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A Hatton-Brown Publication Co-Publisher David H. Ramsey Co-Publisher David (DK) Knight Chief Operating Officer Dianne C. Sullivan PUBLISHING OFFICE Street Address: 225 Hanrick Street Montgomery, AL 36104-3317 Mailing Address: P.O. Box 2268 Montgomery, AL 36102-2268 Telephone (334) 834-1170 Fax 334-834-4525

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Executive Editor David (DK) Knight Editor-in-Chief Rich Donnell Western Editor Dan Shell Senior Associate Editor David Abbott Associate Editor Jessica Johnson Associate Editor Jay Donnell Art Director/Prod. Mgr. Cindy Segrest Ad Production Coord Patti Campbell Circulation Director Rhonda Thomas Marketing/Media Jordan Anderson ADVERTISING SALES REPRESENTATIVES SOUTHERN USA Randy Reagor (904) 393-7968 • Fax: (334) 834-4525 E-mail: reagor@bellsouth.net

Vol. 65, No. 4: Issue 663

JULY/AUGUST 2017

OurCover To boost hardwood pulpwood production, Tennessee’s Floyd Turner recently added a Komatsu carrier/Pierce Denharco stroke delimber combo to deal with the rough, knotty oak he often encounters on the Cumberland Plateau. Output is increasing, and the combo is delivering other benefits in terms of skidding and loading efficiency. Story begins on PAGE 10. (David Abbott photo)

OurFeatures

MIDWEST USA, EASTERN CANADA John Simmons (905) 666-0258 • Fax: (905) 666-0778 E-mail: jsimmons@idirect.com

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WESTERN USA, WESTERN CANADA Tim Shaddick (604) 910-1826 • Fax: (604) 264-1367 E-mail: tootall1@shaw.ca

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Kevin Cook (604) 619-1777 E-mail: lordkevincook@gmail.com INTERNATIONAL Murray Brett +34 96 640 4165 • Fax: +34 96 640 4331 E-mail: murray.brett@abasol.net

CLASSIFIED ADVERTISING Bridget DeVane 334-699-7837 bdevane7@hotmail.com

Jeff Powell Trucking

Increases Skidding Capacity

Jason Fly Logging

Turns To Bigger Machines

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Timber Harvesting & Wood Fiber Operations (ISSN 21542333) is published 6 times annually (January/February, March/April, May/June, July/August, September/October, November/December issues are combined) by HattonBrown Publishers, Inc., 225 Hanrick St., Montgomery, AL 36104. Subscriptions are free to U.S. logging, pulpwood and chipping contractors and their supervisors; managers and supervisors of corporate-owned harvesting operations; wood suppliers; timber buyers; businesses involved in land grooming and/or land clearing, wood refuse grinding and right-of-way maintenance; wood procurement and land management officials; industrial forestry purchasing agents; wholesale and retail forest equipment representatives and forest/logging association personnel. All non-qualified U.S. subscriptions are $50 annually; $60 in Canada; $95 (airmail) in all other countries (U.S. funds). Single copies, $5 each; special issues, $20 (U.S. funds). Subscription Inquiries— TOLL-FREE 800-669-5613; Fax 888-611-4525. Go to www.timberharvesting.com and click on the subscribe button to subscribe/renew via the web. All advertisements for Timber Harvesting 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 Timber Harvesting & Wood Fiber Operations. Copyright ® 2017. 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.

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36 Elmia Wood Recap: “Better Than Google”

Tigercat Celebrates 25-Year Milestone

OurDepartments My Take _________________________________________________ 4 News Lines _______________________________________________ 8 Equipment World_________________________________________ 36 Select Cuts _____________________________________________ 40 TheExchange ____________________________________________ 44 Risk Watch ______________________________________________ 46 Events/Ad Index __________________________________________ 46 Other Hatton-Brown Publications: Southern Loggin’ Times • Wood Bioenergy Timber Processing • Panel World • Power Equipment Trade

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MyTake DK KNIGHT dk@hattonbrown.com, 334-834-1170

Gene Carter Smiles His Way Through Life It’s always a ‘peach cobbler pleasure’ to visit with Gene Carter, a retired Alabama logger whose friendship is special and who I admire for many reasons, two being his infectious sense of humor and high octane optimistic spirit. Gene must have exited the womb grinning, for with him smiles and laughter bubble up like water from an artesian well.

It’s been said that laughter helps make a person live longer, and if true, then he should easily make it to 110.

Every time I see him in person or talk with him via Verizon, Gene is happy. He’s the type of person who makes you feel good by simply being around him. He likes to talk, is good at it, and never Comfortable in the seat of his vintage Windham HiGrader, Gene never passes up a beaming opportunity. seems to tire of it. He never meets a stranger, and has a titanic zest for life. I like to kid him Gene told me when I called that he’d be out back under the that he never encountered a tree he didn’t want to cut, a brand cover of his shop, where Janet, his wife of 46 years, suggests of chewing tobacco he didn’t want to try, or a Dairy Queen he he visit from time to time on any given day, with Sundays didn’t want to patronize. being the possible exception. There he was, enjoying a chew Now 69, Gene resides reasonably close to the geographiand sitting on a plastic spool of some sort and looking beyond cal center of Alabama. To get to where he hangs his hat—he a pile of heart pine logs and stumps, a fuel tank, a stack of has dozens to choose from, and it strikes me that I might not spent crossties, and other assorted materials he had not yet easily recognize him without one—travel to Clanton in brought himself to classify as nonessential.

Chilton County, go west on state route 22, proceed through Rising and extending a firm hand and automatic smile, he Maplesville, and cross U.S. 82. Not long after you pass the asked, “How you doin’? Good to see you.” Pleasantries West Fraser sawmill on the right you’ll find yourself on the aside, he got right to it, firing: “Listen!” pointing to the east edge of what’s left of the Stanton community, which borand cocking his right ear. “That beagle’s been after a rabbit ders the southeastern reaches of the western component of for a half hour. Don’t it sound good? It’d sound better if Talladega National Forest. At the Ebenezer Baptist Church, Flash, my nephew’s red bone hound from across the road, turn right on county road 45 and go about a mile and a quarwas there to add a little bass. They call him Flip-Flop now. ter and look to the right for mailbox number 3504.

Car hit him and broke his left front leg, and the vet set it and

The Battle Of Old Ebenezer Church

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Late in the Civil War, the Battle of old Ebenezer Church, if you could call it a battle, took place within earshot of Gene’s place. On April 1, 1861, Confederate Lt. Gen. Nathan Bedford Forrest and some 1,500 troops attempted to block Union Maj. Gen. James H. Wilson and his much larger force as they marched south toward the industrial city of Selma. Forrest was wounded in the fighting, as were several of his soldiers, and a dozen or more Union soldiers were killed. Their bodies are buried in the nearby church cemetery. Wilson’s forces, of course, went on to take Selma.

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put it in a cast, but it didn’t last any longer than a rainbow.

Now that leg just flips and flops, but he’ll still chase a rabbit with a lotta heart.”

It was a fitting backdrop for the figurative rabbit chasing that followed as the day deepened.

The Shop: Collector’s Items, Leftovers We poked around the shop, sidestepping a DeutzAllis farm tractor, golf cart, two smallish motorcycles, and clusters of miscellaneous items left over from his 19662014 logging career, and others having no connection to logging at all.

There was a pallet of hydraulic oil, a few black trash bags full of soda cans, three tired-looking Stihls, a cooking grill, boxes of this and that, and under some plastic an old cash register Gene chases dust in his shop, which is tiny and sparsely stocked when compared with brother Larry’s. and adding machine.

“Look at these,” he said of the antiques, batting away some pesky dirt (mud) daubers. “Came from the old store my mama ran when I was growin’ up.”

Looking around, I spotted a dusty bicycle from his boyhood, along with advertising signs, thermometers and clocks, license plates from near and far, and a new bow for a chain saw. There were more dust-covered bags of soda cans in the floored storage area above a closed-off work space and one-time office, prompting me to say, “Gene, these bags were up there when I visited last July, and you told me then they’d been up there for years.”

He chuckled. “Yeah, Janet keeps after me about cleanin’ up out here and throwin’ some of this stuff away, but my ‘round tuit’ ain’t what it used to be. And hey, the price of aluminum might go up again one day.”

Inside his former office there were old magazines, photos, calendars, posters, a wall-mounted peavey, and numerous caps and hard hats, some claimed by the dirt dauber friends of those from beyond the wall. “Reckon these things are out to take over in here,” he said, opening an outside door in an attempt to shoo them away. In doing so he spotted a not so small but occupied guinea wasp nest at the top of the door jamb and, as though he was accustomed to doing so, quickly reached up, pinched it off and threw it to the ground.

In the walled-off work area it was all the more cluttered. He laughed as he recalled an incident from years gone by: “I was lookin’ for something in here one day and pulled out a box from back in a corner under this bench and found a box with a new Husky model 77 saw that I forgot I ever bought.” To this day, it’s still tucked away, in the box, unused.

We ambled back to the shop’s open area and rested our rears on whatever Gene had found for us to rest them on, and I asked about his early years. But before he could begin, his phone chirped. “Come on with it,” he said in a loud voice, and after a few seconds of silence: “The only way you’ll see a Dodge parked in my driveway is if we have company.” The call ended quickly thereafter. He did not elaborate; I did not ask.

Background: Deep Roots One of four kids born to Lottie and L.M. (Shug) Carter, Gene, older brother Larry and two sisters grew up on the small Carter farm and around their daddy’s peckerwood sawmill and small store, located on a dirt road a mile or so south of Ebenezer church. Their workaholic daddy instilled a resolute work ethic in his sons, who began helping around the mill and attendant log/pulpwood operation at an early age. Gene credits his mother for his beaming personality and glass-half-full outlook. “All daddy wanted to do was work. We got most everything we wanted as teenagers but we had to work before we could play,” he pointed out.

Both Larry and Gene managed to ‘pulpwood’ some during summers while still in high school, using saws, old trucks, mules and/or tractors provided by their daddy, so it was only natural that they would take their efforts full time and go out on their own after receiving their high school diplomas. For Gene, the year was 1966.

“My old English teacher told the principal, ‘If that boy doesn’t start studying he is going to haul pulpwood for the rest of his life.’ Turned out she was right,” he said, grinning.

“Pulpwooders and well diggers were in the same category back then, and that’s no disrespect to well diggers.”

Actually, the pulpwood pay in those days was equal to or greater than that of most any other job available in that time and place. Even so, it was grueling, dirty, dangerous work that in the beginning was ruled by chain saws and loading by hand and, needless to say, lots of stamina.

Gene recalls his first truck was a late ’50s Ford single axle that had no driver’s side door or rear cab glass and could haul about three cords. It was common hereabouts and elsewhere in the South for the ‘hands’ to ride to the job seated on the truck frame and at times to ride on top of the load at the end of a long day.

Early Machines “What brand of saws did you use then,” I asked.

“Homelites, because that’s what daddy had started using earlier. He changed to Homelites from McCulloughs because he said he wore out a pickup haulin’ them to and from the dealer.”

After trying several types of loading methods/machines, in 1975 Gene purchased his first knuckeboom loader, a well-used Copeland, which he recalled was an underperformer. “That thing was bad about leakin’ at fittings and swivels. I’d catch fluid in a five-gallon bucket and pour it back in the hydraulic tank. I was recyclin’ before recyclin’

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was cool,” he recalled. He found himself traveling often to the Copeland plant in Montgomery. “I walked in one time and the lady asked me, ‘What do you need today?’ I told her, ‘I believe I need one of everything you got.’”

Another leaky machine—leaks were commonplace across all brands in the ’70s—he owned was a Timberjack 225 cable skidder. “The control levers in the cab leaked so much you just about had to buy a new pair of boots every six months,” he said. “But the real reason we got rid of it after a year or so was that Hercules winch, which was so weak it wouldn’t pull the hat off your head.”

Gene was always a hands-on logger who kept his operation relatively small, believing that 7-8 loads a day was enough to make a good living while allowing enough time to enjoy his family and to participate in the activities of his two kids, Casey and Kelly, and later their children (two boys each).

He became very safety-conscious across the years, going to orange hard hats and chaps in the late ’80s after an employee cut his knee cap with a saw. He also implemented a profit sharing plan in 1988 and began offering group health insurance program and granting annual paid vacation time.

Janet started using a computer in the business in 1989.

Was he ever seriously hurt on the job?

“Not really. I had my share of minor cuts, scrapes and bruises, and I turned over a couple of machines,” he said, pausing and continuing: “Course, I had my feelings hurt many times,” he chuckled.

A Little Carter/Knight History Gene and I first crossed paths in the late ’80s when I served on a committee that selected the Alabama Logger of the Year. He was nominated in 1989, 1990 and 1991, the year he brought the honor home. That’s when Southern Loggin’ Times, a companion publication to TH, featured his company on the cover. In that account, the writer noted that Gene’s loader operator had been in a serious auto accident and that the employee’s brother had phoned Gene to inform him that the victim was near death. Gene’s reaction: “You can’t let him die; he owes me too much money!”

The man lived to borrow money again.

The next year he and several leading state loggers formed the Alabama Loggers Council and Gene remained active in the group for years.

Gene and Janet were traveling companions with yours truly and my wife, Jane, on several occasions over the years.

There were trips to eastern Canada, the Pacific Northwest, and to Arizona-New Mexico—all memorable and filled with laughter. The Canadian trip included a visit to Niagara Falls, which bustled with people from all over the world. On one occasion Gene paused to listen to a man of Middle Eastern descent talking on his cell phone. Afterward, I asked Gene: “What did he say?” His reply: “I believe he said somethin’ about his goat gettin’ out.”

Soon after Casey decided he wanted to take his sideline welding-fabrication business to another level rather than assume his daddy’s logging venture—Casey operated a feller-buncher for his dad for 17 years—Gene decided to pack it in after 48 successful years. He sold his bread-and-butter equipment quickly and eventually parted with everything except a Cat D5 dozer and his oldest and dearest machine, and likely one of the logging industry’s rarest—a vintage Windham HiGrader (model WFDFG 372, serial no. 1765).

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His Windham Love Affair What in the world is a Windham HiGrader? Well, you won’t find it on the Internet with the aid of Google. Some loggers and equipment pushers who operated in the South in the early ’70s will remember it as an odd-looking contraption—many were in that era—a cross between a rough terrain forklift and a small, self-propelled knuckleboom loader.

As Gene might say, it kinda looks like it took a long dip in an ugly pond.

The brainchild of sawmiller turned forklift manufacturer Paul Windham, it was a low-cost, rather crudely and simply designed sorter/loader that found favor with small operators working both short pulpwood and logs at a common landing. Windham introduced it in early 1969, offering it for perhaps three years. Later, Windham sold the businesss, and it eventually closed.

Gene bought his HiGrader new in 1972 for something south of $10,000. A year later he had a local mechanic add an open-air cab. He used it as a loader for three years or so, then his daddy claimed it for the sawmill operation when Gene moved to a knuckleboom loader.

Sure, Gene is sentimental about the machine, but primarily he keeps it for its usefulness and versatility. Months ago he used it to unearth the leaky water line between his house/shop/ road. Last year he and Larry acted on a short-lived burst of energy and used it to load about six cords of beetle-infested pines they took down with chain saws on Gene’s land. Their energy gave out after three days and they decided to let nature take its course with other dead trees. Gene has used the Windham to move crossties, scrap steel and other bulky stuff, not to mention transplanting 20 ft. saplings.

“It’s rusty and ugly and the seat is gone and the engine is wore out, but it still fires with a touch of the starter,” Gene bragged. “I don’t know just how many times I’ve had people want to buy it.”

Regarding rust, there’s no danger of it getting to Gene any time soon. He no longer starts his day at 3:30 but usually rises by 5. Depending on the season, he cuts grass, trims shrubs, runs errands for Casey, takes local trips with Janet, repairs things, visits with Larry, takes in the activities of grandkids, follows the local football team, and visits with others at a Maplesville saw shop on Saturday mornings and a restaurant around 11 a.m. on Tuesdays and Thursdays.

Accumulated Friendships, Relationships In terms of dollars, Gene didn’t become wealthy in the woods, although he did very well. Unlike him, that high school English teacher mentioned earlier likely did not have the cash to buy land or invest in a new local bank or eventually occupy a board seat on said bank for 30 years. But what matters most to him are the friendships and relationships he has accumulated.

If he could start over again, chances are he would not change much, if anything. For his success he credits God, his parents, Janet, Larry and Casey, his employees and good markets. “The wood business took me much farther than I ever dreamed it would,” he acknowledged with a twinkle in his eye.

Gene, Janet will fuss when she reads this parting advice, but please don’t clean up too much in and around your shop.

If you did that, my visits would never be the same. Many thanks for your sunshine personality and for your special 30-year friendship. Smile on, my friend.

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NewsLines Softwood Dispute Goes Against Canada Again U.S. Commerce Dept. announced an affirmative preliminary determination in its antidumping duty (AD) investigation of softwood lumber from Canada. Commerce Dept. determined that exporters from Canada have sold softwood lumber into the U.S. at 7.72% to 4.59% less than fair value.

These preliminary AD rates are in addition to the preliminary countervailing duty (CVD) rates that the Commerce Dept. assessed on softwood lumber from Canada in April. When combined, the applicable duty rates assessed on specific Canadian lumber producers will range from 17-31%.

The Commerce Dept. investigations stemmed from petitions filed on behalf of the Committee Overseeing Action for Lumber International Trade Investigations or Negotiations (COALITION), composed of U.S. companies.

Commerce Dept. has instructed U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) to collect cash deposits on these

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assessments from the Canadian importers; meanwhile Commerce Dept. will make final determinations later this year.

In 2016, imports of softwood lumber from Canada were valued at an estimated $5.66 billion.

The petitioning U.S. companies include Collum’s Lumber Products, L.L.C. (SC); Hankins, Inc. (MS); Potlatch Corp. (WA); Rex Lumber Company (FL); Seneca Sawmill Company (OR); Sierra Pacific Industries (CA); Stimson Lumber Company (OR); Swanson Group (OR); Weyerhaeuser Company (WA); Carpenters Industrial Council (OR); Giustina Land and Timber Company (OR); and Sullivan Forestry Consultants, Inc. (GA).

The countervailing duty investigation was in response to charges by the U.S. group that Canadian softwood lumber coming into the U.S. is subsidized, and that a penalty duty or fee is essential to offset it, otherwise differences between the U.S. (mostly private) and Canadian (mostly public) timber sales systems give Canadian

producers an unfair cost advantage.

The U.S. group alleged that Canadian provincial governments, which own the vast bulk of Canada’s timberlands, provide standing trees to Canadian producers for an administered fee that is far below the market value of the timber, as well as a number of other subsidies.

West Fraser, Canfor and Tolko are the Canadian companies hardest hit by the duties.

About half of total Canadian softwood lumber production is shipped to the U.S. market, and it accounts for approximately one-third of total softwood lumber consumption in the U.S.

Good Earth Project Gets ‘New Life’ A new investors group that has taken over daily operations of Good Earth Power AZ is seeking to ramp up the company’s execution of a far-reaching Forest Service stewardship contract that sought to thin or otherwise treat 300,000 acres in 10

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NewsLines years beginning in 2012, but has barely covered 10,000 acres in the five years since.

Another big change—seeking to give the effort a fresh start—is a company name change from Good Earth Power to NewLife Forest Products.

The project encompasses the Coconino, Kaibab, Apache-Sitgreaves and Tonto national forests and their ponderosa pine stands, and comes on the heels of years of devastating wildfires.

The new group plans to pursue a less vertically-integrated business model and work more with outside contractors as opposed to owning timber harvesting, chipping or trucking capacity, for example. Already the company has announced a partnership with major Phoenix-based trucking firm Knight Transportation, and foresters are looking to bring in experienced loggers from the Pacific Northwest to add to harvesting capacity.

In addition, NewLife Forest Products is planning a new small log mill that will help reduce chip production,

plus adding a composting operation to help increase overall biomass utilization.

Withered and non-existent forest products industry infrastructure in the region has hampered the project from the beginning due to a lack of markets for the large volume of logs and especially biomass coming off thinning and other stewardship activities.

Recently, the company’s Heber, Ariz. sawmill was closed for renovations to increase log-processing capacity and was reportedly re-starting operations. Meanwhile the new small log project replaces a mill previously planned for Williams, Ariz. that never got off the ground.

In the meantime, hog fuel and chips are going to Gro-Well, a soil additive company, and the biomass-powered Novo Power plant.

The first major contract for the Forest Service’s (FS) Four Forests Restoration Initiative has a rocky history. NewLife Chief Operating Officer Bill Dyer says the company can’t change what has happened in the past but is looking to

make it right and move forward. “What we’re trying to do is bring tactical execution to the project,” he says.

Enviva Looks Hard At Danville Site The Danville-Pittsylvania (Virginia) Regional Industrial Facility Authority (RIFA) approved a purchase agreement with Enviva Development Holdings, LLC for a project of “regional significance,” most likely a wood pellet plant, in the Berry Hill Industrial Park in Pittsylvania County. The agreement is for a 168 acre tract.

Danville is located just above the North Carolina line, due west of two Enviva pellet plants.

Enviva has also recently shown interest in sites in Lucedale, Miss. and Abbeville, Ala. Enviva is the largest producer of industrial wood pellets in the world, and ship its pellets to markets overseas (primarly Europe) that integrate the pellets into biomass power plants for the production of electricity.

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Stroking Again In Tennessee Floyd Turner sees production boost, other value in new stroke delimber.

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f it’s true that fortune favors the bold, then Floyd Turner, 51, should be in quite the favorable position. The owner of FNT Logging, LLC, based in the eastern Tennessee

town of Crossville, has never been one to shy away from experimenting with new and different technologies or methods. For example, back in 2003 Turner ran several machines that were rarely used by southern loggers. The roster included an 8-wheeled Timbco skidder, a clambunk Timbco combination feller-buncher/skidder, a Timberline stroke delimber and a Morbark 2455 flail chipper. All of this was to help handle big, rough hardwood stems he deemed too difficult to process efficiently at the loader. That setup lasted for roughly a decade.

“We did real good with (the flail

chipper) for maybe eight or nine years, but later the market just wasn’t feasible,” the logger explains. “It was too close to the price of roundwood.”

Turner stopped using the flail chipper in 2007. He kept using the stroke until 2011. By then the machine, a 2000 model SDL2a that he’d bought used, was worn out and he didn’t feel market conditions justified replacing it.

“We didn’t use it a lot at that time anyway,” he recalls. “We didn’t use it at all in pine, just in big hardwood.”

Instead he went back to using gates and pull-through delimbers.

But markets are cyclical, and these

Floyd Turner

Turner upgraded feller-bunchers in 2016, replacing them with new Komatsu XT 445Ls with Quadco heads.

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Young Hunter Thompson, inset, runs the stroke delimber, which Turner deploys near the buncher to facilitate skidding.

days things have changed again. Recently, Turner decided to give stroke delimbers another try on one of his crews that specializes in high elevation hardwood. When Resolute Forest Products in Calhoun, Tenn. converted a newsprint machine to tissue some months back, the change created a greater need for hardwood fiber. FNT answered the call in May of this year by purchasing a Komatsu PC 240 LL tracked machine carrying a Pierce Denharco stroke delimber.

The logger cites service and support from dealer Power Equipment Co. as the biggest reason for his choice. He already had an established relationship with the dealer, having bought Komatsu feller-bunchers and Barko loaders and other machines from salesman Larry Prater at the Knoxville branch for many years. “They’ve been very good to us,” Turner says. “If something goes wrong, they do the best they can to set you up with a loaner till they can straighten it out.”

Increased production is one of the reasons Turner chose to set aside a pull-through delimber in favor of the more robust but much more expensive stroke, on this crew at least. “The pullthroughs seem to ‘short’ the wood,” he says, and “sometimes they would just will barely pull tough hardwoods through.” That is especially true with some of the more gnarled hardwood this crew commonly gets into in steep places. The difficulty with delimbing such timber slows the pace, reducing both efficiency and productivity from the skidders to the loader. “The stroke

will go on through it and get it down,” he elaborates. “So I am hoping to gain some yield per acre, at least 120 tons a day added to current production. We run about 28 tons to the load, so I hope to get three to four more loads a day.”

Though the signs so far are encouraging, Turner says it’s too soon to say if that gain will be fully realized. FNT had used the machine only six weeks at the time of this writing. Even though the company used a stroke machine for years, it was a different unit with a different operator, and the current operator is learning how to navigate the learning curve. Turner says he may find it necessary to supplement the delimber with some other new machines to take full advantage of potential efficiencies. “When you fix one thing, you at times have to add more trucks and skidders, and so on,” he expounds.

Another benefit of the stroke combo is that is makes things easier for the crew. “Our oak is rough and knotty and the delimber makes it slicker, more uniform, so it lays together better on the trailer and mills like it better.” The stroke especially takes a big load off skidder operators, he points out. There is an advantage in allowing the skidder to pull already-trimmed stems, especially uphill. “You can really see the difference. By bringing the delimber closer to the stump, it gives the skidder more payload of marketable wood, for the fuel consumption, than pulling trees with the limbs intact. You get more bang for the buck. A lot of people can’t see spending that kind of money just to trim the tree. To me there is a lot of

hidden value to it, even though it is an expensive machine.”

Some logistical challenges are inherent to the stroke, he admits. For one thing, its height makes transportation difficult, and it requires a wide load permit, although he already had to get one every year for the Komatsu feller-bunchers he owns. The stroke also has a lot of moving parts, he points out, so although it doesn’t necessarily require more maintenance than other machines, it does need to be looked over more thoroughly and more often than a skidder or a knuckleboom. Delimber knives have to be sharpened with a grinder periodically, but for the most part they self-sharpen with use, he says. “We are still learning about the fuel consumption,” he says. “But so far it seems to do pretty good.”

Turner says he has pretty much always used tracked feller-bunchers, even before he started his own company. He recalls that his father bought his first such buncher, fitted with a shear, in 1981. “It doubled production,” he says. “I have always heard daddy talk a lot about how much better he did once he moved to track cutters.”

When he went on his own, Turner used a Caterpillar 227, later switching to a Timbco, and then to Komatsu after that company acquired Timbco by way of Valmet.

He views tracked machines as a necessity for the terrain in which he works. “Between rain and steepness, we feel like we’d be broke down without them.” Turner did buy a rubber-tired machine, a Prentice 2470 car-

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FNT Logging harvests 10 to 12 loads of pulpwood for every load of logs. Trucks carry 28 ton payloads.

rier, in 2008, but rarely uses it. When he does, he switches between a Fecon mulching head and a Quadco felling head, depending on application.

Last year Turner traded in two lowhour machines for the pair of Komatsu cutters he now uses on both hardwood and pine crews. He did this, he says, simply to update his iron.

Both are 445L XT models with Quadco 22 in. felling heads and Quadco saw teeth. The head features 360° tilt. “That is a real plus when it comes to trimming big, rough trees in steep ground,” the logger believes.

“You can trim and top it better than when it only tilts side-to-side.” Both feature leveling cabs, another benefit when working on steep inclines.

Buys Timber, Land Not content merely with buying his own timber, Turner often buys the land as well. He’s made a habit of it.

He first started investing in land in the late ’90s and currently FNT owns about 450 acres of planted pine alone.

Some of it is now 17 years old, so he plans to thin it soon. At times he sells the cutover land and does not replant.

In some cases, he finds other ways to make a profit from it first. For example, Turner bought the entire 528-acre hardwood tract one of his crews was working when Timber Harvesting visited on a rainy day in late June. Set in some high elevation, the tract contains stone he hopes to sell. “A lot of this 12

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has field stone; sandstone, masonry stuff, so that is part of the investment,” he says. “Up here across the (Cumberland) Plateau, we have what they call mountain stone. Some of it just sits on top of the ground and there are layers of it. Crab orchard stone seems to be plentiful up here on this tract.” Once he is done with the timber he likely will make a deal with a stone company to remove the material.

In the meantime, FNT uses some of the rock for its own purposes. Turner has hired professionals to drill and shoot 10 ft. holes, blasting some larger rocks into gravel. Hauling it with his own dump trucks, he uses the gravel to build roads throughout the hilly to steep, hardwood-dominant tract, which is pretty typical of the types he harvests. Skidding and trucking are both impacted by the conditions.

Generally, the company fields three crews, although FNT sometimes blends two crews for some tracts.

Typically, one crew is devoted to hardwood tracts, another targets pine jobs and the third bids on road-widening jobs, especially in semi-urban areas with restrictions on burning.

The last crew, though, hasn’t been as busy of late. “It is slower than what it has been,” Turner says of that business. “It seems like there just aren’t many jobs right now in that market.”

That job runs a Morbark horizontal grinder, sending all wood fiber left behind by road crews or land clearing jobs as fuelwood to the Resolute mill.

Another main outlet for hardwood pulpwood is WestRock in Stevenson, Ala. Turner sends grade logs to a local sawmill, Neely Lumber Co. The crew harvests 10-12 loads of pulp for every load of logs. The crews collectively haul 75-80 loads a week. As much as possible, Turner tries to haul wood from his own land, but during colder, wetter months he also frequently works on pine sites provided

by Resolute.

Other Equipment FNT’s pine and hardwood crews use Barko 595 loaders and Caterpillar 545 skidders, the latter coming from Stowers Machinery in Knoxville.

Skidders use Primex 35x32 tires and are often fitted with Ecotracks to help with traction in the steep and sometimes muddy terrain. “They really make a big difference in the mud and the steepness,” Turner says. “I don’t know how we got by without them.”

A Hitachi and a Cat shovel machine float among the crews as needed for use in some of the steeper terrain.

Turner sometimes sends one of the shovels to the Resolute mill to help stockpile winter inventory.

Total equipment investment is estimated at $2 million, but Turner stresses, “We don’t run that much every day. I have stuff that is six or seven years old that is idle.” Notably, Turner has a longstanding practice of keeping older machines for backup

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Skidder is fitted with Ecotracks to aid traction in steep and/or muddy conditions.

pieces instead of trading them. “To me, if I trade in something with 7-8,000 hours, it is not worth much to them,” he explains. “If I trade, it will be early; if it’s still worth maybe half of what I gave (for it). If it gets to where they won’t trade good and aren’t worth much, I just keep it.”

Besides spares, he also uses an old loader near the road so that when weather and ground conditions prevent trucks from getting further uphill to the main ramp, he can still load and haul.

That practice was evident when TH vis-

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ited, while the Gulf Coast was in the midst of Tropical Depression Cindy.

He does sometimes sell his older machines at auction, but he has no set pattern. “I just mix it up and do it one way one time and a different way another time.” He always buys machines new, financing through Cat and Komatsu, and through a local bank for other brands.

Maintenance is done by the crew, which has two mechanics for trucks and woods equipment. They periodically bring each piece into the com-

pany shop for thorough maintenance and cleaning. Oil is changed every 250 hours.

The logger views the trucking side of his business as a necessary evil forced upon him. “I want no part of it,” he says. “I enjoy logging but if I could get away from the trucking side, I would.”

Currently he employs six drivers of his own and hires two contract haulers. He has four trucks parked, and he’d like to add more to accommodate increased production from the stroke delimber. “It is an awful problem trying to find drivers to add trucks. If you do find them, a lot of them take no pride in what they’re doing.” All FNT trucks are Peterbilts, bought from the Peterbilt dealer in Knoxville. Trailers are by Magnolia.

Truck drivers are also hard to find and insure, he admits. “I keep running into problems with (insurers) wanting them to have been a driver for a long time, a few years or so. Even my brother’s son who has been around it all his life, he got his CDL but they don’t want to put him on. So instead he is actually doing all my servicing on the trucks.”

Truck drivers are Andrew Turner,

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David Jordan, Mike Brewer, Paul Smith, Boyd Nelley and Larry Smith. Contractors are Trent Burtrum and Curt Music.

Mechanics are Jeff Brown and Trent Turner, Floyd’s nephew. Trent really wants to be a truck driver, but insurance refuses to add him to the policy, insisting that he gain more experience first (the question of how he should gain such experience while uninsured is murky). “I tried to explain to them he been around it all his life, but they don’t much want to hear that,” Floyd says. “Their solution is to send him to school, but he already has a CDL.”

History Like many, Turner grew up in logging, following in the footsteps of his father, Cleo Turner. Cleo had already spent nine years working in a factory when he married and started cutting firewood on the side to help support his new family.

He liked the work, and soon quit the factory and moved into the logging business full time. “As a kid I can remember him getting a skidder,” Turner recalls. “We had a tractor at one time and next thing you know we had the skidder and some trucks. We grew up pulling choker ropes.”

Turner joined his dad’s company, Turner Logging, after high school, eventually becoming a partner in it. By 1993— the year his dad was named Tennessee’s Logger of the Year— Turner’s wife, Barbara, encouraged him to get out on his own.

“We were growing and growing and they (Bowater in Calhoun) were pushing for more wood. I had other brothers who were getting older, and one brother had sons who were getting

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old enough to help. So we expanded and I went on my own. It scared me to death,” he chuckles.

By that time the company had enough equipment and employees to split the crews. Floyd took the old stuff while his dad kept the newer machines. One of the guys who went with Floyd then, Ricky Guy, is still with him today.

Guy now runs the loader and generally supervises the high elevation hardwood crew, working with his son Kevin, who drives the skidder on that crew. Terry Wolfe mans the cutter and Hunter Thompson operates the delimber on the hardwood crew. Turner spends most of his time on the hardwood crew because it is a lot more complicated.

He builds all the roads with a Cat d6 dozer and John Deere 720 road grader.

Henry Bice oversees the pine crew and runs the loader there. Keith White drives a skidder while Ray Thompson runs the cutter for both the pine crew and the clearing job, which was shorthanded in June. Zach Guy, a relative of Ricky Guy and Turner’s son-in-law (married to his daughter Tiffany), supervises the land clearing job. When needed, Zach borrows Thompson and anyone else he can from the other crews.

The logger is grateful for the employees he has, many of whom have been with him for a very long time. “It is hard to find good help,” Turner admits. “A lot are on drugs, and either they refuse to take a drug test or if they take it they fail. If it wasn’t for my old help I guess I would just have to quit.”

To have to hire a whole new crew now would be too daunting a task, he fears. In fact, this is another reason why he went back to using a stroke delimber. “I’m probably down about four people, and I had slowed it down on account of that.

Buying the stroke, I think we can get production up with less people and make it work with what we have.”

Turner pays his men by the hour, offering some bonuses if the year is going well. Employees receive two weeks paid vacation after having been on the crew a few years. FNT offers Aflac insurance to pay if an employee loses time at work due to illness or injury.

Though FNT lacks a formal safety program per se, the crews and foremen do hold regular meetings over lunch. Insurance is through Forestry Mutual.

Turner and his wife Barbara have three daughters: Melissa, 33, Tiffany, 28, and Faith, 19. “She has been through a lot of it with me,” Turner says of his wife. “She has put up with a lot, and she is active in the business. She helps a lot with bookkeeping.” Turner also hires a CPA, Bud Hauser, to help with taxes.

On his off time Turner races cars on tracks in the Dirt Racing late model (Crate) series. His car has a Rocket Chassis, manufactured in West Virginia. He started racing in 1993, the same year he started his logging company. He quit for a few years but has now gone back to it. He races every Friday night in good weather, except in the winter, and sometimes on Saturday nights too.

“We live and breathe it,” he says. “It has about gotten to be a job instead of a hobby. We work on it Thursdays, way into the night, and after the race Friday night it takes me about six hours to wash and clean it up.” Contract truck driver Trent Burtrum and skidder driver Keith White help work on the car regularly, and other members of the crew are welcome to get involved as well. “It’s a buddy thing,” Turner says. “If you want to come, we pay your way into TH the pits.”

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No Stranger To The Swamps Georgia’s Jeff Powell is accustomed to taking on any obstacle in his way.

J

eff Powell has made a living going where few loggers dare to go. The 56-year-old veteran has made a career out of cutting hardwood timber in or near swamps all over central Georgia. It’s no wonder he has a toughness about him that’s immediately noticeable.

Powell started going to the woods with his father when he was eight years old. His dad, John, started a logging business in 1959 and Powell worked with his father, also known as “Big John,” for much of his early adult life. In the early ’90s Powell decided it was time to go off on his own so Big John sold him a 325 Prentice loader and a 460 Timberjack skidder.

By 1993 Powell had established his own logging company, Jeff Powell Trucking (JPT). The early ’90s were a time when delimbers were becoming popular in Georgia. Powell tried to get his father to invest in one, but he was old school and resisted change, so the first thing Powell did when he purchased the Prentice loader from his father was put a CTR 314 delimber on it. He claims it was the first delimber in Johnson County.

Back in those days Powell was running one large crew with three skidders, three loaders, two tracked cutters and 10 trucks. He eventually started running three crews, but has since downsized to just one smaller crew

JAY Donnell and four trucks, but the quality of work Powell is known for never changed.

Operations When Timber Harvesting visited the Wrightsville-based business, Powell was clear-cutting hardwood on a very chalky tract surrounded by swamps.

This particular tract was the location of some reclaimed chalk mines. It took Powell nearly a week to build the road so that his crew could get to work.

“That chalk gets slick and if it rains a half inch you can’t move,” he says.

The four-man crew had been on the tract for two months and was finishing

Two Cat loaders top out another load of hardwood bound for Battle Lumber Co.

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off the last bit of timber. The site was actually dry.

Powell mainly cuts sawlogs for Battle Lumber Co. and buys very little timber himself. Battle Lumber is one of the largest hardwood sawmill operations in North America. JPT also hauls hardwood pulpwood to Rayonier in Collins and a small Jeff Powell amount of pine sawlogs to Howard Lumber in Statesboro.

JPT must follow strict guidelines put in place by Battle Lumber. The company always does all of the BMP work that’s necessary when moving to a new location and water bars are installed whenever necessary.

The 24-year-old company produces anywhere from 50-70 loads each week. “Quotas have been bad this year, but they’ve been bad since I first started,” Powell explains. “People always ask me how many loads I get a week and I tell them that I have gotten eight and I have gotten 120. We don’t

try to go out there and get 70-80 loads a week, but if it happens it happens.”

JPT’s employees are at it by 7 a.m. and usually stop around 5:30 p.m. each day. They don’t work in the woods on Saturdays, but do perform maintenance on trucks.

These guys don’t watch the clock though. They know what has to be done each day and they always have a plan in place. One of the key things about Powell’s business is that it has very little turnover.

Powell’s son, Marshall, has been the crew foreman and operated a loader for a decade. Clifford Claxton has been with the business for eight years and runs the tracked buncher.

David Irwin runs the skidder and Milton Costley runs the loader. Those two gentlemen have been with JPT for a combined 60 years. Teresa Bray has handled JPT’s books and paperwork since the business started.

Marshall Powell believes the lack of turnover has been a big key to the company’s success. “Everybody knows

what to do and everybody knows their job,” he says. “You don’t have to talk about it; everything runs smoothly.”

All new hires must take a drug test and all employees, including truck drivers, are subject to random testing.

Each employee is granted time off for major holidays and sickness.

Iron Lineup JPT recently added a 2017 Tigercat 635 six wheel, electronic controlled hydrostatic drive bogie skidder to its fleet. JPT also runs a 2014 Tigercat 845 tracked feller-buncher, John Deere 2054 shovel-swing machine, John Deere dozers, 2015 Cat 525C skidder, 2016 Cat 559C loader and a Cat 320D forestry excavator. (JPT hasn’t needed to use a chain saw on the job in over a decade.) The company’s main equipment dealers are Yancey Bros. in Washington, Tidewater in Hazlehurst and Flint Equipment in Macon.

Powell says the bogie skidder has been an excellent addition. It’s allowed operator Irwin to get into some areas he wouldn’t normally be able to get into with a traditional skidder. Tigercat promotes the machine as its

Powell says the 12-wheel Tigercat bogie skidder can go where other skidders cannot and pull more wood, with little additional fuel consumption.

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highest capacity skidder and geared for lowland logging.

Powell noticed the benefits almost immediately. “We’ve found out that it uses about the same amount of fuel as a regular skidder and it will pull almost twice the wood, plus it will go more places than a regular skidder can,” he explains. “It will pull half a load of wood if you need it to.”

Oil changing and greasing on the bogie skidder is basically the same as a normal skidder. The only difference is the oil has to be changed in the bogie planetary and it holds more oil than a regular skidder. If JPT is in a really swampy area and the machine is constantly getting wet it will get greased each day because the water will wash most of the grease away.

As far as regular equipment maintenance goes, JPT follows standard practices. Oil is changed every 300 hours and machines are greased twice a week.

Powell notes that training tracked buncher operators can be extremely difficult, especially with the kind of operation he’s running. Not only do

these operators have to learn how the machine works, they have to learn how to run it in wet, muddy conditions. The learning curve can take as long as nine months to a year.

JPT runs four trucks, including two 2016 Peterbilts, one 2013 Peterbilt and a 2008 Kenworth. Each truck pulls a Pitts trailer. The company uses contract trucks a little, but most of the time they can get by without them.

The 2016 Peterbilts are equipped with GPS systems. Powell has thought about putting dash cams on his trucks, but has not pulled the trigger on those just yet. Truck drivers are Allen Johnson, Julius Brown, Lee Marshall and D.C. Webb. Johnson and Brown have been with the business for more than 20 years while Webb has been with the business for eight. Marshall was hired only a few months ago.

The farthest drivers have to haul is about 150 miles, but their usual haul is only 50 miles. DOT manages to give Powell a few headaches. “They’re aggravating and it’s usually just ‘nit picky’ stuff that doesn’t amount to much,” he says. “You see a lot of

older trucks on the road, but they just want to pick on us for something.”

Powell also notes that truck insurance rates continue to go up. “Somebody can buy $25,000 worth of liability on a car and then they’ll hit a $150,000 truck,” he says. “If it’s their fault you’re not going to get anything out of them.”

Big Picture Powell has roughly $2 million invested in JPT. He believes that his after tax business profit for the past year was on par with his investment.

“If it wasn’t we would shut the operation down,” he jokes.

While JPT may not be the size it once was, it still runs an efficient and quality operation. Tigercat, Caterpillar and John Deere dealers rave about the job they do. “Most of my stuff is paid for except for a couple pieces,” Powell explains. “I try to stay in a good financial position.”

He’s not looking to expand the business anytime soon as he knows the headaches involved in running multi-

In addition to felling trees, operator of Tigercat 822C can also deftly remove limbs.

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The crew, from left: Milton Costley, David Irwin, Marshall Powell, Jeff Powell, Clifford Claxton

ple crews, but he will leave that decision up to Marshall, who is expected to take over the business in a few years.

Marshall is already the crew foreman and directs the trucks so he has gained a lot of experience that will be invaluable when he eventually takes over.

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Powell notes that the biggest change he’s seen in the industry is trucking insurance. Prices continue to skyrocket making it nearly impossible to hire a new driver unless his record is impeccable. The biggest “non change” he’s seen has been the prices

for pine logs. While he would like to see logging rates improve, he does note that Battle Lumber keeps him in quality timber.

Powell’s advice to all young loggers is simple. “Get some money in the bank before you start buying a new truck or buying your wife or girlfriend a new car,” he says.

“Maybe you have the capability of hauling 75 loads per week, but what’s going to happen when you can only take 20 to the mill?”

While Powell continues to oversee JPT he also has his hand in another venture, a seafood business. Parker Fish Co. is based in Wrightsville where Powell has a freezer that can hold a very large amount of product.

Most of it comes from the East Coast and Powell’s company sells it throughout the Southeast.

When Powell isn’t overseeing his logging company and seafood operation you can find him deep sea fishing.

He fishes for dolphin, tuna and wahoo.

Whether his crew is logging near a swamp or he’s fishing off the coastline, it’s safe to say Powell likes to TH stay near the water.

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BIG

Investment, Hardwood

Jason Fly takes safety, merchandising to a higher level with heavyweight machine combo.

W

JORDANAnderson

hen asked what drew him into logging in 2010, Jason Fly, 41, responds, “I always liked the equipment, the big machines, and I enjoy merchandising the timber, especially big hardwood.”

Six years later, Fly expanded his operations, now based in Clarendon, Ark., and his equipment became bigger. But that’s only part of the story, at least for one of his three crews, which is now also more mechanized and safer, not to mention more adept at merchandising bigger timber, which benefits all parties in the wood supply chain.

In the fall of 2016 Fly worked with Daniel Morgan, his salesman at Stribling Equipment in Tupelo, Miss., and Tom Hirt, owner of FSK Equipment & Supply, based in McKinney, Tex.,

who represents Log Max in Fly’s region, to acquire a new John Deere 3756G swing machine equipped with a new Log Max 12000XT harvesting/ processing head—the largest on the market. At 107,000 lbs., the 3756G is also the largest swing machine Deere makes. The 12000XT is almost 10 ft. high and weighs 9,300 lbs.

The investment totaled more than $675,000. Fly and his employees affectionately refer to the machine combo, something usually seen on the steep slopes far to the Northwest, as “The Hulk.”

Familiar with pull-through delimbers and their limited ability when it comes to big timber, and having no past experience with processors, Fly knew he needed something big enough

to handle the size hardwood he’s cutting in Arkansas river bottoms. He praises Morgan and Hirt for making the process a painless one. “Both Deere and Tigercat recommended the Log Max head. Daniel put me in touch with Tom and they did the research for me. They both met with me to make sure the equipment would meet my needs. I went with the Deere-Log Max combo through Stribling Equipment because JD Financial was able to work out the financing,” he says.

Fly has primarily used “The Hulk” to process trees at the landing. When he first took delivery of the combo he used it to both fell and process, and still does, depending on the tract and tree size, but ground conditions often dictate that it remain at the landing in processing

Jason Fly, inset, acquired “The Hulk” last fall to cut and process big bottomland hardwood.

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mode. Typically, he cuts most trees with a Tigercat 726G fitted with a hot saw.

The heavyweight combo can handle trees up to 40 in. in diameter, using its on-board computer to accurately slash logs to precise lengths.

Compared to manual measuring with tapes and bucking with chain saws, the mechanical method is faster, more accurate, less wasteful, much safer, and reduces workers’ comp insurance cost.

The head is equipped with two saws. The main one has a 45 in. bar and ¾ in. pitch chain for felling; the second one, used Fly’s markets remain strong and keep him in a diverse mix of timber. for slashing during processing, has a 30 in. bar and .404 pitch chain. Fly Expansion Details uses Oregon chain.

Fly started his company, Jason Fly Steve Wilson, the current combo Logging, LLC after working in prooperator, has worked for Fly for two curement and timberland management years. He started as a loader operator for 12 years. “I always wanted to get and welcomed the opportunity to man into logging and the timing was just “The Hulk” at the beginning of this right for me to start. I feel like all the year. Another operator trained on the places I worked before starting my equipment for about two months becompany gave me a lot of knowledge fore leaving Fly’s company to work and experience that’s really helped me closer to home. Before coming to be a better logger,” he says. He started work for Fly Wilson operated a similar with three John Deere machines he machine in a Mississippi wood yard, bought from Warrior Tractor & Equipgiving him an advantage when it came ment in Athens, Ala. His brother, to training. Log Max sent representaRicky Fly, who has logging and sawtives twice to Fly’s job site to provide mill interests in Mississippi, assisted instruction on operating the head. in financing his initial purchase.

“Steve really surprised me with how In 2014 Fly was faced with a decifast he picked it up,” Fly says. “He’s sion: shut down or move elsewhere. doing a great job.”

“When the IP mill in Courtland, Ala. When it’s time to move “Hulk” shut down it got to where we couldn’t from one site to another an overweight permit is required from Arkansas DOT. Accordingly, Fly purchased a 55-ton Pitts lowboy from Crouse Truck Parts & Equipment in Sheridan, Ark. “There was definitely a learning curve in loading and moving it but we’ve got it down now,” he shares.

The ambitious logger notes he’d eventually like to have a machine equipped with a processing head for his other two crews. “Logging is evolving to get men off the ground.

Using the processor cuts back on the number of people required and gets men off the ground, which makes everything safer. The processor is saving me money on both labor and insurTigercat 726G takes down the majority of trees. ance,” he says.

hardly work, so I knew I was going to have to branch out and do something different. That’s how I got into logging in Arkansas,” he explains.

He set up a shop and offices in Clarendon, Ark., a base from which he typically works within a 150-mile radius, spanning east from the White River in Arkansas to the I-55 corridor in Mississippi.

A typical hardwood tract for Fly is select-cut with a diameter limit for different species or trees that have been marked. In pine he mostly clear-cuts but does perform some occasional first and second thinnings. During the summer and fall both hardwood and pine tracts he works can reach 400 acres, with smaller tracts more common in the winter. His crews do a good deal of work on the Mississippi, White and Cache Rivers, where they cut timber

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for hunting clubs or harvest in wildlife refuges.

The move west has proved to be a profitable one. Since entering Arkansas he added a second crew in 2015 and a third in 2016. He also started an OTR trucking company last year, Fly & Sons Trucking, LLC. When asked about future growth Fly says that his plate is full enough for now. “I’ve got plenty to handle right now. I’m not thinking about adding anything else, at least until another pulpwood mill opens in my markets,” he says.

Markets When Timber Harvesting visited Fly in late June, his crew running “The Hulk” was on a 150-acre hardwood tract in the Saline River bottom near Benton, Ark. The site supported some oaks almost three feet in diameter at the ground. Logs were going to Taylor & Sons (T&S) Sawmill, owner of the tract, in Clarendon; pulpwood to Evergreen Packaging in Pine Bluff.

Fly’s second crew was in Magnolia, Ark. clear-cutting a 36-acre tract of pine and hardwood owned by Union County Timber. From there pine and hardwood pulpwood were going to International Paper in Domino, Tex., pine logs to Georgia-Pacific in Gurdon and pine chip-n-saw to West Fraser in Leola. The third crew was in Batesville, Miss. select-cutting a 118-acre hardwood tract owned by T&S Sawmill, with products going to Evergreen Packaging and T&S Sawmill.

Like many loggers, Fly says that the weather seems to be his worst enemy.

“My markets are good, it’s the weather that’s my issue,” he says. Since the beginning of the year Fly’s crews have averaged only two days a week, which he says is due to poor weather conditions and high river levels. He believes his markets will remain strong and that new mills coming to Arkansas, such as the Shandong Sun Paper pulp and bio products plant expected to open in Arkadelphia in 2020, will allow him to increase production again.

When operating at full capacity Fly’s crews are capable of extracting up to 300 loads a week. Production goes down to about 175 loads a week during the winter. Fly says he’s currently not on any quotas and running at about 60% of his capacity, getting out about 170 loads a week. His company cuts an average of 5,000 acres of timber each year.

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(Top row, L to R) Josh Johnson, Ronnie Pittman, James B. Smith (Bottom row, L to R) Steve Wilson, Jason Fly, Mark Welch (inset) Chris “Possum” McMullen

Operations & Trucking Fly has 41 employees, including an Operations Manager and Safety Coordinator Chris McMullen, a Truck Dispatcher and Shop Manager in Jason Wimberly, and a secretary, Alayne Morris.

Manpower, Equipment Other crew members as of early July included Troy Johnson, Joe Flowers, Mario Key, Vester Justice, Randy Goodwin, Ernan Rios, Brent Anderson, Michael Long. William Elmore, Jimmie Barbee, Henry Reed.

Mechanics are William Busby, Anthony Kenyon, William Earl Martin.

Truck drivers are Eric McKee, David Morris, Joseph Morris, Thomas Wells, Kenny Hardy, Tommy Findley, David Reich, James Marty Doubleday, William Smith, Harvey Byars, Keontae Holmes, Chris Morris, Malcom Dillinghan, Brandon Grace, Daron Meeks, Jason Cleveland, Charles Bozarth, David Clarke.

Other equipment: John Deere—2 feller-bunchers, 2 dozers, 1 skidder, 1 loader; Tigercat—4 skidders, 2 feller-bunchers, 2 loaders; Caterpillar—3 dozers, 1 skidder, 1 loader, 1 excavator; Barko—1 loader; CSI—2 slashers, 2 delimbers; Champion—1 road grader; trucks—16 Peterbilt, 2 Mack, 2 Kenworth; trailers—8 Magnolia, 6 Pitts, 4 McClendon, 3 Manac, 3 Sun, 1 Kaufman

McMullen holds monthly safety meetings with each crew. He keeps write-up sheets on hand for employee safety violations and documents as much as possible for insurance and OSHA audits. Wimberly regularly holds truck driver training classes in Clarendon with a certified instructor.

McMullen and Wimberly together handle all DOT and OSHA matters, including annual inspections and regular maintenance and repairs for equipment and trucks.

Fly’s 40x80 ft. shop houses a 10,000 gallon tank for diesel supplied

by Mid-South Sales out of Little Rock, as well as showers and beds for truck drivers and mechanics. There are two full-time mechanics at the shop and a third who floats between job sites.

Crew members and mechanics handle all equipment and truck maintenance and repairs “up to the point of plugging it into the computer,” says Fly. There are currently 20 trucks on Fly’s roster, with 15 working in the woods and five over the road. Fly says he hasn’t had any issues so far with trucking insurance but has experienced a lot of driver turnover. “Good, qualified truck drivers are getting harder and harder to find,” he laments.

He’s never had a truck accident with injury reported and is strongly considering putting dash cameras in his trucks as a defense mechanism and to help with insurance costs. “I’m really thinking hard and heavy about it.

Dash cams would really help a lot when there’s an accident. We’re probably going to end up getting them,” Fly says. When needed, he contracts with C&K McMullen, Randy Jones Trucking and Jones Bros. Trucking.

Suppliers Fly likes to run newer equipment, typically nothing over two years old.

For any needs that arise with his Deere equipment he has two Stribling locations to supply service and parts depending on the location of the job site.

“The good thing about Stribling is that they have locations in Mississippi and Arkansas, which makes it easy to get what I need,” Fly relates. He utilizes JD Link technology in all of his Deere equipment.

For Tigercat equipment Fly works with Johnny Burton of B&G Equipment out of Iuka, Miss. For Caterpillar equipment he works with Wade Burrows of Thompson Machinery in

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Memphis, Tenn. He also has a Barko loader purchased from Crouse Truck Parts & Equipment.

Fly’s Peterbilt needs are met by the dealerships in both Memphis and Little Rock. Drew Williams with MHC Kenworth and Robert Blake with Tri-State Truck Center, both based in Memphis, supplied Fly’s Kenworth and Mack trucks. In addition to the PACCAR diagnostic software that comes built into his Peterbilts, Fly also uses the TeleTrac GPS Tracker app-based software to track his truck’s locations and monitor their speed. Trailers have been supplied by LMI-Tennessee in Waverly, Crouse Truck Parts & Equipment, B&G Equipment, and some have come direct from manufacturers.

Bobby Henard Tire Service out of Brinkley, Ark. handles most equipment and truck tires. He prefers to use Firestone on equipment and Yokohama on trucks. Truck parts are sourced from TruckPro with locations in Memphis and Little Rock. Fly likes to find new local suppliers based on where his crews will be working.

“Chris will scope out a new area that

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we’re moving into to find suppliers, places to stay, that sort of thing. Buying locally helps build relationships with people in the area,” he says.

Charlie Perkins with HUB International Gulf South in Oxford, Miss. handles all of Fly’s insurance needs. He relies on Joe Black, an independent CPA in Water Valley, Miss., to keep his finances in order.

Family & Faith Fly, the youngest of five siblings, has a pretty big family himself. He and his wife of 16 years, Beth, have four sons: Paul, 15, Ben, 12, Andrew, 10, and Mason, 8. Out of their four boys two of them, Paul and Mason, want to follow in their father’s footsteps.

Careers in the timber industry run in the Fly family. After earning a forestry degree from Mississippi State University in 1998, Fly went to work as a procurement forester for his brother, Ricky.

As to getting more young people interested in logging, Fly says there’s a big need for better training and more schools for those wanting to enter the

ranks. “Nobody gets into logging these days unless it’s in your blood,” he asserts. Fly is a current member of the Arkansas Timber Producers Assn. and strongly supports educational and training opportunities through the organization.

When he’s not at work Fly enjoys spending time with his family, cooking on the grill, duck and deer hunting, and college football. He and his family attend First Baptist Church in Batesville, Miss. and regularly make charitable donations to organizations like Log-A-Load For Kids and St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital. Fly has also spent some time volunteering.

“I’ve been to a homeless shelter in Memphis several times helping feed folks. It’s really eye opening,” he shares.

At the end of the day Fly credits his success to date to his faith and employees. “I’ve been blessed with some good employees. We’re only as good as our employees. You have to put God first and treat everybody right to the best of your ability. If you treat people right, it always comes back to you,” he says with a smile.

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Elmia Wood: “Better Than Google” Despite less than ideal weather, Sweden’s Elmia Wood boasted its largest numbers yet.

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DAVIDAbbott

eld every four years, it’s touted as the world’s largest forestry fair, and the 2017 version of Elmia Wood only solidified that reputation. With 85,000 square meters (915,000 sq. ft.) of stand space, 7 kilometers (4.3 miles) of walking trail and 131,000 square meters (1.4 million sq. ft.) of live demo area, this year’s international event was not only the biggest ever, it is reportedly Sweden’s largest fair of any kind.

Taking place in a forest south of Jönköping, Sweden from June 7-10, the show brought in 555 exhibitors from 28 countries in six continents. Of those, 200 exhibited at Elmia for the first time. Along the forest trail, exhibitors demonstrated 143 machines. In all, show organizers report an attendance of 41,834.

Persistent rain and cooler than normal temperatures did not deter many, as the dense foot traffic was treated to a thorough overview of what is available in the international forestry community. Called “better than Google” by one such visitor, the fair allowed professionals from all over the world to make connections with companies and potential customers they otherwise would never have known existed.

Two new sections, Load and Transport, focused on the logistics of wood hauling, and the Drone Zone, which featured conferences and live demonstrations of drones in forestry applications, pulled in heavy crowds.

Many manufacturers debuted new technology and innovations. Among Rottne’s premieres was a new harvester, the H8D. New products from software

maker Haglöf Sweden included improvements to its Vertex Laser Geo height measuring systems; TrailBlazer, a system for finding forest boundaries; EC II D digital clinometers with new distance calculation function; and a slope corrector add-on to the DP II caliper for measuring horizontal distances.

Palfinger Epsilon presented prototypes of its new Q-Series (on-road) and S-Series (off-road) forwarder cranes. Finnish company Kesla introduced its new 17 metric ton straight-boom crane, the 2117. John Deere premiered its IBC (intelligent boom control) for harvesters and its new 1170G 8-wheeled harvester.

Celebrating its 25th anniversary, Tigercat gave a glimpse of its upcoming 1185 8-wheeled harvester.

The next Elmia Wood show is TH scheduled for summer 2021.

Rainy weather and cooler temps didn’t keep record numbers from attending.

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At left, Tigercat’s new 1185 is a 34-metric ton harvester with WideRange drive system for steep, difficult terrain. At right, SP Maskiner presented its innovative FDM (floating diameter measuring) system and SP 661 LF harvester head.

More than 40,000 attended over the four days of the fair.

Doppstadt, Sennebogen and Van Osch Construction & Forest Machinery shared exhibit/demo space.

“World Premiere, 1170G 8W: Agile, Stable, Productive”

Several chipper/grinder companies were at Elmia.

Finnish company Kesla launched its new series of large harvester heads.

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AMERICAN LOGGERS COUNCIL 23rd Annual Meeting • September 28-30, 2017 Natchez Grand Hotel • Natchez, Mississippi

“Southern Hospitality”

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n behalf of the American Loggers Council and the Mississippi Loggers Association, I invite you to attend our 23rd Annual Meeting in historic Natchez, Mississippi.

Natchez celebrated its 300th birthday in 2016, and there is plenty to see and do in the area, from exploring the Natchez Trace Parkway to visiting many of the historical sites in and around Natchez, including the Mississippi River as it winds its way down into the Gulf of Mexico.

Getting to Natchez is not difficult and can be accessed from several airports, including Alexandria, Baton Rouge, Monroe and New Orleans, La., or Jackson, Miss. You should plan on renting a car and enjoying the scenic drive to Natchez.

All events with the exception of the welcome reception and the Mississippi

logging tour on Thursday and the ladies’ tours on Friday and Saturday will be held at the spacious Natchez Convention Center directly across the street from the Grand Hotel.

Sandy and I are excited that you are visiting our part of the country, and we, as well as the MLA, will do all that we can to make this a trip that you will enjoy. Come relax in the surroundings and find out why we are proud to call Mississippi our home.

Ken Martin President

ALC’s Live Auction – Friday, September 29 Item Name: ________________________________________________________________ Description of Item:__________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________________ Estimated Value:____________________________________________________________ Donor:____________________________________________________________________ Contact person: ____________________________________________________________ The American Loggers Council is a nonprofit 501(c)(6) organization. Donations given to the ALC for auction items may not be written off as a charitable contribution. Please have all donated auction items turned in at the registration desk by noon on Friday, September 29 to facilitate setting up the event. Thank you!

If you need to ship your auction item to the meeting, please send to: Natchez Convention Center, c/o Valerie Quinn-Conference Services Manager, 211 Main Street, Natchez, MS 39120, Attn: American Loggers Council– Danny Dructor, function beginning 9/28/2017, 601-442-5880, ext. 303 All shipped auction items need to arrive at the Natchez Convention Center by no later than September 28 and not before September 25.

23rd Annual Meeting Agenda Thursday, September 28 7 am–5 pm: Registration, exhibits open, Natchez Convention Center (NCC) 8 am–4 pm: Optional Mississippi Logging Tour (includes lunch) 6 pm–8 pm: Cocktail Welcome Reception at the Grand Hotel (Light Hors’d Oeuvres); Explore Natchez for dinner 9–9:30 pm: Executive Committee meeting, Grand Hotel

Friday, September 29 6 am–12 noon: Registration, exhibits open at NCC 6:15–7:45 am: Breakfast buffet at NCC 8 am–3 pm: Educational seminars at NCC (includes lunch) 8:30 am–4 pm: Ladies Vicksburg tour (includes lunch at Anchuca Historic Mansion & Inn) 6 pm–7 pm: President’s Reception, NCC 7–10 pm: President’s Dinner & ALC Auction at NCC

Saturday, September 30 7 am–8 am: Registration, exhibits open at NCC 7–8 am: Breakfast buffet at NCC 8–9 am: Board of Directors Meeting at NCC 9:15–11:30 am: Full Membership Meeting at NCC 12–1:30 pm: Full Membership Awards Luncheon— sponsor recognition, Presidents Award & Logging Activist of the Year Award 8 am–3:30 pm: Ladies–Use your free pass to catch a ride on the red bus to tour Natchez with friends.

Lunch at noon at Bowie’s Tavern 6–7 pm: President’s Farewell Reception at NCC 7–10 pm: President’s Farewell Banquet at NCC, Roll Call of the States, Timber Harvesting’s Logging Business of the Year Award, Passing of the Gavel Presentation

Booking Your Hotel We have made contracts with the Grand Hotel.

Reservations can be made by using the front desk reservation number: 1-601-446-9994.

Room Rates Single/Double Deluxe King/Double Queen (city view) $119 Deluxe King/Double Queen (river view) $129 An amenity package of $9.95 per day will be added to room rate and includes jump start breakfast, local and long-distance phone calls, seamless, wireless internet access, on-site parking, fax and copy services, laundry facility, and access to 24-hour business and fitness centers.

When reserving your room, please identify yourself with the American Loggers Council Group in order to receive the special group rate.

The cut-off date for the hotel is September 1, 2017, and it will be here before you know it!

Getting There The closest airport to Natchez, Miss. is Alexandria International Airport, airport code AEX.

Association Supporters

The American Loggers Council would like to thank these businesses for their year-round support and sponsorship of our organization: American Loggers Insurance, Barko Hydraulics, BITCO Insurance Companies, Caterpillar Forest Products, Forest Insurance Center Agency, Inc., Forestry Mutual Insurance, Hatton-Brown Publishers, Hawkins & Rawlinson, John Deere, Komatsu America Corp., Loggers World Magazine, The Lyme Timber Co., Morbark, Peterbilt, Peterson-Pacific, Ponsse, Rotochopper, Southern Loggers Cooperative, Stihl, Tigercat, TimberPro, and Vermeer.

Local Sponsors—The following made contributions to help offset meeting costs and to help keep registration affordable: Adams County Cattlemen’s Assn., B & G Equipment, Community Bank, Drax Biomass, Good Hope Land & Timber Management, Georgia-Pacific, GCR Tires & Service, Landmax Timber Co., Mississippi Forestry Assn., Mississippi Loggers Assn., Molpus Woodlands Group, Resource Management Services, Risk Management Partners, Southern Ag Credit, ACA, Stribling Equipment and Trustmark

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AMERICAN LOGGERS COUNCIL 23RD ANNUAL MEETING SEPTEMBER 28-30 • REGISTRATION FORM Please submit one form for each attendee. Make copies if needed.

(CIRCLE ONE)

Mr. Ms. Mrs.

Name:________________________________________________ Nickname for badge: ________________________________ Company: _____________________________________________________________________________________________ Logging Association: _____________________________________________________________________________________ Address: ______________________________________________________________________________________________ City:_______________________________________ State:________________ ZIP: __________________________________ Phone:_____________________ Fax:_____________________ E-mail: ____________________________________________

FULL MEETING REGISTRATION INCLUDES:

Thursday Logging Tour ● Friday Welcome Reception ● Friday ALC Ladies Tour Friday President’s Reception & Dinner & Auction ● Saturday Awards Luncheon ● President’s Farewell Reception & Banquet ● Friday and Saturday Breakfast

● ●

REGISTRATION FEES PLEASE CHECK ONLY THE EVENTS YOU PLAN TO ATTEND. WE NEED AN ACCURATE COUNT.

ALC Member Registration Fee: √ ■ Early Bird Registration (postmarked by 8/31/2017) ■ On-Site Registration (after 8/31/2017)

$325.00 $375.00

■ Thursday’s Logging Tour ■ Thursday’s Welcome Reception

ALC Spouse Registration Fee: √ ■ Early Bird Registration (postmarked by 8/31/2017)

$300.00

■ ■ ■ ■

■ On-Site Registration (after by 8/31/2017)

$350.00

Non-Member Registration Fee: √

■ Early Bird Registration (postmarked by 8/31/2017) ■ On-Site Registration (after 8/31/2017)

Included Events √

Friday—Logger Breakfast Friday—ALC Ladies Tour, Vicksburg, Miss. Lunch at Anchuca Friday—Seminars and Lunch Friday—President’s Reception, Banquet & Auction

■ Saturday—Logger Breakfast ■ Saturday—Full Membership Meeting $400.00 ■ Saturday—‘Design Your Own’ Ladies Tour on the “Red Bus,” $375.00

Lunch at Bowie’s Tavern

■ Saturday—Full Membership Awards Luncheon ■ Saturday—Farewell Reception/Banquet I have enclosed full payment for the events indicated for the total amount of $ _____________ Please make check payable to: American Loggers Council For best rates, please complete and mail or fax by August 31 to: American Loggers Council • c/o Doris Dructor PO Box 966, Hemphill, TX 75948 • Fax: (409) 625-0207 CANCELLATION POLICY: Registration cancellation by August 10=full refund; cancellation by August 31=50% refund; cancellation after August 31=no refund NO SHOW POLICY: Early bird registered attendees that do not cancel by August 31 will be billed.

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EquipmentWorld

Tigercat Celebrates Silver Anniversary Starting as a small company with a where more than 1,500 people—most Donald and Iarocci. “I am happy to single prototype and no distribution, of them employees and their families— see the machine returning home where Tigercat has come a long way since attended to help celebrate the special it belongs,” stated Hodge. the Canadian corporation was offimilestone.

There was an entire room dedicated cially incorporated in January of 1992.

Attending were customers and dealas the “Tigercat Gallery,” which This year is the silver anniversary of ers from all over of the world, includshowcased a slide show of archived the Brantford, Ontario-based entity. ing Australia, New Zealand, Russia, photos of the first machines, the first The design of the first prototype maSouth Africa, Brasil, Chile and the field visits, and the first trade shows. chine, known as the 726 drive-to-tree U.S. and Canada.

The gallery displayed framed articles feller-buncher, started in 1991. “We The evening started out with guests that represented milestone events began designing the 726 in the fall of taking group photos in front of the rethroughout the 25-year history. Photos 1991 with a goal to have it completed built prototype and with Eddie Hodge of the first cut-to-length machine, a and ready to exhibit at a live, in-woods of Williston Timber giving the origi1018 forwarder, and the first track mashow in Quitman, Georgia in April nal 726 keys over to CEO Ken Macchine, an 853 track feller-buncher, 1992. Although lacking some were suspended from the ceilfinishing touches, such as finding to showcase how far the ing a location for the batteries, product line has come from which we had temporarily sethe original 726 model. The cured with bungee cords under gallery was the perfect spot the engine, we loaded it on a for many to share memories truck and set out for the southand laugh about the good oldeast USA,” explains Tigercat days.

President Tony Iarocci.

After guests mingled and Don Snively, now district reminisced, dinner started manager for the southern U.S., with customer Bobby Goodtoured the prototype machine son of South Carolina blessing around the country for 40 days the meal. Dinner included a until a logger took a leap of faith delicious, well-organized bufand it found a home at Williston fet with tables decorated TiThe Williston Timber clan with the prototype 726 feller-buncher on its Timber in north Florida. gercat-style with die cast maway back home.

“The 726 established a founchine models, decorative dation for the company to dewood slices and ferns. velop from and allowed TigerIarocci started off the cat to gain respect in the marspeeches for the night, touching ketplace,” Iarocci adds. on how the company came to To commemorate its silver be and some key memories anniversary, Tigercat took in from the early days. He trade the prototype machine thanked dealers and employees from Williston Timber so it for all their support and hard could return home, be restored work, followed by a big thank and live on for decades to come. you to customers. He singled out the first two customers that took the leap of faith on TigerThe Celebration cat: Williston Timber of north The unveiling of the rebuilt Florida and Clary Logging of Tigercat was pleased to have in attendance Ken Martin, left, a customer and Cordele, Georgia, and giving an prototype 726 took place on president of the American Loggers Council (ALC), and ALC executive vice June 17 at Tigercat’s 25-year honorable mention to the late party at Bingemans Conference president Danny Dructor, second from right. Second from left is Ken Mad- Johnny Hodge and Tougy Donald, Tigercat CEO, and at far right is Tony Iarocci, Tigercat President.

Center in Kitchener, Ontario, Clary.

The big crowd was corralled in front of the Tigercat machines on display.

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EquipmentWorld Swamp Loggers star Goodson shared his experiences as a logger, talking about his first Tigercat machine and how Tigercat played a role in his life over the years.

Yuriy and Yana Torokhov, owners of Russian dealer Forestry Machines, surprised Tigercat with a traditional Russian group that played songs over video to honor Tigercat’s milestone.

International product support representative Gary Olsen, along with Iarocci and MacDonald, were brought on stage and each was given a traditional Russian instrument, the balalaika, as a thoughtful and humorous gift.

Communications manager Paul Iarocci introduced the 25th anniversary movie, 25, a Film by Tigercat. The film brought laughter and tears, and finished with the crowd standing and applauding approval.

MacDonald closed the night with a very emotional speech in which he thanked everyone for their hard work and dedication. A special thank you was given to his family, while his proud father watched from the front row.

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Growth, Success MacDonald and Iarocci stressed that design and manufacturing excellence, dedication to the customer, vision, perseverance and teamwork have advanced Tigercat to where it is today.

“I am overjoyed that the world record holders for harvesting and extraction and almost all of the top loggers and forestry companies already use our equipment. I find the greatest pleasure in working with them to create the optimal harvesting solutions and seeing them succeed,” MacDonald said.

Now offering over 50 different machine models, and having produced 19,000 machines and counting, Tigercat has grown into a global success story by helping its customers to succeed. With an employee count of 1,400 and over 150 independent dealer locations worldwide, Tigercat has accomplished what many thought to be unimaginable in just 25 years.

Exhibitors Booking Space For Mid-Atlantic Expo Exhibitors have begun selecting lot and booth locations for the fourth version of Mid-Atlantic Logging & Biomass Expo, according to Jack Swanner, manager of the biennial event, which runs September 15-16.

Swanner also announced the 2017 show will take place in a mature pine stand located adjacent to U.S. highway 74 some six miles northwest of Laurinburg, NC near the South Carolina line.

Other nearby towns include Rockingham, Southern Pines and Lumberton.

“Live exhibitors will be pleased to know that this is a clear-cut site and their lots will be three to four times larger than they have been in our past expos,” Swanner reports. “We are indebted to Clay Creed with Shoeheel Land Management and to Boyd McLaurin with Canal Wood for their work in securing this premium site.”

For exhibit space and rate information, visit malbexpo.com or contact Swanner at 828-421-8444.

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EquipmentWorld Wallingford’s Is New Carlton Distributor

Dealers Join Barko Hydraulics

Wallingford’s Inc. has been appointed as a Carlton harvester and slasher chain distributor to serve customers across North America. With its headquarters in Oakland, Me., Wallingford has distribution facilities in New Hampshire and Washington, and the Canadian provinces of Alberta and Ontario.

Founded in 1975, Wallingford’s is one of the largest wholesale distributor of logging supplies in North America, serving nearly 3,000 OEM, distributors and dealers. John Wallingford, President of Wallingford’s Inc. states, “We are very excited with this new cooperation, as it unites two great brands, thus offering our customers one stop purchasing with incredible choices.”

Carlton harvester saw chain has a chamfer chisel cutter for .404 pitch chain that features a three edge cutting surface design for excellent performance and higher cutting speeds. This chain also boasts an advanced

Barko Hydraulics, Superior, Wis., announced the addition of two dealers for logging and land clearing equipment—TraxPlus, based in Hickory, Miss., and ARDCO Equipment, based in New Iberia, La. Both dealers will handle sales and service of Barko loaders, industrial wheeled tractors, harvesters and feller-bunchers.

TraxPlus was established in 2013 after several years of part-time equipment sales and a family history of logging came together. chrome-plating process, which yields maximum cutter sharpness that holds an edge in the most brutal conditions.

Visit wallingfords.com or call 800323-3708

McLucas Finishes First In Loader Competition Shaun McLucas of Rangeley, Me. won the Caterpillar Loader Championship at the Northeastern Forest Products Equipment Expo in May with a time of 2:27:06.

His time was just over a second faster than Marc Riendeau of Danville,

Vt., who took second place with a time of 2:28:16.

Third place went to Heath Taylor of Baldwin, Me., who had a time of 2:32:50.

The event raised $1,406 for Log-ALoad for Kids, an organization sponsored by loggers and others in the forest products industry to benefit hospitals associated with the Children’s Miracle Network. The funds include voluntary contestant donations, a matching contribution from Caterpillar, and merchandise sales.

Some 100 participated in the competition.

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SelectCuts As We (ALC) See It

Safety Or More Railroad Profits?

DANNY DRUCTOR We value the opinion of professionals who harvest and haul the wood fiber necessary to accommodate the daily needs of the public, but sometimes we need to vent the frustrations we encounter when trying to help provide a safer working environment for the men and women Dructor in our industry.

For the past 20 years—that’s right, 20 years—members of the American Loggers Council have been seeking Congressional support for allowing state legal weight tolerances on Interstate highways for safety reasons. This would often allow log trucks to avoid small towns and communities where stop signs, right and left turns, pedestrians, and even railroad crossings could be circumvented if those trucks, as well as other agricultural commodity haulers, were allowed on Interstates with state-legal weights.

There are no windfall profits expected from such a move, nor would all routes to mills include the Interstate system. Here’s another thing: on half the miles on these short hauls the trucks would be empty, and data from the National Highway Transportation Safety Administration’s Fatal Accident Reporting System (FARS) show there are fewer fatalities involving log trucks on Interstates than on all other roads. Yet railroad lobbyists continue

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to oppose the ALC proposal.

A recent request to meet with some railroad representatives was turned down, and they are already lining up to try and prevent the proposed amendment to make exemptions that would allow these trucks to access the Interstate system. I hope their reasons are not based on suppressing competition for freight to maximize their profits, and I do expect to hear from them on just how unsafe it would be to allow these trucks on Interstate highways, even though they are subject to all DOT inspections and CSA regulations that the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration and Dept. of Transportation administer.

What is their real motive, safety or profits? You decide.

Dructor is Executive Vice President for the American Loggers Council, a 501 (c) (6) non- profit trade organization representing professional timber harvesters in 32 states. Visit amloggers.com or phone 409-625-0206.

Friday with presentations by Wendy Farrand, who will address the hiring and retention of employees; and Jeremiah O’Donovan and Jimmie Locklear, who will update TEAM Safe Trucking’s progress and discuss its driver training template. Attorney Trey Wimbley will talk about what to do immediately following a truck accident; Pete Couteu, affiliated with Forest2Market, will discuss the domestic and global outlook for timber products; and insurance rep Mike Beardsley will discuss and demo an on-board equipment fire suppression system.

Saturday will be given over to meetings of the ALC board and full membership, sponsor recognition, and awards. Ladies activities are planned for both Friday and Saturday.

Prior to the ALC meeting, a semi-annual meeting of TEAM Safe Trucking will take place at the Grand Hotel. It will begin at 1 p.m. and is open to all interested parties. Visit teamsafetrucking.com.

For ALC hotel and registration information, see pages 34-35.

USDA Supporting Longleaf Pines

American Loggers Council To Meet In Natchez, Miss.

A logging tour, educational sessions, auction, business meeting, ladies’ activities, awards presentations and more are on tap at the annual meeting of the American Loggers Council September 28-30 in Natchez, Miss.

The logging tour on the 28th will be a visit to an island (accessed by barge) in the Mississippi River.

Learning opportunities begin on

The U.S. Dept. of Agriculture’s Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) released a two-year implementation strategy to help private landowners restore and protect 400,000 acres of longleaf pine forests in the Southeast “Together, with the help of private landowners and conservation partners, we’ve made significant progress in reversing the decline of longleaf pine

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SelectCuts forests since 2010,” says NRCS Acting Chief Leonard Jordan. “But we still have much more work to do, and this strategy serves as a roadmap for our work with landowners to keep accelerating the restoration of this critical ecosystem.”

Longleaf pine forests once encompassed more than 90 million acres across the Southeast, but over the past two centuries, development, timbering and fire suppression have reduced the forested area by almost 97%. Because of the work of public-private partnerships, the amount of longleaf pine forests has grown from 3 million acres to nearly 5 million acres, reversing a century-long decline across the region.

NRCS offers technical and financial assistance to landowners and is focusing on four main conservation actions: managing the over-growth of vegetation competing with longleaf pine; using prescribed fire to mimic natural processes that help longleaf pine thrive; planting new forests; and protecting existing forests through easements.

The decline of longleaf pine forests has negatively impacted wildlife populations, including the gopher tortoise, red-cockaded woodpecker and black pine snake. More than 30 animal species that are federally listed as endangered or threatened depend on these forests, and more species are considered to be at-risk.

Missouri Logging School Begins Classes October 2 A 10-week school designed to provide formal training for those interested in entering the logging force is in the works by the Missouri Forest Products Assn. (MFPA). This will be the first-ever school of its type, according to Fred Smith, MFPA Logging School Manager. Smith advocated for the program after a study conducted by the Missouri Dept. of Conservation found the average age of loggers in the state is almost 60.

The first session, limited to 12 students, will begin October 2 at The Camp at Lake Wappapello near Poplar Bluff. Students will stay on-site in dormitory-style housing. Tuition covers lodging, meals, all classroom, field instruction and the required safety equipment.

Contact MFPA at 573-634-3252.

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SelectCuts Trucking Survey Feedback

Most of the mills here figure .115 cents to the loaded mile. On a hundred mile haul my trucking will be paid $11.50 per ton per loaded mile.

So on a hundred mile haul my truck, Losing Proposition—I own four based on a 50 week year, 5 days a trucks and a small logging business week with no rain, no quota, no mill (Shiloh Creek Forestry and Wildlife, outage, no holdup at the mill and no LLC) in Lafayette County. Miss. One breakdowns, my truck will haul 500 of the main problems here in the loads per year at an average of 25 South is we are labeled high productons per load for a total of 12,500 tion loggers, but when you throw in tons. I will be paid $11.50 per ton for quota that is out the window. You a total of $143,750. As you see from cannot go on quota and work for the the list below I just lost $21,000. I same pay. You will starve. I read look at a truck as just another piece of some of the comments and they logging equipment because that loss sound real, but here is mine. came out of my logging revenue. The biggest cost is fuel New truck payment $26,000 per year and until the people Insurance $8,000 that set mill rates Driver based on 50 weeks, 2 lds/day $50,000 (100 mi. haul) know what the real Worker’s Comp $5,500 cost of doing business S/S, unemployment tax $14,500 per ton is for a logFuel for 2 100 mile loads a day $54,750 ging/trucking comat 5 MPG avg. ,plus dead head pany, this problem New trailer payment $6,000 will always be there.

The following email comments are in response to the story titled Burdens Intensify In Trucking Sector that appeared in the May-June issue of Timber Harvesting.

Total

_____________ $164,750

Tommy R. Watson Sr. jignpole@hotmail.com

No Hope For Future?—I am a logger in Colorado. My struggles are the same as other loggers and the trucking situation. A close friend of mine who emigrated to this country said to me regarding three things.

1. You (being me), are in a s--- industry.

2. His father had given him some valuable advice: Don’t spend money you don’t have on things people do not care about.

3. Without trucks, you and the mill do not have income or logs.

It is obvious to any reasonable person that logging does not have any hope for a future if it stays on its current path.

Until this industry acts like professionals and stops the abusive cycle that the mills have in place, loggers as a whole will continue to get what they have always received—NO RESPECT. I wish that magazines such as yours could for once look at the real issues and stop beating around the stump. The forest industry has not kept up or seen any increase in logging rates since the late ’80’s. All we ever hear is we 46

Foremost Authority For Professional Loggers

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SelectCuts 43 need to be more productive, take more risks, and live on less. Because of equipment replacement costs, insurance requirements, and additional environmental regulations, there will be little to zero growth in our businesses.

Just using your figures, over 80% of all current log truck drivers are over 40; almost 50% are over 50. What has and continues to occur is insanity.

Please do not take this letter as criticism; it is born out of frustration. I have a young son who turns 18 in July. He loves nothing more than to come to the job and watch the operation. He has endless interest for becoming involved in my business, but I will not have any of it. I am encouraging him to attend college and become an engineer. It is the only advice I can give him as his father.

The forest products harvesting industry will be faced with making difficult decisions in the near future. Today’s markets are extremely stacked against us. We can all sit and wait for the tsunami or prepare now for the

incoming wave.

Tom Olden pinemartenlogging@yahoo.com

Greene, Tidwell Receive FRA Awards Virginia and Alabama logging businesses were singled out earlier this year for regional awards by the Forest Resources Assn. (FRA) and Stihl, Inc. C.K. Greene, owner of Virginia Custom Thinning & Chipping LLC, Dolphin, Va., was honored as FRA’s Southeastern Region 2017 Outstanding Logger. A graduate forester, Greene launched his business in a small way in 2007 and has grown it to a larger, professional organization that produces 20 loads per day of roundwood and fuelwood delivered by a well maintained, nine truck fleet. A board member of the Viginia Loggers Assn., he emphases a safe workplace and uses social media to promote his operational quality and professional-

AdLink

EventsMemo Listings are submitted months in advance. Always verify dates and locations with contacts prior to making plans to attend.

July 30-August 2—Council On Forest Engineering annual meeting, Bangor, Me. Call 240-382-2633; visit cofe.org.

August 17-20—Virginia Loggers Assn. annual meeting, The Inn at Virginia Tech & Skelton Conference Center, Blacksburg, Va. Call 804-677-4290; visit valoggers.org.

August 25-26— Southwest Forest Products Expo, Hot Springs Convention Center, Hot Springs, Ark. Call 501224-2232; visit arkloggers.com.

August 29-31—Florida Forestry Assn. annual meeting, Sandestin Golf & Beach Resort, Sandestin, Fla. Call 850222-5646; visit floridaforest.org.

August 29-31—Louisiana Forestry Assn. annual meeting, Hilton Riverside New Orleans, New Orleans, La. Call 318443-2558; visit laforestry.com.

September 7-9—Great Lakes Logging & Heavy Equipment Expo, UP State Fairgrounds, Escanaba, Mich. Call 715-282-5828; visit gltpa.org.

September 10-12—Alabama Forestry Assn. annual meeting, Perdido Beach Resort, Orange Beach, Ala. Call 334265-8733; visit alaforestry.org.

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ism. He is a proactive advocate for the timber industry and credits the great attitude of his crew members for his success, and he displays a good attitude of his own.

Freddy Tidwell and wife Cyndi, owners of F&C Logging LLC, Double Springs, Ala., were honored as the Southcentral Region 2017 Outstanding Logger. Tidwell is a third-generation logger who began on his own in 1993 and today operates and manages two logging crews and a trucking company. Two of his primary customers, Molpus Timberlands and LP, give Tidwell high praise for his strong commitment for doing the right thing in all situations and for his attention to a safe and quality timber harvesting operation, combined with a strong environmental ethic and exceptional business management.

Both Greene and the Tidwells were given a wooden crosscut saw plaque

by FRA and a $250 check and gift certificate for a MS 462 chain saw by Stihl.

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