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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 CLASSIFIED ADVERTISING Bridget DeVane 334-699-7837 bdevane7@hotmail.com ADVERTISING SALES REPRESENTATIVES
Vol. 64, No. 5: Issue 658
SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2016
OurCover Timber Harvesting’s 2016 Logging Business of the Year, M.M. Wright Inc., Gasburg, Va., has been in business for more than six decades. Aligned with other family members and blessed with a group of loyal, gifted employees, kinsmen Steven Wright and Frank Myers have led in making the Wright brand even stronger by expanding and diversifying the core organization. Story begins on page PAGE 8. (David Abbott photo)
OurFeatures
SOUTHERN USA Randy Reagor • P.O. Box 2268 Montgomery, AL 36102-2268 (904) 393-7968 • Fax: (334) 834-4525 E-mail: reagor@bellsouth.net
In Vermont, displacement looked like this: a 53-year-old sweating it out in an ailing forwarder, trying to hold on in a changing world.
MIDWEST USA, EASTERN CANADA John Simmons • 32 Foster Cres. Whitby, Ontario, Canada L1R 1W1 (905) 666-0258 • Fax: (905) 666-0778 E-mail: jsimmons@idirect.com
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WESTERN USA, WESTERN CANADA Tim Shaddick • 4056 West 10th Avenue Vancouver, BC, Canada V6L 1Z1 (604) 910-1826 • Fax: (604) 264-1367 E-mail: tootall1@shaw.ca
Despite Multiple Struggles,
INTERNATIONAL Murray Brett Aldea de las Cuevas 66, Buzon 60 03759 Benidoleig (Alicante), Spain +34 96 640 4165 • Fax: +34 96 640 4022 E-mail: murray.brett@abasol.net 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 ® 2016. 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.
Member Verified Audit Circulation POSTMASTER: Send address changes to TIMBER HARVESTING, P.O. BOX 2419, Montgomery, AL 36102-2419
Dave Goodhouse Soldiers On
Logger Dennis Scheoneck: Active Away From The Forest
24 32 Kip Smith Forest Services Blossoms In Middle Georgia
Bandit, Ponsse Hold Events In Michigan, Wisconsin
OurDepartments My Take __________________________________________________4 News Lines ________________________________________________6 People Power____________________________________________ 28 Equipment World_________________________________________ 30 Innovation Way __________________________________________ 38 Select Cuts _____________________________________________ 40 THExchange _____________________________________________ 44 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
An Aging Forwarder Holds The Fate Of Vermont Logger Dave Goodhouse Note: Thanks to TH columnist Wendy Farrand for discovering the following article about Reading, Vermont area logger Dave Goodhouse in the August 14 issue of The Boston Globe and passing it along. I was so taken with the way it portrays a small logger’s struggle in a changing world, not to mention the talent of the gifted writer, Sarah Schweitzer, that I asked for and received permission to share it with our subscribers. The text has been lightly edited for brevity. Enjoy. Goodhouse, doing business as Rolling Meadows Farm Logging, operates in southern Vermont, which is rural but has a growing population of “outsiders” who do not applaud a business that cuts down trees. He works in very small woodlots and has only 2-3 employees, which he reports are very hard to find and retain. The red oak had fallen clean, and it was nearly perfect. With a trunk straight and wide, and not showing a single woodpecker’s dent, there was money to be made on it. But time is money, too, and Dave Goodhouse was losing both as the logs slipped once, then twice, through the worn loader grapple of his old TimberKing forwarder, a machine he’d already thrown plenty of good money after. Thousands for a new steering system, many more to replace the hydraulic pump. And still the pines and ash and oaks kept slipping away. Since he was 19, he’d made his living in the woods, felling trees that produced paper, built houses, made baseball bats. There was pride in producing America’s raw materials, contributing to the nation’s prosperity. With a chain saw, he could be his own man. And then the world went and changed around him. Wood from Brazil, Canada, and Russia now competed with his. To keep up, he needed expensive, ornery machines, like the one he was trying and failing to maneuver. They called it a forwarder, but it seemed more and more to go nowhere but backward. The machine heaved 4
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and then shuddered as it again dropped logs from the loader grapple. Technology and global trade had remade his industry, and he’d adapted, but only by sinking deeper and deeper into debt. He was already on the hook for $1.2 million for his trucks and equipment. Bank loan payments claimed some $15,000 every month— 40% of what he brought in. The forwarder needed replacing. Chances were that it would break down soon, and then sit idle, losing him thousands while his competitors scooped up his work. But at $400,000, a new one would deepen his debt and he’d have to cut more wood. Out there, the news blared of people demanding a stop to forces displacing what once had been. Immigrants. China. Muslims. People who wanted to use bathrooms intended for a gender they hadn’t been born to. In Vermont, displacement looked like this: a 53-year-old sweating it out in an ailing forwarder, trying to hold on in a changing world. His wife said he needed to be harder on his workers, but he hadn’t gone into logging to browbeat a crew. Besides, he didn’t have the makeup to furrow his brow for long enough. He smiled widely, openly, and without guile, much like a Labrador. He thought about bailing on logging, forgetting its headaches. He had an offer to manage a farm owned by an out-of-towner, making a farm look like a farm while the owner was busy making money on State Street or Wall Street. And then who would Dave Goodhouse be? A yes man. No, he’d try once more to manage his burden, his heart racing under the stress of trying to figure out where he fit into a landscape he no longer recognized. Here was what he knew. The woods on a morning like this one were drenched in green. From its hollows, deer ventured strangely close to the racket he made. He’d once seen a coyote feasting on a doe carcass. It was bloody and grim, but also remarkable.
He was privy to a wild theater. Were the woods an addiction? Possibly. There were worse. “Hiya,” he called to a long-haired guy. The man arranged for him to clear a patch of pines, beech, and maple from 250 acres he’d inherited from a long-ailing aunt. The man drove a beater, seemed to be home more than not, and apparently needed the money from the trees to pay the property taxes. Everyone had challenges. Goodhouse had his. He’d always assumed he could overcome them with hard work. His father had a saying, and he’d written it on poster board and tacked it to the back wall in his shop: “The secret to success is to do common things uncommonly well.”
The Journey He’d been 9 when he cut his first tree. School hadn’t been for him, trying and failing to concentrate. But the notch he made in the pine had been just right, and then he’d axed another and another and the trees fell the right way. He piled the logs atop one another and soon a cabin stood as proof of something he did well. He’d rushed headlong into the industry a decade later, buying a chain saw and skidder with money earned from milking cows and pumping gas. He was young and his partner was too,
Dave and Susan Goodhouse
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MyTake
and they failed. He retreated, working days for an old-line logger and checking IDs by night at a club. Susan, a brunette Colby-Sawyer College graduate, bartended. She took a liking to the tall, lean bouncer who invited her to go with him to see logging sites. The brawny, gritty work was different from what she knew. She liked it, and Dave Goodhouse was kind and decent. They married in 1987. To be young and devoted to logging meant driving by a saw shop and dipping inside to handle this chain saw and that one, pulling their starter ropes, getting a feel for their speed and power. It meant getting the Husqvarna catalog and enjoying a buzz when there was a new model, then motoring down to Springfield, Mass. to see the latest and greatest at the Northeastern Forest Products Equipment Expo. It meant sucking in your breath in 1989, signing bank documents, and trying
Foremost Authority For Professional Loggers
once again to make a go of it on your own. A good day yielded 100 trees. The crash of each was spectacular, loud and calamitous, and then the quiet as a wash of sunlight rushed into the breached space. Branches snagged him; roots tripped him. The chain saw managed the rest of the damage. “Gravity never sleeps,” he warned the guys he hired as the business grew. Actuarial tables for logging were terrifying. He backed them up. He’d crushed his shoulder blade, cracked six ribs, lost teeth, broken his neck and pelvis. He convalesced and made his way back to the woods to take his chances and once more chase the dream with a chain saw.
Frustrations Aplenty The big machines he had now were safer. They were faster. They were also places of stillness, sealed off from
the woods, traps for his mind. In the cab, he worried over bank payments, the next job, the next breakdown, the slumping price of pulp, the rising cost of insurance, the week he’d had recently when he took in just $3,459.75 and had written “ouch?!!” in the wirebound notebook he used to track his finances. “Too much time to think,” he said as he shifted the forwarder into gear to rumble to where his guys had begun cutting. He thought about flicking the radio to 105.3’s Cat Country. The DJ was always on a tear about something. Drug testing welfare recipients. Immigrants. Heroin addicts. Anger wasn’t Goodhouse’s style, this whipping fury. He held tight to frustration, waiting for the left side of his head to stop throbbing. There were times, though. A few days earlier, the third axle on his log truck broke, gumming up the whole operation, and he’d thrown a wrench and sworn and gotten so upset ➤ 34
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NewsLines Boardman Sawmill Appears At An End Greenwood Tree Farm Fund announced the closure of its hardwood sawmill, known as the Upper Columbia Mill, in Boardman, Ore. Collins Management Corp. operated the facility. Dairy and agricultural interests have purchased the adjacent poplar tree farm from GreenWood Resources that supplied logs to the mill. The sawmill was producing about 35MMBF annually—a combination of Pacific Albus, alder, maple, white fir, ponderosa pine and Douglas fir. A couple of years ago the mill hit a production high of 65MMBF just in Pacific Albus, a hybrid poplar. Greenwood Tree Farm Fund (GTFF) is seeking a buyer for the mill, which opened in 2008 after a $35 million investment. An adjacent veneer mill operated by Columbia Forest Products reportedly continues to operate with a log supply agreement it had with Greenwood carried over to the new timberland owner.
Forest Residue Will Feed Biocrude Plant Ensyn Corp. reports that construction has begun on a 10.5 million gallon (approximately 40 million liter) per year biocrude production facility in Port-Cartier, Quebec. The Cote Nord Project, being developed by
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Ensyn, Arbec Forest Products Inc. and Groupe Rémabec, is located adjacent Arbec’s sawmill on the north shore of the St. Lawrence Seaway. The project has received funding and construction is scheduled to be completed by the end of 2017. Arbec owns 12 wood processing plants in Quebec and New Brunswick, 10 of which are in partnership with Groupe Rémabec. Groupe Rémabec is a major forest products company operating in Quebec. Groupe Rémabec harvests more than 3 million m3 yearly. The plant will convert 65,000 dry metric tons per year of slash and forest residues from local sources. The biocrude will be sold to customers in the Northeastern U.S. and in Eastern Canada for heating purposes and as a renewable feedstock for petroleum refineries for the production of low carbon transportation fuels.
New Arauco Mill Making Progress The $325 million particleboard plant Arauco is constructing in Grayling, Mich. will not only be the largest single-line capacity particleboard plant in North America, but it also represents the first greenfield particleboard plant constructed on this continent since 2001, according to Arauco North America. Nearby sawmills stand to benefit with a new market for residuals.
The operation will be situated on one square mile located in north central Michigan. The plant will occupy approximately 750,000 sq. ft. under roof. The facility is expected to employ 250. Arauco states that Michigan is a good fit because it has available wood fiber, and the use of low value fiber that is currently underutilized in the area should be a win-win for Arauco and Grayling area landowners.
Shoemaker Retires From Morbark Morbark announced the retirement of James Shoemaker Jr. as president following 13 years. “My job is complete,” Shoemaker says. “ When I became president, I had a mission to regain market share and increase profitability. My intention all along was, once the company was sold, to retire and let the new management take charge, and that’s what I’m doing.” Morbark was acquired by Stellex Co. in March. Shoemaker has been working with new management of Stellex to assist in the transition. He plans to stay involved with Morbark in a consulting capacity. “What I’ll miss most is the team members at Morbark,” Shoemaker says. “This is the most wholesome, hardworking, down-to-earth group of employees, distributors and customers I’ve ever met.”
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Continuing The TH honors M.M. Wright Inc. of Virginia as its 2016 Logging Business of the Year.
S
everal of the great, classic rock bands found their hit sound from a collaboration of two leaders with very different and sometimes conflicting styles and strengths. Examples include John Lennon and Paul McCartney, Mick Jagger and Keith Richards, Steven Tyler and Joe Perry. They didn’t always agree on everything, but because of their differences, each of these pairs made enduring, iconic music and were highly successful. Perhaps, in a different world, Stephen Wright and his brother-inlaw, Frank Myers, might have been among that pantheon of rock royalty. Wright, 46, and Myers, 57, have very different personalities that comple8
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ment one another. As a team, maximizing the strengths that each brings to the table, they accomplish more than either could do in a solo effort. Wright and Myers have spent the last two decades sharing responsibilities in leading their family’s company, M.M. Wright Inc., a highly reputable, diversified Virginia organization that has been in gear since before either was born. Officially founded in 1953 by the late M.M. Wright, Stephen’s father and Myers’ father-inlaw, the high profile entity has been spotlighted multiple times in many ways by various associations and publications, including this one. Significant among these was the National
Outstanding Logger recognition accorded to Wright and his wife, Zenith, by the American Pulpwood Assn. (now FRA) in 1991, some 30 months prior to his death. M.M. Wright Inc. is the 19th recipient of the Timber Harvesting Logging Business of the Year Award and the first so honored from Virginia. The prestigious award will be formally presented to the Wright family on October 1 at the conclusion of the American Loggers Council’s annual meeting in Panama City Beach, Fla. The scope of the organization is impressive—five strong entities, rich innovative history, mechanical self-sufficiency, a caring culture for
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he Wright Way DAVIDAbbott
ear.
Stephen Wright
its 65 employees, and 6,000 acres of its own land—but it doesn’t tell the whole story. The company is active politically, with Myers serving as a vocal proponent and spokesman for industry interests at the state level through the Virginia Loggers Assn. and the Governor’s Board of Forestry. For his many efforts in forest industry promotion, last year the American Loggers Council presented Myers with its National Logger Activist of the Year Award. M.M. Wright Inc. (MMW), the parent company, involves four logging-thinning-chipping crews that operate within a 100-mile radius in Virginia and North Carolina. Foremost Authority For Professional Loggers
Gasburg Timber Corp. is the trucking side, spun off in 1980, which deploys a fleet of 19 trucks and 40 trailers and deals with six to eight contract haulers. Founded in 1996, Gasburg Equipment Co. is an equipment dealership that also services all equipment and trucks for the organization in addition to working on outside machines. The dealership and shop are on adjacent property to the M.M. Wright offices. Buck Woods, LLC is a mulch plant that Wright and Myers purchased from a fellow logger and friend two years ago. Gasburg Land & Timber is the procurement arm that purchases all timber
Frank Myers
for the four crews and for the wood storage yard and mulch plant. It goes back to 1991.
Division Of Duties A natural division of duties seems to have evolved in the Wright/Myers partnership, with both gravitating towards the areas they most enjoy and in which they are most skilled. Industry activist Myers, a forester and a “people person” with a gift of charisma, coordinates harvesting and hauling efforts. Wright, gifted with high-torque mechanical talent, oversees the equipment sales-maintenance side and the mulch plant. “He’s a master mechanic,” Myers SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2016
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Skidding equipment is dominated by Tigercat…
but a few John Deere 648s are found in the mix.
says of his brother-in-law. “He can fix anything. He doesn’t like politics, so I do all that kind of stuff.” Wright responds, “He and I have two different ways of doing things, but we work very well together. We keep each other informed and we respect one another. Sometimes we might get our wires crossed, but we both know that at the end of the day the end result is making this company successful.” Myers nods, “It’s hard for two people to run a company, so our natural dividing line has worked well. It’s a gift to find a partner you can trust and depend on, so we are fortunate that we trust each other.” Myers and Wright aren’t the only ones in authority. Stephen’s mother is still very much involved as the president. Frank’s wife Susan, Stephen’s sister and M.M. and Zenith’s daughter, handles load tickets, while Stephen’s wife Denise tackles paperwork and equipment records for the dealership. Frank and Susan’s daughter, recently married Jenna Wells, also works in the office, dealing mostly with paperwork for the mulch plant. Frank’s son, Travis, is a harvesting crew foreman. The organization has several longtime employees, some who have been at the job longer than Stephen and Frank. One example is Gayle Clary, who handles payroll and insurance, and has been on board for more than 40 years. To help with all that paperwork the company also enlists a CPA, William McGuire of Honeycut and McGuire, who spends two days in the MMW office every month. Myers insists the regular input is a must for MMW and affiliates. “You can’t run a business this size without his guidance. He has really helped us. We pay a lot of money but we think it’s justified.”
Backstory
Tigercat’s servicing dealer for MMW is Bullock Brothers, Gaston, NC. 10
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“He was a man of few words,” both Susan and Stephen say in recalling their father, who habitually worshiped at his church every Sunday. “But when he did say something, he meant it, and he didn’t want to hear a whole lot back about it,” Stephen continues. A gifted mechanic blessed with an acute analytical mind—many recall his innate engineering skills—and a cordial people person, the elder Wright was a well-known and highly regarded figure, both in and out of the woods. He and Zenith operated their TIMBER HARVESTING & WOOD FIBER OPERATIONS
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Barko loaders (both track-types and trailer-mounts), a Barko chipper and Western Star trucks rule in the Wright world.
woods. He and Zenith operated their business with deep-rooted integrity; he was innovative and open to change. Perhaps his single greatest operational accomplishment was developing a viable mechanical thinning system— the first in Virginia—for young pine stands. Launched with surplus equipment amidst a sharp economic decline in 1981 and at the behest of Continental Forest Industries, the trying project required several months for Wright to thoroughly refine. The quality conscious Wright used his acclaimed thinning expertise as a clever marketing tool, which enabled him to add additional thinning crews. Meanwhile, in 1983, the Wrights were among the first in the area to invest in a computer to help streamline accounting, payroll and record keeping. By 1988 the business deployed four 12
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thinning crews, one conventional crew and produced roughly 270,000 tons per year. It was through Continental that Myers first became involved with the family. He had graduated from Virginia Tech’s forestry school in 1981 and went to work as a manager for Continental, which was acquired by Stone Container in 1983. Stephen’s older brother, Jeff, who was helping M.M. run the company’s two crews at that time, cut tracts for Myers. “I knew Jeff and M.M. very well,” the forester recalls. “He was a very dear friend of mine.”
Jolting Developments Jeff was being groomed to take over the business but he died in a car accident in 1984. “That was a big hit to
momma and daddy,” Stephen remembers. “He left some big shoes to fill, and I was the only male left.” He was only 15 then, but he started working behind the parts counter after school. Myers left Stone in 1986, when he married Susan and joined MMW. Just nine years after Jeff’s death, the family and the company took another blow when M.M. died in 1993. “He was a legend,” Myers states simply. “Stephen and I were following a legend. It’s hard to do that, I don’t care who you are.” The family met and immediately agreed to keep the company going; there was never really any possibility that it would decide otherwise. “We knew we were going to continue; it was a family business; it’s what we do,” Myers says. “That decision was based mainly out of respect for my father and what he had built and worked so hard for,” Stephen relates. “We didn’t feel it was the right thing to do to give up. It wasn’t fair to the employees to not carry on. They relied on daddy and they relied on my brother. That’s a big responsibility, and I took it very seriously. We were going to give it our best effort. So far, it has worked out.” Stephen had finished college a few years earlier and had been working in the parts department. “There were more important things for me to do then. “I could either pull my pants up and get with it, or let it all go. I chose not to let it go.” He continues, “My biggest hurdle was learning how to deal with employees, how to talk to people. It was a big
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Three generations stand/work together. From left are Susan Myers, Jenna Wells (Frank and Susan’s daughter), and the business matriarch, Zenith Wright.
learning curve for me. Thankfully, our employees gave me some leeway because they knew I was just learning. I don’t say it enough, but they all do a good job.”
Industry Activist Myers serves on the boards of several groups, including the Virginia Loggers. Assn., which he assisted in getting up and running years ago. He also serves on the Virginia Dept. of Forestry’s Board of Forestry, appointed by current governor Terry McAuliffe and former governor Robert McDonnell. “I speak for the loggers’ interests on that board,” he says. It is Myers’ deeply held conviction that the logging industry benefits from active participation in the political process. “The more the logging community is brought forward, the better off we are,” he believes. “We have friends now in the Virginia Senate; we have friends in the House; the Governor knows us. He’s a Democrat, but he has really been pro-business, especially for forest products. We have worked up from a lower tier group to where we are now on the same level with a lot of others.” The VLA and other organizations successfully lobbied for passage of a bill allowing loggers to haul 90,000 lbs. on state roads. Along with the Virginia Forestry Assn. and the Virginia Forest Products Assn., the VLA also succeeded with a second piece of legislation passed in the last year. Virginia has a voluntary reforestation tax designed to help landowners replant. As the law was written, the tax was supposed to be paid by the consuming mill, but there was no enforcement, 14
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and if the mill failed to pay, the responsibility for it fell to the logger. “We knew it wasn’t in the best interest of the Commonwealth, so we all worked together and got that changed,” he says. Frank was also closely involved in helping recruit and hire a new executive director for the VLA following the death in 2014 of Jim Mooney, its original leader. Mooney had been a logger prior to accepting that position. “He knew our problems; he understood the business,” Myers says. “If Jim had a weakness, it was that he didn’t have the connections in government or lobbying. But we gained a lot and went a long way with Jim.” After Mooney’s death, Myers was talking with Ron Jenkins, Virginia’s assistant state forester. “I told him we have to find someone to take Jim’s place,” he recalls. “I said it’s going to
be a hard job. Ron called me back the next day and told me he was very interested in the job.” Myers was part of a selection committee tasked with interviewing candidates. They picked Jenkins. “It was one of the best decisions we ever made,” Myers says. “Ron did all the lobbying for the state of Virginia, so he knew all the politicians in Richmond. The next year we had the most politicians attend our annual meeting that we’ve ever had, by far. We had a meeting with the governor, the deputy assistant of agriculture, the commissioners of the DOT and the DMV. Ron has taken our organization to another level. His lack of experience in logging is balanced by his political knowledge and connections. He has just been a superb lobbyist and negotiator.” Myers wears a lot of hats. He views his involvement in the political scene not as a good deed on behalf of the industry but as an investment in the future of his company and that of the state’s logging industry. He is also involved in his community, serving as a local school board member and on the boards of an area bank and electric cooperative. He admits this fast pace is unsustainable, and anticipates that other younger people will step up.
Logging MMW fields four crews: three primarily focused on thinning and a regeneration harvest crew that also chips for biomass. Cutters and skidders are primarily Tigercat, with some John Deere 648s;
Regeneration cut crew, bottom row, from left: Junior Drummond Sr., William Brown, Leon Meredith, Phillip Basham, Travis Myers; top row, from left: Kyle Miller, Arthur Winn, Junior Drummond Jr., Darrell Meredith, Jessie Walker TIMBER HARVESTING & WOOD FIBER OPERATIONS
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him where it was actually done,” Wright explains. “I feel better about it than just buying a piece of used equipment and trying to resell it because I don’t know the history of it.” Stephen admits that Gasburg is not a huge dealer, and he doesn’t want it to be. One main reason: a scarcity of qualified technicians. “If you sell it, that’s the easy part,” he says. “It’s going to break down; somebody has to work on it. If I sell 100 machines a year, then I have to have a lot of mechanics to tend to those machines. So I sell what I can tend to, because we just can’t find enough qualified people.”
Trucking Thinning crew 1, from left: truck driver Warren Hawkins, George Jones, Elton Clarke, Clifton Pearson (standing), Rodney Carpenter, truck driver Charles Smith
bulldozers are Caterpillar, and loaders are Barko. Tigercat comes from Bullock Brothers in Gaston, NC, about 20 miles away. The salesman, Tommy Parks, used to work for Smith-Wright Equipment, Emporia, Va., of which the elder Wright was once part owner. That business closed many years ago. “We have had a working relationship with him for years,” Stephen says. “He’s a good man.” Deere machines come through James River Equipment in South Hill, Va. In recent years MMW has started buying more used equipment and keeping older equipment running longer to postpone getting involved with Tier 4 engines. Today’s machinery is better and lasts longer than it did 25-30 years ago, Wright affirms, and that’s another reason for holding on to machines longer. “It has gotten so expensive we can’t see the justification in taking a machine that is two or three years old and turning it in to get a new one… that three-year time frame has turned into five or six years.” He says if a machine starts getting too expensive to keep running, it’s time to trade it in—usually to themselves, through Gasburg Equipment Co. As for chipping, the crew had been running Morbark machines for years and in fact had just bought another Morbark not long before Barko acquired Conehead. Since Gasburg Equipment is a Barko dealer, “we decided it was hard to stand behind a product if you’re not running it,” 16
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Wright says. They sold the Morbark and now run a Barko 585B chipper.
Maintenance/Machines Wright and Myers started Gasburg Equipment in 1996. In a relatively small territory, it represents Barko, CSI and Rotobec attachments, Cummins engines, Big John trailers, and Aftermarket Parts. It repairs customer machines and handles all repairs and maintenance for in-house logging crews. MMW’s maintenance and repairs alone run about $80,000 a month. This is where Wright’s skills shine the brightest. “I enjoy being in the shop—building things, fixing stuff, using my hands trying to get something done,” he says. “The quicker we get machines fixed, the quicker we can get them back to work.” There are six full time technicians—three for forestry machines and three for trucks and trailers. Crews try to handle minor repairs to forego the cost of transportation, but the machines go into the shop regularly for cleaning and inspection. Preventive maintenance is ongoing. The company keeps detailed records. “We can pull the records to see exactly what was put on any machine in its life,” Wright points out. That meticulous record keeping is important because they stand behind the used units they sell. It’s also why he prefers selling his own used machines rather than machines Gasburg did not maintain. “If I tell a man that this has been done to it, I can show
All trucking is routed through Gasburg Timber Corp., which has a fleet of 19 trucks, mostly Western Star, and 40 trailers. Western Stars are purchased through B&C Truck Sales, Inc., Glen Allen, Va. “They are really good people to work with and I consider them friends of ours,” Wright says. Gasburg supplements its hauling capacity with 6-8 regular contract trucks. Trucking, especially contract hauling, faces two major problems at present, Myers believes—other than the fact it just doesn’t make enough money. First, there is a “tremendous shortage of drivers.” Log trucking is harder than over-the-road trucking, and logging companies have a hard time competing with and attracting drivers from cross-country outfits that often pay signing bonuses. Contractors are available but are in high demand, which makes them hard to keep. “They don’t have to be dependable because they know you can’t get rid of them,” Myers laments. “I have some very good ones I have had for a long time, and I treat them like they’re my own. There are some out there, though, who are just not very good, but you have to put up with them.” Another issue with using contractors is that some have problems getting insurance, or getting it at an affordable rate. Even if they do have insurance coverage, Gasburg Timber chooses to purchase additional insurance, given today’s lawsuit-prone climate. Gasburg no longer uses weigh scales. “I don’t think they saved us anything,” he relates. Drivers never got many overweight tickets anyway because MMW loader operators know how to stay under weight limits. Besides, with 90,000 lbs. now allowed, overweight
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trucks are not really an issue. Gasburg uses GPS (Zonor) on its trucks—one of the few companies in the area that does. It helps with coordinating where each truck should go. Trucks generally stay with the same crew, but in some cases it makes sense to reroute a truck to pick up a load at another job. Myers also likes the data derived. “It gives you something to show the mills if we argue about the amount of waiting time to unload.” Wright and Myers feel that when federal law requires truck drivers to switch from paper to electronic logbooks, which they expect to see implemented within the next year, it will drastically change the trucking scene. “If it is done legally and they enforce and check everything, that will change the industry more than anything in the last 25 years,” Wright predicts. Myers adds, “If a truck driver is getting up at 2 a.m. and running till 5 or 6 at night, that is going to change. It won’t be legal.” With drivers restricted to running only 12 hours a day, they will get fewer loads and of course, make less money. “You talk about something that is going to kill the economy. Only one thing can happen: we have to pay them more. And for us to be able to pay truck drivers, or anybody, any more, we have to get paid more. Some of these contract truckers are not going to be able to stay in business if it’s enforced.” According to Myers, Gasburg Timber moved about 15,000 loads in 2015, some 13,000 of those originating at its logging/chipping operations.
Buck Woods LLC The partners bought the hardwood mulch plant in July 2014. “We are still learning it,” Myers says. “Whether it was a good deal or bad, we will find out in the next year or so. At some point the plant is probably going to do us more good than we think because of this merger with WestRock. They are going to see how cheap they can buy wood, because they control the state. When that happens it may help us by giving us another market,” he notes.
Procurement Gasburg Land & Timber has two foresters, Joey Jones (who is also a part owner) and Nick Smith, in addition to Myers. The company owns 6,000 acres. They are in Brunswick Foremost Authority For Professional Loggers
Thinning crew 2, bottom row, from left: Scott Gauldin, Larry Puryear; top row, from left: Jeremy Allgood, Leslie Puryear, Sr., Lewis Lambert
County and most of the land they own is located there, but the Wright crews rarely work on company land. More than half of the tracts they work, probably 60%, is owned by TIMOs. The rest is privately owned, and Myers says MMW enjoys a lot of repeat business. Crews work within a 100-mile radius and its most distant market is 100 miles away.
Markets Myers can’t say that M.M. Wright Inc. had a great year in 2015. “It was better than it has been, but it’s still not where we need to be.” If not for the decrease in fuel prices in the last year, a lot of people would have been out of business, he believes. Several markets, particularly softwood sawmills, were lost in the area in recent years, but a few new markets have emerged. “When they started these power plants and Enviva came to town, the (established) mills cried that we couldn’t log all these mills,” Myers recalls. “But now we’re all on quota because there is so much production.” He says that while there may not be as many loggers, those that remain have become more productive.
The company’s experience with a Smurfit-Stone mill that went bankrupt a few years ago—when MMW almost didn’t get paid for the last loads it hauled there—taught the family to market products to multiple outlets. That presents its own challenges in finding tracts to meet the needs of each mill, but the partners believe it’s worth the effort.
Employees/Labor The M.M. Wright conglomerate employs 65. “One of the best things for us is our people,” Myers says. “That’s the only way you can make it. You have to have good people. We have employees in this company who have been here longer than I have. They know what they’re supposed to do.” Stephen says, “I can’t single out any individuals because all of them are very important to me. I respect them a lot for what they do.” For such a large company, not just finding and training but retaining enough quality employees presents its own challenge. “We don’t like a lot of turnover; it disrupts things,” Wright admits. “We try to keep our experienced people and I think we’ve been successful at that. We’ve been SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2016
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fortunate. We have a lot who have been with us a long time.” M.M. Wright offers health insurance—the company pays most of the premiums—and a 401k plan.
Logger trained, and all workers are first aid trained. Insurance is through Forestry Mutual and its associates.
Future
Safety Insurance companies report that there are now more injuries among truck drivers than woods workers. While both Wright and Myers point out that texting while driving has become a more prevalent public danger than drunk driving, they say it’s not a problem with their truck drivers, most of whom use hands-free blue tooth technology. Also, all company drivers are drug tested. To further promote safety culture among truck drivers, and to get the company’s safety scores down to help keep trucks and drivers insured, Wright devised a rewards system that Gasburg Timber recently initiated. Drivers who voluntarily enroll in the program are eligible to receive extra quarterly and annual bonuses for roadside inspections without violations. So far it has gone over well. Importantly, it was designed to be a joint individual/team effort. “I coach little league baseball and I am a big fan of team cooperation,” Wright continues. “We wanted Gasburg Timber to work as a team. If one driver has an issue with a potential violation, I want somebody to bring it to his attention before he gets stopped and gets a write-up. So we have a team penalty and an individual penalty. If they get violations then it is a certain percentage off the team, but it is a higher percentage off the individual.” A similar program for the woods crews is still in development. Crew foremen and foresters are all Sharp 18
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Thinning crew 3, bottom row, from left: Christopher Hawkins, Antonio Smith; top row, from left: Tommy Clary, Alvin Newton; in loader cab: Shawn Howerton
EMPLOYEE ROSTER M.M. Wright Inc.—Phillip Basham; William Brown; Rodney Carpenter; Jerry Clark; Elton and James Clarke; Gayle and Tommy Clary; Junior Drummond Sr. and Jr.; Scott Gauldin; Thomas Grice; Christopher Hawkins; Shawn Howerton; George Jones; Lewis Lambert; Darrell and Leon Meredith; Kyle Miller; Frank, Susan and Travis Myers; Alvin Newton; Kenneth Overby; Clifton Pearson; Larry Puryear; Leslie Puryear, Sr.; Anthony Rice; Anity Simmons; Antonio Smith; Jessie and Larry Walker; Jenna Wells; Arthur Winn; Denise, Stephen and Zenith Wright. Gasburg Timber Corp.—Andrew Blackwell; Terry Brown; Jerry Fields; Robert Floyd; Gregory Harrison; Warren Hawkins; Lawrence Lewis; Charles Moseley; Jeffrey Owen; Larry Peebles; James Penn; Brenda Ransom; Johnny Rooker; Eric Schmack; Charles Smith, Jr. Gasburg Equipment—Jeremy Babb; David Cifers; Jimmy Flanagan; Carl Grizzard; Glynn Hawkins; Charles Long; Kenneth Maitland; Matthew Robinson Buck Woods LLC—Mack Daniel; Marie Finch; Tom Hicks; Roy Perkins Gasburg Land & Timber—Joey Jones; Nick Smith Meredithville Wood Yard—Anthony Reese; Trent Tatum
Is it possible the partners will attempt to grow the business any further? Myers notes the company has been trying to pigeonhole some land away. “If we open any more businesses, and that might be a stretch, we may get into real estate development,” he indicates. “Stephen and I both have a love for the land, as his daddy did.” He adds, “I think chipping is probably going to be more and more important in the future, because this trucking thing is a big problem. We might all be in chipping because we won’t be able to haul roundwood.” Myers thinks the future could be very bright. “We have two good ports here and one in the edge of North Carolina. The pellet industry here has really boomed; they are still building plants. If the wood bio side of our industry stays strong, then we will benefit, but if we have to go back to relying on pure paper and pure lumber, then we are going to struggle because we have lost so many mills. We have all been thinning since the ’80s and we have lost a lot of our saw timber market. Is it coming back? I don’t know. But if the fuel chip and pellet industry stays strong, I think the logging industry in Virginia is going to be very good.” It likely will remain good enough for the business to eventually create a slot for Denver Wright, 10, the son of Denise and Stephen, assuming he chooses to continue in the storied TH family tradition.
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A Guy Who Helps Make Things Happen Proactive Dennis Schoeneck runs a high production CTL crew in Wisconsin. JESSICAJohnson
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ike most in the logging business, Dennis Schoeneck, 55, owner of Enterprise Forest Products, Enterprise, Wis., loves what he does and couldn’t imagine a different career. He bought his first chain saw at age 11. But what sets him apart is the passion he shows for those outside the industry for the industry. His daughter, Toni Engstrom, manages Enterprise’s bookwork and also works in the Great Lakes Timber Producers Assn.’s (GLTPA) office. “I’ll often call her and say, ‘Hey Toni, I’ve got an idea.’ She knows now, when I call, the answer is ‘what do you need?’ I love to be active,” he says. And active he is. Schoeneck serves on the Board of Directors of GLTPA and Chairs the Coordinations Committee, which is tasked with getting governmental entities to work with loggers on pressing industry issues. “So, we’re busy,” he says, chuckling. Through GLTPA, Schoeneck feels the committee has been able to push a lot of issues through the Wisconsin legislature. One example is the Good Neighbor Authority, a program through which the state of Wisconsin helps the U.S. Forest Service manage national forests in the state. “The national forests in Wisconsin, in my opinion, are being mismanaged to the nth degree. It’s a sin what they’ve done to our national forests. One way we can start to bring that back around is through things like the Good Neighbor Authority. I’ve had state senators on our job, even U.S. Congressmen up here to show them our issue,” Schoeneck explains. “It started a few years back; we’ve gotten it passed in Congress! The state of Wisconsin is now able to go in and help our national forests manage the timber. We’re the only state doing that right now. We like to be progressive. 22
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Schoeneck favors a Ponsse Ergo harvester and Ponsse Buffalo forwarder.
We have to be to stay alive.” Schoeneck stresses that all his work is driven by passion and the desire to do the right thing. He refers to the axiom that there are three types of people in the world: those who make things happen, those who watch things happen and those who wonder ‘what happened?’ “I do not want to be the other two. I’m going to be the guy that makes it happen,” he says. Driven by that philosophy, Schoeneck became very involved with a local tech school, Nicolet Technical College. Not only is he an adjunct professor at the school, teaching a fourweek heavy equipment operator’s course, he’s currently in talks to manage the college’s timberland. Through designing and teaching the equipment course, Schoeneck got to know the college administration, so it was a natural fit for him to suggest the college manage its 200 acres of timberland with a specific plan he devised. Schoeneck got approval from the state Dept. of Natural Resources to create a stewardship program that creates blocks to be harvested and gives local school
groups the opportunity to visit to learn more about logging as it is happening. Proceeds from timber harvests are to be donated to Log-A-Load for Kids.
On The Job Enterprise Forest Products runs a two-man crew full time, with Schoeneck’s son, Troy, and Grant Zelazoski, who Schoeneck says is like his son, operating a 2016 Ponsse Buffalo forwarder and a 2016 Ponsse Ergo harvester. A recently acquired John Deere 753 tracked feller-buncher is also operated on a part-time basis by another employee. A typical day for Enterprise starts at 6 a.m. when the younger workers arrive to work until 2 p.m. That’s when Schoeneck arrives to take over whatever machine is running behind for the day. The downside to sharing his passion for forestry and doing the right thing by the land he loves, is limited machine time. “I wish I could spend all day in a machine,” he comments. “In the mornings I spend time doing things like meeting with the college, or participat-
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ing in things like the Natural Resources Field Day, or meet with landowners.” Enterprise purchases some timber, but mainly Schoeneck works with Verso Corp. as a service contractor. In a typical contractor set-up, Verso buys timber for the crew to work and all wood Verso mills can use goes to Verso. Because Schoeneck is such a visible figure, landowners often ask From left, Troy and Dennis Schoeneck, Grant Zelazoski for him to cut their tracts. In business 40 years, Schoeneck has done every iteration of log“We can’t seem to get out of the rain. ging, including chain saw felling and Mud slows everything down; we’re forbucking, cable skidding, using slashwarding wood way farther than we ers—even a wheel-type feller-buncher should just to get it out to where the tractor fitted with a flail delimber head. trucks can get into it,” said Schoeneck. He firmly believes that cut-to-length is Enterprise relies on outsiders for the most efficient. trucking—Schoeneck’s brother, Scott, In the same vein, Schoeneck believes and subcontractor Marvin Schkorski. Ponsse machines are the best all around. Markets are diverse for Schoeneck. In He’s tried other makes but insists nothaddition to helping supply Verso, basiing can top the Ponsse brand when coucally any mill that takes wood in Wispled with the parts and service he reconsin or the UP of Michigan at least ceives. He’s been with the brand since occasionally consumes Enterprise-har1999. vested products. Aspen and pine bolts “The service is second to none; the go to a local pallet mill, logs to Nicolet parts availability is second to none. They’ve got millions of dollars of inventory and they are close to me,” he says, noting that Ponsse’s North American headquarters in Rhinelander are just a few miles south of his in the Enterprise community. “They are good machines, very ergonomically designed, really thoughtout about the comfort of the operator. That’s why we run Ponsse.” The crew moves at a fast pace, pushing out up to 21 loads per day, which puts a lot of wear on the machines. Schoeneck added the feller-buncher to take some pressure off of the expensive-to-run harvester. The Deere machine cuts and bunches only, and it has boosted production. “I don’t want to get big,” Schoeneck says. “I’m just a little guy. I’d just as soon stay a little guy, but for the size of us, we produce a lot of wood.” Schoeneck has a 36x80 ft. shop near his home where he stores his John Deere bulldozer, used for road work. Most maintenance is done in the woods. The crew has a trailer completely outfitted with a welder, hose machine, assorted tools, oils and grease. Timber Harvesting found the crew struggling with mud in late June. Foremost Authority For Professional Loggers
Hardwoods, G&G Lumber and Ashland Mat; and pulp to PCA and Louisiana-Pacific. Schoeneck says some contract trucks may have one-way trips that take two and a half hours. Schoeneck promotes a safety culture, evident in the fact that the crew has not had an accident in a number of years. The official OSHA safety program is kept in the job trailer. If any felling by chain saw is required, Schoeneck does it himself, much to the chagrin of the others. “They get mad at me, because they need to learn, but I’m afraid. I know all the stuff that can happen,” he explains. In-cab CBs, cell phones and bright shirts reflect the owner’s safety concerns. Even though Schoeneck isn’t in the woods all day every day, he’s in contact with the workers. “To me, safety is about communication, reminding one another of all the things can go wrong. Anyone who takes safety for granted is destined for problems. Things happen so fast you have TH to be aware,” he cautions.
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Startup, Growth, Adjustments Kip Smith’s logging business is building a strong reputation in middle Georgia.
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JAYDonnell
fter starting up his logging and forestry business in May 2013, it didn’t take Kip Smith long to learn that older equipment wasn’t the way to go, and that all newer equipment is very competitive in price and performance. Newer machines keep operators happy and production up. No secret there. But what separates Smith from some loggers is his belief that you don’t have to buy only one brand of equipment. “I’ve tried to be diverse with my equipment,” Smith says. “A lot of loggers are really into one kind, but I feel like they pigeonhole themselves with financing. When you have
a mixture, you have a little bit of a trade advantage. They all make good equipment.” That’s why you’ll see Kip Smith Forest Services (KSFS) running a 2015 Tigercat 720G feller-buncher and a 2016 John Deere 643L feller-buncher; and a 2015 Cat 535D skidder and a 2014 Tigercat 620E skidder; along with a 2015 Cat 559C loader (working with a CSI DL-4400 slasher saw), and 2014 Cat 559C loader that feeds a 2015 Morbark 30/36 whole tree chipper. The L series feller-buncher is the newest piece of equipment purchased by KSFS. “The new Deere feller-buncher has been a heck of a ma“There is no money in a log truck,” says Smith, who bought three Macks out of necessity.
chine,” Smith raves. “I’ve been very impressed with the new cutter and the operators love it. It’s faster, stronger and more operator friendly.” Running two crews, KSFS thins 70-80% of the time. Most clear-cutting is done during the winter. In central Georgia on tracts located not so far from its base at Haddock. Smith’s team typically works in hilly terrain where many ditches are encountered. When Timber Harvesting visited KSFS, one crew was working on a second thinning on a 600-acre tract. The crews usually harvest 100-120 loads of logs a week on average. KSFS cuts pine-heavy tracts the majority of the time. Smith buys a good bit of stumpage through F&W Forestry Services and is well connected with regional manager Nathan Fountain. Smith and Fountain graduated from the University of Georgia together. “We do the quality logging job that he’s looking for,” Smith says. The chipping aspect of the business came a couple of years after KSFS started up, and the addition of the drum chipper provides some flexibility during roundwood quota situations. Still, some fuel chip markets have instigated quotas as well. KSFS produces about 600 tons of fuel chips per week. The chipper addition has meant the difference between getting a job and not getting a job on several occasions. “We were handling so much of the tree that we weren’t using,” Smith says. “We wanted to take advantage of all the portions of the tree and the chipper has been a great procurement tool for us.”
Background Prior to embracing logging, Smith had made a good living buying timber as a procurement forester, but he was always drawn to the logging end.
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Once he had enough timber bought he decided to start his own logging business. “I began with $90,000 worth of equipment,” Smith says. Smith, 39, quickly hired Michael Allen, who now serves as the harvest operations manager. “Within the first week I realized that he was awesome,” Smith says. “He just has that mechanical ability and can figure things out, whether it’s running equipment or fixing it. He and I patched up old equipment until we were able to move up to good equipment.” Today Smith has 12 employees. He has built a solid business, is building a strong reputation in middle Georgia, and expects the momentum to continue.
Tigercat and John Deere machines share felling and bunching duties.
Operations When moving on a new tract, Smith builds roads with John Deere 700K and 700H dozers, clears landings with a feller-buncher, and dresses them as needed with the dozers. Also, he finds out if the landowner wants slash piled or distributed throughout the woods. “We know what they want when we get there,” Smith explains. “We like for whoever we’re working for to have their finger on the pulse of the job.” He adds, “There are some consultants who come out the day you start and don’t come back until a couple after you’ve already left. Then they’ll have a gripe about something. I like it when people are proactive.” The company generally works within an hour and a half of Smith’s home office. It hauls sawlogs to the Jordan Forest Products sawmill in Barnesville and to Interfor’s sawmill in Eatonton. Plylogs are sent to Georgia-Pacific in Madison; pulpwood to Graphic Packaging in Macon. Fuel chips go to Piedmont Green Power in Barnesville and to Pratt Recycling in Conyers. One crew generally services the Graphic Packaging pulpwood market and the other the Weyerhaeuser Flint River operations. KSFS has run into quotas at some of its bigger mill markets since February. KSFS owns three 2016 Mack trucks, a mix of Pitts and shop-built log trailers, and uses both Peerless chip vans and shipping containers converted to vans. The rest of the trucking is contracted. Smith never wanted to get into trucking, but realized that his lack of trucks was becoming a problem for his business. “I bought one Foremost Authority For Professional Loggers
KSFS cuts mostly pine-heavy tracts often procured through F&W Forestry Services.
truck, bought another and then another,” Smith says. “It really ramped our production up.” While owning his own trucks has been a good thing, it brings on many headaches. “Trucking is a nightmare because there is no money in a log truck,” Smith explains. Drivers are paid a percentage of the gross revenue of their runs each week. Smith estimates that he’s invested $2.3 million in his business.
On The Job Employees generally work Monday through Friday and arrive on site at 6:30 a.m. If KSFS gets into a situation where the mills are open on Saturday Smith can call employees and get a crew together to work. When KSFS hires a new worker they must fill out a formal application. All employees, including truck drivers, are subject to random drug testing. KSFS has used
Darlene McDonald’s Safety On Site for two years. As of recently, the inwoods operation and company-owned trucking operation had been 100% accident-free. KSFS will pay for uniforms if an employee wants one and employees that drive their own trucks to work are given cards that can be used for gas at stations Smith does business with. Workers are granted time off for sickness and family emergencies. “I try to pay my people well and make a good work environment,” Smith explains. “We go out of our way to make it as good of a work environment as possible. I feel like I pay really well, but I also expect a lot.” On crew one, Sam Farley is a loader operator, Charles Evans runs a skidder, and Mikey Davis operates a feller-buncher. The second crew consists of Brandon Stitcher, skidder operator; Kevin Kitchens, feller-buncher operator; Junior Mays, loader operator; and SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2016
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The company taps contract trucks to help it deliver up to 120 loads a week.
Jessie Bridgeman. Truck drivers are Al Thomas, Cary Mullis and Chris Merritt. Smith’s wife, Kalie, runs the office, and his mother-in-law, Terry Macenvail, does the bookkeeping. Due to the quality of KSFS’s logging practices they’ve had to turn down some jobs, which is hard for Smith to do as a wood buyer. “We’ve gotten to a point where we’ve filled a
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niche and have plenty to do,” Smith explains. “I’m at a crossroads on whether I should grow.” He adds, “We’ll make our decisions in a very calculated way. Sometimes quality overrides quantity, but sometimes you can have them hand-inhand. Any time you advance in this business there are major financial decisions to be made. Even if you’re just
putting on a contract logger you have to be careful because you’re financing that operation.” Kip Smith is a member of the Southeastern Wood Producers Assn. and the Georgia Forestry Assn. His favorite hobby outside of work is rodeo team roping—he’s the header— which he has been doing for four years throughout the Southeast. TH
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PeoplePower! WENDY FARRAND wendyfarrand@gmail.com, 207-838-4435
Harness The Power Of Stories How many stories have you heard about the scars, breakdowns, near misses or dangerous encounters in the woods? Get a group of loggers around the back of a pickup truck on a Friday afternoon and you will hear some amazing tales of danger, courage, loyalty and humor. Stories bring people together; they create camaraderie and set traditions. In the world of business, stories serve as evidence for landowners and for your crew members when you are trying to make a point, accomplish something, or boost morale. Think of your childhood and the stories that were used to soothe, excite, warn and teach. I remember my grandmother would tell tales from the old country. I was always fascinated by the characters that lived in her memory. Each of her stories were usually in the form of a lesson or a way to control my mischievous behavior. Thinking about my grandmother and her efforts to control me strengthens the case for using stories to accomplish an objective. In order to succeed, leaders in the woods need to bring others along to their way of thinking. A story can help convince a landowner that the best thing for the health of their forest is a thinning. A tale of danger can help keep a fellow worker safe, and a convincing account can point out that good logging is good! In most instances, the power of a persuasive story can lead to a desired outcome.
“Scary Woods” Whenever I had the task of convincing a landowner that a harvest would serve the health of their forest, I would frequently share my “Stephen King Scary Woods” story, as follows. “I’d like to share a true story with you that might help you decide whether to manage your land or not. I once was called by a landowner who had inherited two tracts of land from his father. This gentleman hadn’t even visited the land that he now owned, but he wanted to conduct a harvest on both tracts, which fronted opposite sides of the same road. When we arrived to look at the land it 28
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was evident the father had harvested timber on one side of the road but not on the other. The unmanaged side could only be described as row upon row of dead or dying pine trees—a heartbreaking sight for sure. There was absolutely not a speck of green to be found except for the very tips of the crowns, which were desperately fighting each other for moisture and sunshine. We could see a great distance through the dying branches. Crows swooped down to our right, screeching wildly at us as if to warn us to get out. Their cawing sent a chill down my spine. Roots morphed out of the ground like a scene from a Stephen King novel. The dying trees took on a character of their own, helping create the type of place in which you did not want to be the last in line; for if you were you might be snatched by something lurking in the smelly, rotting trunks or brittle branches. I kept forging my way to the front of the line, leaving our fellerbuncher operator and my boss to face the threat of the unknown. The ground emitted the wet, pungent smell of decay. Only bad things could happen on that side of the road, for anything good could not bear to be there. It seemed that something evil was just waiting to happen, whether supernatural or not. Would we stumble across a decomposing body? The forest, such as it was, harbored a foreboding sense of dread that could only lead to disaster. Scenes of a roaring forest fire entered my mind. Things were different on the other side of the road. It was evident the acreage had been managed. Lush bushes and grass-laden trails wove through different age classes of trees. Signs of wildlife were evident. Everything was green, bright and alive. A beautiful gurgling stream added its charm, and there were sprinklings of delicate flowers dotting the landscape. Among the stands of different trees there were little pockets of green, some with moss and some with grass, all inviting visitors to catch a nap and use the sun as a warm blanket. A walk on that side of the street was an enjoyable visit
with the beauty of nature and all its bounty. There was promise, hope, and some mighty fine timber that had the ability to grow straight and tall.” Now, if you were the prospective client, what would you hope to see for the future of your land?
Stories As Tools You engage your audience when you tell a story. Whether sharing a tale with one, two or a whole room of listeners, the power and credibility behind your words can serve as evidence, not just in your personal life, but also in business. All business transactions are rooted in an emotional connection. A story can be a great equalizer, as if you are talking from heart to heart. Your words can strike a chord somewhere in the emotional part of your listeners’ brain that can bring them over the bridge to your way of thinking. Are you using your story telling skill to help accomplish your business goals? It is a powerful tool that can sometimes get overlooked. Early on in my selling career, I learned that all sales are based on an emotional reason. So, for those who work moving the wood, each contract that you sign, whether buying or selling, is also based on an emotional reason. The best negotiators maintain a cache of stories to use as evidence to lead to a positive outcome by striking and emotional chord with the receiver. I am sure many of you use stories in business negotiations and aren’t even aware of the power you are wielding. Become aware of this power and use it to your advantage. Loggers, more than most, possess a fine talent to paint an emotional picture with words. Are you using that talent in your business dealings, or is it left in your toolbox back in the service truck? As a business person, are you consciously connecting with your prospective landowners, foresters, procurement managers and crew members through stories and emotions? Create your story not just for yourself but for your business and our industry. Make it positive, powerful and professional. Think about it. Conscious story telling can create fertile ground that can lead to great outTH comes.
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EquipmentWorld
MSFES Booms Despite Heat, Humidity
Food prepared on-site on Saturday drew crowds to displays of equipment dealers.
Braving oppressive heat and humidity and temporarily brushing aside concerns over a tight market, participants in the 15th biennial Mid-South Forestry Equipment Show, held August 26-27 on a Mississippi State University forest near Starkville, turned out in record numbers. The temperature and humidity, both in the high 90s, may have also been a show record. According to Show Manager Misty Booth, the total two-day attendance surpassed 7,100, Loggers check out a Southstar processor. topping the previous record (2014) of 6,600. Attendees came from as far away as Virginia to size up the machines, products and services provided by 93 exhibitors. The previous show high for exhibitors, 84, dated to 2006. The family-friendly show generated $10,669 for Log-A-Load for Kids through the sale of merchandise by the Mississippi Loggers Assn. and through donations for food prepared on-site by Stribling Equipment, B&G Equipment, Thompson Machinery and Puckett Machinery. Sponsored by B&G Equipment, the loader contest was a strong draw. Top finishers were Charles Garrett, Glen Henderson Logging, New Augusta, Miss., Lee Powers, Doug Powers, Inc., Carthage, Miss., and Clay Maxwell, Stott Wood Co., Olla, La. Top three in the skidder contest, sponsored by Stribling Equipment, were Thomas Mitchell, Waugh & Waugh, LLC, Duck Hill, Miss., Perry Lofton, Jr., Perry Lofton Logging, Mount Vernon, Ala., and Alex Johnson, Sojourner Timber, Crystal Springs, Miss. Mississippi loggers Billy Sanford, Mantee, and Tim Mahan, Golden, each won $1,000 cash giveaways, courtesy of the Mississippi Loggers Assn. (MLA). At its biennial awards banquet held on the show site, the MLA recognized veteran logger James Sessums as its 2016 Logger of the Year. As is customary for the event, hundreds of loggers and foresters took advantage of continuing education classes conducted on-site. The event is a joint undertaking by Mississippi State University, Mississippi Forestry Assn. and Mississippi Loggers Assn. 30
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Barko Adds Newlons, Pioneer Equipment Barko Hydraulics, LLC has added Newlons International Sales, LLC to its dealer network for all forestry equipment product lines. Located in Elkins, W. Va., Newlons will carry Barko equipment for all of West Virginia and two counties in Maryland. Newlons International was founded in 1958 and has been a dealer for International trucks since 1968. “I think it’s going to be a great partnership,” says Chad Newlon, manager at Newlons International. “I feel like there’s a really good market here and a terrific opportunity for Barko and Newlons to grow business together.” Pioneer Equipment Co., located in Rhinelander, Wis., Pioneer will carry Barko equipment for Wisconsin and Michigan. Pioneer Equipment was founded in 2008 by co-owners Dan Linsmeyer and Steve Ory. They built a new sales and full-service maintenance facility in 2009 and have gradually expanded their product offering, increased support staff, and added service trucks.
Caterpillar Teams With Ritchie Bros. Ritchie Bros., the large industrial auctioneer and equipment distributor, and Caterpillar Inc. announced an alliance for Ritchie Bros. to become Caterpillar’s preferred global partner for live on-site and online auctions with respect to used Caterpillar equipment, and for Ritchie Bros. to complement Caterpillar’s existing dealer channels.
Ritchie Bros. will provide Caterpillar and its dealers with access to proprietary auction platforms, software and other value-added services. The strategic alliance is expected to strengthen Ritchie Bros.’ relationship with Caterpillar’s independent dealers by providing enhanced and continued access to a global auction marketplace to sell used equipment. Ritchie Bros. also announced it is acquiring IronPlanet, a leading online marketplace for used heavy equipment and other durable asset sales, of which Caterpillar and its dealers own a minority position. TIMBER HARVESTING & WOOD FIBER OPERATIONS
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EquipmentWorld Bandit Hosts 300 At Dealer Meeting
Ponsse Event Includes Racing Fun In late June Ponsse North America welcomed more than 350 customers and guests to its annual live demo and customer appreciation event, held in Crandon, Wis. Ponsse joined forces with Crandon International Off-Road Raceway, clearing land for the track and hosting customers during the races, which included lots of boisterous cheering for the logger-racer teams sponsored by Ponsse. Pekka Ruuskanen, Ponsse North America’s Managing Director, noted this arrangement let the Ponsse family come together and do a little work while having a lot of fun. Several machine sales reportedly were made as a result.
Representatives from 79 dealerships and 16 countries watched equipment demos and toured the Michigan plant.
At the Bandit Industries dealer meeting and customer appreciation event, held August 10-11 at the company’s headquarters in Remus, Mich., new chipper models took center stage as the company rolled out the red carpet for more than 300 attendees from 16 countries. Bandit’s 2016 dealer meeting was more of an R&D showcase in that it provided dealers and select customers the chance to preview five Beast grinders, four whole tree chippers, four stump grinders and six hand-fed chippers. Visitors also toured the newly streamlined and more efficient parts department. This was the first time Bandit opened its dealer meeting to key customers. The meeting included CEO John Mocny’s vision for Bandit’s future, plant tours, a live equipment demo and lots of fun at the Sleepy Hollow Hideaway.
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Customers check out a harvester.
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EquipmentWorld One of the biggest draws was the static Wisent forwarder wrapped in Mossy Oak camo. This machine, one of only eight special “Hunter’s Edition” machines in the world, is brand new for this year. Ponsse had three machines in action. They included the Buffalo King and the updated Ergo and Scorpion King. In the Lake States, off-road racing is huge, perhaps on par or exceeding the popularity of football, so for Ponsse, sponsoring racing teams was a natural fit. “A lot of our customers go to the races, and we like to be involved,” Ruuskanen said. Ponsse sponsors one of the turns on the race track itself, as well as logger-racer teams in three classes: Chad Hoard (Pro 4X4), Cody and Mark Klieman (Pro Light), and Michael Mister (Super Buggy). Other manufacturers participating in the event included Rotochopper (grinders) and Pewag (tire chains).
VISIT US ONLINE: www.timberharvesting.com
Jewell Machinery Makes Inc. 5000 List Jewell Machinery, Rocky Mount, NC, has been named to the 2016 Inc. 5000 list, an exclusive ranking of the nation’s fastest growing private companies. Climbing 42 spots from 2015, Jewell was ranked 1,231 overall. “We are honored to make the Inc. 5000 list a third time,” says Michael Jewell, company president. “The growth we have experienced over the past few years is a testament to the unbelievable work and dedication of our team and partners.” Jewell (jewellmachinery.com) is a Barko-Pettibone-Cummins dealer and also operates forestryparts.com and sells parts for numerous applications.
2017 Mid-Atlantic Expo Slated September 15-16 Next year’s biennial Mid-Atlantic Logging & Biomass Expo, fourth in a series dating back to 2011, is scheduled September 15-16, according to Jack Swanner, executive director of the Carolina Loggers Assn., which sponsors the event with the NC Forestry Assn. and Hatton-Brown Publishers. Swanner indicates the show will again be held again near Selma-Smithfield, NC. More details will be available in coming months. Foremost Authority For Professional Loggers
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5 ➤ he couldn’t think. At the end of this day, another moment. He was at his desk behind the workshop, listening to voicemails on a cell phone that got no reception in the woods, when Matt, one of his young workers, popped his head in the office. “Chain saw bar broke,” he said, holding up mangled metal. He’d fixed the thing earlier that day. He couldn’t stop the bleeding. Every day, more money gone. Every day harder to earn back. He kept a magazine clipping in his desk. It laid out the industry’s woes: Fuel costs had risen 400% in the last two decades, labor 67%, equipment 112%, trucking 41%. Meanwhile, money earned from the wood he cut had risen just 37.5%. The clipping, not a year old, was frayed and worn, like he kept it close, a charm to remind him bad luck wasn’t his alone. Now, he laughed, as if in momentary defiance. “There’s another 50 bucks gone.” As Matt shrugged and walked off, unburdened, Goodhouse’s smile faded to a blank stare and a thought beat around his head: I’m the dummy who can’t give it up. At 6:59 p.m., a few weeks later, Goodhouse walked into the kitchen of his antique Cape in the grassy hills outside Reading. He looked stunned. It had been a warm day—not off the charts, in the 80s–-but in the forwarder, sitting over the engine, its diesel pulsing, it might as well have been a furnace. He lifted the newspaper and fanned his mottled face, iced a glass of wine, then slumped into a chair so that his John Deere suspenders went slack over his stomach. It was just him and Susan. His daughter was somewhere in Boston, doing Pilates or meeting up with friends or doing whatever a 27-yearold office manager of a start-up did on a Tuesday night. His 25-year-old son, David, would be home later. He was out riding dirt bikes with friends. He hadn’t had lunch, and wasn’t really hungry, but Susan had fried sausages and onions and so he ate, and afterward, while she washed dishes, he sat thumbing through the latest issue of Timber Harvesting magazine. He saw big, yellow machines that could 34
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make you money. He flipped and flipped. Near the back of the magazine, he stopped on a logging company profile. He tapped at a photo of the owners, Frank Sr. and Frank Jr. “All the successful companies are father-son,” he murmured. He and Susan had brought their newborn son home on Valentine’s Day 1991. Dave had named the boy after himself, and a nickname attached: D2. His son had been a snuggler as a child, always sneaking into bed with him and Susan, wanting to be close. In high school, he’d written an essay called “Future.” Goodhouse kept a printed copy of it in his desk in the workshop office. “I mostly want to be a logger so I can run the machinery,” his son had written. “Although the future may not be very clear, I am pretty sure I want to do what my dad does.” D2 worked with him for three years after high school. At the father’s instigation, the pair started days at 2 a.m., as if not a moment should be wasted now that they had a partnership. And then, one day, his son quit. “I’ve watched you suffer and I don’t want to suffer like that,” Goodhouse recalled his son telling him. His son bought four riding mowers and hired some guys to cut grass with him. He saved enough money to buy two trucks, a Jetta sedan, and two boats, and after a few years it was clear he wasn’t coming back. Goodhouse still ached over it. He couldn’t shake the sadness. It was a sadness that went back to his own beginnings. “I got no history,” was the way he thought of it. When he was days old, he’d been left in the rear pew of the Sacred Heart Catholic Church in Bennington, his cries heard shortly after 7 p.m. by a praying parishioner. Dirt and twigs clung to the blanket of the blueeyed 7½-pound baby, and speculation, according to an account in the Bennington Banner, was that he had been delivered in the nearby woods. Nuns raised him for six months, and then a nice couple from Woodstock adopted him. His father was college-educated, an extension agent for the University of Vermont. Goodhouse loved the man, but there was a
gap between the bookish father and the restless son. In his own son Goodhouse thought he had found alignment, someone who shared his values and rooted him in the world. And then, it fell away. He tried to understand. Susan explained their son was happy, making money, a success. He nodded at the obvious truth. And he was proud of his son. But at moments his own disappointment erupted in irritable asides: What did lawn-mowing produce? Susan wiped the counters with a rag, rubbing in circular motions. She kept books for her husband and son and managed a business herself, renting a small house they owned up the hill. She had no problem evicting people who didn’t pay, gently but firmly. “You know Matt left at 2?” she asked her husband. He shook his head. Matt had begged off logging for the day, saying it would be too hot to work. Dave had sent him to cut firewood in the lot next to their house. “He clocked out at 3,” he said. “He left at 2,” Susan said firmly. “Oh well,” he said. She said no more. She would never say so, but she knew what he was thinking. His son could have plugged the hole. He would’ve fired such a guy.
A New Forwarder? The Caterpillar salesman wore a madras shirt and khakis and carried an iPad. His face was pleasant and fixed with a dim smile as he clicked photos of Goodhouse’s ailing machinery. The forwarder had 11,000 hours on it. It was still dropping logs, its grapple nearly done for. Goodhouse folded his arms, getting nervous. The plan was for the salesman to take the photos back to the office. He’d have numbers soon. The assessed value of the forwarder would be good or bad, a way up or maybe out. Goodhouse hiked up his suspenders and looked to the salesman, suddenly expectant, as though the salesman might have answers for him, something more than just a trade-in quote. “I lie awake at night thinking about
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what to do,” he pressed. “The markets are scary.” “Well, the hardwood log market is really strong,” the salesman offered. It was true. But pulp prices were down. Pellet plants in Maine had closed. And it was all going to flipflop again, these crazy markets dictated by countless invisible hands, upsetting the status quo. He had only to look down his own road to be reminded of outside disruptive forces. A retired Boston-area ophthalmologist had moved into a red Cape around the corner from the depot where he kept his logging equipment. A few years back, she complained about the noise he made in the depot. He balked. She sued. He spent thousands on legal fees and, in the end, agreed to her terms: No noise until 7 a.m. in the spring, 8 a.m. the rest of the year. The agreement meant forfeiting valuable working hours and, perhaps,
Foremost Authority For Professional Loggers
some part of himself. “Big fancy eye doctor from Boston came up and told us what she was going to do and she was shocked her position in life didn’t impress us,” he said in one breath, and then, “If you don’t forgive and forget, it’ll kill you.” The salesman walked to his truck. “You’ll get me the quote?” Goodhouse called after him. “I try to work with people best I can.” The salesman seemed to wince. He’d been a logger, too. He’d gotten out. On a Saturday afternoon, Goodhouse dressed in a short sleeved button-down and Carhartt jeans and he and his wife drove over to the Catholic church in Windsor. He felt funny saying so—loggers were supposed to be tough guys— but he liked going to church: “Even if you don’t believe in God, it makes you responsible for your actions. Going to church makes you think.”
A breeze circulated in the chapel, and the priest’s green robes billowed behind him as he stepped to the pulpit. “Oh God from whom all good things come.” Goodhouse leaned back in the pew. He shut his eyes to listen to the priest’s homily. He brought the priest firewood. The priest was a do-it-yourself sort. He liked to cut and split it himself. Goodhouse respected the priest for it. “Our God is the God of mercy.” One of the readings had been from First Kings, in which Elijah called out to God three times asking for mercy for a widow’s dying son. God heard him and breathed life back into the boy. “We need to follow that example of being merciful,” the priest said. Goodhouse’s eyes snapped open. This was leading somewhere. “All these refugees around the world and in our own country,” ➤ 36
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35 ➤ the priest said. Mercy meant not building walls but welcoming them. “At the very least, praying for them.” Goodhouse leaned forward. Pain radiated from his old pelvic fracture, which ached after a week of riding in the forwarder. He was all for compassion, and the priest was well-intentioned. But he lived in a bubble. Goodhouse lived in the real world. In the real world, a new hire didn’t show for his first day of work and didn’t call. The next day he showed up and said he didn’t call because he didn’t have Goodhouse’s phone number. But he’d called to ask for the job, hadn’t he? Goodhouse had stacks of these stories. Church was where he was reminded to respect people, to be the sort of person who didn’t make other people miserable. He didn’t want to deny refugees or anyone else. But enough people were getting something for noth-
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ing, and he was working twice as hard. He shut his eyes again. It was like he was back in the forwarder, stuck in the cab, thinking too much. For their 29th anniversary, Susan and Dave went to Maine. They shopped at L.L. Bean, wandered rocky coves, ate out. Goodhouse skipped the lobster. His stomach had been hurting lately. He’d cut out coffee and shellfish. They were headed home when the salesman called. His figures were respectable, but not good enough. With the trade-in, a new forwarder would bump Goodhouse’s monthly payments another $5,000. He thought about going for it. He could work harder. Spend more time in the forwarder. Rely less on his guys. But the markets had tightened up. Pine was cold, on quota at the mills. Just thinking about the long hours ahead stole his breath.
He’d always said he’d work until they threw dirt on him. He hadn’t expected to be searching for a path at 53. In Maine, a notion had crept into his thinking. Perhaps there was no clear path. Not anymore. If he bought the new forwarder, he’d be beholden to the bank. If he took the job at the gentleman farm, he’d be beholden to a rich guy. If he did nothing, he’d be beholden to a machine that would go under and perhaps take him with it. On a Monday morning, his crew started a new job in Woodstock. The week was sunny and clear, and the lot had peaks with views as far as New Hampshire. Turkeys scooted out of the trucks’ way; doves cooed. The patch was a good one—plenty of hardwood. The old forwarder would have to do the work. For the time being, Goodhouse had decided it would hold his fate, tentative as its grasp might be. TH
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InnovationWay Smaller Morbark Flail Morbark LLC, has added a smaller flail option to its product line, the 223 standalone flail. Easy to transport, the model is efficient and robust for in-woods chipping applications. “Through extensive market research that included design input from customers, we saw the need for a smaller, more affordable option that gives contractors the versatility of being able to produce clean chips or transition back to producing a fuel chip with relative ease, which is key in an ever-changing chip market,” says Michael Stanton, Morbark Industrial Products Business Unit Director. “The Morbark 223 flail gives contractors the power of our larger equipment with the portability of a smaller unit to serve diverse markets.” The 223 is designed to work in conjunction with chippers like the Morbark 23 Chiparvestor, the 40/36 whole tree drum chipper or similar machines. With a large 56" x 23" infeed opening, the 223 flail accepts logs up to 23" in diameter at a feed rate from 70-150 FPM. The Morbark Integrated Control System allows for fine adjustment of feed rate and flail drum speed so that bark removal is maximized and removal of “good” fiber is minimized for superior end products.
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With the widest flailing chamber in the market, the 223 reduces hassle while feeding and allows for additional stems to be fed during operation. Other key features include the dual horizontal segmented flail drums—each equipped with eight flail chain rods— which are more durable and provide longer wear life, and a large work/inspection area for easy access to engine and hydraulic components, for easier maintenance and reduced costs. Visit morbark.com.
Doosan Log Loader In response to a growing demand for a larger Doosan log loader, a third model was recently added to the lineup. The heavy-duty DX380LL-5 log loader is a new machine size for Doosan to better serve forestry professionals for shovel logging and log-loading tasks. Weighing approximately 112,000 lbs., it is the first Doosan log loader in this size class and provides high swing torque and approximately 44' of reach at ground level. Visit doosanequipment.com.
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InnovationWay Oregon Harvester Guide Bar Blount International offers the Oregon SpeedMax XL .404 harvester guide bar. Engineered to keep operators in the cab and on the job longer, the SpeedMax XL offers improved chain retention and reduced flex with a wider design and highstrength chrome-moly steel alloy. The all-new 14-tooth replaceable sprocket nose has been designed to withstand the demanding cutting conditions of today’s high-output harvester machines. Compatible with the most popular harvesting equipment, SpeedMax XL features include: An all-new 14-tooth replaceable sprocket nose makes 21% fewer rotations during use when compared to a traditional 11-tooth nose. Fewer rotations decrease the amount of wear accumulated on the teeth and bearings, and increase the life of the nose for more overall productivity. A wider guide bar made from high-strength chromemoly steel alloy is stiffer and stronger, providing increased chain retention in high-speed cutting applications. Oregon’s patented four-rivet sprocket nose design creates a stronger attachment to the bar body, and the industri-
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al-strength high-alloy bearings are 14% thicker when compared to some competitive products. A longer nose design that is engineered to absorb more rail wear where it happens most. LubriTec oiling system keeps the chain running smooth, for less friction and longer life. Many sizes are available with Oregon’s patented Jet-Fit motor mount. Visit oregonproducts.com/Speedmax
Key Knife Chipper Package Rotochopper and Key Knife announce the launch of the Key Knife chipper knife package, which allows horizontal grinder owners to chip and grind with a single machine. The chipper knife package is a bolt-in option that works with the standard patented replaceable mount rotor for the Rotochopper B-66 and B-66 E. This chipper knife system makes it simple to diversify into chipping applications without a complex conversion kit or a second machine. To switch from grinding to chipping, the operator does not need to swap the whole rotor drum or assemble a complex overlay onto the grinding rotor—the operator simply swaps the grinder tooth mounts with chipper knife mounts. A single operator can switch from teeth to knives quickly and easily. No rod puller or other specialized tools are required; no need to swap rotors, re-align sheaves or re-tension drive belts; just two bolts per knife and two bolts per knife clamp. Visit rotochopper.com.
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SelectCuts As We (ALC) See It
Be Active, Adapt, Change, Overcome KEN MARTIN As I look at our logging profession, I reflect on the changes through the years. Remember when you knew in January the product you would be cutting and the price you would be paid for the next 12 months? Remember when that changed to six months, three months, monthly Martin and even weekly? As a Southern logger, I have seen the change from the chain saw felling days and cable skidding equipment to fully mechanized operations. Along with these changes came lower worker compensation insurance costs and reduced chain saw accidents. While it has been a very interesting 40-plus years of change, there has also been a great deal of improvement in
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the utilization of forest products, to the point any waste is almost human error. During this time the forest products industry has worked through performance and efficiency issues at mills while local markets have evolved into world markets, thus requiring us to operate under a whole new set of rules. Who would have ever thought that truck drivers would be at higher risk than woods workers as related to workers’ compensation insurance costs? Who would have ever thought that equipment to harvest timber would come with the current price tags on it, or be as operator friendly, ergonomically comfortable, and productive as it is today? During all of these changes and adjustments, we have seen trade policies debated, a changing U.S. dollar, mills
shuttered, and laws enacted by Congress that have had far reaching effects on our industry. We loggers have learned to operate wiser and leaner. Logging professionals have learned to become advocates for our industry by telling our story. We must not sit back and complain; we must offer up solutions for the array of problems we face. The only thing consistent in our industry is change. We can accept change and with it take advantage of the situations and opportunities we find ourselves in, or we can be left sitting and wondering what the tag number was on that truck that ran over us. The logging and forest products industry has always adapted, and we will continue to adapt. The American Loggers Council exists to help us transition through some of these changes. We are taking a greater role in both regulatory and logging and trucking safety issues, and have set a goal of having the logging
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SelectCuts industry disappear from the “top 2” list for the most dangerous occupations by the year 2021. You can help us to achieve those goals by being active. Adapt, change, and overcome. Martin is president of the American Loggers Council and owns and operates MarCal, Inc., Mendenhall, Miss. The American Loggers Council is a 501 (c)(6) not for profit trade organization representing professional timber harvesters in 32 states. Visit amlog gers.com or call 409-625-0206.
Logger Bounces Back From Montana Wildfire Montana logger Mike Newton, owner of Newton Logging Inc., has regrouped and is back at it after his job site was ravaged by wildfire before dawn on August 23, destroying three machines, a tool truck and, oddly enough, a pumper truck kept on hand to fight fires. In an interview with a Kalispell TV news reporter, Newton estimated the loss around $350,000, much of which should be covered by insurance. Newton is only one of many property owners who have been impacted by the Copper Fire in the Thompson Falls area, which at the time had burned over more than 21,000 acres. Soon after the fire he resumed logging with surplus equipment. Allen Bryson, one of Newton’s employees, was awakened by the fire, and was credited with alerting occupants of several vacation cabins about the fire’s encroachment.
Texan James Jones Eulogized August 27 A memorial service for former forestry equipment dealer James Jones, 84, of Lufkin, Tex. was held August 27 in Lufkin. He died on August 23. A native of Huntington, Tex., Jones founded Piney Woods Tractor & Implement Co. in Lufkin in 1969 and operated it for more than 30 years, serving countless loggers, farmers and general contractors. As a businessman, Jones was known for his integrity, drive and work ethic. As a family man, he was devoted to his wife, Jones children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren. As a Christian, he was a faithful member of Denman Avenue Baptist Church, Lufkin, and beginning in 1961 served as a deacon, trustee, and committee member in various Baptist churches. As a lover of music, he especially enjoyed singing in the sanctuary choir and directing the music when needed. He also served as band director for three high schools during the ’60s. After his discharge from the Army in 1955, Jones worked as an electrician while attending college classes at ➤ 46
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SelectCuts 42 ➤ night. He earned BA and MA degrees (1966 and 1973) in music education from Stephen F. Austin State University. Survivors include his widow, two daughters, 10 grandchildren, and four great-grandchildren.
Tigercat Hosts ALC Board Meeting Tigercat Industries hosted the summer board meeting of the American Loggers Council (ALC) in Brantford, Ontario July 29–30. ALC members arrived on Thursday afternoon and attended a welcome reception provided by the company. Welcoming the group were Tigercat Chairman and CEO Ken MacDonald, President Tony Iarocci, Sales Manager Kevin Selby and others. The guests toured several manufacturing facilities, including the 127,000 sq. ft. facility in Paris, Ontario. The group walked through the assembly lines with Tigercat officers and engineers who answered questions about the
manufacturing processes and engineering of the machines. MacDonald led the group through MacDonald Steel. Tigercat hosted a reception and dinner at the Brantford County Club on Friday evening and provided transportation and meeting rooms for the directors and other guests. On Saturday board members met to discuss business and issues of the council as well as the proposed strategic plan introduced by ALC President Ricard Schwab and the ALC Executive Committee. The board adopted the proposal with an action plan to be developed and rolled out during the ALC annual meeting on October 1 in Panama City, Fla. Other items on the agenda included reports from the Legislative Committee, Communications Committee, Membership Committee and the Nominations Committee. Schwab thanked Tigercat for not only hosting the meeting, but also for its hospitality throughout the event. “Tigercat was an excellent host and provided a great venue for our meeting. We not
Colombo Wood Yard Supplied By BRUKS Colombo Energy is making progress toward startup of its new $110 million, 460,000 tons per year wood pellets plant in Greenwood, SC. Colombo Energy is owned by the Portuguese company, Portucel Soporcel Group. BRUKS was selected as the system supplier of the complete wood yard materials handling and processing system, including a drum chipper, back-on truck dumper, circular blending bed stacker reclaimer and green grind hammermills. The BRUKS back-on truck dumper provides Colombo with design efficiency on the materials receiving side, including the ability to supplement chipper production with wood chips purchased from a variety of sources.
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EventsMemo Listings are submitted months in advance. Always verify dates and locations with contacts prior to making plans to attend.
September 29-October 1—American Loggers Council annual meeting, Panama City Beach, Fla. Call 409-6250206; visit amloggers.com. October 4-6—Arkansas Forestry Assn. annual meeting, Chancellor Hotel, Fayetteville, Ark. Call 501-374-2441; visit arkforests.org. October 5-7—North Carolina Forestry Assn. annual meeting, Grove Park Inn, Asheville, NC. Call 800-231-7723; visit ncforestry.org. October 5-7—National Hardwood Lumber Assn. Annual Conv. & Exhibit Showcase, Omni Shoreham Hotel, Washington, D.C. Call 901-377-1818; visit nhla.com. October 7-9—Ohio Forestry Assn. Paul Bunyan Show, Guernsey County Fairgrounds, Cambridge, Ohio. Call 614497-9580; visit ohioforest.org. October 19-21— Alaska Forest Assn. annual meeting, Hotel Captain Cook, Anchorage, Alaska. Call 907-2256114; visit akforest.org. October 26-28—Texas Forestry Assn. annual meeting, La Torretta Lake Resort, Conroe, Tex. Call 936-632-8733; visit texasforestry.org. 46
only appreciate their sponsorship and financial support for the American Loggers Council, but the opportunity to get to know them better and to build on our relationship with their organization.”
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