crew, who are responsible for tracking hours on their machines. They change engine oil every 250 hours and hydraulic and transmission fluid and filters every 1,000 hours. Every fitting has to be greased at least three times weekly, and Henry provides air pumps to speed up the job. All the machines use Shell Rotella oil and Citgo high temp grease, purchased from the Many branch of Lott Oil Co. (based in Natchitoches). Lott Oil is also the supplier for R&R’s offroad diesel, stored in two 5,000 gallon tanks at the shop. R&R buys by the tanker load as needed. Each crew has its own Chevy service truck equipped with diesel tanks, using about 200 gallons a day. R&R buys Firestone tires from Despinos Tire Service in Mansfield, typically running 30.5x32 tires on skidders and cutters. When it’s wet, the crews switch to 44 wide tires in order to reduce rutting. 10
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Family Roots
The company averages 300 loads a week with six crews.
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It was Henry’s grandfather, Sam Arch Rivers, Sr., who started the family company that was Sam A. Rivers and Sons, LLC in 1974. For a while, five of the clan patriarch’s seven sons worked together on the crew with their father, including Henry’s dad, Sam Arch, Jr., who was the fourth of 13 children and the oldest boy. A sixth, Henry’s uncle Thomas, the youngest of the 13, also worked on the crew after some of his older brothers had moved on. When the elder Sam retired in 1987, the younger Sam took over, and ran it until his retirement last year. At one time, Henry’s older brothers, Clark and Sam Arch III (he goes by Archie), worked with their dad, but Henry went his own way, starting his own business. Rather than inheriting his grandfather’s company, Henry eventually added some of the assets of that company to his own. Archie, who ran the office for Sam, Jr., has also done the books for R&R since it started. Sam, Jr., had contracted under Walsh Timber since the early 1990s, as did Henry when he started R&R in 1999. He continued to work for Walsh until 2008, when he started buying his own timber independently, dealing directly with Hancock, Boise and others. Both Sam and Henry were already working on Hancock Timber land when Henry bought his dad’s crews, picking up his dad’s contract, and he has since added another crew for Hancock. ➤ 12
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10 ➤ Henry and his wife Carla have been married 29 years and have four sons: Lance, 27, Nolan, 21, and Elliot, 12. Their oldest son, Jacob, passed away in 1998; he was only 12 at the time.
Trucking “You always want more money from your delivery price,” the logger admits with a shrug, but he cites insurance—in particular workers’ comp and liability—and fuel as the biggest
thorns in his side. “You have to buy your fuel in bulk or join a co-op.” One of his other biggest concerns, he adds: trucking. “That’s why I try to pay contractors good, to keep my wood moving.” To that end, he has maintained what he praises as a strong working relationship with his main contract hauler, Bo Ezernack, since he started R&R 15 years ago— which was the same time Ezernack started trucking. “He is like me,” Henry says. “He started with one truck and added to it.” The contractor
now has 17 trucks, and 13 of them haul for R&R. Henry also hire ones other trucker: Benny Remedies, the brother of his original partner.
Labor “My main reason I think I do good is that I have good men,” Henry is quick to point out. “Without good crews I am nothing. It is hard to find good help. You have to take care of them the best you can with good wages, and try to treat them with
respect.” Each crew has a supervisor. “If they have any questions they call me, but they handle most of it on their own.” One of his uncles, Vernon Rivers, mans one crew for him, while another uncle, Lindsey Rivers, is a subcontractor running his own loader on a crew. “I always knew this was what I wanted to do,” Lindsey says. In his younger days he worked both for his dad and for his brother Vernon, and he later had his own thinning job with another brother, Dale, for many years. Lindsey sold his crew to younger brother Thomas in 1998 and retired. After a few years he came back to work in the summers only to help some of his brothers on their crews, and then took off again every fall for hunting. This past year, when he bought the new 2014 Prentice 2384C and made this subcontracting arrangement with Henry, was the first year that Lindsey worked during hunting season. “I decided to come back out full time when Henry offered me the opportunity,” Lindsey says. “I like working in the woods, and you can’t beat owning your own equipment. And Henry doesn’t have to worry about buying another loader or hiring an operator.” Henry cites the natural gas and oil boom in the area as the primary reasons why he’s started seeking out opportunities for such partnerships. “I try to subcontract as much as I can,” he says. “It is hard to compete with Haynesville Shale and the oil fields. Most of my employees are in their middle 50s and some in their 60s, because younger people are going to the oil rigs.” In all Henry employs 20, not counting the subcontractors. All six crews are set up as three-man jobs with nearly identical equipment, all six averaging around 50 loads weekly. Three crews work on Hancock Forest and one for Boise. Those four do mostly final harvests on pine plantations. The other two stay on private land. R&R sends pulpwood to International Paper in Mansfield, La., Boise Cascade in Florine, La., and Georgia Pacific in Pineland, Tex. Logs go to Martin Timber Co. (RoyOMartin—Martco) plywood mill in Chopin, La. Poles go to one of Kisatchie Treating’s four pole/ piling mills, this one in Noble, La. (Walsh Timber owns Kisatchie). Looking to the future, Henry says, “I am hoping to just keep these six crews working steady.” It hasn’t been a problem so far, though. “We have plenty to do.” He prefers the three-man crew setup. “If one of them isn’t doing his job right, it’s easy to tell where SLT your weak link is.” Contact Henry Rivers at Hlrivers24@gmail.com
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Secret To Life ■ Thomas Rivers maintains a balanced approach to work and life, just the way he likes it. By David Abbott ZWOLLE, La. homas Rivers, 48, the owner of ★ TZ, Inc., is a man clearly happy with his vocation. He is one of those blessed to have figured out just what he wants in life, and moreover, he’s living it. Coming from a big logging family wellestablished in the area, there was likely never much doubt as to which career path the youngest Rivers child would take. Once he was ready to strike out on his own, Thomas felt no compulsion to compete with anyone for the honor of working himself to the bone
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first. He’s more than comfortable with what he has. He compares his relatively more low-key operation with that of his nephew Henry, who oversees a six-crew company also based in Zwolle. “Henry is one hell of a businessman,” Thomas says. “He enjoys the rat race. I just wanted something smaller; I enjoy this.” Thomas’ three-man crew averages 50 loads while sticking with a five-day work week, from 7 a.m. to 5 p.m. “That’s what I like and what my crew likes,” he admits. “They know pretty much when they are going to get home every day. They come out here and get after it and they do their job while they are here. It works for them and it works for me, too.” This approach allows
him to pay the bills and leaves him the time go deer hunting with his son Joshua, 19, and to spend time with his daughter Rachel, 16, and his wife of 22 years, Pam (who also keeps up with the company’s books). “It’s fairly simple: I like it like this.”
Whole Hog Thomas is the youngest in a family of 13 children—seven boys and six girls, all still living. Their father, Sam Rivers, Sr., and six of the boys worked on Sam’s crew at various times, though never all of them together at the same time. After all, there’s a 20-year gap between Thomas and the oldest son, Sam
Rivers, Jr. “Some of my nephews are older than me,” Thomas notes. Thomas went to work for his dad upon graduating from high school in 1984. By that time older brother Vernon had broken off to start his own crew. His brother Lindsey went to work for him. That left Thomas working on his dad’s crew with Sam, Jr., Stanley, and Wade Rivers—Wade later left to join Vernon’s crew. Sam, Sr. retired in 1987, leaving Sam, Jr. to take over the operation that year. Thomas continued working for his oldest brother until 1991, when Lindsey and Wade left Vernon’s crew and struck out on their own to start a first thinning job. Thomas went to work for them. That lasted until 1998, when Lind-
Thomas Rivers and his crew keep up a manageable pace of 10 loads a day, five days a week. Working from 7-5, they send out a truck about once an hour.
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sey decided to retire and sold his equipment to Thomas. “That was when I had the whole hog,” he recalls of starting his first thinning job. He remembers the year because it was around the same time his daughter Rachel was born. Incidentally, while Thomas and Wade still run their separate crews, Sam, Jr. has since retired, leaving his son Henry to absorb much of the original family company into his existing enterprise, R&R Fuel Suppliers, Inc. (see related story on page 8). Vernon works for Henry, and Lindsey recently came out of retirement to work for their nephew as well. “Lindsey likes the rat race even less than I do, so he is very happy doing what he is doing,” Thomas believes.
Markets “Things are better than they’ve been in a long time right now,” Thomas asserts. TZ sends its logs to Weyerhaeuser in Zwolle and pulpwood to International Paper in Mansfield. Poles go to Kisatchie Treating, a Kisatchie Pole and Piling, LLC facility in Noble, La., owned by Walsh Timber. “We were hauling logs to Florine, but Walsh said Zwolle needed logs, and IP doesn’t have a very big chip pile. So things look good for loggers now. Demand is way up.” Since the crew had been on quotas just last year, Thomas credits the current wide-open production to a wet winter earlier this year, followed immediately by a wet summer. In late September the area hadn’t seen a heavy rain in about three weeks—its longest dry spell since the previous November, if his memory serves. With reduced supply due to the wet conditions, mills depleted their inventory. “I was lucky—we missed very little work this winter,” Thomas says. A lot of his local peers, he notes, were not so fortunate. “A lot of people were hurting because of the rain. As soon as it would start to dry up, it would come another flood.” Thomas keeps hearing rumors of a pellet mill or two opening within a 70-80 mile radius of his area, and says he would consider expanding into that arena if the market opens up.
Rivers says his cutter is just the right size to handle most any kind of tract Walsh Timber assigns to the crew.
Left to right: Thomas Rivers, Scott Costello, Charles Rougeau, Jr., Steven Sepulvado, John Veuleman
Tracts TZ, Inc. contracts primarily for Zwolle-based broker Walsh Timber. Thomas has worked under Walsh since he started the crew in 1998, as Sam, Jr. had done with the original crew for years before that. His forester at Walsh is Steve Taylor. As he is located around the Haynesville Shale, there is a lot of natural gas piping in the area, not to mention the many oil fields. This brings both pros and cons. Many
Randy Hall drives for contract hauler John Veuleman; note the truck’s memorial to Veuleman’s son Ryan, who also used to drive for Rivers before he was killed in a car accident.
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Size 34 Firestone tires, Rivers believes, are the best all-around fit for his skidder.
tracts benefit from permanent (and quality) oil field roads, but also require pallets to travel over a thick network of underground pipelines. That often requires a lot of extra moving around to keep the pallets in the requisite places. Walsh Timber makes the deals with the natural gas companies when it comes to thinning above their pipelines, but they often want to speak directly with Thomas to ensure everyone is on the same page in terms of where the crossings are located. The tract he was working when Southern Loggin’ Times visited the last week of September was technically a second thinning, but it had been more than 30 years since the first thinning. The crew had just completed a first thinning job on a different tract for the same landowner, he notes. The crew, Thomas says, is versatile enough to work anything from a first thinning to a final harvest, and anything in between, mostly in pine. “That’s what I like about my job,” he smiles. “I never know from tract to tract what Walsh is going to have me on. We do a variety. My crew is very flexible. The cutter is a 718, not too big, so it can handle whatever.”
Equipment
Veuleman has been trucking for Rivers for the last seven years.
Thomas fills in wherever needed on the crew, and he’s not above picking up a saw to trim a load.
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Rivers added a new John Deere skidder, a 648H, last year, and the year before he acquired a Tigercat 234 loader teamed with a CSI delimber and CTR groundsaw. He fells with a 2008 model Tigercat 718E cutter. He figures his equipment investment at around $700,000. Equipment dealers include Patrick Miller in Many for Tigercat and Doggett Machinery in Shreveport for John Deere. Thomas buys most of his spare parts from Doggett and Patrick Miller. He keeps only the basics on site, because he doesn’t have a shop for storage. Instead, he takes a Ford F350 service truck to the woods, equipped with an air compressor. “We do what we can do, and if we can’t handle it, we send it to the dealer,” he says. That includes replacing or repairing engines and hydrostats. On newer machines, he notes, the dealer’s service techs can replace a hydrostat in the woods. That F350 service truck is equipped with two 75 gallon tanks. “I bring 150 gallons of off road diesel in two separate tanks, because you can’t have over 100 gallons in a single tank,” he explains. He buys fuel from the Southern Loggers Cooperative depot in Zwolle. He gets oil from Lott Oil Co. in Many (the company’s main branch is in Natchitoches.) Each operator tracks his own machine’s hours and changes oil once a month or every 250 hours. They grease weekly. “We haven’t
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had to blow air filters out as much (this year) because it has not been too dusty, but we blow out as needed,” he says. “It’s as dusty right now as it’s been since summer 2013.” Thomas prefers size 34 tires on his skidder. “It is a good year-round tire—it has to be very wet before they won’t go—and it’s good for hills, it has good grips. I think it’s the best all-around tire you can get.” He generally buys Firestone, but for him brand is of secondary importance. “They are all about the
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same,” he believes. TZ, Inc., obtains workers’ comp through the Louisiana Loggers SelfInsured Fund, and looks to Wimberly Insurance in Winnfield, La., for all other insurance needs. A member of the Louisiana Loggers Assn., Thomas says he keeps up with his six hours of annual continuing education credits required to haul to all of his mill markets. Walsh Timber, he says, provides many opportunities to get those credits. He conducts tailgate safety meetings weekly and
crew members have CPR certification updated every two years.
Crew “I have a good crew that can do whatever is necessary,” the boss says of his men. That includes loader man Charles Rougeau, Jr., skidder driver Steven Sepulvado and cutter operator Scott Costello. Sepulvado has been on the crew the longest—seven years—while Costello came on board five years ago and Rougeau
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just joined the team in early September. “But I’m very satisfied with him,” the boss says. “A good loader man is hard to find. The biggest thing is knowing how to merchandize it right. You need somebody who knows what they’re doing to get logs for the mills, not send stuff that will get culled.” Thomas himself can fill in on any machine as needed, such as if someone needs a day off. “It’s simpler for me to use only contract trucks,” Thomas is convinced. “It’s a lot less headache.” Contract hauler John Veuleman has been working for Thomas for seven years. Veuleman himself drives one truck, and he employs two drivers—Ragan Veuleman, his son, and Randy Hall. Another son, Ryan, also hauled for Thomas, but was killed in a car accident a few years ago; today, Veuleman’s trucks memorialize Ryan. Thomas offers his men production bonuses and a week of paid vacation after the first year, but he says at this point insurance benefits are just too expensive for a smaller operation. The logger says the future looks bright right now, but that long-term, labor is the biggest concern, because younger people aren’t going to work in the woods. “The insurance guy comes out once a month, and he tells me that most injuries they see are from guys getting on and off machines,” Thomas says. “We are all getting older, and our knees and ankles can’t take jumping down from the cab.” One of the biggest reasons for the shortage of available young labor, he believes: loggers can’t compete with oil and natural gas companies, not in terms of price. “People around here log because they want to stay local,” he says. “Most of the younger boys work in oil fields, and a lot of them work offshore and on land rigs. Most younger boys go for that, not logging.” Thomas’ own son Joshua is a student in the engineering program at nearby Northwestern State University, and he intends to apply that in the oil fields. “That doesn’t mean he may not wind up here, because things are looking a lot better than they have, but this way he will have options,” Thomas says. “Logging looked pretty sketchy when he got out of high school, so I told him go to go to school and get his degree. Right now the money is in the oil fields, but that may not be in a few years.” Thomas is optimistic about his industry, but his lifetime of experience keeps the excitement cautiously in check. “Logging looks pretty good right now, but that can change SLT in a hurry. We’ve seen that.”
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Step By Step ■ Entrepreneurial forester James Stovall marks 40 years since he acquired B&M Wood Products.
The pole and post mill takes in six or so loads a day, all of it from the company logging crew.
By David Abbott MANOR, Ga. ames Stovall’s B&M Wood Products, Inc., is an operation built around a pole mill, with a log-
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ging crew to support it. Stovall, 66, didn’t start his career as a logger, though. He was working as a procurement forester for another company in 1974 when he stopped for a visit with the original owners of B&M. He was actually on his way to a different plant that he was interested
James Stovall
in buying, but he’d done some business with the B&M people before, and while he was passing through he wanted to say hello. “They said, you don’t have to go any further, you can buy this place. So I did.” Stovall borrowed some money against a piece of land that he
owned, and found himself the owner of a pole mill. Why the change? “I wanted to go into business for myself,” he explains. “I have always been an entrepreneur at heart, always had a little business going even in college, and I wanted something bigger and better.” With logging crew, mill workers, truck drivers, office staff and all, B&M now employs 18.
Logging
B&M’s owner once tried setting a processor up at the mill’s log yard, but decided it worked best in the woods.
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The logging component wasn’t originally part of the deal, and wouldn’t be for another 18 years. Stovall added the company crew in 1992 to supply the mill’s needs. Today it includes a John Deere 648H skidder, John Deere 643K cutter, John Deere 437 loader, and a Barko 495 with a Log Max 5000 processing head used to merchandise logs for the mill. “The Log Max does a really good job, and they give good support,” Stovall says. “If all goes right, the logs are ready to go in the mill when it arrives.” In the past, he experiment-
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Stovall uses a Ponsse forwarder on the mill yard to move products.
The logging crew sets up each landing with a Barko/Log Max combo situated by a John Deere loader.
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ed with a different processing head set up on the wood yard at the mill, but decided he preferred Log Max and the in-woods setup. All the machines are 2013 and 2014 models. Equipment dealers are Flint Equipment in Brunswick, Ga., and Knight Forestry in Thomasville, Ga. B&M has a shop on-site at the mill and mechanics on staff for maintenance and repairs on trucks and logging equipment. “We don’t rebuild motors anymore, we used to, but we can still do most everything else here,” Stovall asserts. “New equipment is so complicated you can’t do much of that.” All the John Deere machines feature JDLink. “That tells you when and what you need to know, and sends it to your computer and phone.” With three trucks—two Freightliners and an International—the logging crew generally hauls 14 loads a day total, about half of it to the B&M mill here and the other half elsewhere. Those six or seven pine loads daily represent 100% of the mill’s supply requirement; Stovall hires no outside contractors and buys from no other suppliers. Everything else goes to other mills: chip-n-saw to Varn Wood Products in Hoboken, some saw timber to Mulch Mfg. in Homerville and smaller diameter material to Georgia Biomass in Waycross. “We cut different sizes based on diameter and sales demand, typically a 21 ft., 3.5-5 in. diameter log, but sometimes 16 ft., 3-5 in.,” Stovall says. “Sometimes other lengths, too.” Stovall gets his insurance coverage through Yates Insurance & Real Estate, Inc. in Dublin, Ga. He orders materials through that company to conduct weekly tailgate safety meetings, and his crew leaders know to talk to the rest of the crew about any close calls as they happen. Buck Todd and Don Demark have both been on the logging job for more than 20 years, since they graduated from forestry school at
B&M sells treated and untreated poles to customers from Florida to Pennsylvania.
Okefenokee Technical College and Abraham Baldwin Agricultural College (ABAC), respectively. Denmark runs the disc saw and Todd operates the processing head. Glen Whittington operates the log loader and is the crew boss, Brad Smith drives the skidder.
Mill
The Log Max head, Stovall says, works really well for his needs.
All of Stovall’s logging equipment was bought new in 2013 and 2014.
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As for Stovall, he keeps himself busy at the mill proper. “It is a pretty simple operation,” he says. B&M produces small diameter fence posts and small barn poles—mostly 10-12 ft. but up to 20 ft. A Barko loader unloads trucks and feeds the log deck, where a shop-built cut-up saw system, adjustable to maximize yield and size, bucks each piece to the best length. The pole mill itself is a one-man operation, the owner says. Logs pass through a Valon Kone debark-
In all the crew hauls about 14 loads a day, sending about half of production to the pole mill.
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er, then through a WBGN scanner to measure length and diameter. “If it is running right, every post is graded correctly.” The operator then kicks each piece to an old Morbark peeler that has been heavily modified and upgraded over many years. Workers then bundle each group of posts/poles for storage. On the storage yard, Stovall has a Ponsse Buffalo S16 forwarder to transport product from one section to another. He also uses a Hood loader on the yard for moving and sorting. Pro-
duction sits on the yard to air dry, six weeks in the summer and three months in the winter.
Treating
At the mill yard, a New Holland moves mulch.
After air drying, each piece is pressure treated (150 psi) with either CCA or creosote, then stored in the back of the mill yard and brought forward as needed to ship for orders. Creosote, he says, is used on horse fencing because horses won’t crib on it (eat it), while cattle farmers, typically more cost-sensitive, tend to prefer less expensive CCA treated fence posts. “A creosote board fence is black and it looks good on green pasture, so we sell a lot of it to home owners,” he says. “It is more expensive but both will last a long time if treated right.” The chemicals, of course, bring with them environmental concerns. “EPA just gives us a fit,” Stovall shakes his head. “They give all wood treaters a fit.” B&M is required to measure rainfall, which can have small amounts of runoff from treated posts. If even a small amount of CCA shows up in a lab analysis, the plant has to formulate a plan for how to fix the problem. They are also under tight restrictions regarding disposal practices. All runoff has to be stored in a tightly sealed drum, labeled and properly documented. The EPA inspects the plant once a year, at least, and B&M is responsible for taking water samples and turning them in annually. “Last year everything looked good to them, but they found we weren’t disposing of neon bulbs the right way, so they tagged that,” Stovall remarks. “OSHA is just as bad. You can’t get ahead of them. They flagged me for having Gbolts hanging the wrong way. It’s a OSHA safety issue.” Stovall now has one employee on staff whose full-time job it is to keep up with proper documentation for the EPA and OSHA. “Just the cost of doing business,” he shrugs.
Markets Much of B&M’s pole and post production sells to horse ranchers and feed-and-seed dealers in Florida and to grape vineyards in Pennsylvania. Other customers include a variety of hardware stores and a few end users. He also sells some untreated wood to McArthur Lumber in McArthur, Oh. B&M’s business is tied in deeply with the cattle market, Stovall says. “Most everything we sell depends on that. From 2008 till this year it’s been awful. Cows got real cheap, coupled with the recession. But now it is at an all time high.” SLT
Contact James Stovall at bmwood@gate.net
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Strong Partnership ■ Mark Smith teams with his son-in-law to tackle hardwood in the hill country. By David Abbott AUGUSTA, W. Va. ourth genera★ tion logger Mark Smith, 50, owner of Mark W. Smith Logging, has been cutting hardwood in the hills of West Virginia for most of his adult life. He makes a comfortable living from it without a single employee. Instead, Smith partners with his son-in-law, Shawn Clower, 38. They are two independent contractors working together as a team. “He’s got his license and I have mine,” Smith says. He and Clower have had this arrangement for the last six years.
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Prior to that, Smith worked with his father, Wallace Smith, 75, now retired. “Workers’ comp in West Virginia is something like $46 on every $100; if I pay you $100, I have to send $46 to the state, and you just can’t afford it,” Smith explains. “So you try to find somebody who wants to go in business and work as a partner rather than hiring employees. It keeps a lot of the paperwork down.” Both men can run either machine, and both spend some time in the cutter and the skidder, as well as taking turns driving the truck. “Shawn mostly is the equipment operator, and I do most of the cutting,” Smith says. “I will skid my
wood in, he will bring the rest of his wood in, and that finishes the truck.” They generally haul two loads a day. “We make a good team,” Smith says, and his son-in-law agrees. “We click, but we do things to make it click,” Clower says. “We watch each other’s backs, and see things the other can’t. If we have two different opinions, we put them both out on the table and talk it over.” Clower is married to Smith’s daughter Brandi. Smith and his wife Sandi also have a son, Cody, 10, and another daughter, Elizabeth. In all they have five grandchildren— three from Elizabeth and her husband, Aaron Whitacre; and two
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from Clower and Brandi, as well as one step-grandchild from Clower’s previous marriage.
Markets NewPage procurement forester Bill Craig has worked with Smith for 25 years. “I don’t have to tell them what to do,” Craig says. “I just keep them in wood and they get it done.” Smith says he and Craig have a good working relationship. “He’s the best forester we’ve had. He gives us the quota and we fill it up.” Smith and Clower work primarily on New Page tracts, sending between 250-300 tons of pulpwood a week to that company’s paper mill
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Smith and Clower by themselves harvest and haul mostly hardwood pulpwood in the West Virginia hills, aiming for two loads a day.
Smith keeps chains on his tires rain or shine to better manage the steep inclines.
in Luke, Md. “When I started it was Westvaco, then it was MeadWestvaco, now it’s NewPage,” Smith says. “Three companies but the same location—and now they are selling out again (to Verso Paper Corp.).” Logs go to a small sawmill owned by Galen Shingleton of Shingleton’s Timber and Trucking in Augusta, W. Va. The duo primarily performs clearcut jobs, always in natural growth timber and mostly in steep terrain. It’s mostly hardwood, with only the occasional pine thicket, and the clear-cuts yield about 80% pulpwood. For a good chunk of this year they’ve been on a 360-acre farm that is being cleared for deer plots. “It’s poor quality stuff,” Smith says of the timber, although what was left didn’t look so bad on the day Southern Loggin’ Times visited in early August. “We’ve already sorted and picked through the rough and knotty stuff.” Average DBH at this job is around 18 in.
Equipment None of the equipment on the job is very new, but to look at most of it you might think it had just come off the dealer’s lot. Everything is kept
Shawn Clower, left, and Mark Smith, right
meticulously clean and maintained. “It’s old stuff, but it’s been taken care of,” Smith notes. The cutter has 10,000 hours on it, but the only thing wrong with it is that the door squeaks. Smith and Clower keep up with maintenance, changing oil every 250 hours. They’re able to handle most any repair job themselves at the shop on the family farm. If they have major problems with the truck—a Ford tri-axle with a pup trailer—then they take it to Truck Enterprises, Inc., in Keyser, W. Va. As far as keeping the machines in good shape, Smith believes it doesn’t hurt that only two people ever operate any of it—he and Clower. In addition, it typically isn’t run too
hard. “When we have farm work to do, we may only work in the woods five hours,” Smith says. Even when they aren’t busy on the family farm, he says, the machines aren’t run heavily for more than 8-10 hours a day. “To load two loads of wood a day doesn’t take too long.” The lineup includes a 2004 John Deere 648G-III grapple skidder, a 1999 Deere 643G cutting machine with 22 in. shear head, and a 2003 Prentice 280 loader mounted on a Ford L8000 truck and paired with a 2002 CSI 18 ft. reversible table saw. In bad terrain, Smith cuts more with a Stihl 461 chain saw than with the shear. He also has a spare 1999 Deere 640G cable skidder he still uses as needed to drag wood out of
spots where the grapple can’t reach. The loader came from what was at the time Pioneer Machinery in Daly, W. Va., while Smith bought the John Deere pieces from Nortrax. “Everything is paid off, so our overhead is low,” Smith says. The occasional cost of maintenance and parts, he adds, is not as much as making equipment payments every month. “We’ll need a new set of skidder tires before winter,” he points out. “That’s about $15,200, and they last two years.” Still, nothing is as cheap as it used to be, he reminisces. “When I started in 1981, you could buy the best skidder tires for $800. Now it’s $3,800 each for the same size.” The partners run chains on the tires
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Forester Bill Craig, left, has worked with Smith for 25 years. Smith’s father, Wallace Smith, right, now retired, still sometimes drives the Ford log truck when needed.
year-round, not only when it’s wet. “We have a lot of rocky, steep hills, and the chains help the skidder dig it out of the way and keep going.” Tires price isn’t the only expense that has ballooned in the last 33 years. “Fuel has gone from $1 to $4,” he points out. “We started with gasoline trucks in the ’80s, before we switched to diesel. You could buy gas for 99 cents, diesel was $1.19. That 20 cents difference adds up.” Typically, the partners work close enough to the mills that they can keep on-road fuel consumption somewhat under control. “It’s further home than it is to the mill,” Smith says. “It’s 32 miles home and 17 miles to the mill.” They only have to fuel up the truck a couple of times a week, but refuel equipment every day. They keep 1,000 gallons of offroad fuel in a tank at the shop. Fuel supplier Southern States Cooperative near Moorefield, W. Va. delivers to the shop. Smith’s daughter, and Clowers’ wife, Brandi, has been an assistant manager for Southern States at its store in Romney for the last seven years. “ We keep it in the family,” Smith smiles.
Smith himself considered other trades throughout high school—he thought seriously about becoming a diesel mechanic. Like his dad, his logging career started as a side job for extra money, cutting firewood while he was still in school. “I’ve done more tree cutting than anything I’ve done in my life,” he says. “I’ve been cutting in these hills for 34 years.” After graduating, he bought an old truck with a selfloader and gradually expanded. “People started calling wanting their ground cleared, so I had to get the equipment to handle the trees,” he recalls. “So I moved on up till I
got where we are today.” Smith was involved early on with Charleston-based West Virginia Forestry Assn., but now just goes to meetings for the recertification classes every three years in Burlington. “You have to get the loggers’ certification to get your license so you can cut wood in West Virginia,” he explains. Classes focus on three areas: best management practices, power saw safety and first aid. The logger has been getting most of his insurance with State Farm, but that company wouldn’t cover the truck-mounted loader, so he turned to Progressive. “Flo took my
Background Smith’s dad, Wallace, used to run the skidder with his son before Clowers joined the team. He still drives the log truck part-time. Wallace’s father was a store merchant, not a logger, but his uncle and grandfather were. Wallace became the family’s third generation after graduating high school in 1957, when he bought a truck and started hauling 5 ft. short pulpwood—at first just two or three loads a week for extra income. 28
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Smith uses the Deere cutter where he can, but often has to rely on a Stihl chain saw.
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truck, no problems,” he jokes, referencing Progressive’s TV ad mascot. As for the future of the local market, he reports an improved and steady business. “We’re not getting rich at it but we’re making a living,” he grins. “Our forester takes care of us and keeps us busy. He will tip us off ahead of time if they will be slow or have scheduled maintenance. Everything has been dead, the economy has been down across the board, but logging has been decent. And Shingleton says it’s better now SLT than it’s been in five years.”
Email Mark Smith at sandi@hillsidefarm.us
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The Coat Hanger A pastor was at church when she received a phone call that her daughter was very sick with a fever. She left church and stopped by the pharmacy to get some medication. She got back to her car and found that she had locked her keys in the car. She didn’t know what to do, so she called home and told the baby sitter what had happened. The baby sitter told her that the fever was getting worse. She said, “You might find a coat hanger and use that to open the door.” The pastor looked around and found an old rusty coat hanger that had been left on the ground, possibly by someone else who at some time had locked their keys in their car. She looked at the hanger and said, “I don’t know how to use this.” She bowed her head and asked God to send her help. Within five minutes a beatup old motorcycle pulled up, driven by a dirty, greasy man. The pastor thought, “This is what you sent to help me?” But, she was desperate, so she was also very thankful. The man got off of his bike and asked if he could help. She said, “Yes, my daughter is very sick. I stopped to get her some medication and I locked my keys in my car. I must get home to her. Please, can you use this hanger to unlock my car?” He said, “Sure.” He walked over to the car, and in less than a minute the car was open. She hugged the man and through her tears she said, “Thank you so much! You are a very nice man.” The man replied, “Lady, I am not a nice man. I just got out of prison today. I was in prison for car theft and have only been out for a few hours.” The pastor hugged the man again and with sobbing tears cried out loud, “Oh, thank you God! You even sent me a professional!”
A Concerned Husband A very cranky woman was arrested for shoplifting at a grocery store. She gave everyone a hard time, from the store manager to the security guard to the arresting officer who took her away, complaining and criticizing throughout the process. Her husband accompanied her when she appeared before the judge, who asked what she had stolen from the store. The lady defiantly replied, “Just a stupid can of peaches.” The judge then asked why she had done it. She replied, “I was hungry and forgot to bring any cash to the store.” The judge asked how many peaches were in the can. She replied, “Nine, but what do you care about that?” The judge patiently said, “Well, ma’am, because I’m going to give you nine days in jail, one day for each peach.” As the judge was about to drop his 30
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Giant Sequoia Masterpiece The giant sequoia is the world’s most massive tree and arguably the largest living organism on the planet. It grows naturally only in a narrow 60mile band of mixed conifer forest on the western slopes of the Sierra Nevada mountain range in California. One of many giant sequoia trees located in the Giant Sequoia National Monument is ‘The President,’ namesake for Warren G. Harding. It towers 241 feet, has a circumference of 93 feet and a diameter of almost 30 feet. Its bole volume is 45,148 cubic feet. The tree had never been photographed in its entirety until a team of scientists and National Geographic photographers did it, using pulleys and ropes. They took thousands of images, selected 126 of those and stitched them together to show the tree in all its glory.
You Gotta Love The U.S. Navy
gavel, the lady’s husband raised his hand and asked if he might speak. The judge said, “Yes, what do you have to add?” The husband said, “Your Honor, she also stole a can of peas.”
The Wine Taster At a wine merchant, the regular taster died and the director started looking for a new one to hire. A drunkard, ragged and dirty, came in to apply for the position. The director of the winery wondered how to send him away. He gave him a sample of wine, hoping he’d leave without making a scene. The drunk tried it and said: “It’s a Muscat, three years old, grown on a north slope, matured in steel containers. Low grade, but acceptable.” “That’s correct,” said the astonished merchant. He was offered another sample. “It’s a cabernet, eight years old, a southwestern slope, oak barrels, matured at 8 degrees. Requires three more years for finest results.” “Correct.” A third taste was offered. “It’s a pinot blanc champagne, high grade and exclusive,” said the drunk calmly. The merchant was flabbergasted. He winked at his secretary, secretly suggesting something. She left the room and came back with an ounce of urine. The alcoholic tried it. “It’s a blonde, 26years-old, three months pregnant—and if I don’t get the job, I’ll name the father.”
The Ears Have It Three friends decided to go deer hunting together. One was a lawyer, one a doctor, and the other a preacher. Locked and loaded, they were about to head for their designated stands when a big buck unexpectedly emerged from the brush, well within range. The three of them shot simultaneously. The buck dropped to the ground and all three rushed up to see how big it actually was. Upon examining the deer they found only one bullet hole. Thus a debate followed concerning whose buck it was. A few minutes later a game officer came by and asked what the problem was. The doctor told him their reason for the debate. The officer told them he would take a look and offer his opinion. Within a few seconds he said with much confidence, “The preacher shot the buck!” They all wondered how he knew that so quickly, and the officer explained: “Easy. The bullet went in one ear and out the other.”
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INDUSTRY NEWS ROUNDUP As We See It—20 Years And Counting
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By Myles Anderson
wenty years ago cell phones were sold as bags and could only make calls, the U.S. Forest Service harvested almost 5 billion board feet and the Anderson American Loggers Council was formed by 40 upset loggers in St. Louis, Mo. While much has changed over the years, the willingness of many loggers to represent the thousands across the country has not waivered and continues to build the American Loggers Council into a great organization. The 20th annual meeting of the ALC in Michigan’s UP has come and gone. A special presentation was made to all former ALC presidents and each said their piece about the formation and the path of the ALC. Mike Crouse from Logger’s World spoke very descriptively of the first meeting, and the trials and tribulations that went into forming the ALC. There was much to reflect on with the 20-year history, and clearly some of
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the issues that brought loggers together then are still bringing them together today. The ALC has accomplished much and I hope that we can continue that growth moving forward, building strength and increasing our umbrella as “the National Voice for Professional Loggers.” We must all continue working to make the timber harvesting portion of our industry a profession. There are many in our industry who are happy to sit by and let others do this work for them, but I believe through the growth and understanding of ALC that this will change. I hope that as more harvesting professionals come to understand what the ALC is about their participation will increase. Our strength is in a common message supported by large numbers, and we must continue to build alliances with other national organizations. The ability to be active at the national level is in each of our own hands as professional loggers. The ALC has, through great leadership, become a strong organization with many doors opening to it; however, it needs the support of all fiber producing states
to be as strong as possible. There was a panel at this year’s meeting that featured three loggers, one from Florida, one from Michigan, and one from California. The questions revolved around what the loggers thought were opportunities and what were threats to their ability to successfully operate a logging business. The threats occupied much of the discussion and were focused on regulations, the work force and markets. While the geographic location of the loggers was different, the threats were very similar. While we all have regional issues, there are many issues facing loggers on a national level. This national stage is where the ALC can help, so long as we are united. Moving forward, the ALC has many issues that are being worked on and many more that we hope to be working on soon. The ALC continues to be requested for testimony by various committees in Washington DC, as issues arise that will impact fiber production in this country. The ALC is knee-deep in legislation, meetings, conference calls and everything else as we fight off the constant barrage of issues coming out of Washington. This work is
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vitally important to our industry, but cannot be done without the financial assistance of the ALC’s great sponsors. Please go to our web site, americanloggers.org, to see who our sponsors are. Please thank them when you have the opportunity. If you are a logger in a state with a logging association, I ask that you join it. If you are already a member of your state or regional logging association, thank you. If your state does not have an association, then join the American Loggers Council as an individual logger member and stand with us. I look forward to working with all the great leaders in this industry who are currently involved with the ALC and hopefully some new ones in the coming year as we continue to build our strength as professional timber harvesters. Please stand with us and be heard. If our industry is to prosper, we must increase our activism. Anderson is president of the American Loggers Council and he and his father Mike own and operate Anderson Logging, Inc. based out of Fort Bragg, Calif. The ALC is a non-profit 501(c) (6) corporation representing professional timber harvesters in 30 states. For more information, visit americanloggers.org or phone 409-625-0206.
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American Loggers Council Celebrates 20 Years
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spirit of celebration permeated the American Loggers Council’s annual meeting, its 20th, September 25-27 at Harris, Mich., a few miles outside Escanaba. About 200 from across the country participated. “I am proud that we were able to return to Michigan on our 20th anniversary and celebrate not only the past 20 years of the organization but also the direction in which we are headed,” said ALC outgoing president Brian Nelson. “We’re excited about the progress that has been made and look forward to extending those efforts as we head into 2015. We are confident that we are headed in the right direction as the national hub for logger information exchange, linking local, state and regional organizations around the country.” In giving his report during the business session, ALC Legislative Committee Chair Jim Geisinger commented: “Over the past 20 years the progress the organization has made is amazing. Where there was once no unified voice for loggers in Washington, DC, today Washington is calling us. Just this year members of the American Loggers Council have been called several times to testify on the issues and legislation that have the potential to impact their operations, as well as have two of our issues, the Endangered Species Act and Truck Weights (Right To Haul Act) introduced as bills in both the House and Senate.” Geisinger went on the state that “having this many state Representatives and Senators, as well as U.S. Congressman Dan Benishek attend this meeting, is a
testament to the progress that we are making.” During the closing president’s dinner on Saturday night, several ALC past presidents, including the first, Michigan’s Earl St. John, joined the group’s first executive vice president, Cheryl Russell, in the celebration. All were recognized for the work they did to keep the organization moving forward. Earlier that evening, Corbett Caudill, president of Caudill Chipping, Inc., Dundas, Oh., received the Timber Harvesting Logging Business of the Year Award from DK Knight of Hatton-Brown Publishers. Caudill, 71, has logged for more than 50 years and remains the active coach of a dedicated chipping-roundwood team that includes his son, Cory. At its Saturday awards luncheon where ALC recognizes its sponsors, the group presented a new award, the National Logger Activist Award. The recipient was Mike Albrecht, owner of Sierra Resource Management, Jamestown, Calif. Albrecht has been a passionate industry advocate for many years. Brian Nelson presented the President’s Award to two logging association leaders for their work on ALC’s behalf: Jim Geisinger, Associated Oregon Loggers, and Keith Olson, Montana Logging Assn. In a meeting format change this year, ALC moved its traditional logging tour ahead by one day and made it optional, gave Friday over to technical sessions and streamlined its business meeting on Saturday. Technical sessions included presentations on running a success-
ful business, identifying issues that impact and opportunities related to timber harvesting businesses; telematics programs now offered by certain machinery manufacturers to increase efficiencies and help increase uptime; Tier 4 engine issues and natural gas applications in trucking; and the fire suppression efforts of Timber Equipment Applications Management (TEAM). New ALC officers for 2014-15 include Myles Anderson, California, president; Richard Schwab, Florida, first vice president; Ken Martin, Mississippi, second vice president; and Mark Turner, Oregon, secretary-treasurer. ALC’s 2015 annual meeting will be September 24-26 in Eureka, Calif.
Enviva Is Acquiring NW Florida Pellet Plant Enviva, which recently announced it is building two additional pellet plants in North Carolina, is purchasing the Green Circle Bio Energy pellet operation in Cottondale, Fla. from JCE. The acquisition is expected to close by the first quarter of 2015. The Green Circle facility has a production capacity of approximately 650,000 metric tons per year. The plant benefits from an abundant supply of locally procured raw material, principally pine, and exports its product from the Port of Panama City, Fla. Enviva currently owns and operates five pellet plants located
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throughout the Southeast and exports its product through terminals in Chesapeake, Va. and Mobile, Ala. Like Enviva, Green Circle supplies wood pellets under long-term contracts to major European power generators that replace coal with biomass in order to improve the environmental profile of energy generation. Additionally, Green Circle supplies the European market for pellets to heat homes and commercial buildings and to produce process heat at industrial sites.
NC Logger’s Group Has New Name, Logo The North Carolina Association of Professional Loggers has a new name and logo: Carolina Logger’s Association (CLA).
CAROLINA
LOGGER’S
ASSOCIATION
“The new name and logo reflect the association’s fresh start,” says Jack Swanner, who assumed leadership of the group on August 1. “Carolina Logger’s Association is clearer and more concise and is easier to say. From a branding standpoint, it’s easier to work with as far
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Mid-South’s Top Three Brett Sammon, left, Caterpillar Forest Products territory manager, shares a happy moment with the top finishers in the Caterpillar Loader Championship at the Mid-South Forestry Equipment Show on September 20. Trophy holders are, from left, third place winner Jason Cooper, Arcadia, Fla.; first place winner Lathan Padgett, Saluda, SC; and second place winner Jonathan Cutshall, Iuka, Miss.
as a logo goes,” he says. Founded in 2006, the loggers group promotes professionalism and business opportunities for loggers and the forest products industry as a whole. It is affiliated with the American Loggers Council, which recently celebrated its 20th anniversary. For more information, contact Swanner at 828-421-8444; jswanner@ncloggers.com.
Mississippi Company Acquired By Canfor Southern Lumber Company, Inc. announced the sale of substantially all of its assets to New South Companies, Inc., a subsidiary of Canadian Forest Products, Ltd. (Canfor), of British Columbia, Can. The sale includes the 90MMSF capacity pine sawmill in Hermanville,
Miss. and the headquarters office building in Ridgeland, Miss. The sale, which is scheduled to close at the end of the first quarter, 2015, was for $48.7 million, according to a report from Canfor. Southern Lumber was established in 1983 by Bill Dearman, Sr. and Floyd Sulser, Sr. The company manufactures predominately long, wide lumber. “While we weren’t looking to sell,” says Floyd Sulser, Jr., Chairman of Southern Lumber, “this global opportunity arose, and we believe Canfor is an ideal partner. We have many core values in common with Canfor, including a deep commitment to our employees, customers and communities, and we are pleased to see the business my father, and his friend, Bill Dearman, started in 1983 continue as part of this world-class company.”
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Don Kayne, president and CEO of Canfor, comments, “The Southern Lumber sawmill is a top quartile margin business located in an excellent fiber supply area that will provide us with additional higher value opportunities for our global markets. This, together with an excellent management team, will continue to ensure Canfor’s ongoing commitment to our customers.” Canfor purchased Georgia’s Beadles Lumber and Balfour Lumber this summer and Scotch-Gulf Lumber’s three sawmills in Alabama last year.
Burch Inducted Into Texas Forestry Hall/Fame Chalk up another honor for Texas logger Tommy Burch, who recently was inducted into the Texas Forestry Hall of Fame (TFHF)—the
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first logger in the state to be so honored. The TFHF honors both living and deceased persons for their “substantial and lasting contributions to forestry and forest conservation.” The elite group currently consists of only 31 members. Burch, 70, of Brookeland, logged for more than 40 years before backing away from the family business, B&W Logging Contractors, a few years ago. He was the first (and Tommy Burch still only) logger to serve as president of the Texas Forestry Assn. Burch sought to better unify loggers, give them a voice, promote their cause, and enhance public perception of the industry. These convictions drove him to help found the Texas Logging Council, which he chaired originally in the early ’90s. The council helped bring about a “fully mechanized” workers’ compensation insurance rate for Texas loggers. Along with others, Burch helped TLC raise thousands of dollars for the Lufkin State School to build custom wheelchairs for handicapped children. At the national level, Burch was among a small group of loggers that helped give life to the American Loggers Council in 1994. A political activist and highly respected leader, Burch was named Texas Logger of the Year in 1992. In 2002 Timber Harvesting magazine selected his company as its Logging Business of the Year. As a TFHF member, Burch joins the ranks of the state’s elite forest industry figures, among them W.T. Carter, Glenn Chancellor, Joe Denman, W. Goodrich Jones, David Kenley, John Kirby, Ernest, Joseph and Melvin Kurth, Robert Maxwell, Thomas and Arthur Temple, Clyde Thompson, Brady Wadsworth, and Jim Webster.
Communications Tools Upgraded By WSRI The Wood Supply Research Institute (WRSI) has updated and expanded its communications tool kit, which now includes a quarterly electronic newsletter, Facebook page, briefings with forestry and logging association leaders and forest industry trade press editors, and a tag line: “improving wood supply operations through research.” “These new tools will help us explain to foresters and loggers who we are, what we do, and how WSRI research findings can impact their bottom line wood production or wood consumption costs. I encourage all foresters and loggers to check out the Facebook page and
click on the “like” and “follow” buttons so they can keep abreast of the latest developments,” says Danny Norman, WSRI chairman. Those who want to receive the enewsletter should contact WSRI Executive Director Jim Fendig: fendig@bellsouth.net.
West Virginia Association Picks Humphreys Logging For the second time in its 12 year existence, B.T. Humphreys Logging, Lewisburg, has been named the West Virginia Logger of the Year by the West Virginia Forestry Assn. Owner Bryan Humphreys leads the crew, which produces up to six loads a day from Plum Creek timberlands. Humphreys’ teammates are Doug Flack, Stoney and Darin Ramsey, Colin Lovelace, and Jimmie and D.J. Dowdy. Humphreys serves on the West Virginia Dept. of Forestry’s Best Management Practices Compliance Appeals Board.
Terex Environmental Hosts NA Dealer Event Terex Environmental Equipment, Farwell, Mich., hosted a Dealer Training Event and Conference during September for its North American dealers. The theme of the event was “Get Your Hands Dirty.” The full range of nine arborist chippers was demonstrated, including the new TAC 720 with gasoline engine. In addition, the TSL 220 with forestry mulch attachment and the TSL 210 were shown. Terex launched its new stump grinder line as well. The second day was spent at the Dealer Conference where Martin Dummigan, business line director, shared the Terex Environmental Equipment business results and strategy. Information was also shared from the TEE engineering, technical and customer support & marketing teams. “We have had such a rapid expansion in the dealer network that it was a great event for new and existing distributors to be trained on our arborist chippers, compact track loaders and our new stump grinder line. These new products performed well and we believe we have a competitive stump grinder to take to market from both a price and performance perspective,” Dummigan said.
FRA, ALC Promote Careers In Logging American Loggers Council and Forest Resources Assn. are working on a project to help men and women considering a career in logging to understand what logging work is like
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and to link them with the connections they need to find employment. A four-color brochure, Is Working As A Logger For You?, describes basic qualifications for logging employment, characterizes several logging configurations, and presents statements from employers about what to expect from employment in logging. It also provides a link to a page on ALC’s web site, www.ameri canloggers.org/careers, which provides state association contacts who can connect motivated individuals to
employers and training opportunities. “The need for motivated and trainable entry-level woods workers is a big part of our concern about future logging capacity,” states FRA President Deb Hawkinson. “Our intent is not just to guide new entrants into logging work but to help them realize if it is a career wellsuited to them.” “One of the major issues facing the timber harvesting industry today is finding enough motivated, careeroriented workers to fill the jobs that
are opening up in the logging woods,” states Danny Dructor, ALC Executive Vice President. “We have been working with members of Congress to address the anticipated worker shortage by focusing on succession with family members, but this brochure can help to educate others who are interested in a logging career.” ALC and FRA are seeking contacts with organizations in a position to distribute the brochure to potential logging workers, including ag educa-
tion programs, career fair contacts, veterans organizations, community booster organizations, appropriate retail outlets, and others. Anyone with a distribution contact to recommend should contact FRA’s Neil Ward at nward@forestresources. org, 202-296-3937, who will then arrange a shipment of the brochures. Brochures are available in multiples of 50 to distributors at no charge. The brochure may also be downloaded as a high-resolution PDF at www.americanloggers.org/ 2014_LoggerBrochure_v3final.pdf.
Timbervest Increases Forestland Holdings Timbervest LLC, an Atlantabased company that manages timber-related assets and investments, has acquired 20,000 acres of timberland through two acquisitions for its Timbervest Partners investment fund. The recently purchased properties include 6,700 acres in Jasper, Ala. and 14,000 acres on the Virginia coastal plain. Founded in 1995, Timbervest currently manages more than 600,000 acres of timberland, timber-related assets and other real estate investments with a market value of more than $1.2 billion.
Dorsey Trailer Names Bane As Vice President Dorsey Trailer recently promoted Bradley Bane to vice president. Bane is responsible for sales team leadership and general management responsibilities. Bane holds a Bachelor of Science in Business from Troy University. He came to Dorsey shortly after graduation and worked his way up to sales manager, a position he has held for the past three years.
Pettibone Promotes Jenkins To President The Pettibone, LLC-Heavy Equipment Group announced Scot Jenkins as its new president. Jenkins joined the company in May 2014 and served as vice president of international sales until his appointment to president. He brings with him more than 22 years of experience in heavy equipment and has held a broad range of general management, sales and marketing roles for manufactures and dealers worldwide. One of Pettibone LLC’s operating companies is Barko Hydraulics, which manufactures equipment for the forestry, scrap handling and vegetation control markets. 36
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Log Smashes Into Truck’s Unprotected Back Window BACKGROUND: On a hot, dry, dusty late spring day in the Appalachians, a tractor-trailer full of saw logs was being unloaded at the local log yard. The yard was flat and concreted. PERSONAL CHARACTERISTICS: The 47-year-old tractortrailer operator had driven trucks for 23 years in the forest industry. He was considered fully trained, was known for paying attention to details, and had no previous injuries while driving. UNSAFE ACT & CONDITION: In the past, the driver always made sure he was out of the
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tractor while the front-end loader unloaded the saw logs from the trailer. Because of the windy, dusty conditions this day, the truck driver decided to stay in the cab of the truck and eat a portion of his lunch during the unloading process. The top, middle bar of the headache rack on his log trailer was missing.
driver’s seat, forcing the seat and the driver forward. The driver of the truck was pinned against the steering wheel.
ACCIDENT: When the log yard employee on the front-end loader raised one bunk of logs to clear the seven-foot log trailer bolsters, a tulip poplar log shot out of its bark and went through the void spot in the trailer headache rack. The log smashed into the back window of the tractor and pushed against the
RECOMMENDATIONS FOR CORRECTION: Never unload a trailer while the driver is still in the tractor. Woodyards should adopt and enforce safe unloading policies that address driver protection, visibility to or communication with the unloading machine operator, required personal
INJURY: The truck driver initially found it hard to speak. He was removed from the tractor and driven to the hospital. After some tests and observations were performed, he was released to go back to work.
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protective equipment, and other procedures as outlined in the following brochure: http://loggingsafety.com/sites/loggingsafety.com/files /media/07a3web.pdf Tulip poplar sawlogs have a tendency to slip out of their bark in late spring to early summer. The loader operator should have started unloading with more pressure on the clam (grapple) while unloading this bunk of logs. If the operator notices some shifting of logs, he/she should immediately lower the bunk of logs back into the bolsters and then re-grip. Loader operators should never swing the loader grapple over the truck cab. All headache racks must be kept in serviceable condition. Supplied by Forest Resources Assn.
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Utillity Four-Wheeler Rolls Over, Injuring Driver
face additional surgical procedures.
BACKGROUND: On a spring day in the Southeast, a woods worker was operating a side-by- side utility fourwheeler delivering trees to a planting crew. Conditions were wet following a recent spring rain shower. The crew was using the utility vehicle to save walking time from a staging area to the planting site.
RECOMMENDATIONS FOR CORRECTION: Operators of any off-road vehicle should review the operators’ manual and use the appropriate personal protective equipment (seat belts and safety helmets). All operators should take an ATV safety course. When hauling loads, care must be taken to ensure that they are properly secured and do not exceed the load capacity of the machine.
PERSONAL CHARACTERISTICS: The woods worker was approximately 55 years old and was
considered an experienced operator. He had operated four-wheelers on his own land for many years but had never taken an ATV safety course. He was not wearing a seatbelt. UNSAFE ACT AND CONDITION: The worker was returning to the planting area when he became distracted by the shifting of the load on the back of the side-by-side. The ground conditions were wet and slippery.
ACCIDENT: The four- wheeler slipped into a ditch and rolled onto its side. The woods worker was thrown out of the cab. INJURY: Both his arms were broken when they got caught under the roll bar. It took several minutes to get the woods worker out from under the side-by-side. He was then transported to the hospital where he underwent several hours of surgery. He was expected to be off work for several months and to
Supplied by Forest Resources Assn.
Make A Statement! As Americans, our heritage is important to us, but for most Southerners, it’s a treasure. You have to be born and raised South of the MasonDixon line to know just what it means to have Southern heritage. While we’re all proud to be Americans, Southerners feel God went the extra step for them. Show your Southern pride with these highly visible 3-1/2 in. x 12 in. bumper stickers from the publisher of Southern Loggin’ Times. Only $5 each, including postage and handling. All stickers shipped unfolded. Order on-line: www.southernloggintimes.com; by phone (800-669-5613); or mail (Bumper Sticker, Hatton-Brown, P.O. Box 2268, Montgomery, AL 36102-2268). Make checks payable to Hatton-Brown Publishers. Name __________________________________________________________ Address ________________________________________________________ City ___________________________________________________________ State_________________________ Zip ______________________________ Phone__________________________________________________________ E-mail _________________________________________________________
Please send me _______ bumper stickers. I enclose $__________ total. 40
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AT THE MARGINS Tips To Keep The Mechanic Idle By Chris Rowan, Product Support Training Manager, Cat dealer Thompson Machinery
Y
our forestry equipment is what you rely on every day to produce. Yet forestry is one of the toughest applications for a machine. Extreme temperatures, long running hours, rough underfoot conditions and dust combine to increase the likelihood of a breakdown, which costs time and money. I recently interviewed one of our top mechanics to learn what he
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thought customers could do to improve machine uptime. After talking with him for an hour I realized that it boiled down to preventive maintenance. Good maintenance habits will prolong machine life, reduce the frequency and severity of repairs and maximize uptime. Poor maintenance habits can lead to catastrophic failures, resulting in downtime, lost revenue and major repair bills. Here are some key tips to make sure your machine stays productive: Keep radiator and coolers clean. During the summer months in the South, logging jobs get dusty. Add the slight amount of dew that forms on machines in the early mornings and you have a recipe for a plugged radiator or coolers. Plug a radiator with dust, and engine, hydraulic and transmission temperatures will peg out in no time. Modern electronically controlled machines will sense coolant and oil temperatures and derate the engine to reduce the chance for catastrophic failure. However, derating reduces production. It’s a good idea to clean out your radiator and coolers with air pressure, not water. Dust can cake up on a wet cooler that has been sprayed with a water hose.
Don’t prefill fuel filters. Many people are used to prefilling a new fuel filter with diesel fuel to reduce the amount of time it takes to prime the fuel system. Bad idea. Modern diesel engines have extremely tight tolerances to get the fuel economy and emissions required today. In prefilling fuel filters you are much more likely to see premature wear and failure in your injectors and other fuel system components than if you are careful to keep contaminants out of the system. Pay attention to warning lights. Manufacturers have put more electronics on machines to help operators and owners avoid problems, but warning lights and buzzers can’t help if you don’t pay attention to them. Many faults have a progressive warning system, which may include a light, then a light and an alarm sound, and finally derating the engine or even machine shutdown. However, manufacturers have to put operator overrides into the system in case the failure happens while the machine is in a dangerous position. If you choose to override the warning you could be risking a catastrophic failure. One of our customers had an engine warning light occur just before his operator had completed his work for the day. He decided to keep going and finish the job. It turned out a bottom radiator hose had failed and drained the radi-
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ator. Those few minutes of extra production cost this customer a complete new engine. Perform preventive maintenance at recommended intervals. Waiting for the machine to tell you that your fuel filter is restricted before you change it is a bad idea. So is extending maintenance intervals without the validation provided by regular fluid sampling reports. It won’t show up right away, but running dirty filters and overused oil will cause cumulative damage that will increase the frequency and severity of repairs. Hydraulic cycle times can slow as much as 10% before the operator will notice the difference because it happens gradually. That means an hour of lost production a day for a machine that operates 10 hours a day. At current fuel prices, you could wind up spending $500 to $1000 a week in wasted fuel due to slowed cycle times—all as a result of running dirty oil due to extended change intervals. Use good-quality filters. Sometimes you can spend dollars to save pennies. A cheap filter that fails and allows dirty air, oil or fuel to contaminate expensive components can be one of these situations. Using good quality filters might cost a bit more, but they save much more in repairs later on. Again, this is something that won’t show up right away, but it will SLT cause wear over time.
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MACHINES-SUPPLIES-TECHNOLOGY Redesigned Chipper Building on the success of the redesigned 40/36 whole tree drum chipper, Morbark now offers the smaller, transport-friendly 30/36 model. “The improvements we’ve made to the 30/36 drum chipper are focused on the moderate-sized contractor,” says John Foote, Morbark VP of Sales and Marketing. “We’ve made it easier to feed, easier to maneuver in-woods with a truck or a skidder, and more productive while increasing the consistency of the end product.” The redesigned model includes an aggressive,
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sloped live floor and large top (30" diameter) and bottom (14" diameter) feedwheels to ensure positive feed of brushy tops and limbs. Super
Single tires and a reduction in the 30/36’s overall width to 8'4" make the model easier to transport. Two key options are an operator-friendly, slide-in forestry grate system to reduce oversized chips for more consistent, higher-quality chips, and a mechanically driven chip accelerator to fully load trucks with chips. Additional features include an externally adjustable anvil for longer life and easier maintenance and increased horsepower options for greater pro1281 duction. Visit morbark.com.
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MACHINES-SUPPLIES-TECHNOLOGY Trommel Screen
Vermeer offers a trommel screen that features an innovative design allowing for an optional third product conveyor for optimal productivity. The TR620 is able to handle the majority of screening needs for compost, mulch, aggregate and topsoil producers, but in a compact design for sites with limited space. The standard TR620 is equipped to separate material into two sizes based on screens selected. The optional front fines conveyor permits the creation of three products from incoming material without the need for another processing step or additional machine. The front fines conveyor can be mounted on either side of the trommel screen for additional jobsite flexibility. As with the other Vermeer trommel screens, the TR620 features the Vermeer ACS control system. The TR620 can be controlled through either the Vermeer DP10 display, which is mounted on the machine’s control panel, or with a handheld transceiver remote. This allows the operator to have complete control of the trommel whether standing nearby or operating from a loader.
Four user-defined program buttons enable operators to easily return to previously used settings when screening multiple material types. The remote also gives the flexibility to make immediate adjustments when incoming material type or volume changes.Operators can also adjust the conveyor height from the remote if necessary to help reduce blowing material. The TR620 features a 120 HP Cummins Tier 4 Interim (Stage IIIB) engine. Visit vermeer.com. 3435
Harvesting Head Komatsu America Corp. offers the new high capacity C144 harvesting head, the second model in its new C-series family of “carry-style” heads (the C93 was the first). Weighing 3,086 lbs., the high performance C144 has a recommended DBH working range of 8" to 20" and has a 28" maximum cutting diameter. It is available installed on Komatsu
931.1 and 941.1 harvesters, and can be installed on other carriers as a loose head. The C144 features a new robust frame design for improved durability and reliability, and a new swing damping system for more responsive head control. The 40º rearward tilt angle provides fast feeding performance and reduces head frame stress when harvesting and/or reaching on downhill slopes. The feed system is completely new, utilizing four hydraulic motors and four driven rollers. The standard single belly roller is now supplemented by an additional feed roller located in the feed path. The unique addition of the second roller ensures more contact with the stem. With a maximum feed speed up to 16.4 ft/sec, operators can handle more difficult trees and limbs. The feed roller hydraulic circuit has a differential function to ensure that stem feeding will continue even if one feed roller does not have a full grip on the stem. The C144 is equipped with two upper and two lower hydraulically controlled delimbing knives, and a fixed vertical top knife. The upper knives are specially designed to handle trees with tough limbs, such as lodgepole pine. The leading right upper knife has a ramped cutting edge to assist in cutting larger branches. The new Constant Cut saw control system features a 32.5" saw bar that includes a new 19cc saw motor with an integrated valve to deliver precise control of saw hydraulic flow
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MACHINES-SUPPLIES-TECHNOLOGY and pressure. This continuous management of flow and pressure allows the chain speed to be maintained at a constant 130 ft/sec throughout the entire cutting cycle. Komatsu’s new MaxiXplorer 3.1 Head Control System is standard and provides a state-of-the art, userfriendly control and monitoring sys4244 tem. Visitkomatsuforest.us.
Mixed-Service Tires The Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co. has broadened its line of premium mixed-service truck tires with the addition of a new size for its G741 MSD extreme traction drive tire. Goodyear has added the 11R22.5 size (Load Range H) to the G741 MSD – a tire for oil field, logging,
construction and other severe-service fleets. In addition, the G741 MSD is available in size 11R24.5, also Load Range H. Also in response to customer demand, Goodyear has introduced a precure retread product for the G741, the PC G741. “The G741 MSD is backed by years of research, design, develop-
ment and in-the-field performance, and is a key part of our growing family of premium mixed-service truck tires,” says Brian Buckham, general manager, commercial product marketing, Goodyear Commercial Tire Systems. Features of the G741 MSD include: a deep 33/32" tread with a wide footprint that helps provide high mileage and traction; an aggressive, self-cleaning tread design to help resist mud build-up for extra off-road traction; an innovative sidewall design that allows chains to be placed above tread blocks for enhanced performance; a cut- and chip-resistant tread compound for long-lasting performance on tough terrain; tread block sipes for enhanced traction in wet, snow and icy conditions, while maintaining optimal dry traction. Visit 6822 goodyeartrucktires.com.
How To Submit Products Electronic images and copy (please be brief) are required. Images should be scanned as 300 dpi and saved as either tiff or eps files. E-mail to rich@hattonbrown.com. Ship disks to Rich Donnell, P.O. Box 2268, Montgomery, AL 36102-2268 or to 225 Hanrick St., Montgomery, AL 36104-3317. Ph. 334-834-1170.
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MANY THANKS FOR SHOPPING WITH FPR! J.D 648GIII: 1400 Rear Axle TMII RE151972.........................$6,500
FORESTRYPARTSRESOURCE.COM Gates Hydraulic Hoses (2-wire Hydraulic Hose)
FREE SHIPPING
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Timber Procurement Manager Office: 931-296-1455 Mobile: 615-418-0276
Call: 662-285-2777 day, 662-285-6832 eves Email: info@chambersdelimbinator.com 1123
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EUREKA! EUREKA! EUREKA! 8309
“Limited Supply!”
In addition to new machines, Waverly Wood, LLC of Waverly, TN is CHAMBERS looking to employ a full time Forester; DELIMBINATOR, experience preferred. Applicants INC. now has facmust be able to cruise and buy timber tory reconditioned DeLimbinators. These units have been tracts and will report to the Timber inspected, repaired, and updated as needProcurement Manager. ed. Call us and we will help you select a Resumes may be faxed to DeLimbinator for your need. 931-296-7698 or you may contact: WE ALSO BUY USED DELIMBINATORS Mike Philipi
50' ......G2-6 Gates Hose .....$137.59 50' ......G2-8 Gates Hose .....$156.50 50' ......G2-12 Gates Hose ...$259.95 Call Tim Alligood 252-341-9891 www.cavalierhoseandfittings.com
OWNERS HAVE OVER 30 YEARS COMBINED EXPERIENCE!
We can save you money on Saw Teeth. Hundreds of satisfied A NOW C customers. Rebuilt Exchange or New. We specialize in rebuild- CCEPTING REDIT ing Koehring 2000, Hurricana, Hydro Ax split teeth and all CARDS other brands. Call Jimmy or Niel Mitchell. Quantity Discounts!
EUREKA SAW TOOTH CO., INC.
7180
CONTACT: 478.550.2330 - Keith 478.256.4063 - Gary
249
TIGERCAT 7-SERIES: 10012C00 Lift/Tilt Cyl .........$850
RECONDITIONED DELIMBINATORS!!
4275 Moores Ferry Rd. • Skippers, Virginia 23879 PH./FAX (day) 1-434-634-9836 or Night/Weekends • 1-434-634-9185
4247
SKIDDERS
TIMBERJACK 450C (CB4855), 1994, 15000 Hrs, Orops W/Cage, CAT 517 (05WW00419), 2004, 7877 Hrs, Cab, AC, Esco Grapple 28L-26, Sorting Grapple .......................MAKE AN OFFER .....................................$22,500
PRENTICE 384 (PR61207), 2005, 13354 Hrs, Cab, AC, Evans Trailer, Grapple, Delimber .....................................$17,000
HYDRO-AX 321 (7121), 1998, 10000 Hrs, Cab, AC, 24.5-32 W/Chains, 20’’ Sawhead .....................................$33,500
CAT 525C (052500251), 2006, CHIPPER 8859 Hrs, Cab, AC, 30.5-32, Dual Arch Grapple, Blade, Winch PETERSON 5000G (2G-214..........................................CALL 661), 2001, 12981 Hrs, Cab, AC, CAT 525C (052501555), 2012, Whole Tree Chipper .....$139,000 5488 Hrs, Cab, AC, 30.5-32, S Blade, Grapple KNUCKLEBOOM ..........................................CALL
WHEEL FELLER BUNCHERS
TIGERCAT 726 (7260852), 1997, 10000 Hrs, Cab, AC, 30.532, 22’’ Sawhead ..........$39,000
CAT 553 (00HA19857), 2011, 3224 Hrs, Cab, AC, 28L-26, SH50 Sawhead ..................CALL FRANKLIN LOGGER 170 (16544), 1995, 2500 Hrs, Cpy, Single Arch Grapple.......$15,000
CAT 563 (00HA19937), 2011, SCREENS 2479 Hrs, Cab, AC, 24.5-32, SH50 Saw...................$220,000 DOPPSTADT SM720 (W09621 DEERE 843J (20240), 2007, 21781D07286),2009, 2450 Hrs, 7’ 20’’ Drum w/ 3/4 ‘’ Punch LOADERS 9307 Hrs, Cab, AC, FD22B Cutter Plate ...........................$250,000 Cat 559B DS (00PR65341), Head ..................................CALL DOPPSTADT SM720 (W09621 2012, 5518 Hrs, Cab, AC, Pitts HYDRO-AX 321 (HA18765), 179A1D07448), 2010, 248 Hrs, Trailer, CTR Delimber, Grapple 2005, 2788 Hrs, Cab, AC, Warat- Trommel Screen, 435/50R19 ..........................................CALL ach Head.......................$15,000 ...................................$323,000
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FOR SALE 450C Timberjack & Parts Pig-Cat Loaders • Prentice Loaders Other Forestry Equipment
Cat 518 & Cat 518C skidders in TX, LA area Call Kent 936-699-4700 r_kentjones@yahoo.com
352-239-1549
www.equipmentandparts.com
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USED FORESTRY EQUIPMENT
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FINAN C AVAILA ING BLE
562
5569
Office : 903-238-8700 • Shane Fuller : 903-235-1147 Jason Bruner: 903-452-5290
SKIDDERS
2009 Cat 525C - 7,000 hours, 30.5 x 32 tires, Cab with air, Winch. Ready to work! .....................................$89,500
FELLER BUNCHERS
2011 Cat 573 Feller Buncher – 4,500 hours, Prentice SH56 Saw Head, 30.5 x 32 tires, Cab with air. ....... $139,500
MULCHERS & CONSTRUCTION
2014 Barko 930 Mulcher – 700 hours, still under full factory warranty, 305 HP Cummins engine, FAE 300U Mulching Head, 28L tires. Rent to own WAC ...............................................$305,000
2007 Cat 553 Mulcher - 4,000 hours on machine, 300 hours on new smooth drum FAE mulching head, Cat C6.6 Acert engine, , 28L tires, Cab with air. Ready to work!....... $169,500
2008 Cat 553 Mulcher - Low time Fecon 9021 Smooth drum mulching head, Low time Cat engine, 28L tires, Cab with air. Ready to work!...$139,500
• 2012 CAT 573C w/SH56 Sawhead, 4000 hrs., warranty ......................Call • 2012 Deere 843J FB w/FD45 sawhead, 3900 hrs., 30.5x32 ......$148,000 • 2001 Tigercat 240B w/CSI 243 delimber, Big John Trailer ............$47,500 • 1999 Savannah 350, 4-disc plow, packer, transport wheels.........$17,500 • 1991 Franklin 170 Spot Tractor, Cummins, Hyd. 5th wheel...........$16,000 • 1998 Franklin 185 & 190 D/A, winch, high HP, reduced................$26,500 Call or email: Charles Woolard
252-946-9264 office • 252-945-0942 cell
Washington, NC Email: easterneq@earthlink.net Complete listings of equipment at www.eebinc.com
2004 Timberking TK350 Mulcher 2,200 on rebuilt Cat engine, Fecon BH120 Mulching Head, New teeth, Rebalanced head, Good 28L tires, Cab with air. ...........................$89,500
LOG LOADERS
2010 Prentice 2384B Log Loader 7,800 hours, Mounted on trailer with CTR 426 Delimber, Cab with air. Ready to work!.....................$110,000
NOT PICTURED 2002 John Deere 843H Feller Buncher - 22" Waratah Saw Head, 28L tires, Cab with air. Ready to work! ..$49,500 2011 Cat 553 Mulcher – “NEW” FAE smooth drum mulching head, “NEW” high pressure pump and hoses, Cat C6.6 Acert engine, good 28L tires, Cab with air. 5,300 hours on the carrier, 0 hours since the conversion from a feller buncher. Ready to work!........$189,500
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2008 Cat 545C – 30.5 x 32 tires, Cab with air, Winch, Ready to work! ...............................................$89,500
2003 Tigercat 720D FB with 5500 sawhead, 13,369 hours, 30's $49,500
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TIDEWATER EQUIPMENT CO. MAC • 910-610-7029
Call or visit our website: www.tidewaterequip.com SKIDDERS
2010 CAT 535C....................................$82,900 2001 Deere 648GIII .............................$40,625 2008 Deere 648H.................................$85,500 2008 Deere 748H.................................$82,500 2010 Deere 648H...............................$100,000 2011 Deere 648H...............................$130,000 2005 Deere 748GIII .............................$57,000 2007 Tigercat 610C.............................$68,750 2011 Tigercat 610C...........................$133,500 2004 Tigercat 620C.............................$67,500 2005 Tigercat 620C.............................$66,000 2008 Tigercat 620C...........................$105,000 2008 Tigercat E620C...........................$98,000 2003 Tigercat 630C.............................$40,000 2005 Tigercat 630C.............................$60,000 2005 Timberjack 460D ........................$50,000
FELLER BUNCHERS
1995 Tigercat 726 ...............................$25,000 2011 CAT 563 ....................................$119,900 2009 Deere 643J .................................$85,000 2007 Prentice 2470 .............................$54,000
2008 Prentice 2470 .............................$81,250 2008 Prentice 2570 .............................$95,000 2008 Prentice 2570 .............................$84,300 2006 Tigercat 718 ...............................$65,000 2011 Tigercat 718E ...........................$152,335 1998 Tigercat 720B .............................$30,900 2006 Tigercat 720D.............................$78,500 2005 Tigercat 724D.............................$85,200 2005 Timberking TK340......................$15,000 2004 Timberking TK360......................$58,000
LOG LOADERS 2008 Barko 495ML ..............................$70,000 2005 Deere 335C.................................$27,500 2005 Prentice 280 ...............................$45,000 2003 TIMBERJACK 430B ...................$24,500 2004 Tigercat 240B .............................$45,000 2005 Tigercat 240B .............................$55,000 2007 Tigercat 244 ...............................$79,900 2008 Tigercat 234 ...............................$87,500 2011 Tigercat 234 .............................$132,500
INDUSTRIAL EQUIPMENT
1997 MORBARK 22.............................$60,000 2009 MORBARK 40/36 NCL DRUM CHIPPER ........................................$212,500 2010 MORBARK 40/36 NCL DRUM CHIPPER ........................................$232,000 2010 MORBARK 4600XL ..................$413,000 2011 MORBARK 40/36 NCL DRUM CHIPPER ........................................$225,000
MISCELLANEOUS
Assortment of tires and rims for Deere/Tigercat CTR 314 and 400 Delimbers .........................................$1,000 to $18,000 Tigercat Shears and Saws .........................................$2,500 to $20,000 Please come see us at our new parts locations: – Waycross, GA (912) 282-9284 – Statesboro, GA (912) 601-9924 – Elizabethtown, NC (910) 876-7058
View our web site for over 200 listings with newly reduced prices and pictures 2687
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EQUIPMENT FINANCING
7195
• Preferred Good Credit Plans • Rough Credit Plans (turned down, tax liens, bankruptcies)
• Purchases • Refinance • Start-up Business • Loans Against Your Existing Equipment for QUICK CASH! 2-Hour Approvals! Low Monthly Payments Little or No Down Payments
15 Years In Business CALL NOW
985-875-7373 Fax: 985-867-1188
Email: coastalcapital@bellsouth.net Personal Service
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Watch videos of some of our machines on YouTube
2011 John Deere 748H—SWEDA 2008 John Deere 748H Log Skidaxles, Dual arch, grapple, winch, cab der—2012 engine, 30.5x32 tires, still with air, 35.5L32 tires, 4632 hours in shop ..............................$ CALL $ ........................................$165,000
2007 John Deere 648GIII Log Skidder—Single Arch, Recent Engine, Direct Drive, Very Good 30.5 tires ...........................................$65,000
2006 John Deere 648G Log Skid- 2004 John Deere 648GIII Log Skid- 2004 John Deere 648GIII Log Skidder—Single arch, 30.5 tires, direct der—Very good 30.5 tires, single der—Dual arch, Torque converter, new arch, direct drive................$59,500 drive, still in shop ................$ CALL $ pins & bushings through-out, COLD a/c ..............................................$65,000
2000 Prentice 280 Log Loader— 2002 Prentice 384 Log John Deere 2000 Tigercat 230B Knuckleboom CTR Delimber, Just In........$ CALL $ engine, CTR 450, TIGHT Log Loader—CTR 450 Delimber, ...........................................$45,000 Tight & Dry, Woods Ready..$39,500
2011 TIGERCAT 234; CSI Delimber; 2010 JD 437D LOADER; 8501 hours, 2010 JD 335D Loader; 5285 hours, clean; all pins tight; plantation pine 264 CSI delimber, Hyd Landing gear 264 CSI delimber, Pitts trailer use; very good condition ............................................$129,500 ............................................$114,500 ............................................$134,900
2011 DEERE 843K; Operator’s sta- 2005 Tigercat 724D; 5600 sawhead, tion cab w/AC; lever steer; heavy duty 30.5x32 tires, FRESH OFF JOB 1994 Hydro-Ax 611E; Cummins axles; tires 2-NEW 67x34x25, 2-75% ..............................................$79,500 Engine, Good Disc ............................................$129,500 ..............................................$24,900
LD
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2011 CAT 525C Dual Arch Skidder; 2006 CAT 525C Single Arch Skid- 2005 Tigercat 620C Dual Arch 30.5x32 Tires, 6168 hours der; 67x34x25 tires, 9910 hours Skidder; 30.5x32 tires, 9744 hours ............................................$119,500 ..............................................$64,500 ..............................................$84,500
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To buy or sell forestry, construction, utility or truck equipment, or if you just need an appraisal, contact me, Johnny Pynes with JM Wood Auction. Over 25 years experience. 770
Day 334-312-4136 Night 334-271-1475 or Email: johnwpynes@knology.net
FOR SALE
SKIDDER FOR SALE
2007 John Deere 648H Dual Arch Skidder, Complete Reman New Engine with a One Year Warranty, Firestone tires-90% almost new, Dualing rings on rims, Sweda axles, Excellent shape.
$103,000
13005
ATTENTION LOGGERS! “Waverly Wood, LLC” of Waverly, TN is looking to employ additional logging crews to log its timber tracts; long-term employment possible. All prospective contractors must have workers’ compensation and general liability insuarnce. Also, wanting to buy white oak stave logs and tie logs. Please contact: Mike Philipi Timber Procurement Manager Office: 931-296-1455 Mobile: 615-418-0276 1501
IF YOU NEED
Phone (662) 614-3603
2002 Cat 535B, Very clean, 1900 hrs on new engine ...................................$46,500 (Mablevale, Arkansas)
7393
www.southernloggintimes.com
870-917-9938 or 501-350-9428
2290
5158
2013 Deere 643H Skidder STK# LU649867; 39 hrs $245,000
2013 Deere 753J Track Feller Buncher STK# LU233050; 2,762 hrs $298,000
2011 Deere 848H Skidder STK# LU639211; 5,707 hrs $160,000
2011 Deere 643K Feller Buncher STK# LU635166; 4,471 hrs $145,000
2010 Deere 748H Skidder STK# LU632350; 6,757 hrs $144,000
2010 Prentice 2570 Feller Buncher STK# LUB19856; 5,842 hrs $120,000
2011 Deere 843K Feller Buncher STK# LU631962; 6,800 hrs $105,000
2010 Prentice 2864 Mulcher STK# LU199807; 4,749 hrs $185,000
2012 Deere 750K Dozer STK# LU233053; 1,457 hrs $215,000
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COMING EVENTS November 5-7—South Carolina Forestry Assn. annual meeting, Westin Hilton Head Island Resort, Hilton Head, SC. Call 803-798-4170; visit scforestry.org. 7-8—Sawdust and Splinters, Shirard Gray Estates, Magnolia, Miss. Call 601-876-9635; email contact@sdsfest.com; visit sdsfest.com.
January 2015
25-27—Kentucky Forest Industries Assn. annual meeting, Embassy Suites, Lexington, Ky. Call 502695-3979; visit kfia.org.
April 2015 27-29—Forest Resources Assn. annual meeting, Sheraton Nashville Downtown, Nashville, Tenn. Call 202-296-3937; visit forestresources.org.
13-14—Missouri Forest Products Assn. 2015 winter meeting, Capital Plaza Hotel & Convention Center, Jefferson City, Mo. Call 573-6343252; visit moforest.org.
September 2015
February 2015
Listings are submitted months in advance. Always verify dates and locations with contacts prior to making plans to attend.
6-8—South Carolina Timber Producers Assn. annual meeting, Springmaid Beach Resort & Conference Center, Myrtle Beach, SC. Call 800-371-2240; visit scloggers.com. 25-March 1—Appalachian Hardwood Manufacturers Annual Meeting, Hyatt Coconut Point, Bonita Springs, Fla. Call 336-885-8315; visit appalachianwood.org.
March 2015 25-27—Hardwood Manufacturers Assn. National Conference & Expo, The Omni Nashville Hotel, Nashville, Tenn. Call 412-2440440; visit hmamembers.org.
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18-19—Kentucky Wood Expo, Masterson Station Park, Lexington, Ky. Call 502-695-3979; email Michele@kfia.org; visit kfia.org.
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