THEN & NOW Interview with Michael Walters

MICHAEL WALTERS, CHAIRMAN, FORESTRY MUTUAL INSURANCE COMPANY

Micheal Walters working from his office in Farimont, NC Photo Credit: FMIC Staff Photographer In a new series called Then & Now, we will highlight the evolution of the wood products industry over the years by conducting personal interviews with people who worked in the industry and their relationships with Forestry Mutual Insurance Company.

This issue we visit Michael Walters, Owner of Claybourn Walters Logging Company and Chairman at Forestry Mutual Insurance Company.

Michael is from a third-generation logging family in North Carolina. At age 10 he would join his grandfather and father as they logged, and he was enthralled with the manual labor involved. After attending college, Michael came back to the family farm and continued the family tradition of logging and land management. The thrill of seeing the process of harvesting trees was exciting to him. He loved watching forested land transform from the cutting of trees to loading the trucks and delivering the wood to the mill with the big equipment making it look so easy. But 50 years ago, it was a much more manual labored profession. Michael quickly learned the tricks of the trade from the guys that had worked in the woods for three or four generations. He learned from their experience and mastered the complex tasks of logging simply and safely. He truly enjoyed moving timber from the woods to the sawmills, listening to the people at the mill talk about what they needed from the woods and seeing how he could make it all come together. Taking the whole puzzle and finding a solution is what motivated him.

I think one of the best parts about what we do is that we get to know our clients

“50 years ago, it was a rule of thumb one man per load per day. So, if you had one eight-man crew, you got eight loads a day. Today, we have three-man crews getting twenty to twenty-five loads a day. Mechanization of harvesting wood has changed the industry and evolved over time and for the best. Looking back from today to how it was when I was working in the woods, I never imagined how mechanized the industry would have become. How much safer the equipment is and how much longer you’re able to work in the woods…in the industry.”

Michael’s father was a huge influence on him and his career in forestry. He remembers his father liked to log the difficult tracks, the wet tracks. His father had a knack for it and was always determined to get the right equipment for the job. He recalls his father and grandfather talking about how difficult it was to get worker’s compensation insurance and most importantly how unaffordable it was. They understood what a liability it was to not have it.

In the past, worker’s compensation insurance was not something that was prevalent in the industry. Eventually, there was a big push by society and the industry as a whole, to make it mandatory if you wanted to log you had to have workers’ compensation. But it was very difficult to find anyone that would even write a worker’s compensation policy for the logging industry, back then.

“No one knew about it or they didn’t understand the industry. In fact, after Hurricane Hugo, back in 1989, worker’s comp rates went up to $43.00 for every hundred in payroll. Now, thirty-plus years later we’re down to under $6.00 dollars for every hundred in payroll. A big change that is due to the efforts of Forestry Mutual”.

In 1971 the Forestry Mutual Self-insurers fund began. They built client trust by sending out loss control agents who would then help inform loggers on how to prevent injuries and stay safe while operating in the woods.

“This was not something an insurance company did, come out into the woods and inspect and advise on safe operations with the goal of keeping everyone safe and injury free. In the past you just paid your premiums and that was the end of it. What Forestry Mutual was doing was building a rapport with the guy out there stumping. Not just the Boss Logger or the company man, they were out there talking with the crew guys, getting to know them, befriending them, and gaining their trust, that their safety was important to Forestry Mutual and that trust is what has built the success of the company”.

One of the biggest achievements and innovations from Forestry Mutual Insurance Company was taking an interest in the high-risk and safety concerns, in one of the world’s deadliest professions, and bringing the claims down to an acceptable level to maintain low insurance premiums for their clients.

In Michael's view, “FMIC is a like a hybrid, a unicorn shall we say, about safety and the in-person approach to keeping our member informed and current in all regulations and safety protocols in the woods. Their ability to talk to and listen to their customers is what sets Forestry Mutual apart and it’s done in good faith to improve their workplace environment and avoid downtime, lost hours for employees, and our clients are more productive. Why? It benefits them to be safe. Rates stay low and, in the end, everyone gets to go home to their families”.

Forestry Mutual’s new focus is on the log-hauling portion of the business and applying the lessons learned from in-woods education, safety and training and applying that to the truck drivers who haul the tons of wood every day on the backroads and highways of the Southern U.S.

“I think one of the best parts about what we do is that we get to know our clients and they know they can talk to us honestly and openly because they know, it’s not penalty-based information. We’re trying to figure out what their needs are, and we need their honest input, because we can’t do it, the industry as a whole can’t do it, without their input and involvement. We’ve seen that we made a change with inwoods safety, and now it’s time for us to do it on the road with trucking. Take the same lessons learned and just apply them”.

With their continued work in getting the message out to our customers to be safe, slow down, make good decisions and put the technology down while riving will avoid being a distracted driver. Forestry Mutual Insurance Company has been a generous sponsor to all the associations that they have been involved with over the years.

They started as a self-Insurers fund and they were the members. The best way to get back out to the communities and get our message out to them is for us to meet them out in their community. And by doing this through participation in those associations and partnerships with local communities.

“The forest products industry is a very small community, and we are somewhat fragmented. Forestry Mutual can act as a conduit to each association and through their sponsorships we can get folks involved and participate and make a change, make a difference, take ownership. It is in this ownership is where Forestry Mutual will have the most success now and into the future.

As Chairman of Forestry Mutual and having Forestry Mutual be a part of my life and my career in the wood products industry, they have had a positive impact for me and everyone who has been a part of the endeavor for the past 50 years. We must thank our current and past directors, members, and clients too. If it were not for them, all of us working so hard to make and keep a safe work environment for our customers, we would not be here today. We started as a North Carolina based company and now we are in six States throughout the Southeast spreading that message of innovation, safety and community that is needed in our industry now and into the future”.

We at Forestry Mutual appreciate all that Michael Walters has done for the industry in helping us keep our customer’s safety in the forefront of our company mission.