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Vol. 46, No. 4

(Founded in 1972—Our 535th Consecutive Issue)

F E AT U R E S

April 2017 A Hatton-Brown Publication

Phone: 334-834-1170 Fax: 334-834-4525

www.southernloggintimes.com

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Nole Boys Logging Full Family Affair

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Breland Logging His Own Way

Co-Publisher Co-Publisher Chief Operating Officer Executive Editor Editor-in-Chief Western Editor Managing Editor Associate Editor Associate Editor Art Director Ad Production Coordinator Circulation Director Marketing/Media

David H. Ramsey David (DK) Knight Dianne C. Sullivan David (DK) Knight Rich Donnell Dan Shell David Abbott Jessica Johnson Jay Donnell Cindy Segrest Patti Campbell Rhonda Thomas Jordan Anderson

ADVERTISING CONTACTS DISPLAY SALES Eastern U.S. Kathy Sternenberg Tel: 251-928-4962 • Fax: 334-834-4525 219 Royal Lane Fairhope, AL 36532 E-mail: ksternenberg@bellsouth.net Midwest USA, Eastern Canada John Simmons Tel: 905-666-0258 • Fax: 905-666-0778 32 Foster Cres.

Whitby, Ontario, Canada L1R 1W1 E-mail: jsimmons@idirect.com

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Tidewater Equipment Celebrating 70 Years

out front:

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After his father got out of the business, Mississippi’s Drew Sullivan took a brief detour then returned to the woods with his own company, Performance Logging. After surviving two serious accidents in the woods, Sullivan has a serious commitment to safety.

Story begins on Page 8.

(Jessica Johnson photo)

JM Wood 44th Spring Auction

D E PA RT M E N T S Southern Stumpin’.............................. 6 Bulletin Board....................................38 Where Are They Now?...................... 40 Industry News Roundup...................42 Machines-Supplies-Technology....... 52 Safety Focus...................................... 54 ForesTree Equipment Trader.......... 55 Coming Events/Ad Index.................. 62

Western Canada, Western USA Tim Shaddick Tel: 604-910-1826 • Fax: 604-264-1367 4056 West 10th Ave. Vancouver, BC V6L 1Z1 E-mail: tootall1@shaw.ca Kevin Cook Tel: 604-619-1777 E-mail: lordkevincook@gmail.com International Murray Brett Tel: +34 96 640 4165 Fax: +34 96 640 4022 Aldea de las Cuevas 66 Buzon 60 • 03759 Benidoleig (Alicante), Spain E-mail: murray.brett@abasol.net CLASSIFIED ADVERTISING

Bridget DeVane

Tel: 1-800-669-5613 • Tel 334-699-7837 Email: bdevane7@hotmail.com

Southern Loggin’ Times (ISSN 0744-2106) is published monthly by Hatton-Brown Publishers, Inc., 225 Hanrick St., Montgomery, AL 36104. Subscription Information—SLT is sent free to logging, pulpwood and chipping contractors and their supervisors; managers and supervisors of corporate-owned harvesting operations; wood suppliers; timber buyers; wood procurement and land management officials; industrial forestry purchasing agents; wholesale and retail forest equipment representatives and forest/logging association personnel in the U.S. South. See form elsewhere in this issue.

All non-qualified U.S. subscriptions are $65 annually; $75 in Canada; $120 (Airmail) in all other countries (U.S. funds). Single copies, $5 each; special issues, $20 (U.S. funds). Subscription Inquiries— TOLL-FREE 800-669-5613; Fax 888-611-4525. Go to www.southernloggintimes.com and click on the subscribe button to subscribe/renew via the web. All advertisements for Southern Loggin’ Times magazine are accepted and published by Hatton-Brown Publishers, Inc. with the understanding that the advertiser and/or advertising agency are authorized to publish the entire contents and subject matter thereof. The advertiser and/or advertising agency will defend, indemnify and hold Hatton-Brown Publishers, Inc. harmless from and against any loss, expenses, or other liability resulting from any claims or lawsuits for libel violations or right of privacy or publicity, plagiarism, copyright or trademark infringement and any other claims or lawsuits that may arise out of publication of such advertisement. Hatton-Brown Publishers, Inc. neither endorses nor makes any representation or guarantee as to the quality of goods and services advertised in Southern Loggin’ Times. Hatton-Brown Publishers, Inc. reserves the right to reject any advertisement which it deems inappropriate. Copyright ® 2017. All rights reserved. Reproduction in whole or in part without written permission is prohibited. Periodicals postage paid at Montgomery, Ala. and at additional mailing offices. Printed In USA.

POSTMASTER: Send address changes to: Southern Loggin’ Times, P.O. Box 2419, Montgomery, AL 36102-2419 Member Verified Audit Circulation

Other Hatton-Brown publications: ★ Timber Processing ★ Timber Harvesting ★Panel World ★ Power Equipment Trade ★ Wood Bioenergy

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SOUTHERN STUMPIN’

By David Abbott • Managing Editor • Ph. 334-834-1170 • Fax: 334-834-4525 • E-mail: david@hattonbrown.com

Young People have a confession to make: 21 years ago, I broke the law. That’s right, I admit it: I was a teenage criminal. What did I do? Well, come closer and I’ll tell you, but keep this to yourself, OK? What I did was, in 1996, I…worked on my dad’s logging operation before I was 18. I ran a chain saw, and a skidder, and sometimes (tried to run) a loader.

Our cover story this month, Drew Sullivan, was also working on his dad’s crew, even making it into the pages of Southern Loggin’ Times that summer of ’96 (see Jessica Johnson’s feature on p. 8). Drew grew up to become a logger in his own right, while I grew up to write about loggers.

Thing is, Drew and I weren’t really supposed to be out there that young.

Like a lot of loggers, though, we went to work with our dads and no one thought anything of it. It’s a small family operation, like a farm, and it only seems natural. Moreover, in a time when it seems fewer young people are stepping up to replace their retiring elders, it’s vital for the continuation of the industry that kids learn the business from their fathers.

But, this is not allowed.

There’s a chance that could change. When members of the American Loggers Council visit members of the 115th Congress on March 30April 1 (that will have already taken place by the time this sees print), one of the items on their agenda will be the Future Logging Careers Act. Here is what the ALC says about it: Like farming and ranching, the timber harvesting profession is often a family run business where the practice and techniques of harvesting and transporting forest products from the forest to receiving mills is passed down from one generation to the next. Timber harvesting operations are very similar to family farms with sophisticated and expensive harvesting equipment that requires young men and women to learn how to run the business, including equipment operation and maintenance, prior to obtaining the age of eighteen. Currently, there are no on-theground programs in place to facilitate that training and ensure the sus-

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tainability of the timber harvesting industry’s next generation of family members who choose to enter the profession. ALC supports extending the agricultural exemption now enjoyed by family farmers and ranchers to train their sixteen- and seventeen-year-old sons and daughters to carry on the family business to mechanical timber harvesters.

Basically, family farms and ranches already have an exemption to child labor laws that allows children of farmers and ranchers to work in the business starting at age 16, under parental supervision, and the ALC is asking Congress to grant the same exemption to family logging businesses. This is something ALC has tried to accomplish in the past—it was one of the things we discussed with members of Congress when I attended the spring fly-in last April— and the bill had a sponsor in 2015,

but it died in committee. There just didn’t seem to be much Congressional interest in it.

This year the Future Logging Careers Act has been reintroduced, this time in both houses of Congress, and I believe our readers can help prevent it from suffering the same fate as its predecessor two years ago.

As H.R. 1454, the bill was introduced in the House on March 9 by its sponsor, Rep. Raul Labrador of Idaho’s 1st congressional district. It has been referred to the House Committee on Education and the Workforce. Designated as S. 665 in the Senate, the bill has been co-sponsored by Senators Angus King, a Maine independent, and Jim Risch, an Idaho Republican, and introduced by Risch on March 15. It was referred to the Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions.

According to Rule 25 of the Stand-

Senate Committee REPUBLICANS BY RANK Lamar Alexander (TN) Michael B. Enzi (WY) Richard Burr (NC) Johnny Isakson (GA) Rand Paul (KY) Susan Collins (ME) Bill Cassidy, M.D. (LA) Todd Young (IN) Orrin Hatch (UT) Pat Roberts (KS) Lisa Murkowski (AK) Tim Scott (SC)

DEMOCRATS BY RANK Patty Murray (WA) Bernie Sanders (VT) Robert P. Casey, Jr (PA) Al Franken (MN) Michael F. Bennet (CO) Sheldon Whitehouse (RI) Tammy Baldwin (WI) Christopher S. Murphy (CT) Elizabeth Warren (MA) Tim Kaine (VA) Maggie Hassan (NH)

New Feature: Then & Now

House Committee REPUBLICANS Virginia Foxx, NC (Chair) Joe Wilson, SC (Vice Chair) Duncan Hunter, CA David P. Roe, TN Glenn “GT” Thompson, PA Tim Walberg, MI Brett Guthrie, KY Todd Rokita, IN Lou Barletta, PA Luke Messer, IN Bradley Byrne, AL David Brat, VA Glenn Grothman, WI Steve Russell, OK Elise Stefanik, NY Francis Rooney, FL Paul Mitchell, MI Tom Garrett, Jr., VA Lloyd K. Smucker, PA A. Drew Ferguson, IV, GA

ing Rules of the Senate, all proposed legislation relating to, among other things, occupational safety and health and child labor, are to be referred to this committee. The House Committee on Education and the Workforce has similar jurisdiction.

According to Congress.gov, S.655 is “A bill to exempt certain 16- and 17-year-old individuals employed in logging operations from child labor laws.”

I’ve included a list of the Senators and Representatives who are members of these committees.

You’ll likely recognize several names on the list: Rand Paul, Bernie Sanders, Al Franken, Elizabeth Warren and Hillary’s running mate Tim Kaine among them. If you are in the districts of any of these men and women, please consider contacting their offices to urge their support for the Future Logging Careers Act. As the ALC puts it, “The exemption will ensure that the next generation of mechanized timber harvesters can gain the needed on-the-ground training and experience under the close supervision of their parents who have a vested interest in their children’s safety and in passing down the profession to the next generation. I urge your support for HR 1454 and S. 655the Future Logging Careers Act.”

DEMOCRATS Robert C. “Bobby” Scott (Ranking Member), VA Susan A. Davis, CA Raul M. Grijalva, AZ Joe Courtney, CT Marcia L. Fudge, OH Jared Polis, CO Gregorio Kilili Camacho Sablan, Northern Mariana Islands Frederica S. Wilson, FL Suzanne Bonamici, OR Mark Takano, CA Alma S. Adams, NC Mark DeSaulnier, CA Donald Norcross, NJ Lisa Blunt Rochester, DE Raja Krishnamoorthi, IL Carol Shea-Porter, NH Adriano Espaillat, NY

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I neglected to mention this in my column last month, but in case you missed it, we’ve started what we hope to make a new regular or at least semi-regular feature in Southern Loggin’ Times. Long-time Hatton Brown editor Dan Shell, who usually contributes to our other industry trade magazines, including among others Timber Harvesting and Power Equipment Trade, has been working hard to put together what we call “Where Are They Now.” The idea is to revisit the stories of loggers who appeared in these pages in decades past and see, as the title suggests…where they are now. Check out the second installment of this feature on p. 40 this issue; we hope SLT you’ll enjoy it.

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Focus On Safety ■ Drew Sullivan believes getting home to family each night is the most important part of the job.

By Jessica Johnson PHILADELPHIA, Miss. wo days in a hospital’s Intensive Care Unit for a brain bleed will ★ change you. Or, in the case of Mississippi logger Drew Sullivan, it made him more committed than ever to keeping his job site as safe and as clean as possible. Sullivan says he doesn’t remember a lick of what happened that day, but he’s heard the stories about it from his dad, Gary, and his wife, Kelly.

According to them, he was up on his loader, an old machine with leaks that often left it too greasy, when he slipped and fell, hitting the outrigger.

Sullivan’s company Performance Logging had been in business for three months at the time.

When the crew arrived for work later that morning, they found him

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From left: Drew Sullivan, Miles Ingram, Gary Sullivan, Hester Bennamon

Sullivan started buying Deere machines from Stribling Equipment in 2014.

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rolling around on the ground under the loader, semi-conscious, and assumed he had a concussion. They took him to the ER and called his wife. The doctors would later diagnose a brain bleed and a fractured eye socket that would earn Sullivan those two nights in ICU as well as a few extra for observation.

“I about killed myself,” he recalls.

“I was just in a hurry, out here by myself in the early morning, but stuff like that, you can get hurt so easy.”

Fortunately, he came to and his exams all were normal, so he returned to work. From that day forward, he says, he made a point to take safety seriously. What happened was an accident, but it was a reminder to Sullivan that out in the woods, in the blink of an eye, things can change. The goal each night is to return to his family the way he left in the morning.

When he first got into business, Sullivan had no choice but to run some older equipment—including that greasy loader. He had always wanted to update his iron, but the fall helped encourage him to look at the benefits of new pieces, which would lead him to John Deere dealer Stribling Equipment in Philadelphia, Miss. But the reality of that fall would never leave Sullivan, instead renewing his desire to focus on safety.

The crew shares his goal, Sullivan says, of preventing another major accident from occurring.

Their proactive commitment includes taking the standard tailgate safety meeting a step further. Performance Logging uses Southern Safety Solutions to conduct its intense monthly safety trainings.

Southern Safety Solutions is a company out of Taylorsville, Miss., owned and operated by Don Chennault, who travels throughout Mississippi and Alabama conducting intense training on a variety of inwoods and truck driver safety topics. Sullivan says finding Chennault was one of the best things that happened to his crew.

Even so, Sullivan found himself in another sticky situation with his new John Deere loader set-up in 2016. He explains that tightening the chain on his CSI slasher requires operators to stick their hand between the bar and the folded down knives. “I was tightening the chain and the wrench slipped,” he says. “When it did my arm went right down the knife, filleted it open.” That trip to the ER involved 10 outside skin stitches and eight stitches into the muscle to fix him up.

As a contract cutter for the safety-conscious Weyerhaeuser, Sullivan was charged with defining a solution to keep this type of injury from happening again. Alongside Chennault, Sullivan developed a

Along with company trucks, Sullivan uses Weyerhaeuser’s dispatch program.

thick blanket-type piece of fabric that fits over the knives when they are folded down. “That fixed that,” he says succinctly.

In addition to the improvements

made to keep major incidents from occurring, the crew of Performance Logging always wears PPE as well as company provided lace-up steel toed boots for foot and ankle support.

SLT SNAPSHOT Performance Logging Philadelphia, Miss.

Email: ddsullivan80@gmail.com Founded: Fall 2012 Owner: Drew Sullivan No. Crews: One Employees: Four Equipment: One cutter, one skidder, one loader Trucks/Trailers: Two trucks, two trailers Production: 75-80 loads per week Average Haul Distance: 75 miles Tidbit: Sullivan’s father Gary was featured in the Sept. 1996 issue of SLT as the first logger in Mississippi to run Valmet cut-to-length machines—something he said was driven by Drew’s enthusiasm for the technology and the industry. He was 16 at the time of printYoung Sullivan and his father ing. His father remarked, “He just were in SLT in ’96. kind of lives and breathes logging. While other kids were riding bicycles, he wanted to go look at log trucks. When he was out playing, he’d be playing logging. He’d set out little plantations of pine trees and he’d go cut them down.”

Getting A Start Performance Logging had a relatively humble beginning, as Sullivan first cut short pulpwood as a 14 and 15 year-old kid on Saturdays and in the summertime. He then graduated from high school and went to work for his dad’s company, S&S Thinning, on Weyerhaeuser tracts operating Valmet cut-to-length machines.

Sullivan took a break from the woods to attend East Mississippi Junior College’s forestry program. He dropped out after one semester to go back to S&S Thinning with his dad.

The elder Sullivan decided to sell his crew in 2006, forcing his son to leave the woods temporarily. When his father sold out Sullivan and his wife moved to Texas, so he could work for his wife’s stepdad in a land development company.

“I liked it,” he says, “but I always wanted to get back into logging. I told my wife, ‘if I ever get an opportunity to get into business for myself, I am going to get back in it.’ Logging gets in your blood. It’s all you think about.”

That opportunity came in 2012, when Sullivan was presented with the opportunity to buy a logger out. Sullivan bought everything the guy had: crew trucks, dozer, skidder, cutter and that ill-fated greasy old loader.

Though he reports the stuff was in really good shape, considering the age, he only ran it about three years.

“I was scared to buy new stuff,” Sullivan says, who was at a point in his personal life where starting a family and running the fledgling business were his main focal points.

In 2014, Sullivan purchased a ’14 437D loader outfitted with a CSI 264

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Sullivan learned to stress safety after surviving a close call in the woods.

Truck drivers Mike Hardy, left, and Greg Bailey

Ultra delimber and slasher and ’14 748H skidder. He opted for the extended warranty on both. He says dealing with Stribling was very easy, and he found quickly that John Hudgins, the service manager of the Philadelphia store, was a great resource.

“He’s my go-to guy,” Sullivan says of Hudgins.

At that point, Sullivan wasn’t ready to upgrade his cutter, choosing to run it for just a few more months.

The waiting game paid off for Sullivan, who was able to get a ’16 Deere 843L model cutter, which he says is a huge step up from his previous piece.

“The visibility is awesome on the thing,” he adds.

Sullivan continued to upgrade his iron with the purchase of a new Caterpillar D6K dozer, which he uses to help push out roads, allowing the skidders to stay on short drags.

“What I started with was just too little. It’s like going from a tricycle to a dirt bike—big difference,” he explains.

At first, Sullivan was hesitant to upgrade the dozer as his vintage motor grader still does a fine job of maintaining haul roads and some skid trails. “I thought a dozer didn’t make any money, but it does,” he says. The ability to make his own roads and cut the drag distance has made a huge difference in production. “The name of the game now is production. You have to get production to make payments. I will be the first to tell you, the Lord really blessed us,” he adds.

Performance Logging is a clear-cut contractor for Weyerhaeuser. Sullivan says he was familiar with the company from when his dad worked for them, and believes he has a great relationship with the timber magnate.

The company keeps the crew in good wood. When Southern Loggin’ Times visited in March, Performance Logging was on a 307-acre clear-cut of smaller timber. Sullivan reports that between 32 and 34 stems will load a truck off this tract, where usually it’s between 15 and 18.

The four-man crew consistently puts out 75-80 loads per week. Sulli10

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van acts as a fill-in on harvesting equipment; he usually runs the motor grader and dozer. The elder Sullivan runs the cutter, though after a battle with prostate cancer a few years back, recently received the news that he has a reoccurrence of cancer cells and has to undergo radiation.

Performance Logging works 6 a.m.-4 p.m. five days a week. Typically the crew does not work Saturdays unless production was down during the week due to rain or extenuating circumstances. Sullivan credits the hard-working nature of his crew for his success, as well as his wife Kelly’s bookkeeping efforts. “She has kept up with every penny. If it weren’t for her, I wouldn’t have anything. She pinches every dime, and in this kind of business in this time, you have to. Everything costs so much,” he says.

Pinching dimes has helped Performance upgrade equipment, as well as pay employees well. In-woods operators and the two company truck drivers are paid salary. Sullivan cites

the up and down nature of the logging industry and historic struggles of employee turnaround for motivation to pay his guys salary.

“With a salary they have a steady job,” he reasons. “It might bite me in the butt one week and be fine the next, (but) it works out for the best.

The guys get a steady paycheck— that means a lot. You have to have something steady in our lives now. I haven’t had anyone not show up to work.” The crew also enjoys a week’s paid vacation time.

Equipment Maintenance Sullivan makes sure to change oil in harvesting equipment every 200 hours, which he says is about once a month. Having now made the jump to the newer equipment, Sullivan knows now he would rather pay an equipment note than a repair bill. “I saw it with the older equipment I first used. It didn’t break down every day, but what was killing me was the downtime. I’d rather make a payment

The logger added a new Deere 843L cutter in 2016.

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than be down,” he explains.

As part of the newer equipment purchases, Sullivan got the extended warranty package on the cutter and skidder. This allows him to temporarily cut out the cost of running a shop as well. He has plans to build one on some land he recently inherited from his grandfather, but as of now, anything that can’t be handled in the woods is hauled to Stribling.

The cutter is still running the factory installed tires, though the skidder did have some issues with its original 32.5 in. tires. Sullivan ended up having to replace two of the four, and opted to try Primex. “They are holding up really well. The Primex seem like they are made of slightly harder rubber,” he says. Because of the tirerelated issues with the skidder, Sullivan believes his next upgrade will be to 44 in. tires, hoping to get some better wear out of the treads.

The 748H did come with a dualing package, though the crew hardly has use for it. Ground for Performance Logging is typically sandy or red hills, and in really good shape.

The harvesting equipment runs Dello brand oil purchased from Prince Oil Co. in Philadelphia. Oil filters and most needed parts are purchased through Stribling. Sullivan does sometimes turn to B&G Equipment in Philadelphia for equipment parts. Off-road fuel and DEF fluid is delivered by Prince Oil Co. Sullivan does not have to purchase too much DEF, because currently the only thing he owns that requires it is the new cutter.

The crew truck is an old service truck. Purchased from a local logging equipment dealership, it’s outfitted with some hand tools and an air compressor. It’s not Sullivan’s ideal setup. Once, he had a 16 ft. trailer outfitted with everything a logger could need, including a welder, brand new hose machine, chop saw, air compressor and fuel tank. Two years ago someone stole it right off his job. He thought it was safe behind a locked land gate, with the trailer door having a tongue lock as well, but unfortu-

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nately that turned out not to be the case. Whoever did it stole everything out of the trailer, then set it on fire.

“It was about $27,000 worth of stuff,” the unlucky logger laments.

“I am still trying to get over that. I bought the service truck right after that. I don’t have a welder anymore.

To this day, I will go to get a wrench and be like ‘crap, I don’t have that one anymore.’ I’m still having to buy tools.” He now has a smaller open air trailer with a double walled 5,000 gallon fuel tank,

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40 gallon DEF tank, bar and chain oil and a pole saw.

Over The Road As a contractor for Weyerhaeuser, Performance Logging participates in dispatch trucking. However, Sullivan does own two of his own trucks. He says for a one loader, one skidder operation, having his two dedicated trucks plus one dedicated dispatch truck doesn’t really slow him down at all. “Considering the timber that we

cut and the way we work, a good day is 20-23 loads, so we can fill in with dispatch trucks what the dedicated trucks leave as slack.”

Sullivan is the only contractor for Weyerhaeuser working in his area of Mississippi with his own trucks, so while the dispatching was difficult at the beginning, overall he doesn’t mind it, especially since he knows he will at least have his two trucks, which helps tremendously. “That’s the only thing about the dispatch that I don’t like. If there’s a truck sched-

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uled to get a load, I don’t know if he’s coming or not. I’ve been waiting until 5:30 for a truck and he not show up, so I lost a load,” he explains.

Both trucks are 1999 model Peterbilts with new motors; one pulls a Log Boss trailer, the other pulls a Magnolia. The trucks run Vulcan scales. As part of his commitment to safety, both trucks have heavy-built headache racks. Tires are Toyo and Michelin, with virgin tires on trailers for added performance.

Sullivan leans on D&W Tire & Muffler Shop in Philadelphia for all truck and trailer tire work.

McLemore Truck & Trailer repair in Philadelphia handles all major maintenance—including a recent complete overhaul of one of the trucks. When faced with the option to either do a complete overhaul or purchase new, Sullivan considered purchasing new, but opted for the overhaul instead after doing some price shopping.

“Both trucks are paid for, and these old school motors don’t have any emissions stuff on them,” he says. “They will pull and do the job. They do just as much as the new trucks do.”

Routine maintenance on the trucks is handled by drivers, which Sullivan feels helps the drivers take ownership of the trucks. “On Saturdays they wash trucks, change tires, change oil at 10,000 miles, and put their own brakes on. It’s theirs,” he comments. Each night drivers park at a friend of Sullivan’s diesel shop, where he pays a little something to have the luxury.

Though timber markets in Mississippi and west Alabama are tight, Sullivan is able to keep his hauls within a 75-mile radius of his home base in Philadelphia. The number one market for Performance Logging is Weyerhaeuser in Philadelphia. Pulpwood goes to International Paper in Columbus.

Plylogs are carried to the new Winston Plywood in Louisville. Smaller chip-n-saw is marketed to Southeast Timber in Ackerman, Miss. and hardwood pulpwood goes to WestRock in Demopolis, Alabama or Georgia-Pacific in Louisville.

“Everything stays pretty local,” he says. “I’ve never been on quota with Weyerhaeuser before, but recently they did give a quota. It was basically what we were doing anyway though so it didn’t negatively affect me.”

As a father of two little loggers—Cash and Cruz, who are “obsessed” with trucks, trailers, tractors and all heavy equipment— Sullivan says the consistency of Weyerhaeuser has been a blessing to their family. “There are no ups and downs. I like to have ups but I SLT don’t need the downs.”

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All In The Family ■ Nole Boys make it happen in the Palmetto state.

Nole Boys Logging runs eight of its own trucks, including two 2016 Kenworths.

By Jay Donnell JAMESTOWN, SC here have been ★ many stories written about family oriented logging businesses, but it’s been quite a while since Southern Loggin’ Times has come across a company with as many family ties as Nole Boys Logging.

Albert Nole, Sr. started the business in 1956 and today his three sons, Otis Albert “Sport” Nole, Albert “Stoney” Nole, Jr. and Alden “Master” Nole own the company together. When the trio took over the business in 2002, the business was 100% family oriented with all seven employees either being brothers, nephews or cousins on one crew.

Nole Boys Logging has expanded quite a bit since they took over 15 years ago. Today, there are two crews composed of 22 employees,

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including truck drivers. Still, more than 50% of these workers are related to each other and they all have one thing in common: They’re all trying to live up to the lofty expectations set by Albert Nole, Sr., who died last April. “Every accomplishment we’ve achieved is accredited to him,” Sport Nole says. “He taught us that the key is not being afraid to work.”

Sport Nole, 47, is the middle child and he enjoys being in business with his brothers. Each day brings a new challenge and a new opportunity, he says. Southern Loggin’ Times recently visited with Nole and one of his crews working near Manning, SC, about 20 miles from their shop in Jamestown.

Operations When Southern Loggin’ Times visited they were thinning on a 375acre tract. The crew was sorting

chip-n-saw, sawlogs, pulpwood and fuel chips. That particular crew works for KapStone Paper and Packaging Corp. of America. Pulpwood goes to KapStone’s chip mill in Andrews and sawlogs go to KapStone’s lumber mill in Summerville. Chip-n-saw goes to Willowcreek Lumber in Effingham and fuel chips go to KapStone in North Charleston. The crews have recently been producing a mixture of fuel chips and clean chips.

The business does some thinning work, but clear-cuts the majority of the time. The crews combine to produce roughly 160 loads a week on mostly flat terrain.

Most of the roads are already in place when Nole Boys Logging moves on to a new tract. They make sure to take care of all the BMP requirements that are necessary. They make sure everything is cleaned up and nothing gets left behind when they move out. The brothers have

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attended classes to learn how to properly install and fix everything necessary when leaving a tract.

The crews try to be on the jobsite by daylight and usually start winding down by 5 p.m. It’s generally a 10 hour day for everybody involved.

The company recently experienced some minor vandalism on a jobsite when some lights were stolen off a loader. “We got that reality check when we tried to start working before daylight,” Nole says with a smile.

“We’re going to start welding the lights onto the equipment where we can in order to prevent that from happening again.”

Equipment Nole Boys Logging has a variety of mostly older equipment with a few newer pieces in the mix. On the job SLT visited, a Prentice 2384 knuckleboom loader was making sorts while a Tigercat 240B loader fed the chip-

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SLT SNAPSHOT Nole Boys Logging Jamestown, SC Email: Otisnole@aol.com Founded: 1956 Owner(s): Otis Albert Nole, Alden Nole and Albert Nole, Jr. No. Crews: 2 Employees: 22 Equipment: 3 cutters, 4 skidders, 3 loaders, 1 chipper, 8 trucks Production: Roughly 160 loads/week Average Haul: 60 miles A Bandit 2290 chipper has been a nice addition for the company.

per. They also run three Tigercat feller-bunchers, including a 2005 724. Three John Deere skidders and a Tigercat skidder get the wood from point A to B, with the newest skidder being a 2014 JD 848H that was purchased a little over two years ago.

The newest piece of equipment is a 2015 Bandit 2290 chipper. The chipper was purchased in 2015 and has been an excellent addition. It’s a natural for chipping tops and brushy material during conventional logging. The company has only been chipping for a couple of years, but has already noticed the benefits.

“We’re utilizing everything,” Nole explains. “A better job is done aesthetically and we’re hearing a lot of landowners and even non landowners say it doesn’t look like a bomb went off.”

On average the business produces 30 loads of chips per week with 75% of those being fuel chips and

Tidbit: Albert Nole, Sr., who started the busines in 1956, died in April 2016.

Back row: left to right, Robert Smith, David Grayson, Albert Nole, Jr., Richard Simmons and Otis Albert Nole; Front row: left to right, Richard Nole, Von Williamson and Albert E. Nole

The business produces roughly 160 loads per week.

Nole Boys Logging runs three feller-bunchers.

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The company produces a mixture of fuel chips and clean chips.

Four skidders get the job done for Nole Boys Logging.

the rest clean chips. ITI chip vans are used to haul the chips.

The main equipment dealers are Flint Equipment, Tidewater, Blanchard Machinery and W&W Truck & Tractor.

Machines are greased at least once a week and oil is changed every month no matter the hours. Firestone and Primex tires are preferred.

The logging/chipping crew consists of Robert Smith, David Grayson, Albert Nole, Jr., Richard Simmons, Richard Nole, Von Williamson and Albert E. Nole. The other crew includes Alden Nole, Stevie Smith and Efferson Bryant.

Albert, Sr. owned seven trucks before the three brothers took over and today they own eight trucks.

Trucks are a mixture of Kenworth, Peterbilt and Mack. Recently, the company purchased two 2016 Kenworths. The eight trucks pull Big John, Pitts and White log trailers.

There was a time when the trio didn’t want to deal with the trucking side of things at all. “We initially said we were going to go all contract trucks, but we got into a pickle down there in Orangeburg County because we had contract truckers from Georgetown that didn’t want to come down,” Nole says. “That’s when we

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Employees are granted time off for sickness and family emergencies. They get a majority of the major holidays off and if they have a special occasion, like an anniversary, they can take that day off as well, with pay.

Safety is always the top priority for Nole Boys Logging and the company makes sure its employees are wearing hardhats at all times.

Trucking The company has owned its own trucks throughout almost the entire time they’ve been in business.

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got the reality check that if you’re going to be serious in this business you’ve got to have your own trucks.”

While the business doesn’t exclusively use contract hauling like it originally intended, they do use two and sometimes three contract truckers when needed.

While many crews struggle to find reliable drivers, this business hasn’t had that problem. The last trucking accident was two years ago and that driver is no longer with the company. “We’ve got some pretty good drivers so that’s something we can boast about,” Nole says. “We see other crews having issues with

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drivers, but we can actually say that we don’t have that problem.”

The truck drivers for this particular crew haven’t been experiencing long lines at KapStone’s mills, but drivers on the other crew had recently been experiencing some longer than normal lines.

Each truck is equipped with a Verizon Networkfleet GPS system that helps the business keep track of its trucking fleet more thoroughly.

Drivers are paid by the load.

Background checks are conducted when a new driver is under consideration for hire, but it’s often up to the insurance company as to whether they’ll be hired or not. “If you don’t have the years or experience and we run you by our insurance and they say he isn’t going to work, then nothing else matters,” Nole says emphatically.

One of the biggest issues facing the business is the rising cost of insurance on its trucks. Nole hopes these costs won’t rise in the near future, but he’s not holding his breath. The company uses Swamp Fox Agency for its insurance provider.

Drivers for Nole Boys Logging include Richard Nole, Richard Simmons, Jr., Mickel Hilton, Terrence Grayson, Thomas A. Boatwright, Terrance Childers and Edward McKnight. Contract haulers are Johnny Childers and Nealy Nesmith.

Sport Nole and Stoney Nole have spent countless hours in the woods together.

after tax business profit is basically on par with its investment.

Although Nole Boys Logging has gotten bigger over the years, they’ve still managed to maintain the core beliefs instilled by Albert, Sr. His hard work and dedication is something that everyone in the family looked up to and admired. Nole remembers his father’s lessons very well. “Respect people, work hard and everything else will fall into place.”

The three brothers try to live by SLT those words every day.

Overall The three brothers, “Sport,” “Master” and “Stoney,” have learned some tremendous lessons since taking over their father’s business 15 years ago. Sport Nole knows firsthand just how hard it can be to manage all of the different moving parts. Although he loves logging, he has some blunt advice for anyone who’s thinking about starting their own logging business.

“If you’re not inheriting the business then don’t do it,” he says.

“You can see the nice trucks up and down the road and the glory of it, but they don’t see what’s going on behind the scenes. It’s important for someone to grow up in it and see what’s going on behind the scenes.”

Nole believes his overall business investment is more than $1 million. Maintenance costs per year are roughly $100,000. Deb Gage of Gage Bookkeeping in Mount Pleasant has been working with the business for several years.

“I knew we needed a little more revamped bookkeeping as we started growing,” Nole says. “We were getting a little bigger than just a mom and pop type business.”

Nole believes the company’s Southern Loggin’ Times

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A Different Path ■ Tim Breland chose to pursue the logging life instead of continuing with his family’s business.

Before he became a logger, Breland and his father ran a small empire of convenience stores.

By David Abbott PHILADELPHIA, Miss. ot all loggers come ★ from a family of loggers. Tim Breland, 51, is a prime example.

His father, Glenwood, was an entrepreneur of a different sort: he owned a line of convenience stores. Together, Glenwood and Breland owned nine stores in all, spread out over a 60-mile radius in seven towns. Breland himself owned five of those.

By his early 30s, though, Breland knew he had no intention of continuing to follow in his father’s footsteps. “I was just burned out on it,” he says of the convenience store business. He adds that finding good employees was a constant struggle.

“Finding good people to work in logging is actually easy compared to that,” he asserts. It was one big reason, he says, why the family decided to gradually sell off those stores upon his father’s passing 20 years ago. He actually kept two of his stores until 2005.

Breland wanted to take his life in a very different direction: outdoors,

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and specifically the woods, where he’d always loved being. “I had always admired loggers,” he notes.

With experience in running a business but none yet in a business set in the woods, he took a loan out to buy the assets of a local logger: a Bell cutter, a skidder and loader. That was the start of Tim Breland Logging, Inc. in 1997.

It didn’t take him long to learn the ropes. “I had run dozers and dump trucks on small construction jobs, but I had no woods experience,” he admits. He knew he had to find someone who brought both skill and experience to the table. That is exactly what he found when he hired cutter operator Junior Killens and loader man Arthur Walk, his first two employees, not long after starting the company. A few months later he added a third employee, skidder driver Jerry Moore, rounding out the core group.

With that first team assembled, Breland has remained very selective about who he admits to the roster as the company has continued to grow.

“I am real big on experience,” he acknowledges. “I don’t want to train a guy. My philosophy is, when I hire

a truck driver, if I have to hold your hand then I don’t need you.”

Today the company fields three crews. The crews’ setup is somewhat fluid, with operators moving from one job to another as needed depending on the requirements of each tract.

Walk, Killens and Moore now work alongside Junior's son Frankie Killens, brothers Raymond and Cleo Cole, Colby Parker, Don Carter and Robert Barnes in the woods. Company truck drivers are Baron Posey, Dwayne Ridout, Kevin Richardson, Stephen McCune, Glendy Williams, Rockie Stewart, Ken Watkins, Jody Atkins, Mark Kirkland and Stanley Greer. Breland also hires contract haulers Davis Gamblin, Robert Warnsley, Darnell Campbell and Jamey Clark. Breland still focuses on building all the roads.

Timber Buying “I realized pretty quickly that you are better off to buy your own timber,” Breland notes. Ever since he started the company in ’97, Breland has worked with procurement forester Rex Germany, who at the time bought timber for a company in

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which he was part owner, Forest Sales and Service. In 2003, Breland and Germany partnered together to start a new company, Forest Sales, Inc. It secures tracts not just for Breland’s crews but other loggers as well.

A Mississippi State graduate, Germany has been working as a forester since 1978. He cruised timber for companies in Alabama and Georgia for five years before going to work for James River Timber Corp. from 1983 to 1998. “I had gone about as far as I could go there, and I started looking for other opportunities,” the forester recalls. He helped start Forest Sales and Service after leaving James River, then started Forest Sales, Inc. with Breland five years later.

“We try to keep our crews within an hour and a half of the house, but this time of year you might have to go a little further sometimes, because you just have to look for something that will work,” Germany said when Southern Loggin’ Times visited one of the crews in early February. “In the summer we go back to that hour and a half range.”

The partners look mostly for mixed hardwood stands, saying variety is

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Breland uses mostly John Deere machines from Stribling Equipment in Meridian.

Tim Breland Logging, Inc. Philadelphia, Miss.

Email: sandybreland@bellsouth.net Founded: 1997 Owner: Tim Breland No. Crews: 3 Employees: 19 Equipment: 3 cutters, 3 skidders, 5 loaders Trucks/Trailers: 10 trucks, 15 trailers Production: 150-200 loads/week Average Haul Distance: 75 miles Other Businesses: Partner in timber dealership Forest Sales, Inc. and wet yard Neshoba Wood Products, Inc. Tidbit: Before he got into logging, Breland owned several convenience stores.

Breland now has three crews in the woods, multiple trucks, a wet yard and a timber dealership.

Arthur Walk, Frankie Killens, Tim Breland, Baron Posey, Jerry Moore and Junior Killens

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When not restricted by quota and sorts, Breland says his crews can really turn out a lot of wood.

key to success. “As quota is now you need to have everything you can to keep hauling,” Breland states.

The crew had 11 different sorts on that tract in February. It was a 370acre clear-cut, with loading ramp set up a mile off the road. Breland expected it to produce 1,400 loads. On average each crew produces 50-75 loads a week, but Breland stresses that capacity is limited by quota and by the number of sorts. “We were on one tract previously with only five sorts, a solid pine tract, and in one week hauled 147 loads,” he says.

“They can turn it out. Sorting slows them down but we have to do it for the sales end of it.”

Not content with just two companies, Breland started a third last year.

He purchased the former Lofton wet yard in Philadelphia and rechristened it Neshoba Wood Products, Inc., named for the county in which it operates. He installed new aluminum pipes and motors in the wet deck, which has a capacity of 90,000 tons.

“Last year we had a dry winter, so it

turned out not to be a good year to start it, but we look forward to getting it going in the fall of 2017,” he says.

Setup

Breland also does a significant amount of road building work.

Forester Rex Germany, left, is partners with Breland, right, in Forest Sales, Inc., a timber dealership.

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The crews use a mix of equipment: Tigercat 724E cutter and 234 loaders; John Deere 648H and 748H skidders, 843K wheeled feller-buncher, 437D and 544J loaders, 200LC excavator, 550, 650 and 700 dozers, and 670 road grader; Caterpillar 140G motor grader and D4G dozer; Terex 140LC excavator, Case CX130 track hoe and Komatsu dozers.

Breland owns several others but currently runs 10 company trucks, mostly Macks with a Peterbilt and a Kenworth in the mix, pulling a fleet of 15 Magnolia log trailers as well as two extended light pole trailers and lowboys from Magnolia, Pitts and Eager Beaver.

In all, he estimates his investment at $2.5 to $3 million. Tigercat dealer B&G Equipment in Philadelphia and John Deere dealer Stribling

Raymond Cole, Don Carter and Cleo Cole

Breland and his wife Sandy, who handles the administrative side of the business

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Equipment in Meridian supply the bulk of the logger’s machines. Tri State Mack in Meridian is the truck dealer. All major repairs go back to these dealers. Most of the equipment is under warranty as it is relatively new. Breland says he has never bought extended warranty for machines, but he plans to start.

“With these newer ones, with DEF, you definitely need it.”

He adds, “We used to try to run skidders two or three years and trade. Loaders we would try to run

four or five years, and cutters three or four years. But since Tier 4 has come in, we are running them longer.” Breland says he traded in two machines that were less than a year old in order to buy the last two Tier 3 machines Stribling could sell him. “I wanted to get new machines to stay away from Tier 4.” He reports, though, that so far a brand new Tigercat loader he bought not long ago has been problem free.

For more routine repairs and regular maintenance that doesn’t go

back to the dealers, Breland has an 80x80 shop. One full-time mechanic, Rocky Stewart, handles most of that work. Stewart also doubles as a truck driver when needed, often for moving equipment but sometimes for hauling loads. He greases trucks once a week and changes oil every 10,000 miles. Woods machines, meanwhile, get greased daily and undergo oil changes every 250 hours. “We are big on preventative maintenance so our repair bills don’t run that high,” Breland says.

The logger buys much of his spare parts and supplies, like brake drums and antifreeze, in bulk.

“When it’s on sale, we will buy several pallets,” he says. Most things, like bearings, he buys from the dealer. All fuel and tires come from Prince Oil in Philadelphia and all tires from Southern Tire Mart.

Breland says that the business experience he gained from the convenience stores has helped him with running a logging business. His wife Sandy, who has a business degree, runs the office. “We do a monthly profit and loss sheet on every truck and every machine, to see what it cost me to run,” he says. “I had a 2008 Peterbilt that I had spent $40,000 in repairs on in one year, and because of that I knew that thing had to go.”

Outlook The number one issue confronting loggers today, Breland believes, is too much production, causing quota everywhere. The number two problem, in his estimation, is a lack of young employees available. “The majority of my guys are older than I am,” he notes. Another big concern for him is insurance. “It is about to get really serious,” he warns. “A lot of insurance companies are pulling out of the state of Mississippi because they don’t have the pool they used to have to pull from.

Trucking is what is really outrageous. The liability end of the trucks has doubled and I have had no accidents.”

Davis Garvin Insurance in Brandon, Miss. has provided Breland’s insurance since day one. The logger holds a monthly safety meeting for all employees in which Breland brings an outside consultant company, Southern Safety Solutions, LLC in Taylorsville, to conduct safety classes. Every crew truck has a first aid kit, and one truck on each crew has a spill kit.

Breland and Sandy have two daughters: Taylor Grace, 8, and Lauren, 25, an occupational therapist who is engaged to employee Colby Parker. Breland hopes one day he can pass the company down to them. “When I am 60 I am going to retire,” the logger plans. “We do a lot of realty business, and we will retire on that.”

Looking ahead to the more immediate future, Breland is very optimistic for 2017. “I think we have some positive things going.

I think the government is going to help, and we have two new mills coming in Newton and a plywood mill in Louisville. I would love to see another chip mill, because we badly need another outlet for SLT pulp.”

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Rising Tide ■ Tidewater Equipment Co. celebrates 70 years of service to the Southern logging community.

By Jordan Anderson BRUNSWICK, Ga. ounded by coastal Georgia entrepreneur Charles Whittle in ★ 1947, Tidewater Equipment Co. today ranks among the nation’s largest logging equipment distributors with 16 locations in five southeastern states. The company has existed longer than any of today’s leading manufacturers have made purpose-built logging equipment. It continues to grow, fueled by strong relationships with customers and manufacturers and leaders that emphasize faith, family and dedication to the job.

Whittle started the company as a small manufacturer of tools for cutting and handling pulpwood. In the late ’50s and early ’60s Tidewater moved away from manufacturing and embraced equipment distribu-

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Tidewater President and CEO Jamie Young (left) and Vice President and CFO Earl Terry (right)

Tidewater’s original location in Brunswick was home to the company’s manufacturing operations.

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Tidewater Demo Day idewater is preparing for their

T second Demo Day event to be held May 6 near Valdosta, Ga. The last one, held in 2015, drew a sizable crowd of customers, employees and media to Brunswick.

“We hosted over 200 people at our event in 2015 and expect to have the same turnout if not more this year. We had great feedback from the last one and everyone really enjoyed themselves,” comments Allie Poirier, Tidewater’s Marketing Specialist.

“We use this event to show appreciation for our customers and as an opportunity to get them out there seeing the equipment running. It’s great because we get to spend time with all of our employees, customers and vendors in one place,” says Poirier.

Young insists that the 2017 Demo Day event is a family affair. “This is our 70th year anniversary and we’re having a big family picnic,” he says. SLT

The Brunswick service department works on Tigercat’s new 632E skidder.

tion, becoming a dealer for Bombardier, Franklin and Husky.

Through a companion entity in the late ’70s it revisited manufacturing in a small way, for a time making a feller-buncher attachment, circle saw slasher, inverted grapples, car toppers, and self-propelled loader carriers, all at its Brunswick, Ga. facility. For decades Tidewater personnel were instrumental in forestry equipment evolution, helping Franklin develop its Swamp Buggy skidder, Pack-A-Back forwarders and a series of wheel-type fellerbunchers.

Tidewater, one of Tigercat’s largest dealers in the world, is also the manufacturer’s oldest dealer, having taken on the line in 1993 when the newcomer offered only a wheel-type feller-buncher. Now with more than 200 employees, Tidewater does business in Georgia, Florida, the Carolinas and Alabama. Including its flagship store at Brunswick, 10 of its locations are full service, five are parts outlets and its newest, located in Tampa, Fla., is a Morbark-only dealership.

Today the company continues to

stay focused on the forestry industry while maintaining its family values. “We’ve always been closely tied to the forestry industry. That’s what we’re all about,” says Earl Terry, Tidewater’s Vice President and CFO. Terry started with the company in 1988.

Then & Now Tom Morgan, Ken Trowbridge, Jr. and Ben Reavis acquired the company in 1971 from Whittle’s widow, who had assumed control following her husband’s death in

1967. They guided and expanded the company to market dominance in several states over the next decade and a half. After both Trowbridge and Reavis retired and Tom Morgan died, Trowbridge’s son, Ken III, and Morgan’s son, Gil, managed the company for several years.

For years Tidewater was the largest Franklin dealer in the country and controlled the skidder market in its territory. Franklin Equipment Co. started in Franklin, Va. in 1962 and closed its doors in 2008.

Tidewater is based “in the bullseye of the Southern yellow pine lumber market,” as Young puts it, and numerous paper mills and pellet plants in the territory mean a high demand for pulpwood. The company has a significant market share in coastal regions of the Southeast, where logging takes place yearround and where biomass markets have seen rapid growth. “Markets in the last three years have been as good as we’ve ever seen,” Young says.

Current locations include Polkton and Elizabethtown, NC, Newberry, Conway and Walterboro, SC, Forsyth, Statesboro, Hazlehurst, Waycross, Brunswick and Thomasville, Ga., Thomasville and Evergreen, Ala., and Maxville, Perry, and Tampa, Fla. Tidewater has had branches as far north as Virginia and as far west as Arkansas.

Growing With Tigercat Tigercat, based in Brantford, Ontario, started when a group with experience in the forestry equip-

This fully functional mobile service truck from the Brunswick location is a rolling billboard for Tidewater.

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ment industry teamed up with Cambridge, Ontario-based fabrication company MacDonald Steel.

Jamie Young, who started with Tidewater in 1996 and has been its President and CEO since 2010, tells how the company was first introduced to Tigercat: “Ben Reavis, who was a partner in the company, saw this ugly machine at a show in 1992.

It was a Tigercat feller-buncher and he thought, ‘We need to look at these guys.’ That singlehandedly was an epic turn at Tidewater.”

“When we started with Tigercat they were considered the more expensive machines,” Young comments. “They were the new player.

But they quickly established themselves as being the market leader with innovation, quality and reliability.”

As Tigercat began to develop a broad range of equipment, Tidewater went all in. “We were sold that they were the future and they have been,” Young says with enthusiasm.

“We’ve consistently grown market share. We’re a leader in our territory. It’s phenomenal.”

Bringing On Morbark Tidewater began carrying Morbark in 2010, a move that Young

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Tigercat,” Young asserts. “We wanted to do the same with industrial equipment, so we looked at many manufacturers. Morbark came out on top and we went full on to bring Morbark in. It’s been a great partnership for us. We’ve seen growth in that market for us every year.”

Tidewater has a separate industrial team that handles the Morbark line. The company’s Morbark-only location in Tampa opened in April 2016. “We took our model for running a dealership and applied it to a different product line and it’s working very well,” comments Terry.

Service Commitment Brunswick Branch Manager Brad Crews has been with Tidewater for 25 years.

says was born out of a need for diversification and growth in biomass markets. “Morbark has given us some satisfaction for diversification, which is critical in our business. The logging industry isn’t always going to sustain itself year over year, so Morbark gave us another fallback with an established base,” he says.

Morbark, based in Winn, Mich., has awarded Tidewater with Gold

Dealer status for the past four years.

Tidewater offers Morbark whole tree chippers, horizontal grinders, tub grinders and slow speed shredders at all of its full service locations and one dedicated location in all states except North Carolina and Alabama, where established dealers were already operating.

“We feel in our heart that we’re aligned with the best forestry equipment made in the world, which is

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If a customer has an ‘in warranty’ Tigercat machine that needs repairs and takes it out of service, Tidewater provides a replacement to use until the machine is back in service.

“Our job is to keep our customers producing, whether that means selling a new piece of equipment, servicing machines, or replacing equipment on the job if we have to bring something in,” Terry explains.

“The customer should always be up and running,” Young adds. “We can’t make everyone happy all the time, but we sure try.”

Tidewater’s workforce is heavy to

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service technicians. Much of the technician training is done in-house, although manufacturer training and visits to Tigercat and Morbark facilities are regular. “Manufacturer training is important and the relationship between the techs and the manufacturer is important. Our technicians are the ones that keep our customers coming back,” Young asserts.

Each full service branch has three to four service trucks, along with a full product service team, and will service or repair any make of equip-

ment not under a manufacturer warranty. Tigercat and Morbark warranties are “the best in the industry,” according to Young and Terry. Tidewater offers an extended warranty on Tigercat equipment, something that Young says is an “industry exclusive” and only offered through Tidewater.

Something unique to the Brunswick branch is a 2016 Kenworth T270 box truck that was converted into a fully functional service truck.

With a full graphic wrap, the truck is essentially a ‘rolling billboard’

for Tidewater. Brunswick Service Manager Don Shropshire comments on the one-of-a-kind service truck: “It keeps everything out of the weather which can prevent things like oil contamination, and it allows us to transport more tools and larger parts straight to where our customers are instead of bringing them into the shop, minimizing downtime as much as we can.”

Tidewater keeps each branch well stocked with new Tigercat and Morbark machines. Buying and selling

all makes of used equipment is an important part of the business as well. Tidewater also carries Pitts and Big John Trailers, CSI delimbers and ground saws, R Squared Solutions delimbers, Rotobec grapples, Maxi-Load Scale Systems and HANFAB Slashers.

The Family Feel Tidewater’s corporate office is located in St. Simons Island, Ga., about 10 miles from the Brunswick branch. Young and Terry adhere to the decentralized management philosophy that previous Tidewater principals embraced. They “view everything from 30,000 feet above,” as they put it. Young wants their branch managers to “take ownership” of their branches. “I want them to run it like it’s theirs,” he says.

“We love the people we have working for us and we want to see them succeed. We try to make sure they see that from us, and it makes them that much more of a dedicated employee,” Terry says. Tidewater regularly promotes from within, which Young says is always “our first choice.” The company has managers that have been in place for more than 30 years.

Young insists that Tidewater’s business comes second to people.

“Tidewater is bigger than a team.

One thing that we try to bring is the ‘family feel’ where the whole company is a family. We know our customers like family, we know our employees like family and our vendors are part of our family. I tell our people regularly, ‘If you get up in the morning and you’re not enjoying what you do, having the time of your life, then go find whatever that is and do it’,” Young says.

What has sustained Tidewater for 70 years? Young says it was the company’s ability and willingness to change. “Markets will change and people will change. If you can’t see and identify those changes and adapt, you will fail.

We’ve maintained what works and we change what doesn’t work. We’re very good at identifying weaknesses and we correct SLT weaknesses quickly.”

This article originally appeared in Timber Harvesting, January-February 2017.

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Going Once. Going ■ J.M. Wood Auction Co. held its 44th Annual Spring Auction March 14-17 in Montgomery, Ala.

Equipment was lined up as far as the eye could see.

5,039 lots were auctioned off during the four-day event.

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J.M. Wood’s property covers 60 acres in Montgomery.

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Twice...

By Jordan Anderson

More than 3,000 people attended in person with thousands more participating online.

“We draw a pretty wide audience from around the world for this annual logging auction.

That helps the local logger reach buyers that they ordinarily could not sell to,” Wood says.

Almost 40% of the lots auctioned off were sold via live internet bidding.

Registered bidders from 48 U.S. states and six continents participated.

The auction generated $58,907,000 in total sales, with $10,600,000 coming in online.

J.M. Wood Auction Co. has been in business since 1973.

J.M. Wood holds four large auction events each year, one in each season.

J.M. Wood Auction’s next big event will be held in Montgomery June 13-15, 2017.

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Bear In The Backyard A man walked out of his house in the mountains and discovered a big male black bear in a tree in his back yard. He hoped it would climb down and go away but hours later it was still there, so he quickly Googled wildlife removal service on his cell phone, got a number, and punched it in.

“I’ve got a black bear in a tree in my back yard,” he said. “Can you remove it?”

“I don’t get many bear calls, but yeah, I can remove it,” the service owner said.

“Give me your address and I’ll be there as soon as I can.”

An hour later the wildlife guy rolled up in a van. He checked out the situation with the home owner on his heels, then walked to his van and set free a muscular pit bulldog before removing a long ladder, a baseball bat, and a shotgun.

“How are you gonna do this?” the homeowner asked as the wildlife guy handed him the shotgun.

“I’ll climb up and hit the bear hard enough with this bat to knock him free,” the wildlife man said.

“When he hits the ground the pit bull will chomp down on his testicles and hold on till I can get a needle in the bear to knock him out.”

“And what about the shotgun?” asked the home owner.

The wildlife man quickly replied, “If that bear knocks me out of the tree, shoot the dog.”

A Sensitive Rear Admiral A young Navy officer was severely wounded in the head by a flight deck accident, but the only visible, permanent injury was that both of his ears were amputated. Since his hearing was not adversely affected, he remained in the Navy, eventually attaining the rank of Rear Admiral. However, he remained very sensitive about his appearance.

One day the Admiral was interviewing three servicemen who were candidates for his headquarters staff. The first was a Marine Major, a helicopter pilot, and it was a great interview. At the end of the interview the Admiral asked, “Do you notice anything different about me?” The young officer answered, “Yes sir, I couldn’t help but notice that you have no ears.” The Admiral was displeased with his lack of tact and threw him out.

The second was a Navy Lieutenant, and he was even better. The Admiral asked him the same question. The officer replied sheepishly, “Well, sir, you have no ears.” The Admiral also threw him out.

The third interview was with an old Master Chief, a salty, staff-trained NCO. He was smart, articulate, fit, looked sharp, and seemed to know more than the two officers combined. The Admiral liked him, and went ahead with the same question, “Do you notice anything different about me?”

To his surprise the Master Chief said, “Yes sir,

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What Do You See? Who says logs don’t have character? When Justin Kilby, who works with Kilby Logging, Clayton, Ga., cut through this pine log, this likeness of a pig’s face appeared. When he cut a 3-in. thick piece from the log to save nature’s artwork, the face did not appear on the other side. Then again, neither did the likeness of the animal’s rear. Thanks to Justin for taking the photo and showing it to Jack Catlin of Catlin Forestry Services, Toccoa, Ga., who passed it on to SLT for others to enjoy.

you wear contact lenses.”

The Admiral was very impressed and thought, “What an incredibly observant NCO, and he didn’t mention my ears.” He asked, “Master Chief, how do you know I wear contacts?”

“Well, sir,” the old Master Chief replied, “it’s pretty hard to wear glasses when you have no freakin’ ears!”

Tools Redefined

mable objects in your shop or garage. It is also handy for igniting the grease inside a wheel hub when you are trying to remove a bearing race.

TABLE SAW: A large stationary tool commonly used to launch wood projectiles for testing wall integrity.

Holy Humor

—An elderly lady boxed an old family Bible and went to the post office to mail it to her brother, who lived several states away. “Is there anything breakable in here?” asked the postal clerk. “Only the Ten Commandments,” answered the lady.

—There are only two kinds of people in the world: those who wake up in the morning and say, “Good morning, Lord,” and those who wake up in the morning and say, “Good Lord, it’s morning.”

—A minister parked his car in a no parking zone in a large city because he was short of time and couldn’t find a space with a meter. He put this note under the windshield wiper: “I have circled the block 10 times. If I don’t park here, I’ll miss my appointment. Forgive us our trespasses.”

When he returned, he found a citation from a police officer, along with this note: “I’ve circled this block for 10 years. If I don’t give you a ticket I’ll lose my job. Lead us not into temptation.”

—A pastor stood up one Sunday and announced to his congregation: “I have good news and bad news. The good news is, we have enough money to pay for our new building program. The bad news is, it’s still out there in your pockets.”

—A Sunday School teacher began her lesson with a question, “Boys and girls, what do we know about God?” “He is an artist!” said the kindergarten boy. “Really? How do you know?” the teacher asked. “You know, it’s in the prayer…

Our Father, who does art in Heaven.”

DRILL PRESS: A tall, upright machine useful for suddenly snatching flat metal bar stock out of your hands so that it smacks you in the chest and flings your beer across the room, denting the freshly-painted project which you had carefully set in the corner out of the way.

WIRE WHEEL: A device that cleans paint off bolts and then throws them somewhere under the work bench with the speed of light. It also removes fingerprints and hard-earned calluses from fingers in about the time it takes you to say, “Oh no!”

CIRCLE SAW: A portable cutting tool used to make studs too short.

PLIERS: Grippers used to round off According to Leanne the heads of bolts and sometimes known Martin, mother of fiveyear-old Walker Marto cause blood blisters. tin of Laurens, SC, VISE GRIPS: A type of pliers used to Walker loves SLT so completely round off the heads of bolts. If much he occasionally nothing else is available they can also be goes to sleep with it. used to transfer intense welding heat to She says she or her husband, Nathan, read the palm of your hand.

SLT feature articles to BELT SANDER: An electric tool the child, who has a commonly used to convert minor touchrare genetic condition up jobs into major refinishing jobs. called Williams SynHACKSAW: One of a family of cutdrome and Juvenile Idiopathic Arthritis. ting tools built on the Ouija board princiThis photo was made ple. It transforms human energy into a as the family made its crooked, unpredictable motion, and the way home from a more you attempt to influence its course, doctor’s visit at the the more dismal your future becomes.

Medical University of SC in Charleston. Leanne’s dad, Billy Walker, operates Walker and OXYACETYLENE TORCH: Used Walker, LLC, a logging business based in Laurens. almost entirely for igniting various flam-

Walker Martin’s Craving For SLT

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WHERE ARE THEY NOW? Holton Sells Trucks, Stays In Woods n a 1987 article on his south Georgia logging operation, Randy Holton recounted his first week in business 16 years prior: “The first week our payroll came to $75, and I grossed $62.50,” he said, adding, “After the first year I had less money than when I started.”

Contacted for SLT’s “Where Are They Now” update, Holton laughs and says, “That’s one thing that’s stayed the same—the bank account is about where it was in 1987!”

Actually, much has stayed the same for Holton, who’s out of Cairo, Ga., and his company J.R. Holton Logging. While the equipment and people have changed, he says, he’s mostly in the same operation mode as 30 years ago, although he recently sold his trucking equipment to his son-in-law Jim Scarborough, who’s also helping manage the crew.

Bolton, now 67, spends much of his time finding and buying timber ahead of the crew.

Back in 1987, SLT had caught up with Holton’s logging crew on a 100 acre clear-cut in Florida’s Apalachicola National Forest. The wide open tract was all marked pole timber and yielding impressive logs.

The crew was operating a relatively new 1986 Tree Farmer C7T skidder with Detroit 4-53 turbo engine and ESCO grapple that was the first grapple skidder Holton had operated. He cited the machine’s power, fuel economy and efficient gate delimbing operation. Also on site was a Tree Farmer C5D cutdown machine with I.B. White 28 in. shear head mounted on front.

And here’s something you won’t see in the modern-day logging woods: the C5D cutter also featured an ESCO 26 grapple in back for skidding in a pinch. Holton noted that shear operator Will Johns was more productive than when he was manual felling, and the idea for the cutter grapple was being able to help the skidder operator out when possible.

Then again, Johns was no slouch with a chain saw, Holton said, noting he had seen Johns cut and limb six to eight loads of logs daily for a long time. However, realizing he could never replace Johns’ experience and productivity with another manual faller, he decided to go with the cutter.

Another thing that’s stayed the same is the operation’s size: a single

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“We don’t even have a chain saw on the job anymore, and the only one we do have is a pole saw for trimming loads.”

—Randy Holton

crew. In 1987 Holton said he had no plans to expand the operation despite plenty of opportunities to do so. “We decided to stay small and still are,” Holton says today, adding that with all the ups and downs inherent in running a logging company, “If you’re going to fall, the fall is shorter and not as hard when you’re smaller.”

Update Though he considers it a one-crew operation, the company does run a cutter, two skidders and two loaders, Holton says. The loaders and skidders are occasionally split into two sides, he adds, but there hasn’t been any reason to do so in the past year or so with all the dry weather and relatively good logging conditions.

Holton says the biggest change he’s seen is the level of mechanization. “It’s been a big change for everyone,” he says. “For example, we don’t even have a chain saw on

the job anymore, and the only one we do have is a pole saw for trimming loads.”

Mechanization has made operations safer and more productive, Holton says, but loggers can be their own worst enemies through over-production. “Supply is the name of the game, and many times we (as in loggers overall) produce too much.”

While back in 1987 Holton said he decided to keep one truck to have some control over hauling, 30 years later he says the hassles of keeping trucks are “the biggest headache in the business.”

It had gotten so bad that “I was gonna quit completely if I couldn’t sell the trucks,” Holton says. “I believe things are only going to get worse with the DOT and insurance companies.”

Members of the logging crew from 1987 were mostly older than Holton, and all are enjoying their old age with the exception of Johns, who passed away in the late ‘80s.

Holton says he likes the setup the company has now, with Scarborough running the trucks and helping with the woods crew. “We’ve been buying our own timber for a good while now,” he says, adding that the crew focuses on high-ground tracts and can handle both thinning and clear-cut work. “We don’t have a swamp-logging bone in our body,” SLT Holton adds.

Was your logging company featured in Southern Loggin’ Times 25+ years ago?

Where are you now?

SLT’s new feature takes a look at people and places from the past and updates how logging companies—and the people who own and operate them—change and even sometimes stay the same over time.

Contact SLT Western Editor Dan Shell at dan@ hattonbrown.com so SLT can update your story!

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LOGGING LIFE AT HOME TL Smith Is Following In His Father’s Footsteps Deborah Smith has been married to Rome, Ga. logger Travis Smith for 34 years. They have 10 children: seven by birth, three adopted from Africa, and two granddaughters. A college English major, she began home-schooling their Travis and Deborah Smith children in 1991. Says Smith: “I love my family; I am passionate about encouraging others to keep the faith, to keep taking the next right step, no matter how hard life gets.” Visit her blog: buttercupsbloomhere.blogspot.com

y 18-year-old son, TL, recently attended the University of Georgia’s

M Master Timber Harvester workshop in Forsyth, Ga., and I accompanied him. Being very conscious of good manners and a little nervous, he arrived early. He picked up his material, found a seat, and put on his name tag. He then met the president of the Georgia Forestry Association, introduced me and himself, and carried on a polite and informative conversation about his father’s logging business. Along with others, he learned about state laws for tractor-trailers, the Georgia forestry guidelines for the protection of streams, rivers, ponds and forests, and good timber harvesting practices.

At that point I realized that as a home school mama, I had about done all that I could do for my oldest son. I left the building bewildered at where did time go, but proud of this young man and his quiet confidence.

Being a logger’s kid is not always easy, but for TL it has made for a good, good life. Watching his daddy faithfully work with a great crew of men, new and old equipment, the good and the bad weather, setbacks and good times, financial gains and losses, year after year, never thinking of quitting, has

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been a strong influence on the young man, Being a logger means that you work with many people from different walks of life. You may be in the woods all day, but if you’re going to run a business, you need to be a fair and good boss and great communicator to all involved in your business. Being a logger means you can take any number of variables on any given day and make the most with what you’ve got to work with, whether a rainy day, a flat tire, a stuck skidder, a truck driver held up, and getting home in time for the logger’s meeting to keep up your Master Timber Harvester’s certification.

Loggers need to know where their products can earn the landowner the most and how to best protect the land. They need to have a working knowledge of their equipment, and be able to speculate on earnings and growth of the business. They need to know laws concerning the environment, roads and DOT standards, and keep an eye out on the banking world and be sure the accountant has everything he needs to keep the law and pay taxes. And then there is bill paying, payroll, and planning for the future...

TL has seen firsthand the life of a logger, and he wants to be one. As a matter of fact, he already is one. From when he was a toddler, TL loved being outside. He told me once he felt sorry for people who worked in buildings and couldn’t go for walks in the woods in the morning before their day started.

How 18 years went by so fast I don’t know. I do know that now one more “heart of gold man” wants to be a logger, and he will do a fine job of it. He has watched his daddy and uncle Keith work and wait and accomplish so many good things, and he wants to follow in their footsteps. There is not a better compliment you can give to your father than to want to follow him. There is not another thing that I wish for my son than to follow what is so deeply rooted in his heart. This is a blessed life that we have, and I am SLT happy for you and proud of you, TL.

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INDUSTRY NEWS ROUNDUP from state-to-state, making someAs We See It: Teamwork Has Major Impact thing more of a national issue.

By Danny Dructor I recently wrote an article for the New Hampshire Timberland Owners and the New Hampshire Timber Harvesting Council entitled “Teamwork Matters.”

Dructor Before I finished writing the article, I had already decided that the topic was important enough that I should try to convey the message to all who are on the front lines of the timber harvesting industry and who take the time and opportunity to come out of the woods and be proactive on issues impacting the industry.

At ALC board meetings, we have managed to cuss and discuss many issues over the past 23 years, including master logger certification, H2b visas, woody biomass, Canadian softwood lumber tariffs, truck weights, the U.S. Forest Service timber sale program, trucking regulations, safety regulations, IRS rules for heavy-use vehicles, and a whole host of things that are of importance to the well-being of the timber harvesting industry. We are currently taking an active role in the TEAM Safe Trucking coalition, hoping we can assist in improving driver safety and assuring there are enough qualified, insurable drivers to go around.

Because of the ability of the board members to sit down and

work out policy and position statements that are beneficial to all is indicative of the teamwork that takes place in order for us to maintain our status as “The National Voice for Loggers.”

We have all managed to educate ourselves and each other on issues that are seemingly regional in character but actually national in scope, and we all speak with one voice on issues that

we are concerned with. Our dialects vary from region to region, but the hearts and minds of those participating in the discussions are one and the same.

We try to monitor legislation at the federal level that would have an impact on logging businesses, and more often than not now, have members of Congress reaching out to us asking, “What do loggers think?” We also monitor some state level legislation when it becomes apparent there might be a trend

This would not be possible without the dedication of the volunteers who make the yearly trek to Washington, DC and have formed relationships with members and staff on the Hill and who often look forward to their visits. Members of the American Loggers Council continue to make that spring trip, and represent the industry very well.

Late in March, those men and women from the logging profession once again traveled to Washington, representing you and your profession. Be sure to thank them for their

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dedication and time promoting this industry that we all have in common. You might even ask them how their trip went and what discussions did they have with members of Congress.

While there are other organizations that do a great job at representing other sectors of the forest products industry at the local, state and federal level, the fact remains that many of the issues that are important to the logging industry

are not on the radar of the other associations. Our focus is and will remain representing professional timber harvesters at the national level. The American Loggers Council and state and regional logging associations represent loggers working for loggers. That’s what we do—Teamwork!

Dructor is Executive Vice President of the American Loggers Council with headquarters in Hemphill, Texas. Visit amloggers.com.

TEAM Safe Trucking Effort Moves Forward TEAM Safe Trucking, a volunteer alliance committed to elevating the safety, performance and professional level of the forest industry’s transportation sector, is moving forward with its ambitious program. The group consists of key integral facets of the forest products industry: production (logging), consumption, insurance, associations and other advocates.

TST’s revamped web site—teamsafetrucking.com—was launched in early March. Ultimately, it will be loaded with tools to help advance the strength and standing of log/chip trucking. Resources will include tips for recruiting and retaining drivers; items to help owners move from reactive to proactive fleet management; suggestions for improving trucking efficiency; and ideas for enhancing the sector’s public image.

The final draft of TST’s comprehensive driver training module is nearing completion and soon will be available on the web site. According to TST officials, the intent is for this module to be used at the state level, as it can easily be modified to incorporate state-specific criteria.

The group now has restructured and refocused key committees, has new leadership, and its 501(c)3 nonprofit status has been approved by the IRS, meaning that financial donations are tax deductible.

“More and more organizations are participating in TST and are ‘buying in’ to what TST is committed to achieve,” says Jeremiah O’Donovan, the group’s new presi-

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dent. “We’re on track to make important strides this year and invite additional participation.”

Donations to TEAM Safe Trucking, Inc. are welcomed and should be mailed to TST treasurer Joanne Reese at P.O. Box 785, Henderson, NC 27536.

Former Forester Will Lead Westervelt Co. The Westervelt Co. named Brian Luoma as President and CEO, succeeding Mike Case, who announced his retirement after more than 32 years with the company. Luoma will oversee Westervelt Lumber, Westervelt Renewable Energy, Westervelt

Forest Resources, Westervelt Communities, Westervelt Ecological Services and Westervelt New Zealand.

Luoma most recently served as executive vice president and general manager, Siding, with LouisianaPacific Corp.

Jon Warner, Chairman of the Board at The Westervelt Co., based in Tuscaloosa, Ala., comments, “Brian’s proven leadership and vision will be essential in leading our company.”

“I am thrilled to join the Westervelt team,” Luoma says. “The company’s commitment to excellence and focus on sustainability are the driving forces behind 133 years of success.”

Since 1987, Luoma held roles of increasing responsibility with LP. Luoma graduated in Forestry from

Humboldt State University in Arcata, Calif. He worked for LP while attending college first as an assistant log scaler at the LP stud mill in Fort Bragg, Calif. and then in the woods as a forestry technician.

After graduating he worked for Simpson Timber in Korbel for a year before rejoining LP as timberlands manager in northern California. He then became wood procurement manager for LP’s Western Region. He later led LP’s Northern operations OSB group in Hayward, Wis., before moving to LP headquarters as head of forestry, wood procurement and logistics.

He advanced to LP’s vice president of Engineered Wood Products before becoming executive vice president

and GM over LP Siding, based at headquarters in Nashville, Tenn.

Westervelt operates a high production, modernized southern yellow pine sawmill at Moundville, Ala., a large industrial wood pellet plant in Aliceville, Ala., and owns/manages 500,000 acres of timberland.

G&W Equipment Has New Ownership JEK, LLC has acquired G&W Equipment in Hazlehurst, Ga. JEK President Jimmy Kitchens invites everyone to call on Dub Gardner and his staff for new and used forestry equipment parts. The company will operate under the G&W Equipment name.

Changes are being made in the inventory system that will enable customers to view the complete inventory, photos and prices under the search tab of www.loggingparts.com Call G&W at 1-800-284-9032 or contact dubg@loggingparts.com

Rentech May Sell Fulghum Fibers Rentech, Inc. is exploring strategic alternatives for the company, including its sale, which could include 32 chips mills under its Fulghum Fibers business.

The announcement coincides with Rentech’s decision to idle its Ontario wood pellet facility due to operational and budgeting issues.

Rentech has retained Wells Fargo Securities, LLC to assist in the strategic alternatives review process.

Big Market Opens In Greenwood County Colombo Energy, owned by Portugal-based The Navigator Company, has started up its large industrial wood pellet mill in Greenwood, SC. The mill has a production capacity of 550,000 tons of pellets per year, mostly destined for overseas markets as fuel for electricity plants.

The mill requires twice as much woody raw material tonnage, all of it in pine roundwood, with no serious plans to procure chips.

Colombo Energy Wood Procurement Manager Ken Leach says the opening of the facility was good news for the area logging force, which had seen some markets dry up. “They were a little skeptical at first, but then we started buying wood last June,” Leach says.

South Carolina Chamber of Commerce and South Carolina Forestry Assn. were instrumental in 46

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attracting Colombo Energy to the area. The Navigator Company is a large pulp and paper manufacturer.

Niziolek Joins Morbark As VP Of Operations Morbark has added Walt Niziolek to its senior management team as vice president of operations and supply chain.

Niziolek joins Morbark at a time

of continued business growth to take charge of supply chain and site operational requirements. His new post includes managing local, U.S. and overseas vendors and suppliers, all warehouse and distribution activities, quality initiatives and liaising with business unit engineering support.

Niziolek has previous senior leadership roles in manufacturing with companies such as CPG Building Products and Pride Mobility Products, where he specialized in deploy-

ing standardized work and other lean initiatives to improve safety, quality, delivery, supply chain management and cost.

Deltic Timber Names Enlow As President Deltic Timber Corp. appointed John Enlow as President and CEO. Enlow joins Deltic having most recently served as vice president,

Real Estate and Southern Timberlands at Weyerhaeuser from 2014 to 2016, after serving 16 years in roles of increasing responsibility at Rayonier Inc. Before joining Rayonier, Enlow held roles in sales, finance and forestry at Union Camp Corp.

Enlow holds a Bachelor of Science degree from Mississippi State University and an MBA from Brenau University. He also is a graduate of Wharton’s Executive Strategy program and serves on the Board of Directors of the Georgia Forestry Assn. & Wood Supply Research Institute and Forest Resources Assn.

Deltic Timber, based in El Dorado, Ark., owns 530,000 acres of timberland, operates two sawmills and a medium density fiberboard plant, and is engaged in real estate. The company recently installed a new small log line at its sawmill in Ola, La.

Proposal Made For Gainesville Plant Gainesville Regional Utilities has proposed to buy the Gainesville Renewable Energy Center biomass power plant in Gainesville, Fla. for $750 million, according to gainesville.com of the Gainesville Sun. GRU, a municipally owned utility, and the biomass plant are just three years into a 30-year contract that calls for GRU to pay the biomass plant about $70 million annually, even if its services aren’t used.

GRU officials maintain they’ve saved money by purchasing cheaper power elsewhere, while leaving the biomass plant on standby.

GRU General Manager Ed

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Bielarski says the deal could save the city between $600 and $700 million.

“This is an exit strategy for GREC and an entrance strategy for GRU,” he says.

GREC completed construction of

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the 100 MW facility at a cost of $500 million in October 2013 and it became available for commercial operation in late 2013. The plant is owned by Energy Management, Inc., BayCorp Holdings and Starwood

Energy, as well as by principals of Fagen, Inc., which was the contractor.

The city offered to purchase the plant for $400 million in late 2013, but was turned down.

The plant was expected to utilize

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1 million tons of woody biomass annually. Last summer, a wood chip supplier won a $4.5 million award in a lawsuit it filed against GREC for altering its procurement program.

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MACHINES-SUPPLIES-TECHNOLOGY Big Processor Head

The new KETO 873 processor is designed for processing larger trees in demanding conditions. This 7400 lb. head can be installed on 30+ ton tracked base machines. Kone-Ketonen and Quadco Equipment introduced the KETO 873 at the Oregon Logging Conference in February.

An impressive feature of the KETO 873 is the Rotobec rotator, which spins 360° and beyond.

KETO 873 also incorporates a well proven Parker valve system. Functions are proportional and operate only on-demand, which are key factors in optimizing the fuel consumption of the base machine and running the system at the lowest possible temperature.

Track feed motors are made by Danfoss. The 500cc motors produce the level of nearly 4kN of true net pulling power making sure that even the toughest trees can be pulled and delimbed quickly.

Like in any KETO head the length measuring is done by the two feeding tracks. A larger front knife cylinder together with the bottom arm cylinder provides the needed holding power when pulling big trees from the deck. The geometries of the 3 moving and 1 fixed knives and arms have been optimized to handle the full range of diameters.

Visit quadco.com.

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High Rotation Seat

Caterpillar offers the High Rotation Seat cab and an enhanced monitor display for Cat D Series wheel skidders. The seat cab offers 100 degrees of seat rotation and features the new Cat Advanced Ride Management (Cat ARM) seat suspension .

The ability to rotate the seat 100 degrees when picking up bunches, working and backing the skidder around the deck, and backing down long skid trails improves operator ergonomics and efficiency.

Combined with the integrated Cat ARM seat suspension, a four-point seat belt, and joystick steering, the high rotation seat reduces operator fatigue and provides leading ride quality for the operator.

Visit cat.com/forestry.

handle up to 24" diameter logs. The fully enclosed engine compartment keeps things clean, but is easily serviced by large access doors on both sides of the machine.

The 3310 is the third and smallest model in Peterson’s lineup of drum chippers. Like the other larger Peterson drum chippers, the 3310 is equipped with sizing screens and an intelligent control system.

At just under 24' long, the 3310 utilizes a transverse-feed design allowing for a much smaller operations deck than typical drum chippers. The rotatable end load or optional top load spout design allows for trailers to be loaded in a variety of positions, depending on the demands of the job site. Not only does the compact size allow for easy maneuverability, but can even be transported in a 40' high cube container for overseas shipment. Visit petersoncorp.com.

Forwarder Series

Small Drum Chipper

Peterson Pacific Corp. offers a 3310 drum chipper with a 540 HP Caterpillar engine and power to

Eco Log launches two forwarder models, the 574E and 594E. The forwarder has been developed with the driver in mind, and so a lot of thought has gone into designing a completely new cab affording greater comfort and a better view.

The forwarder has also been given a new diesel engine from Volvo Penta, resulting in a fuel-efficient machine offering a quick response on loading and high reliability.

The new cab comes with largeframed windows and low side windows to the front wheels to provide a better view. The cab is more spacious, affording greater comfort, with better lighting and many new refinements.

The Volvo Penta D8 engine is known for its high performance, reliability, fuel efficiency and low emissions levels. The overall result is a machine with minimum downtimes and high capacity utilization.

The 574E and 594E are easy to service. Major components have been grouped on the same side of the machine to make access easier.

Cab, hoods and tank can all be tilted, and the frame is fitted with a skid plate that is easily removed.

The IQAN control system has been improved with the addition of more integrated functions. The unit now also has a bigger screen with touch functionality. Visit eco-log.se.

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Horizontal Grinder

Vermeer’s new HG6800TX horizontal grinder features 950 HP in a 92,000 lb. class, and an infeed design to aid in feeding larger material such as whole trees. The feed roller can climb up to 50".

The new infeed was designed with low sidewalls to help the operator more easily load material into the machine. This feature allows larger loads to be dropped on the infeed with less interaction and manipulation of the material, so the operator can drop the load and focus on the next one.

The unit features the patented Series III duplex hard-faced drum.

In addition to providing long-lasting durability, maintenance time is decreased with the ability to remove and flip or replace single hammers, as well as being able to externally balance the drum.

With the optional Damage Defense system, contractors who deal with contaminated wood can help protect their equipment by reducing the likelihood of major machine damage caused by certain metal contaminants entering the hammermill. The system reacts to the initial contact of metal by reversing the feed system to allow for removal. Visit vermeer.com.

Loader Grapples John Deere 437E and 337E knuckleboom loaders are now equipped with new grapples manufactured by John Deere to further improve productivity and machine durability.

The new grapple improves rotator torque and response times, and enables higher side loads and rotator lift capacity. The new grapple, available with a 48" or 52" opening, is made with a more durable cast design and a larger, more robust rotator, providing loggers with a heavy-duty machine designed to withstand the toughest of jobs.

Key grapple features includes a rotator lift capacity of 123,000 lbs.; rotator torque at 36,200 pounds/inch; built with high impact and wear-resistant custom steel The grapple is optimized to run from a John Deere carrier versus previous models that utilized a third-party grapple.

Visit johndeere.com.

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Saftey Glasses Prevent Serious Injury On The Wood Yard BACKGROUND: On a late winter afternoon in the Southeast, a log truck driver was unbinding his load of treelength pine pulpwood at a mill’s unbinding station.

PERSONAL CHARACTERISTICS: The approximately 70-yearold log truck driver had many years of driving experience and was considered a productive, motivated log truck driver who gave the impression of frequently being in a hurry. He was wearing all required Personal Protective Equipment, which included a hard hat, safety glasses, and gloves.

In the past, the mill’s wood procurement manager had noticed this driver not wearing his safety glasses on the wood yard. After the second warning, the manager gave him a

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pair of safety glasses and explained that the driver would be banned from the wood yard the next time he failed to wear his safety glasses. After that warning, whenever the driver would see the procurement manager on the wood yard, he pointed to his safety glasses to show the manager that he was wearing them. The procurement manager rewarded his improved safety performance with a cap.

UNSAFE ACTS AND CONDITION: When the driver strapped down his load at the logging job, there was a tree limb, approximately two inches in diameter, sticking out somewhat beyond the standards.

He ratcheted the strap down tightly such that the limb was under significant tension. Then when the driver arrived at the mill’s unbinding station, he placed himself in a position where the path of the release of the tension of this limb was directly in line with his face as he loosened the tension on the strap.

and was bleeding somewhat on the bridge of his nose—a minor injury.

ACCIDENT: When the tension was released, the limb snapped quickly outward and hit the driver in the face, with the force of the blow mostly against his safety glasses.

RECOMMENDATIONS FOR CORRECTION: Before binding a load on the logging job, try to remove potential tension on side limbs and other pieces sticking out by trimming them off first. When unbinding a load at the wood yard, do not stand directly in the path of any wood-under-tension during binder release. Always wear a hard hat, safety glasses, and other PPE while unbinding a load, and adhere to all the mill’s wood yard safety policies. Enforcing wood yard safety policies pays off.

INJURY: The safety glasses protected his eyes. He did receive a cut

Supplied by Forest Resources Assn.

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PRINT CLASSIFIED AD RATES: Print advertising rates are $50 per inch. Space is available by column inch only, one inch minimum.

Click. Connect. Trade.

DEADLINES: Ad reservation must be received by 15th of month prior to month of publication. Material must be received no later than 17th of month prior to month of publication.

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CONTACT: Call Bridget DeVane at 334-699-7837, 800-669-5613, email bdevane7@hotmail.com or visit www.southernloggintimes.com

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WANTED TO BUY

280

Cat 518 & Cat 518C skidders in TX, LA area Call Kent 936-699-4700 r_kentjones@yahoo.com

FOR SALE

• ’14 Tigercat 630E Grapple Skidder, 35.5 tires, no winch, 5000 hrs................. $190,000 • ’14 Tigercat 724E Feller Buncher, 30.5 tires, 5702 sawhead, 73x44 wheels and tires, 4800 hrs..........................................$170,000 • ’12 Barko 595ML Knuckleboom Loader, Big John Hydraulic Trailer, CSI 264 delimber, 8000 hrs...................................................$125,000 • ’10 Bandit 2590 Drum Chipper, 600hp, QSX Cummins Power, Less than 2000 hrs ........................................................$140,000 • 5 Evans 42' Log Trailers • 1 Evans Pole Trailer Retiring—Equipment Working Every Day Will be available July 1, 2017 Pictures available upon request Serious inquiries Only email RL33years@gmail.com 540-809-6241 13397

Logo indicates that equipment in the ad also appears on

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6288

2891

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FINAN C AVAILA ING BLE

5569

Ready To Place Your Classified Ad? Call 334-699-7837, 800-669-5613 or email class@southernloggintimes.com for print ads.

www.equipmentandparts.com

Office : 903-238-8700 • Jason Bruner: 903-452-5290 Bill Bruner: 903-235-2805 H REDUCED PRICES H

SKIDDERS

MULCHERS

2012 John Deere 748H Skidder – 7,950 hours, Good 30.5 x 32 tires, Cab with air, Winch, Ready to work! ............................ Reduced to $119,500

2011 Cat 563 Mulcher –New FAE 200U/225 mulching head, New high pressure mulcher pump and hoses, 28L tires, 6.7 Cummins engine, Cab with air, Ready to work! 200 hours since conversion from a Feller Buncher. Rent to own W.A.C................... $189,500

2012 Cat 535C Dual Arch Skidder – 5,800 hours, 3 New, 1 very good - 35.5 x 32 tires, Cab with air, Winch. Ready to work!................... Reduced to $112,000

2009 Prentice 2570 Mulcher – NEW Recon 6.7 Cummins engine, Reconditioned Fecon BH250 Mulching Head, NEW high pressure pump and hoses, Cab with air, 28L tires, Ready to work! .................................................$129,500

LOADERS

2011 John Deere 648H Skidder— 10,600 hours, Good 30.5 x 32 tires, Cab with air, Winch, Ready to work!....$89,500

FELLER BUNCHERS

2012 John Deere 643K Feller Buncher – 5,410 hours, Good 28L tires, Waratah FD22B saw head, Cab with air, Ready to work! .................. Reduced to $115,000

2010 Barko 495ML Log Loader - Trailer mounted with CSI 264 delimber, Cab with air, John Deere engine, Ready to work! .................... Reduced to $75,000

2007 Cat 559 Log Loader - Trailer mounted with CTR 426 delimber, Cab with air, Ready to work! .............................. Reduced to $59,500

2005 Prentice 384 Log Loader – Mounted on trailer with CTR delimber, Cab with air, John Deere engine, Good running machine........................ $49,500 2011 Cat 553 Feller Buncher – 6,100 hours, Prentice SH50 bunching head, Cab with air, Good 28L tires, Ready to work!.......................................... $65,000

Visa and Mastercard accepted

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2012 Deere 643K Feller Buncher STK# LV646200; 4,863 hrs $105,000

2013 Deere 843K Feller Buncher STK# LU653837; 4,141 hrs $139,000

2015 Deere 853MH Harvester STK# LU287968; 1,967 hrs $445,000

2012 Chamber CD1 Delimbinator STK# LUD10329; 1 hrs $50,000

2012 Deere 648H Skidder STK# LU641386; 8,569 hrs $$110,000

2013 Deere 648H Skidder STK# LT656458; 6,078 hrs $118,000

2015 Deere 648L Skidder STK# LT669244; 3,348 hrs $185,000

2013 Deere 748H Skidder STK# LU650322; 5,410 hrs $155,000

2015 Deere 848L Skidder STK# LT671343; 2,947 hrs $229,000

Call or email: Charles Woolard

562

2290

13189

252-946-9264 office 252-945-0942 cell

Washington, NC Email: easterneq@earthlink.net

Go to www.eebinc.com for details and pictures plus other equipment for sale

2016 Tigercat 630E D/A, With dual tires, Tigercat 635 Bogie re-maned in 2005 w/ Bell Super Track w/ dangle head 30" bar 2240 hours; Turnaround seat w/joystick 9553 hours; clean and dry, 25sfg grapple, saw; Deutz engine w/6200 hours; well controls; warranty........................$235,000 Tires: 44's & 43's on rear .........$109,000 maintained................................. $39,500

2009 CSI IDT 3000 self- contained w/ JD 99HP engine, 10437 hours; 4- stabilizers; radio control, equipped w/ CSI 264 LH delimber........................................ $39,500

2002 Tigercat T250 Track Loader, Cummins 8.3C w/4560 hours, machine hours 25420; saw & delimber hookup, maintenance records ............................$80,000

2010 Volvo L180F Wheel Loader w/ log 2005 Peterson 2400B Grinder, CAT C15 w/ forks and 6 yd. GP bucket, Volvo 315hp 580hp w/ 3385 hours; 24 fixed hammers, engine w/11757 hours; 26.5 Michelin tires material screens......................... $90,000 ...................................................$100,000

2012 Peterson 4300 Drum Chipper, CAT C18 w/ 765 hp, 1721 hours; radio control, new accelerator for blowing the chips .................................................$200,000

2015 Tigercat 860C Track Feller Buncher w/ 5702 saw head, 340 degrees wrist, Cummins QSL 300hp w 4400+ hours; complete new Berco tri-rail U/C; HID lights........... $329,000

3723

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7951

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WANTED NOW

SKIDDERS, LOG LOADERS, BUNCHERS AND BUCK SAWS WILL PAY FAIR PRICE

USED FORESTRY EQUIPMENT ALSO AVAILABLE FOR SALE

352-239-1549

Cavalier Hose & Fittings

3214

566

I OFFER same day while you wait OR 2-day service on straightening and balancing all types of Feller Buncher sawdisks. Tooth holder repairs. Complex or severely bent sawdisks no problem, approx.

14years experience CALL CARLTON CARVER CARVER SAWDISK REPAIR Washington NC • (252) 945-2358

#1 in the Logging Industry since 1989 8309

Send your quote request to mark@jozco.net

EUREKA! EUREKA! EUREKA! OWNERS HAVE OVER 30 YEARS COMBINED EXPERIENCE!

13289

N

EUREKA SAW TOOTH CO., INC.

7180

We can save you money on Saw Teeth. Hundreds of satisfied ACC OW EP customers. Rebuilt Exchange or New. We specialize in rebuild- CRE TING DIT ing Koehring 2000, Hurricana, Hydro Ax split teeth and all CARDS other brands. Call Jimmy or Niel Mitchell. Quantity Discounts!

4433

4275 Moores Ferry Rd. • Skippers, Virginia 23879 PH./FAX (day) 1-434-634-9836 or Night/Weekends • 1-434-634-9185

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2012 Tigercat 234 Loader/Delimber 8,328 hrs, good condition ............ $115,000

Josh 678-227-2976 or JLHINC651@GMAIL.COM

2011 TIGERCAT 724E Feller-Buncher 6,807 hrs, excellent condition, tires @ 50%, engine warranty through 01/18... $125,000

TED SMITH

13388

13288

Looking for Allis-Chalmers, Fiat-Allis 16B parts, u/c parts, C-frame, factory KG style blade, parts machine, (or possibly one in shape with C-frame and shear blade). If you have one or know of any of these parts please let me know.

1845

IF YOU NEED

FOR SALE

To buy or sell forestry, construction, utility or truck equipment, or if you just need an appraisal, contact me, Johnny Pynes with JM Wood Auction. Over 25 years experience.

5840 Hwy 36, Russellville, AL Home: 256-766-8179 • Office: 256-766-6491 Fax: 256-766-6962 • Cell: 256-810-3190

KEVIN MONTGOMERY

770

Day 334-312-4136 Night 334-271-1475 or Email: johnwpynes@knology.net

256-366-1425

RECONDITIONED DELIMBINATORS!!

In addition to new machines, CHAMBERS DELIMBINATOR, INC. now has factory reconditioned DeLimbinators. These units have been inspected, repaired, and updated as needed. Call us and we will help you select a DeLimbinator for your need.

’01 JD 640GIII skidder..................... $55,000

FOR SALE BY OWNER/OPERATOR Valmet 544X forwarder, heat, a/c, new 28L 26 tires, good condition.....$35,000

870-723-3378 13307

’02 Prentice 384 Log Loader w/2016 CSI 4400 saw (almost brand new) ....................... $65,000 or $55,000 w/o saw

WE ALSO BUY USED DELIMBINATORS Call: 662-285-2777 day, 662-285-6832 eves Email: info@chambersdelimbinator.com 1123

ENERGY PERFORMANCE SYSTEMS, INC.

2010 JD 650J dozer w/winch........... $45000

Patented Technologies for Sale Energy Performance Systems (EPS) seeks to sell three patented technologies to a firm that can commercialize them. It has invested over $6 million in working with the U.S. Department of Energy, U.S. Forest Service, and Electric Power Research Institute to develop them.

304-877-5256

All equipment in very good condition and well maintained

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13267

Whole Tree Harvester™ The EPS Whole Tree Harvester (WTH) can cut 60 row trees a minute planted at 8-foot intervals and drop them on a trailer behind it. Can be seen in operation at www.energyperformancesystems.com.

GPS-Guided Injection Planter The EPS GPS-guided injection planter simultaneously plants 4 to 6 rows of deciduous tree cuttings. Configured using 4 injectors, it can plant 160 tree cuttings a minute.

6209

Advanced 90 Degree Steering System The EPS advanced 90 degree steering system enables its WTH or any construction, mining, or agriculture machine to move laterally at up to 90 degrees from its direction of travel.

CONTACT T.D. Spaeth at tdspaet@aol.com or 612-802-2586 13390

7393

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A D L I N K ●

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ADVERTISER Accu-Ways Alliance Tire Americas American Logger’s Council American Truck Parts B & G Equipment Bandit Industries Big John Trailers BKT USA Carter Enterprises Caterpillar Dealer Promotion John Deere Forestry Doggett Machinery Service E B Harris Eastern Equipment Brokerage Elmia Employer’s Underwriters Equipment & Parts Flint Equipment Forest Chain Forestry First Forestry Mutual Insurance Global Import & Export Services Hawkins & Rawlinson Hydraulic & Pneumatic Services Interstate Tire Service Ironmart Kaufman Trailers Mike Ledkins Insurance Agency LMI-Tennessee Loggers Insurance Magnolia Trailers Maxi-Load Scale Systems Mid-Atlantic Logging & Biomass Moore Logging Supply Morbark Nokian Tyres Pemberton Attachments Peterson Pacific Pitts Trailers Prolenc Manufacturing Puckett Machinery Quadco Equipment Quality Equipment & Parts River Ridge Equipment Southern Insurance Southern Loggers Cooperative Southwest Forest Products Expo Stribling Equipment Team Safe Trucking Tidewater Equipment Tigercat Industries Timberblade TraxPlus Trelan Manufacturing Vermeer Manufacturing W & W Truck & Tractor Waratah Forestry Attachments Watts Auction Realty Appraisal Woltz & Associates J M Wood Auction

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912.375.9131 800.343.3276 409.625.0206 888.383.8884 601.656.7011 800.952.0178 800.771.4140 888.660.0662 205.351.1461 919.550.1201 800.503.3373 225.368.2224 252.257.2140 252.946.9264 +46 36 15 22 34 800.622.7635 903.238.8700 404.691.9445 800.288.0887 803.708.0624 800.849.7788 901.833.1347 334.821.5800 904.688.2247 864.947.9208 888.561.1115 866.497.7803 800.766.8349 800.467.0944 864.538.4767 800.738.2123 877.265.1486 919.271.9050 888.754.5613 800.831.0042 800.565.2525 800.393.6688 800.269.6520 800.321.8073 877.563.8899 601.969.6000 800.668.3340 386.754.6186 855.325.6465 601.932.4541 318.445.0750 501.224.2232 800.682.6409 910.733.3300 912.638.7726 519.753.2000 519.532.3283 601.635.5543 877.487.3526 641.628.3141 843.761.8220 770.692.0380 434.821.5263 800.551.3588 800.447.7085

ADLINK is a free service for advertisers and readers. The publisher assumes no liability for errors or omissions.

May

August

2-4—Forest Resources Assn. annual meeting, Francis Marion Hotel, Charleston, SC. Call 202-296-3937; visit forestresources.org.

17-20—Virginia Loggers Assn. annual meeting, The Inn at Virginia Tech, Blacksburg, Va. Call 804677-4290; visit valoggers.org.

3-7—Virginia Forestry Assn. Summit, Roanoke, Va. Call 804-2788733; visit vaforestry.org.

25-26—Southwest Forest Products Expo 2017, Hot Springs Convention Center, Hot Springs, Ark. Call 501224-2232; visit arkloggers.com.

June 2-3—Southeastern Wood Producers Assn. Trade Show and annual meeting, Jekyll Island Conference Center, Jekyll Island, Ga. Call 904-8457133; visit swpa.ag.

14-16—Forest Products Machinery & Equipment Expo, Georgia World Congress Center, Atlanta, Ga. Call 504-443-4464; visit sfpaexpo.com.

July 21-23—Georgia Forestry Assn. annual meeting, Jekyll Island Convention Center, Jekyll Island, Ga. Call 912635-6400; visit gfagrow.org.

21-23—Missouri Forest Products Assn./Missouri Loggers Council annual meeting, Lake of the Ozarks, Camdenton, Mo. Call 816-6305500; visit moforest.org.

23-25—Appalachian Hardwood Manufacturers Summer Conference, Inn on Biltmore Estate, Asheville, NC. Call 336-885-8315; visit appalachianwood.org.

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29-31—Louisiana Forestry Assn. annual meeting, Hilton Riverside New Orleans, New Orleans, La. Call 318-443-2558; visit laforestry.com.

September 10-12—Alabama Forestry Assn. annual meeting, Perdido Beach Resort, Orange Beach, Ala. Call 334-265-8733; visit alaforestry.org.

15-16—Kentucky Wood Expo, Masterson Station Park, Lexington, Ky. Call 502-695-3979; visit kfia.org.

15-16—Mid-Atlantic Logging & Biomass Expo, Selma/Smithfield, NC. Call 919-271-9050; visit malbexpo.com.

28-30—American Loggers Council annual meeting, Natchez Grand Hotel, Natchez Convention Center, Natchez, Miss. Call 409-625-0206. visit amloggers.com.

October 3-5—Arkansas Forestry Assn. annual meeting, Holiday Inn Airport, Little Rock, Ark. Call 501374-2441; visit arkforests.org.

4-6—North Carolina Forestry Assn. annual meeting, Hilton Riverside, Wilmington, NC. Visit ncforestry.org.

25-27—Tennessee Forestry Assn. annual meeting, DoubleTree by Hilton, Memphis, Tenn. Call 615883-3832; visit tnforestry.com.

25-27—Texas Forestry Assn. Annual Meeting, Hotel Fredonia, Nacogdoches, Tex. Call 936-632-8733.

January 2018 17-20—Appalachian Hardwood Manufacturers annual meeting, JW Marriott, Marco Island, Fla. Call 336-885-8315; visit appalachian wood.org.

Listings are submitted months in advance.

Always verify dates and locations with contacts prior to making plans to attend.

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