9 minute read
Women in Forestry
Today, women in forestry are getting recognition for be equally as effective as men in business by taking the initiative and demonstrating integrity and honesty.
The wood products industry has a growing number of women who have proven themselves to be true leaders. We felt at Forestry Mutual it was time to celebrate some of the women making a positive impact in our industry. We visited Gwen Marion, Office Manager with Marion Brothers Logging, Candace Dinwiddie, Executive Director with the Tennessee Forestry Association, and Amy Almond, CPA, CGMA, CFO with Forestry Mutual Insurance.
These women are taking risks and are innovating game-changers within their respective positions in forestry. Their humble entrepreneurial spirit is pushing them to not just dream but act -- as well as tackle the unique hurdles that come with forestry operations.
Left to Right: Rebecca Smith, Gwen Marion & Stephanie Marion
Photo Credit: FMIC Staff Photographer
Gwen Marion, Office Manager for Marion Brothers Logging and CF Marion Trucking out of Cumberland, Virginia. Gwen is married to Franklin Marion. She grew up in Chesterfield County and graduated from Matoaca High School.
Gwen was engaged to her high school sweetheart, “who turned out to be a real jerk,” She says laughing, “which made being in a small town difficult.” She started spending weekends in Cartersville with her aunt and uncle and continued to work for a wholesale company in Petersburg. Gwen changed careers and moved in with her relatives to drive a school bus for Prince Edward Academy and worked there as a librarian. That’s how she met Franklin through a mutual friend.
sense of humor and joked about Franklin and there first date. While they were sitting in her car at the Tasty Freeze, she pulled out an ax handle and jokingly threatened Franklin with it. “Don’t be a jerk, or I’ll beat you with this.” Undeterred, Franklin called on Gwen, and they began to date. “Why he bothered to call back, I do not know, but I’m glad he did,” she says, smiling. Gwen and Franklin were married in 1989.
Franklin’s family were farming tobacco and raising hogs, and Franklin decided after high school he did not want to be a pig farmer and went into the logging business. As his younger brothers graduated, they came to work with Franklin, and a logging business was born.
Gwen decided to leave Prince Edward Academy and go back to a career in finance and accounting, working with the Department of Corrections. “I went from school kids to convicts,” jokes Gwen. She left the “convicts” behind and started working with Franklin in 2001.
Gwen’s timing was advantageous as health issues arose with Franklin’s father and his ability to take care of the contracts and bookkeeping for the companies suffered.
The logging industry is a lot like the entertainment industry in that nepotism does exist. Both industries hire and work closely with all their family members. Often it is a multi-generation business with grandfathers working side by side with their sons and grandsons. It is not uncommon for the wives to manage the business operations of a logging/trucking company. Like many other women who work in the shade of forestry, Gwen is dedicated to smooth operations that make a family-run business successful.
While the physically demanding hard work of logging in the field is typically our focus, in this article, we wanted to spotlight the women, wives, daughters, daughters-in-law, and grandmothers whose dedication to the industry and their families should be commended.
In the beginning, being taken seriously was one of the hurdles she had to endure. Almost twenty years later, with the help of Rebecca Smith and Stephanie Marion, they now orchestrate a smooth operation from timber contracts, legal, governmental, and taxes and again her peers’ respect. “It’s a pretty close-knit community, and everybody is willing to help everyone.”
One hardship that Gwen did have to overcome was on the trucking side. When she first started twenty years ago, she burned up the phone with Betty Jane Duncan, of P. L Duncan Trucking, asking her questions on how to get things done with the DMV, especially when it came to permits and crossing state lines with their trucks. “Everybody is pretty helpful, and there are no confrontations unless you’re dealing with the government bureaucracy, which is a pain in the butt, but everybody has to deal with that,” Gwen jokes.
When asked what words of encouragement she would give to another woman starting a business or working in the forestry industry, she replied “Don’t be afraid to ask questions.” Gwen started with those words, and she joked that after being with Franklin since 1984 and being around the logging industry, she still can’t tell the difference between trees, logs, and wood. “But I do know the difference in a skidder, loader, cutter, and a delimber. I do know my equipment.”
Gwen and Franklin have 2 sons, a grandson and granddaughter. She suspects the granddaughter will be the first Marion female working in the woods. “She loves going to the woods, and she’s only two. She knows the equipment and what it does. As more and more women get into the industry, I would not be surprised if I see her running a skidder one day. That would be fantastic!”
WOMEN IN FORESTRY
Candace Dinwiddie, Executive Director,
Photo Credit: FMIC Staff Photographer
CANDACE DINWIDDIE, Executive Director, Tennessee Forestry Association
We caught up with the ever-busy Candace Dinwiddie in Nashville, Tennessee. Candace is the Executive Director of the Tennessee Forestry Association and an integral partner with Forestry Mutual. Our partnership in various programs, projects, and events has made this relationship one that will continue to benefit the logging industry in Tennessee for years to come.
As Executive Director of the Tennessee Forestry Association, Candace represents about 2,100 people working in the forest products industry that covers sawmills, consulting foresters, secondary manufacturers, pulp and paper mills, and loggers. The broad array of businesses and interests for one individual to represent to the legislative branches in the Tennessee government is daunting.
Maybe it was coming from a tiny town of Portland, Tennessee, with a population of under 3,000 that Candace found in herself to be a tower of optimism and drive for someone of such shy and diminutive stature. Candace started working at the association in 1987 before becoming the Director in 1992.
When it comes to representing the variety of groups in the wood products industry, she has a straightforward yet practical philosophy. “We as an industry in Tennessee need to speak as one voice. That one voice makes us a lot stronger in the legislature, and we’re all saying the same message.”
In the nineties, a preservationist group had brought in people from the Pacific Northwest to Tennessee. They had won a spotted owl legal battle out West. They thought they could get the Tennessee legislature initiative to pass new laws to regulate the industry like California, Oregon, and Washington state. The feeling back then was that if Tennessee fell, maybe the rest of the South would as well. Candace says, “And so that was very challenging. Some of my favorite days at the legislature are the days I took ninety to a hundred loggers down there to the committee meetings. Those loggers are the ones who won our side of the legislation. They’re the ones that did that.” Humbly she says, “All I did was tell them which direction to go and which office to visit. The loggers were our very best spokesmen and got us over that hump.”
Tennessee will occasionally still see challenges, but Candace knows that her loggers, landowners, and mill owners will get out of their comfort zone, call their legislators, and voice their opinion as one voice.
One of the biggest challenges facing Tennessee now is the industry employment numbers. Many of the mills are struggling to get enough people working for them. With no control over government subsidies and other programs keeping good, dependable employees have been a continuous staffing challenge. With the help of the Tennessee Forestry Association, better-trained employees will be ready and willing to work in the mills and with logging crews.
Multiple grants fund the training of people to work on the green chain, lumber graders, and heavy equipment operators to get them out in the field. They are putting these programs in the senior level of high schools and vocational schools.
The relationship between Tennessee Forestry Association and Forestry Mutual goes back to 2003 and they officially became partners in 2008 when Forestry Mutual could provide reasonable costs in workers’ compensation insurance. Forestry Mutual has its Loss Control agents come to Tennessee to give classroom training on business and OSHA rules. In addition, field training that includes tree-felling exercises has been most beneficial to loggers. Forestry Mutual, like Tennessee Forestry, wants all of our people to go home the way they came to work. Safe.
WOMEN IN FORESTRY
Amy Almond, CPA, CGMA CFO, Forestry Mutual Insurance Company
Photo Credit: FMIC Staff Photographer
AMY ALMOND, CPA, CGMA Chief Financial Officer, Forestry Mutual Insurance Company
Amy started with Forestry Mutual in August 2015 and has over 24 years of experience as a senior level financial manager, including 14 years in the insurance industry.
She has extensive hands-on experience in management and business leadership. She has expertise in financial and strategic planning, business startups, corporate business and tax issues, budget development and management, staff management and development, accounting and financial operations, consolidations, mergers and acquisitions, and cash management. She has an established record of success in developing and maintaining best financial practices across five industries. She received with honors an MBA degree from Regis University and has a double BS degree in Accounting/Finance from Central Connecticut State University. Amy is a licensed CPA and has attained the CGMA designation. She is married with two children and enjoys traveling, hockey, and watching her girls play softball.
She says, “the main role of the CFO is to protect assets, develop sound business practices, mitigate risks, and ensure the Company is strong and viable for the future of the Company’s policyholders.” During her time at Forestry Mutual, she has worked hard to create and implement strong policies and procedures to drive the Company forward.
Although she has worked in several industries, serving the wood products industry has been an eye-opening experience. She has never experienced the inherent risks of this industry. Amy says that “the hazardous nature of the industry has given me a newly found respect for the wood products employees that we insure and the paper products that they produce.” It is important to her to create a strong company that can exist well into the future to continue serving this industry. She states that Forestry Mutual is dedicated to its policyholders’ safety in many ways but mostly through the unique aspect of its loss control program. Amy says, “We here are in it for the policyholders, we truly care about the losses that are out there. We are one of the few companies that have our own loss control team that goes out in the field every day, working to make people safer out there. It’s not just a slogan on paper, we care and are out there making people safer.”
In all of our interviews, we discovered a subtle but no-nonsense approach to the business of forestry. Gwen, Candace, and Amy make sure that their families, family businesses, and FMIC financial operations operate efficiently and effectively, and we thank them.
