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Vol. 51, No. 8

(Founded in 1972—Our 599th Consecutive Issue)

F E AT U R E S T O R I E S

out front

August 2022 A Hatton-Brown Publication

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

www.southernloggintimes.com Publisher David H. Ramsey Chief Operating Officer Dianne C. Sullivan Editor-in-Chief Senior Editor Managing Editor Senior Editor

Rich Donnell Dan Shell David Abbott Jessica Johnson

Publisher/Editor Emeritus David (DK) Knight Art Director Ad Production Coordinator Circulation Director Online Content/Marketing

Cindy Segrest Patti Campbell Rhonda Thomas Jacqlyn Kirkland

ADVERTISING CONTACTS

Rick Bennett Bennett & Sons Logging

Zach Comer Comer Logging

Thomas Johnson Cutting Edge Logging

This month, SLT is focusing on the future of logging, with a trio of feature stories profiling three of the bright young men taking up the mantle for the next generation. South Carolina's Rick Bennett (page 8) and Louisiana's Thomas Johnson (page 14) both grew up around longtime logging families, but only just started their own companies last year. Meanwhile, Tennessee's Zachary Comer (page 12) has a similar multigenerational timber pedigree but has been on his own a little longer, since 2016. It's a difficult time to start logging, but these three are meeting the challenge. (Bennett photo by David Abbott; Comer photo by Patrick Dunning; Johnson photo by Jessica Johnson.)

Southern Stumpin’. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6 Bulletin Board . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18 From The Backwoods Pew . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20 Industry News Roundup . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24 ForesTree Equipment Trader. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33 Coming Events/Ad Index . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38

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 Western Canada, Western USA Tim Shaddick Tel: 604-910-1826 • Fax: 604-264-1367 4056 West 10th Ave. Vancouver, BC V6L 1Z1 E-mail: twshaddick@gmail.com Kevin Cook Tel: 604-619-1777 E-mail: lordkevincook@gmail.com International Murray Brett Tel: +34 96 640 4165 +34 96 640 4048 58 Aldea de las Cuevas • 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 ® 2022. 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 Jessica Johnson • Senior Editor • Ph. 334-834-1170 • Fax: 334-834-4525 • E-mail: jessica@hattonbrown.com

What’s Next?

NOTE: This month Jessica Johnson (our youngest editor, even though she’s been at it 10 years) asked to tackle the Stumpin’ column. It was her idea to focus on young loggers and the future of the industry, after the last two issues referenced older loggers retiring or considering it.

s I look at my little boys I often think about what’s next for them; how can I set them up for success? Is playing ball their future? Am I doing right by forcing them to eat zoodles? In my personal life, in the daily grind, it is easy to see how fast (and slow) time moves. I know one day I will no longer be my kids’ taxi service and will be ugly crying at their high school graduations. But that’s expected: the natural order of time marching on. This industry is a bit different. The natural order of cut-skid-load is not going to change, and neither are the numbers coming into the bank—even though the numbers going out are only getting higher and higher. You might not see my name as much on these pages as you used to, but don’t worry. I’m not gone. I’m also not a casual observer of this industry like I once was. As I’ve become more intimately aware of the daily inner workings of owning a multi-crew operation in recent years, I’ve thought about what’s next: where do we go from here? How is everyone going to survive? Things are getting tough. Future loggers of America A “good” year now means hopefully not a greater than 10% loss. Woods hands and truck drivers are scarce in every corner of the South. What happens when there’s no one left to run the machines? Will the mills finally raise rates then? Loggers are working 16-hour days, making sure they are keeping every dime they can. We might never be able to bring back the logging glory days of the ’80s and ’90s (which, if you ask me, some of those hairstyles at least shouldn’t be considered the glory days).

The Future Is…Cloudy I was told recently that my generation, our generation of “young” loggers, is just getting started. The world needs paper towels and biomass energy. Things have been bad before, but we’ve always made it through. And we will make it through again. The future is in the forest. We just have to figure out how to make the most of it, to get everyone, from California to Maine, Wisconsin to Washington, DC, to little towns like Dodson, La., and everywhere in between, to agree that wood is good. 6

When logging towns and logging families thrive, America thrives. While I have a few fancy college degrees that I will have hopefully paid for before I die, I’m by no means a fancy thinker. And since I have a lot of questions and not a lot of answers, I figured I’d ask a few friends to help me out. What’s next for logging? More than a few of them told me they really didn’t know what to do. So they’re doing what they always do—get up, go to work and advocate for themselves and their employees and families. One logger told me, “I don’t have to log and my woods crew knows it. But I always will because that’s what my family has always done.” But another said, “I won’t go broke doing this. It’s not worth it. If there comes a time where I have to quit, I will.” So how do we find the middle ground? Mississippi’s Drew Sullivan told me he was scared to death about the future for all of us. “I sound like doom and gloom, but it’s scary,” he added. “This is all I know how to do. Our whole livelihood is wrapped up in this. I want to log; I love to log. I don’t want to get out. I don’t want to

own plan. I wish I had a plan. The plan is to keep running. We’re in survival mode.” Sullivan, an active member of the Mississippi Loggers Assn., did say one of his plans is to stay engaged with the group. He is a big proponent of the idea that the collective voice is stronger and louder than a single person shouting. And, in my opinion, he’s right. Sticking together for a common goal has worked throughout history. But, when you’re talking about a group of people who make their living 15 miles off the paved road, I can see where it might be a challenge to get them together. Yet, the work of David Livingston in Mississippi, Toni McAllister in Louisiana, Crad Jaynes in South Carolina and all the rest of the incredibly important association folks will be a critical piece of the puzzle for the future. Sullivan says he’s noticed that some of the older guys are perhaps hesitant to rock the boat with the big companies—or maybe they’ve just been fighting for so long they don’t have a lot of fight left. Either way, we, the young ones, have to keep fighting. To keep moving forward, we have to have a goal—a vision for the end of the

walk away from it. We’re not behind, but we’re not making any money. You can’t save. Ever since Covid, I cannot get ahead. We pay the bills and make a mediocre living.” Sullivan said he has noticed a trend: mill companies setting up their own logging crews. It’s a trend I’ve seen in other parts of the country, but not so much in the South. I am not naïve enough to think it hasn’t started happening here though. There aren’t many 25 year-olds who can go to a bank and borrow the needed $1 million to get a logging job started. And let’s not forget the issue of finding good employees. The barriers to starting a logging job are far greater, it seems, than starting about any other business in America. No wonder most young loggers are second or third (or fourth or fifth) generation operators. Whether they come from a long line of loggers or not is irrelevant. By and large they are overworked, trying to still do more and more, feeling like it doesn’t matter. When asked about a plan, most of the guys I spoke to said they didn’t have one. Sullivan laughed, “If you find anyone that has a plan, let me know their secret so I can make my

line. I don’t know what that vision is. I want more paper to be used, in schools and in our homes. At work and at play I want to see things made of wood. I want to continue to see housing starts of single-family homes rise. I want to learn more about mass timber innovations and how influences of the forest can calm the senses. I want to not just buy a candle that smells like a tree. I want to see trees growing in planted rows as far as the horizon when I drive just 45 minutes from any major metro area in the South. I did not grow up in the industry. I did not grow up in a small town. For generations us Johnsons have worked good honest jobs, but not 16-plus hour days six days a week in the elements. The powers that be of Southern Loggin’ Times took a chance on me, and I found my little place in the world. Southern logging got me a decade ago, and for better or worse it’s going to have me forever. Let’s knock some dents in this universe together. Let’s figure out what’s next and go for it, all guns blazing. And know I’m cheering for each and every one of you—every one of us—because the future is SLT the forest. The future is you. What’s next?

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Young Gun ■ Optimistic young logger Rick Bennett is glad to get his shot and eager to prove himself.

By David Abbott SUMMERVILLE, SC ick Bennett, 29, embraces his ★ identity as one of the younger generation of loggers. In one sense, he’s super green: Bennett just started his company, Bennett and Sons Logging LLC, in October of 2021, less than a year ago. But in another sense, he’s far from a novice. In fact, you could say he’s been preparing for this his whole life. First of all, he came from a long line of loggers, though he is the first in his family to have his own company. “My granddaddy is real proud,” he smiles. “I remember being a little boy, going out with my granddad on some jobs. My granddad, all my uncles, they had been in logging and forestry many years. I heard so many stories of going in the woods with just a saw, a can of gas and a lunch pail, and stumping trees by hand, loading trucks by hand. I used to hear those stories when I was young and thought, ‘Oh, I want to do it!’” When he finally came of age and finished high school, he knew college wasn’t for him. Another logger in the

area, Steve Moran, owner of Steve’s Logging, gave him the opportunity to learn the trade. With 30+ years in the business, Moran became a mentor to Bennett, and the younger logger appreciates it. “I call him dad,” he reveals. Bennett started out as a deck man trimming trucks. “I didn’t know anything but I was real eager to get on equipment,” he recalls. “When the guys would go to lunch I would hop on a skidder or the cutter and play around for a little while; that was how I learned everything.” Eventually, Bennett became a foreman for Moran’s crews. After four years, though, he had to try a different direction, mainly because he’d become a father, he explains. “At the time logging didn’t have the benefits, so I stepped away to try to better myself.” He got a job in safety at the DuPont plant in Moncks Corner, where he spent another four years. The new job made sense, but his passion was for the outdoors. “I love to fish and hunt and logging had always been in my family, so it was something I always knew. As a kid I wanted to be a logger. But I just didn’t see a way I could get into it.

You’re talking four pieces of equipment nowadays is over a million dollars. Someone my age walking into a bank, it’s a big risk for the bank, for yourself, for everyone involved.” Still, he couldn’t escape it: he didn’t want to sit in an office the rest of his life. His heart, he realized, was still in the woods, where it had always been. But he knew he didn’t want to work for anyone else anymore. “I wanted to do it for myself. So I decided, if I’m going to go back into logging, I need to figure out what I need to do to have my own job. I set that goal the last year at the plant, and in six months I did it.” His old boss, Moran, and wood dealer Claybourn Walters Logging Co. of Fairmont, NC, helped him get started, and he took it from there. Since then, Bennett says a lot of people around his age ask him how they can get started like he has. “I always say it’s not easy, but if you got the want to, you can figure it out. Work on someone’s job and work hard, and learn logging. Respect it. Learn that it is a natural resource. Maybe one day you’ll get lucky like I did and someone will notice your hard work and work ethic.” Perhaps not surprisingly, some of

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Rick Bennett

his elder peers in the industry don’t share his optimism. “A lot of the older guys in the game will try to push you away from it, especially right now with fuel prices and insurance costs and trucking. They’ll say, ‘Aw, you don’t want to get into logging.’ But without young people like me, the industry would go down. So I always encourage everyone who comes to me and asks me about it.” His advice to those interested in trying: “Save your money, and be smart with your credit. Most young adults don’t pay attention to credit. I was one who didn’t, I will be the first to tell you,” he admits. “But if you can get a hold of that at a young age and start establishing credit, and find

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a good support system behind you— it doesn’t have to be financial, it can be mental—and if you work hard enough, it will come.”

Bad Timing Getting started is even harder these days than normal, Bennett acknowledges, but adds, “If you have a good support system, someone who recognizes your hard work, there are opportunities; you just have to work for it. I don’t think I could make it without a good support system. If it wasn’t for Mr. Steve, Claybourn Walters, my granddad introducing it to me, I don’t think I’d be doing it. I appreciate all they’ve all done to push me and drive me.” In many ways, 2022 is shaping up to be arguably worse than the “great recession” of 2008—higher fuel cost, higher insurance, out of control inflation, supply chain delays, labor shortages, and so on. So what’s it like starting a new business in the midst of one of the more challenging business environments for loggers in a generation or more? “It’s stressful at times,” Bennett admits (that is perhaps an understatement). “Especially right now with fuel prices going up, and the trucking. It’s not just fuel. The cost of living, the price of hydraulic oil, the price of parts, and you can’t get parts; it’s all making it more challenging. But I want to stay in the business so every day I wake up and figure out what I can do to keep going.” Despite all these problems, forest products mills are still making great profits, but it doesn’t trickle down to the raw material suppliers—and that fact hasn’t gone unnoticed. “That’s the biggest thing that all of us loggers, especially someone small like me, we scratch our heads with everyday,” Bennett says. “The mills give you a little bump here and there, but by the time they give it to you, it’s too late.” Understanding that he represents one link in the supply chain, Bennett says he can relate to contract haulers. “There’s not a lot of new drivers and it’s hard to find drivers with a good driving record, with insurance. The younger guys, why would they drive a log truck when they can drive for Wal-Mart and make $100,000 a year? Our industry has to be competitive and we need young people like myself to thrive and push it. So when I do get a bump (from mills), I am going to generally give it to (the truck drivers). Without them I can’t get my wood moved.” It’s an understanding that consuming mills could perhaps stand to emulate. It seems in Bennett’s nature to look for the silver lining, and he applies that positive outlook to the current state of affairs. Basically, he figures, if he can survive this, he can survive

Blessed with short hauls to partially mitigate high fuel costs this summer, Bennett hauls about 40 loads a week with contract trucks.

The young logger bought his equipment used from other loggers.

ter Equipment branches in Conway and Walterboro, whichever has time to get to it first. The logger handles most minor repairs himself on weekends, while operators do routine maintenance at the end of each day. “This equipment takes a beating,” Bennett says. “Forestry equipment is the roughest. I look at things just to make sure. You might miss a crack or a bearing gone bad, and if you can catch it early it saves you thousands of dollars.” His machines include a Caterpillar 559C loader, Tigercat 720G feller-buncher and Tigercat 630E skidder. He bought the skidder and cutter used from Steve Moran’s son,

who had been in the business but decided logging wasn’t for him. Bennett got the loader from another logger who wanted to upgrade to something new. Moran and Walters helped him get financed. “They have done a lot for me.” On the day SLT visited in late May, Bennett and his team were working outside a wheat field. “This farmer has about 35 acres and he is wanting to expand his field,” the logger explains. Normally he doesn’t cut Operations tracts this small, he says, but the mill Bennett bought all his equipment (WestRock in Florence) was only six used from other loggers. “When I got miles away, and with fuel prices so started, that was something I looked high, the short haul distance made too into: do I need to buy new equipmuch sense to pass up. ment? When I looked at new The tract was a mix of pine equipment, I realized that the and hardwood. “Right now notes on new equipment, with that’s what you want,” Bennett what I could haul a week, asserts. “You don’t want a full wouldn’t make sense on paper. pine tract; if the mill gets So I went the used equipment backed up, all your trucks are Bennett and Sons Logging LLC route.” waiting there. You want to have bennettscontracting.llc@gmail.com Bennett grew up in Moncks a little bit of a blend. That’s Corner, near “the famous” really my goal.” Besides the Founded: 2021 W&W Truck & Tractor, he Florence WestRock mill, other Owner: Rick Bennett says. He hasn’t bought anything mill outlets are also typically No. Crews: 1 from an equipment dealer yet, under a 35-mile haul from most but he does look to W&W for tracts. Regular destinations Employees: 3 parts and other support. “They include Willowcreek Lumber Average Production: 40 loads/week are a lifesaver when you’re in a (sister to Charles Ingram LumAverage Haul Distance: 35 miles pinch or in a bind, you need a ber Co.) in Effingham (near Tidbit: Rick Bennett comes from a part, especially right now with Ingram) and Canfor in Conway. logging family, but he is the first to parts where you can’t get it.” “We do haul some wood to For repairs beyond his knowlGeorgetown (International own a company of his own. edge, he also looks to TidewaPaper), and every blue moon anything. “We will take the good with the bad, and I am pretty confident that I will get through it. Once I do I’ll take it as a lesson learned. I’m kind of glad I went through this early in running this business. If I make it through how the economy is now, it will help me learn that if something like this happens again, I will know what I need to do to keep pushing and go through it.”

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we go haul some hardwood up to the IP mill in Eastover, but that’s a long haul, about 80 miles from here.” The young logger owns no trucks of his own as yet, relying solely on contract haulers, four of them for now. “As far as trucking goes, I knew a couple of guys who were committed to coming with me,” he says. “I take care of them and they take care of me.” Anything under 35 miles he pays them a flat rate, and anything over that he pays by the mile. They haul around 40-45 loads a week, or around 35 on a bad week, he figures.

On the crew, Joe Woody mans the loader, Trey Lewis drives the skidder, and Tremaine Lavine runs the cutter. Woody and Lewis are experienced vets in the woods—they’ve been at it longer than their employer has been alive. It’s a valuable asset for the young owner. “A lot of times if I get in a bind, they make it so easy. I love having their experience out here.” Bennett himself runs for parts and fills in on machines when needed. No matter what, he is out here every day. “I have to be on the job,” he says. Swamp Fox Agency in Moncks

Corner handles his insurance needs. “They’re a real good company,” he says. “They cover everything. When I first went in, I started getting quotes on equipment, and insurance was the next thing.” Those years he spent away from logging weren’t wasted; he learned lessons at the DuPont plant that he’s applied to logging, particularly in terms of safety. “I was sent to OSHA school for the plant. One of my good mentors at the plant was Brandon Blackmon, and a lot of things I learned from him relate here.” He

says other loggers sometimes call him to speak to their crews about awareness because they know he has a safety background. With his own crew, he goes over two topics every Tuesday and Thursday. Also, every morning they talk about things that can present a danger. “We talk a lot; the main thing with safety is you got to communicate,” he believes. In the woods his men wear safety vests and other PPE; chaps usually aren’t necessary as they hardly ever do any chain saw work. “If we get in a hardwood tract and can’t get that big wood in the delimber or buck saw we just top trees with a saw. It’s very seldom, but when we do we wear the right PPE.” He also recently completed his South Carolina Top Logger training.

Family, Future Bennett’s sister is an accountant for John Deere corporate. “She keeps an eye on me and looks at my books for me, and makes sure I am on track with everything.” His wife Kaitlyn works a full-time job in accounts receivable for UniFirst Corp. She also keeps up with bookwork for the logging company. “We use QuickBooks. It makes it so easy; it kind of lays out everything for you.” Bennett and Kaitlyn have a son, Hunter, who turns 5 in August. Now wait, one might wonder; the company name is Bennett and Sons, but Bennett only has one son, and he’s only five; why Bennett and Sons? Chalk it up to his optimistic outlook again. “My wife and I want to have another boy,” he explains. “My last name is something I want to be known, I want to pass it down to my sons one day.” Like many of his generation, Bennett is active on social media: he posts logging videos, including overhead drone views, on his YouTube channel, Rick Bennett RB Fishing. “I dabble my foot in it,” he says modestly. “I get a lot of feedback from young kids who like to see equipment. It’s pretty fun actually.” Looking to the future, Bennett says he wants to grow his business, but not too much. He wants to run 80 loads a week, so he wants to add another skidder and another loader to do it efficiently. He’s also thinking about stepping into running his own trucks, but for now he wants to wait and see what the economy does. Come what may, he says, “Forestry is life; at the end of the day, we are going to need it. People don’t do logging for the money; there are better ways you can make money with less risk. You do it SLT because you love it.” 10

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Up To Bat ■ New blood Zachary Comer keeps his nose to the grindstone in the Tennessee Valley. By Patrick Dunning CROSSVILLE, Tenn. t 28 ★ years old, Zachary Comer, owner of Comer Logging, is one of the youngest loggers currently contracting for Huber Engineered Woods in Spring City. Being a greenhorn in the wood-products industry is something Comer is proud to acknowledge; he believes more millennials are getting involved with the business. His employees are even younger; loader man Jacob Futrell is 27, and cutter driver Seth York is 25. They have been with Comer Logging since the start. Comer gives his grandfather, Danny Futrell, 70, credit for the sawdust in his blood. “We’ve always been in logging,” the young Comer reveals. “My grandfather and his brother even had a sawmill for a little bit. Logging can get the best of you sometimes but I enjoy it.” Grandfather Danny belongs to the old guard that used horses and mules to skid logs and loaded trucks by hand. Danny’s two sons, Jason and Little Danny, were part of the family business and regularly hand-felled high-grade hardwood in Cumberland County State Park. Comer’s grandfather and uncles still hold the state

Jacob Futrell, Zachary Comer, Seth York

record for harvesting the largest registered white pine tree in Tennessee in 1995. Ruby Selby, landowner of the property in Big Lick at the time, said the tree was damaged by a hailstorm in 1990 and was already diseased and slowly dying before the storm. The tree stood 150 ft. tall and measured 5 ft. across at its base. Zachary says the tree was older than anyone knew but only took 15 minutes to fell with a 3 ft. chainsaw blade. They cut the logs into 10-12 ft. sections and hauled them to Rose’s Sawmill, Savannah, where it yielded nearly 3,500 sq. ft. of lumber. Zachary still has the article and photo

of him at 16-months-old next to the stump, the chain saw bar towering over him. “The bar on the saw was taller than I was,” he says.

Starting Up When Comer graduated high school he attended Tennessee College of Applied Technology, Crossville, and earned a certificate in welding technology. He then worked at the Y12 National Security Complex in Oak Ridge for a stint, maintaining the nuclear plant’s roads and pathways. Then his uncle, Jason Comer, decided to leave the logging industry after 15

Comer started out six years ago with equipment he bought from his uncle, who was retiring from the woods. Two years later he upgraded.

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years to work for Huber as a crane operator and was selling some of his woods equipment. It gave Comer something to consider. He founded Comer Logging in 2016 by purchasing two Franklin C7 Tree Farmers, a ’95 and ’98 model, from Jason. Each had more than 20,000 hours but both were still in decent shape. Comer also acquired a 372 Husqvarna chain saw and started shopping for a used loader. He found a deal on a 410 Prentice at Power Equipment Co., Knoxville, and ran it for two years before trading for a ’07 Caterpillar loader. “I like buying machinery with 4-5 thousand hours on it, run them till 810 thousand and then swap it for something with less hours,” Comer says. “But as long as it’s doing good I’ll run the machine; haven’t bought anything brand new yet. When I started out I wanted John Deere equipment but couldn’t afford it so I had to go with what I could afford, and at the time Caterpillar was cheaper, so I became familiar with Cat equipment and have had really good luck.” Comer's dad, Jeremy, worked with him in the woods early on before becoming a full-time fire fighter for Cumberland County, Tenn. Comer’s wife, Tosha, didn’t want him in the woods alone, so she started running the skidder. “She was intimidated by

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it at first because we were in the same rough ground,” he says. “We didn’t have a cutter at the time so in the mornings I cut by hand until 11 a.m. or so and she would pull the cable down the mountain and hook trees. We were only getting about a tractor per day until my cousin’s dad came to work for me and I was able to get a cutter and grew a little then.” He adds, “My cousin started hauling for me and a couple other loggers to stay busy. Would load him, load my own truck and we’d both haul a load every evening. When I’d leave to go to the mill she’d be on the loader trying to learn. After about a week of that she promoted herself to loader operator and was out here until she got pregnant with our little boy.”

Reliable Outlet

Operations Comer has slowly expanded his machinery inventory over the last six years and established solid relationships with Stowers Cat in Crossville and Forestry 21, which is roughly 265 miles south in Lafayette, Ala., servicing Tigercat. His woods equipment now includes ’09 Tigercat 724E cutter, ’16 Caterpillar 579C loader with CSI delimber, and ’16 Cat 535D skidder and ’17 Tigercat 630E skidder, both equipped with Eco-Tracks. “Eco-Tracks are maintenance free,” Comer asserts. “I’ve only had to tighten them once and have been running them all year. They’re expensive but worth it; really a game changer.” On woods equipment, oil and fuel filters are changed every 250 hours using Mobil Delvac or Rotella interchangeably at Comer’s 40x80 shop, which was recently finished in Cumberland County next to Crossville. He hopes to hire a full-time mechanic in the future to help maintain equipment. Truck oil is changed at the 10,000-mile mark and greased daily. When Southern Loggin’ Times visited Comer Logging in March, the four-man crew was performing a residential thinning on an 800-acre block Huber leases in Morgan County. The landowner had requested that one tree be left every 60 ft. Comer

Both Comer's skidders use Eco-Tracks.

The closest Tigercat dealer for Comer is Forestry 21, 265 miles south. "They are very helpful and super friendly," says wife Tosha Comer.

says he and four other logging operations contracting for Huber were staged along Red Hill Road in Sun Bright targeting all pine pulpwood with a 4 in. top and less than 30 in. DBH. Comer formerly cut exclusively private tracts, then contracted

for Oak Ridge Hardwood, which subcontracted for Huber. He also delivered wood to Resolute Forest Products, formerly known as Bowater in Calhoun, until they idled the paper mill in December 2021, citing significant financial losses.

SLT SNAPSHOT Comer Logging Email: tdinw1@aol.com Founded: 2016 Owner: Zachary Comer No. Crews: 1 Employees: 3 Average Production: 25 loads/week Average Haul Distance: 50 miles Tidbit: Early on, Zachary’s dad Jeremy worked with him, but after he went to work as a firefighter, Zachary’s wife, Tosha, worked with him for a while, running skidder and loader.

Comer started contracting for Huber 10 months ago and says that the Bowater shutdown at the end of 2021 created tight quotas at Huber. “We started out really strong and they were giving out load bonuses at Huber,” the logger states. “When Resolute shut down it clogged everything up. All the trucks going there started going to Huber. It’s just Huber around here. The next closest paper mill is WestRock in Stevenson, Ala.” Huber’s Spring City facility originally opened in 1997 and halted production during the housing market downturn in 2011. The OSB plant, located in the Tennessee River Valley northeast of Chattanooga, reopened in 2018 and is one of few continuous press operations in North America dedicated to the production of OSB products. Right now Comer Logging is delivering between 850-1,000 tons per week to Huber, which breaks down to 25-30 loads. Comer owns two Kenworths, a ’94 W900 and ’04 W900. He says trucking can be a large expense but it’s nice to have your own trucks and not rely on someone else. He contracts four trucks as well. “Owning your own trucks keeps the contract truckers honest and on moving day you don’t have to pay out to move your equipment,” he reasons. “You’re still spending money moving but you can absorb the cost better. It can be hit or miss contracting in this area but if you find a good group of people you’re set. It was hard when I first transitioned to cutting pine for Huber because I had to find more trucks going from hardwood stands.” To alleviate some of the strain of finding truckers, Comer founded JTC Trucking a year ago to haul flatbed freight and lumber out of Huber. Moving forward, Comer says he doesn’t want to be the biggest outfit around but definitely wants to be in the mix and compete. And when his newborn son, Timber, is of age, Comer looks forward to showing SLT him the ropes as well.

The logger owns two trucks and hires four contract haulers.

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Something Different ■ At Cutting Edge, Thomas Johnson embraces technology and keeps going when others might cut out. By Jessica Johnson DeRIDDER, La. hough it seems ★ obvious after talking with 33-year-old Thomas Johnson for any length of time that he’s got logging in his blood, the relatively new owner of Cutting Edge Logging says in school he wasn’t sure it was what he wanted to do. When pushed, he explains that while he might have entertained other forms of work, Johnson has always been a logger, having got his start at the age of 11 picking trash off his dad’s job. In 2021, the timing was right for Johnson to buy out the crew of his dad’s he’d been running and start his own journey as a business owner. After asking the timber company for a few months to get his financial house in order, and bring him and his wife up to speed on that

side of running a job, Cutting Edge Logging was born. It was a pretty straightforward transaction, and Johnson signed as a contractor with Bennett Timber. But after Cutting Edge got started was when it got interesting. “I utilize all types of advancements in technology,” he explains the business’s name. “Anything that will advance the job, I use it. I’ve always been one to stand out, and I try to do excellent work in how we do our job.” Part of the advancements in technology in the woods is the prevalence of YouTube loggers. Johnson says that for a while, he would log all day and then go home and watch logging on YouTube. After sharing the passion with a coworker at the time, the two batted around the idea of having their own channel. Not tremendously different from the O’Bryant family in Mississippi run-

ning a processor, Johnson exclusively thins with a track fellerbuncher, something that is a little different than others in Louisiana. He thought it might be interesting for the world, so one day standing on the landing he took his phone out of his pocket, flipped it around to landscape and started recording. “I didn’t think I had the drive for it,” he recalls. “But I just pulled the phone out and started videoing. It was awkward to talk about what we were doing. I wonder if I have deterred some help away because the cameras are here and some people are just a hard no against it. I catch a lot of flak over it.” But, ultimately, Johnson really liked the videos and started to get good at them. A budding YouTube star, Johnson’s channel really took off before COVID hit when he invested heavily in camera gear and all the things to “do it right,” adding a drone to his

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equipment list. Going that way helped him get noticed, and soon the channel had partnerships. Unfortunately, COVID shut down a lot of the product testing and promotion for the channel, and now, Johnson says he doesn’t shoot as much. Running the job from an operational side (as his dad’s foreman) was difficult enough, but being an owner-operator demands another level of time. Plus, as more and more users are moving to TikTok, a video-sharing platform with much shorter clips, Johnson says he has made the transition as well. He likes the platform because it is easier on him to create content—shorter videos require less editing.

Curveball But the YouTube channel, and now the concentration on TikTok, has had to fall by the wayside. Johnson was

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dealt a life-altering diagnosis after experiencing tremendous amounts of back pain in October 2021. He had a giant cell tumor in his lower back that had eaten through the vertebrae. He was flat out for a good chunk of time after having just gotten started. Just six months after getting his business off the ground, Johnson says it was a big blow. “Potentially it could just be fine. I don’t know where anything is going to go. It is a very complicated situation. I’ve always been told God won’t put you through what you can’t handle. Things were going well. I was investing back into the business. We were rocking and rolling. And then we got hit with that.” Thanks to the support of the DeRidder logging community, his loyal crew, and his family, Johnson’s job barely missed a beat. “People stepped up and helped us through,” he emphasizes. Part of why he believes he was able to continue to be successful while going through intense chemotherapy was because of the John Deere cutting machine’s TimberMatic maps. While he’d be waiting at the hospital, Johnson was able to draw on the maps what he wanted the fill-in cutter operator to do, highlighting that resilience is everywhere and what might have knocked another man down and out just showed how much grit the young logger truly has.

“The flag is a little tattered, but I look at it as that flag has been with me since we’ve started, it’s a representation of me and my company. We’ve been through a lot. We’ve been through two hurricanes, tumors, all the medical stuff, hyper inflation, everything else. It’s worn but it’s part of us. It’ll get to the point where we’ll get another one, but not yet.”—Thomas Johnson

Operations Johnson says his crew is admittedly low manpower, but still maintains a high production because of the loyalty and work ethic of the three-man crew. Cutting Edge is currently staffed entirely of family. The production numbers out of the single cutter, Johnson credits, are because of his use of a track cutter that can move quickly through the thinning rows. “When I was 17, I fell in love with the felling side and saw the need for trained and experienced track cutter operators in our area. It is usually wet here, and it takes a skilled individual to do what needs to be done in this thinning application. Unheard of in other places, but it is really helpful,” Johnson explains of the niche he selected for himself early on in his logging career. To support the track cutter, Johnson’s father used bogie skidders for a time, but the younger Johnson believes you can work wetter ground with a traditional four-wheel skidder in thinning than with a bogie machine. Instead, Cutting Edge runs a smaller skidder with a standard grapple. The crew moves a fairly aggressive 60 loads per week with three pieces. “Because we are such high production, you can’t expect an older machine to come

From left, Mickey Townsley, Bradley “Puppy” Willis, Thomas Johnson, Charlie McKelvey and Michael Townsley

Johnson likes to use a mix of equipment brands, and has a good relationship with John Deere.

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The young logger is active on YouTube and TikTok, and has a drone for overhead videos.

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out here and run hard all day long,” he adds. Operating under that mentality, the Cutting Edge iron registry includes 2018 Tigercat 234B loader, ’19 John Deere 748L-II skidder, 2020 John Deere 853M track fellerbuncher with John Deere FR50 felling head, ’03 Chambers delimbinator, and two spares: ’08 Tigercat 234 loader and ’09 Tigercat 718E wheeled feller-buncher. Johnson says the mixed lot is by design, as he does not want to lock

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himself into just one dealer, but also because he feels he picks the best machines available, and what he thinks will be the most dependable in the long run. He adds, “A thing I like with John Deere: if I start having issues I will speak up, and I feel like they really listen to the loggers.” Over the years, Johnson has operated a lot of machines, he says, but John Deere has earned more of his attention lately thanks to his involvement with the engineering of the new track cutters. He formerly ran Tigercat feller-bunchers, through dealer Doggett Machinery in Alexandria, but then John Deere reached out to Johnson with a prototype 803M, looking specifically for his input on the RCS mode of the machine. Johnson says by that time he had over 15,000 operational hours on a track cutter, and after five minutes with the prototype he says he knew it wasn’t quite right. He remembers having the project engineer in the cab with him and says that it was a sick machine: “Every time you went to cut a tree it nosedives. We were wasting my time and his.” The next morning Johnson handed over a list of things he thought needed to be done differently. From there, he was folded into the development team and helped with the concepts on not just the M series, but other products as well, like the FR50 felling head. Johnson’s biggest input on the FR50 was that the head needed to be able to hold a high number of stems to make a bundle, especially in pine thinning applications or in South America working with eucalyptus. For Johnson it seems simple enough: “You need to be cutting 16-17 trees and making a bundle. The more trees you can hold, the less stops the skidder has to make. Time is money.” Two contract trucks targeting six loads per truck per day haul wood. Like everyone right now, Johnson is incredibly conscious of diesel prices. Before the crew might get started a little later in the day, or knock off and not wait on a delayed truck. Now, the crew doesn’t shut down until they get their loads for the day. “To save fuel consumption, machines are dead if we’re not working,” he adds. “I monitor fuel use every day, and I am doing everything right now we can to eliminate waste. We lean heavily on the TimberMatic maps and aim to make the jobsite as efficient as possible.” SLT

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side of the fiberglass and a new set of bait fish on the other. Life Is Like A Camera... The story goes that under pressure from the Again, the shark quickly attacked. This time, federal government, a major manufacturer of however, it slammed into the fiberglass divider Capture The Good Times, farm equipment phoned a loyal customer, a bigand bounced off. Undeterred, the shark kept time farmer in the Midwest, to see if he would Develop From The Negatives; repeating this behavior every few minutes to no seriously consider switching from diesel-powavail. Meanwhile, the bait fish swam around If Things Don’t Work Out, ered machines to the electric models the compaunharmed in the second partition. Eventually, ny is developing. about an hour into the experiment, the shark Take Another Shot. The farmer’s corn operations are enormous, gave up. involving more than 10,000 acres spread across This experiment was repeated several dozen three counties. He has traditionally worked with times over the next few weeks. Each time, the the manufacturer in testing and demonstrating new, high-tech equipment shark got less aggressive and made fewer attempts to attack the bait fish, used in large scale applications. He owns five gigantic diesel combines until eventually, the shark got tired of hitting the fiberglass divider and ($900,000 per unit) that he trades every three years, and a dozen huge tracsimply stopped attacking altogether. tors. The marine biologist then removed the fiberglass divider, but the shark He responded with a series of questions: did not attack. The shark was trained to believe a barrier existed between it “How do I charge these combines when they’re miles away from the and the bait fish, so the bait fish swam wherever they wished, free from shop and in a 500 acre corn field in the middle of nowhere? How do I run harm. them 24 hours a day for 10 or 12 days straight when the harvest is ready, The moral: Most people tend to give up after facing a series of setbacks and the weather is coming in? How do I get a 50,000 pound combine that and failures. But do not let these setbacks keep you from trying again. takes up the width of an entire road back to the shop 20 miles away when Think of each setback as an opportunity to learn. Do not let the barriers the battery goes dead?” that you set for yourself in your mind keep you from achieving your goals. The farmer continued: Remember, nothing is impossible if you set your mind to it. “When the corn is ready to harvest, it has to have the proper sugar and moisture content. If it is too wet, it has to be put in giant dryers that burn natural l I’m responsible for what I say, not what you or propane gas, and lots of it. Harvest time is critiunderstand. cal because if the corn degrades in sugar content or l My tolerance for idiots is extremely low these quality, it can drop the value of my crop by half a days. I used to have some immunity built up, but million dollars or more. It is analyzed at time of obviously there’s a new strain out there. sale. It is standard procedure to run these machines l It’s not my age that bothers me; it’s the side 10 to 12 days straight, 24 hours a day at peak hareffects. vest time. When they need fuel, a tanker truck l You know you’re getting up in years when you delivers it, and the machines keep going.” use a shopping cart at the pharmacy. There was dead silence on the other end. l What do you call an 80-year-old cheerleader? Old Yeller. l I’m not saying I’m old and worn out, but I make sure I’m nowhere l My neighbor got a pre-declined credit card in the mail. near the curb on trash day. l CEOs are now playing miniature golf. l As I’ve gotten older, people think I’ve become lazy. The truth is I’m l Exxon Mobil laid off 25 Congressmen. just being more energy efficient. l McDonald’s is selling the 1/4 oz. burger. l I haven’t gotten anything done today. I’ve been in the produce departl Angelina Jolie adopted a child from America. ment at the grocery store, trying to open a resistant plastic bag. l Parents in Beverly Hills are firing their nannies and learning their chill I put my scale in the bathroom corner, and that’s where the little liar dren’s names. will stay until it apologizes. l Americans are sneaking into Mexico. l Hard to believe I once had a phone attached to a wall, and when it l A picture is now only worth about 200 words. rang, I picked it up without knowing who was calling. l When Bill and Hillary travel together, they share a l I’m old enough to remember when mentally ill room. people were put in hospitals, not in Congress. l The Treasure Island casino in Las Vegas is now l Why do professional athletes and actors think I managed by Somali pirates. should care about what they think? If I wanted advice l When I called to get Blue Book value on my car, from someone who chases a ball, I’d ask my dog. l Apparently, RSVPing to a wedding invitation with the guy asked if the gas tank was full or empty. “maybe next time” isn’t the correct response. l She says I keep pushing her buttons. If that were true, I would have found mute by now. During a research experiment, a marine biologist l So you’ve been eating hot dogs and McChickens placed a small shark into a large holding tank and then all your life, but you won’t take a vaccine because you released several small bait fish into the tank. As don’t know what’s in it. Are you kidding me? l Sometimes the universe puts you in the same situexpected, the shark quickly swam around the tank, ation again to see if you’re still a dummy. attacked, and ate the smaller fish. l There is no such thing as a grouchy old The marine biologist then inserted and secured a person. The truth is that once you get old, you stop strong piece of clear fiberglass in the tank, creating being polite and start being honest. two separate partitions. She then put the shark on one

A Farmer’s Dilemma

Why Don’t The 99% Of Us Who Aren’t Offended By Everything Quit Catering To The 1% Who Are?

Cynical Senior Sayings

Inflation Is So Bad...

Sign Of The Month

Shark Bait

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FROM THE BACKWOODS PEW

Fire Lines Since spring and summer bring on fire season across the Southeast, perhaps some reminders for the sake of The Bear would be in order. Winterburns often take place even as spring is budding, and as is often the case, a

good day to burn is often the wrong day to burn. Early summer makes the forester itch to burn off a clearcut before it greens up, but like the spring unstable weather is common. Red-flag days are popping up all over the calendar, and a once calm day suddenly has turned into chaos. Maybe that is a picture of our lives at times, so here are some burning tips

that might help in life. Before you strike the match, before you begin the fire, it is important to know where and when the fire is going to end. Foresters and fire have a long history, one of love and hate. As long as the fire begins and ends where we want it to, we love it. If it ends or begins where we don’t want it to, we hate

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it. Thus, with every lighting of the match, with every flick of the Bic, a small knot is presAntill ent in the stomach of the forester—a knot that says, “I hope this fire ends where it is supposed to.” The main tool to accomplish this is a mythical mainstay of the industry, known as the fire line. The fire line in theory is a clear line of dirt which surrounds the fire; and since most dirt does not burn, the fire will stop when it hits this barrier of dirt. Surround the area you want to burn with a line of cleared dirt and your fire will stop where it is supposed to stop…Unless! The wind blows it across the fire line…or a burning piece of brush or small tree falls across the line…or in the process of making the fire line a small patch of intense fuel is created alongside the fire line, and it causes embers to cross to the other side…or the soil itself is organic and it burns by itself…or if the line was put in ahead of the day the actual fire is lit, giving the line time to get “dirty.” Since the line is often constructed in advance, it only takes a little breeze, or maybe a storm to begin to clutter the line. Leaves will fall and form a patchwork of burnable material, maybe a branch or two, often creating a bridge across the fire line, thus connecting the area we want to burn and the area we do not want to burn. When this happens, rest assured, the fire will find it if you do not find it first. The one aspect of the burning

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process that can be controlled by the forester is the fire line; and with diligence he can keep it clear. Experience will tell him where the debris within the line will seek to create a crossing, and with a rake or his foot

he can once again clear the area. While the forester cannot control the wind or the embers that shoot out like so many fireworks to drift down on the adjoining land, he can at least take comfort in knowing

that he had fire lines in place and that they were clear. The question comes from the insurance adjuster, “Why burn in the first place?” And the obvious reason is, we get to set a fire. (I mean seriously, sometimes those adjusters…) Of course, the scientific reason is to reduce fuel in the forest, so as to reduce the chance for a catastrophic fire that would burn many trees. This is called a hazardreduction burn, in case it comes up on Jeopardy. Or if we need to effectively and economically clear an area that has been clear-cut while preparing it for planting and adding nutrients to the soil at the same time—then Alex, “What is a prescribed burn!” If you have ever had the experience of having a disagreement with someone, then you know all about fires. Even so the tongue is a little member and boasteth great things. Behold, how great a matter a little fire kindleth! And the tongue is a fire, a world of iniquity; so is the tongue among our members that it defileth the whole body, and setteth on fire the course of nature, and it is set on fire of hell. James 3:5-6 How easy it is to lose our temper,

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to unload on someone! We try to hold back, but finally, just like having a poor fire line, we can no longer contain it. The fire is out and the damage is done. Maybe we try to justify it by saying, “They had it coming,” or, “That’s just the way we are,” but both are wrong. Like a poor fire line, we allowed the fire to get out and the one that has suffered is God. You see, if you are a Christian, then you are a representative of God’s Kingdom—like it or not. In the greatest display of trust, God has chosen to let us represent him. People will get their impression of God’s love, his mercy, his forgiveness from what you and I do with the liberty he has given us. What do your neighbors think of your God? Do they think he is an angry, unforgiving God? Do your clothes always smell like smoke because you spend so much of your time roasting others? Work on the fire lines. Enforce them and keep them clear. Take a breath, and remember that whoever you are about to explode on needs the love and forgiveness of God more than they need your flames. Excerpted from Faith, Fur and Forestry, Bradley W. Antill author, see this and more at onatreeforestry.com

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INDUSTRY NEWS ROUNDUP As We See It: Missouri, Going Back To Where It All Began By Scott Dane In 1994, loggers from across the country met in St. Louis, Mo. to discuss forming the American Loggers Council, hoping to provide a national voice for the log-

Dane

ging sector of the forest products industry. The meeting was precipitated by the American Forests and Paper Assn. rolling out the Sustainable Forestry Initiative—a program which was initiated without any input

from the logging sector, with disregard for the fact that the burden of implementation and compliance was going to lay primarily upon the loggers. Spearheaded by Earl St. John, and 33 other logging leaders from across the country, the meeting was

convened, and over the course of a few days the framework of the American Loggers Council was developed. It was a gutsy move, especially considering that loggers were expected to be seen and not heard within the industry. Though loggers had previously been silent and fragmented, these leaders stood up and said, “We are going to be heard. We are not going to be dismissed and ignored. We are going to be represented!” As we’ve recently celebrated Independence Day, it is good to recall that the founders of the American Loggers Council, like the founders of the United States, similarly risked personal ramifications, but still “pledged to each other our lives, our fortunes and our honor.” In retrospect the risk was worthwhile, as with our nation, so it has been for our organization. The battle belongs to the brave. Today, the American Loggers Council is unquestionably the National Voice of the American Logger, representing more than 30 state and regional associations, nearly 100 Individual Logger Members (ILM), and all major primary industry vendors. You, as a stakeholder in the timber industry, are represented from coast to coast, north to south, from the landing to the halls of Congress. Scott Dane is Executive Director of the American Loggers Council. ALC is a 501(c)(6) trade association representing the interests of timber harvesting and timber hauling businesses across the United States. For more information visit www.amloggers.com.

STP-Tolko Plan Ackerman Expansion Southeastern Timber Products LLC, an STP Holdings-Tolko Industries partnership, announced a $150 million U.S. investment in the STP sawmill in Ackerman, Miss. The investment is the next step in an expansion project that will upgrade the mill from 120MMBF to 250MMBF annual capacity. The project will conclude in the first quarter of 2024. The mill has already implemented some recent upgrades. “The Board approval of the expansion is a testament to the employees at STP-Tolko in Ackerman,” says Billy Van Devender, CEO of Claw Forestry. “There have been significant incremental gains in our production and performance, which sets us up to make this additional investment into our mill and our state. The expansion will also 24

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create jobs and bring value to Mississippi timberland owners, many being family owned.” Claw Forestry Services affiliates recently announced plans to build a new sawmill in Gloster, Miss., and recently totally upgraded a sawmill in Vicksburg, Miss.

Paper Excellence (Domtar) Buys Resolute Richmond, BC-headquartered and privately held holding company, Paper Excellence Group, a manufacturer of pulp and paper products with seven facilities in Canada, through its wholly-owned subsidiary Domtar Corp. is acquiring Montreal-based Resolute Forest Products. The cash consideration represents an enterprise value of $2.7 billion, as reported by the companies. Resolute will become a whollyowned subsidiary of Domtar and continue to operate on a business-asusual basis under the Resolute name. The Resolute management team will remain in place at the company’s headquarters. Resolute owns or operates 40 facilities, as well as power generation assets, in the U.S. and Canada in four business segments: market

Komatsu Buys Silviculture Firm Komatsu is acquiring Bracke Forest AB, headquartered in Bräcke, Sweden, which develops, manufactures and sells application-specific attachments for silviculture. Since 2014, Bracke and Komatsu have engaged in joint development by sharing respective technologies and experience. Komatsu will continue to incorporate Bracke’s technologies and expertise in the field of planting in order to accelerate the pace of mechanization. Shown here, the D61EM-23M0 performs automatic traveling, stopping and planting.

pulp, tissue, paper and wood products. It operates four pulp mills, four tissue facilities, seven paper mills and 22 wood products facilities including 17 sawmills with 2.9 billion BF of capacity, two reman facilities, two engineered wood products facilities and a wood pellet plant. It also has 13 power generation assets, including seven hydroelectric facilities and six cogeneration facilities. Earlier this year, Resolute acquired LP’s 50% interest in two Resolute-LP joint ventures that produce I-joists in Larouche and Saint Prime, Quebec. In early 2020, Resolute acquired Conifex Timber Inc.’s three sawmills in the U.S. South with combined production capacity of 550MMBF, located in Cross City, Fla.; Glenwood and El Dorado, Ark.

“With this transaction Resolute will accelerate its growth as it gains access to more tools, capital and opportunities to pursue our ambitions with the combined resources of the Paper Excellence Group,” states Remi Lalonde, Resolute President and CEO. “Together we will form a stronger and more resilient, diversified forest products company, positioned to compete on a truly global scale.” Paper Excellence states it intends to support Resolute management’s existing growth strategy, focused on strategic investments in its lumber and pulp businesses, and maximizing the value of its paper and tissue businesses. Furthermore, the Group intends to form long-term partnerships with one or more universities in Quebec and Ontario to spearhead

innovation in the field of fiberbased biomaterials. Resolute was previously AbitibiBowater, which changed its name to Resolute in 2011. Domtar’s principal executive office is in Fort Mill, SC.

Teal Jones Digs Into Louisiana Teal Jones Group marked the beginning of construction of a $110 million SYP sawmill near Plain Dealing, La. on July 11 with a groundbreaking ceremony. Canada-based Teal Jones Group had disclosed in December it was considering northwest Louisiana as the site of a sawmill. Site preparation of the 235 acre greenfield facility has begun and is expected to be completed by third quarter 2023. Site work includes creating access to nearby railway infrastructure and timberlands, which the company cited as key factors in its decision to build its first plant in Louisiana. The company, which is headquartered in British Columbia, operates SYP mills in Antlers, Okla.; Martinsville and Kinsale, Va.; and Liberty, Miss. The facility will produce a range of

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dimension and specialty lumber products with a production capacity of 300MMBF per year. The company plans to sell residual fiber products, including chips and sawdust to local pulp and pellet plants. Tom Jones, CEO of Teal Jones Group, comments, “We are excited to invest in this project, one that will bring long-term prosperity, jobs and other development opportunities in rail and infrastructure to Plain Dealing, La. Teal Jones is a family owned and operated forestry company with operations spreading throughout

Canada and the United States. The Plain Dealing mill is an exciting and important step in our continued expansion.”

PalletOne Purchases Half Of Dempsey UFP Industries announced that its affiliate, PalletOne, Inc., has acquired a 50% equity in Dempsey Wood Products, LLC of Orangeburg, SC. The purchase agreement includes options for PalletOne to purchase the

remaining 50% after three years. Founded in 1988 by Ronald Dempsey, Dempsey Wood Products produces kiln-dried lumber, pallet lumber, and other industrial wood products from the Orangeburg location. Dempsey had 2021 sales of $68.9 million, and its management team, including Ronald Dempsey and his son, Parker Dempsey, will continue in management roles. PalletOne’s investment in Dempsey helps it secure and grow a critical long-term supply source. In 2021, five of Dempsey’s 10 largest cus-

tomers were UFP affiliates, and nearly 40 other UFP locations could be served by Dempsey. “Dempsey is led by an experienced team that has produced strong and stable results for more than four decades,” comments Howe Wallace, President of PalletOne. “They’ve been a trusted supplier of ours for many years, and this investment will strengthen our ties, improve our work efficiencies and help satisfy our increasing need for lumber in this market.” “Having supplied UFP companies for many years, we’re proud to join forces and contribute to their future growth plans,” Parker Dempsey adds. “Together we can expand our capacity and industrial offerings. This gives our company and our employees exciting new growth opportunities.”

Arbor Gas Inches Closer To Port Allen Louisiana Economic Development reports that Arbor Renewable Gas LLC, a Houston-based company formed in 2019 that produces renewable gasoline and green hydrogen from wood waste and forest residue, is evaluating West Baton Rouge Parish for an $800 million manufacturing and distribution facility employing carbon capture and sequestration emissionsreduction technology. Operating as Magnolia Renewable Fuels LLC, the new facility would produce renewable gasoline from wood waste biomass sourced from Louisiana and Mississippi timber operations. The project would create 32 new jobs and at least 110 indirect jobs, and the company estimates development of the facility would generate up to 880 construction jobs at peak construction. The company plans to locate its greenfield facility at the Port Allen Rail Terminal, which offers railroad and highway accessibility and proximity to timber operations. Magnolia will source southern yellow pine pre-commercial thinnings. Arbor Gas recently announced a similar project in Beaumont, Tex.

Schwab To Distribute Proteng Fire System Schwab Brothers Hydraulics has entered into a partnership with Proteng, a maker of automatic fire detection/suppression systems, to serve as a distributor for Proteng’s THIA system. Schwab Brothers will bring the product to market in the forest products industry, buying the units at wholesale and selling to the end users, as it does when manufacturing its CHAD 26

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Elmia Wood Back On Track A good mood and a longing to meet again characterized Elmia Wood 2022 held in June in the forest of Bratteborg outside Jönköping, Sweden. The threeday event attracted 26,000 visitors and 270 exhibitors from 22 different countries. Anders Roman, program manager for Elmia Wood, comments: “The fair ran smoothly, thanks in large part to great teamwork, but also thanks to the terrific engagement of the exhibitors and, not least, among all the visitors. It’s been fantastic to encounter the joy and energy along the visitor trail. It’s obvious that many people have longed for the fair as a meeting place.”

mobile hose crimping device. Several THIA systems are already in use on logging machines operated by M.A. Rigoni, the affiliated logging company owned by the Schwab family. Fire prevention is always critical, but never more so than right now. Ryan Wood, director of sales and business development for Schwab Brothers Hydraulics, points out that if you have a catastrophic fire and lose a machine, you may not be able to replace it right away, given ongoing supply chain bottlenecks. This was the driving factor for the Schwab

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group to get involved with Proteng, he adds: they are constantly seeking solutions to alleviate downtime on today’s logging operations. THIA is an acronym used to describe the Proteng system; it stands for Tube + Heat = Instant Action. Proteng first used the system to protect racecars, then in boats, airplanes, buses, RVs, buildings, and now forestry equipment. The system consists of a polyamide tube that is filled with FM-200 fire retardant and sealed using hydraulically crimped brass ends. FM-200, or hepafluoropropane, is a state-of-the-art substance that

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eliminates many of the drawbacks of other retardants. Unlike dry chemical or foam retardants, it leaves no residue, is nontoxic, and is safe to use on equipment without causing any collateral damage.

Automatic extinguishers that use aqueous film forming foam (AFFF) can be effective, but most are limited to engine compartments and can cause extensive damage. Proteng fire suppression devices are self-con-

tained (require no power source), fully automatic, non-toxic, and noncorrosive. THIA is heat-activated and can even stop a fire before it starts if the temperature gets hot enough. Each THIA tube is installed directly

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to spots where fires are likely to start. These tubes don’t require bulky valves, hoses, or wires, which make them great as stand-alone units. Tubes are custom fit for each area, available in two temperature ratings, and are maintenance-free. The tubes are installed individually with only one tube protecting each area/component at risk. Another advantage to the polyamide tube is that it ruptures at the hottest point. Unlike a traditional system with one or two sprinkler heads, this gives the tube unlimited locations to dispense the FM-200 gas as needed rather than in a general spot at the top of the compartment since they respond to heat. As the temperature increases, the liquid turns to gas, then the gas expands and becomes pressurized. At the same time, the polyamide tube becomes softer, rupturing the tube and releasing the extinguishing agent with force (over 300 psi) to the precise area with the highest temperature. The activation takes less than one second. For more information, contact Ryan Wood at Ryan@schwab hydraulics.com or call 850-8438615 (office) or 850-838-6487 (cell).

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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. DEADLINES: Ad reservation must be received by 10th of month prior to month of publication. Material must be received no later than 12th of month prior to month of publication.

Click. Connect. Trade.

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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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LOGGER’S BEST FRIEND!

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CAT 559C LOADER Hyd trailer, CTR 426 delimber, good machine, 12K hrs .......................POR Located in Alabama Call or Text Zane 334-518-9937

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

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

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

BENT or VIBRATING Cutter Disk? I straighten even complex and severe bends in fellerbuncher saw disks including segmented Quadco. All disks are balanced. Cracks are repaired using air hammer, peening after welds.

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Grinders • 3800 XL Morbark grinder, enc. C27 • 1300 tub grinder, Morbark • 4680 Bandit Track Grinder • 1464 P-Hogzilla Grinder • 5400 Peterson Grinder • 4000 Vermeer Grinder • 7000 Vermeer Grinder • 2680 Bandit Grinder • 3680 Bandit Grinder • 5710 Peterson Track Grinder • 6400 CBI Track Grinder • MC-266 Rotochopper Grinder • DW3060 K Doppstadt Grinder Chipper • 2590 Hoe Tree Chipper Skidders • 540B John Deere Skidder • 460 Timberjack Cable Skidder • 525-D Cat Skidder, 2017, winch S/A...................................$75,000 • Tigercat, 2009, 610C, New tires, new engine ................................$75,000

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A D L I N K ●

ADVERTISER

●

PG. NO.

PHONE NO.

American Loggers Council

202.627.6961

American Truck Parts

888.383.8884

Around The World Salvage

936.634.7210

Big John Trailers

800.771.4140

BITCO Insurance

800.475.4477

Caterpillar Dealer Promotion

919.550.1201

Eastern Surplus

855.332.0500

Firestone Agricultural Tire

515.242.2300

Flint Equipment

229.888.1212

FMI Trailers

601.508.3333

Forest Chain

800.288.0887

Forestry First

803.708.0624

Forestry Mutual Insurance

800.849.7788

G & W Equipment

800.284.9032

Hawkins & Rawlinson

888.822.1173

Interstate Tire Service

864.947.9208

Kaufman Trailers NC

336.790.6807

Komatsu Forestry Division

888.285.7478

Mike Ledkins Insurance Agency

800.766.8349

LMI-Tennessee

800.467.0944

Logger Associations

Magnolia Trailers

800.738.2123

Maxi-Load Scale Systems

877.265.1486

Midsouth Forestry Equipment

870.226.0000

Moore Logging Supply

888.754.5613

Morbark

1,11

800.831.0042

Pitts Trailers

800.321.8073

Ponsse North America

715.369.4833

Quadco Equipment

800.668.3340

Quality Equipment & Parts

386.487.3896

Southern Loggers Cooperative

318.445.0750

Stribling Equipment

855.781.9408

Tidewater Equipment

33,35

912.638.7726

519.753.2000

Tigercat Industries TraxPlus

601.635.5543

W & W Truck & Tractor

843.761.8220

Waters International Trucks

601.693.4807

J M Wood Auction

334.264.3265

Yancey Brothers

800.282.1562

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

COMING EVENTS August 11-14—Virginia Loggers Assn. annual meeting, Williamsburg Lodge, Williamsburg, Va. Call 804-677-4290; visit valoggers.org. 23-26—IWF 2022, Georgia World Congress Center, Atlanta, Ga. Call 404-693-8333; visit iwfatlanta.com. 29-September 2—Louisiana Forestry Assn. annual meeting, Golden Nugget Hotel & Casino Resort, Lake Charles, La. Call 318443-2558; visit laforestry.com. 30-September 1—Florida Forestry Assn. Annual Meeting & Trade Show, Omni Amelia Island Resort, Amelia Island, Fla. Call 850-2225646; visit floridaforest.org.

September 9-10—Great Lakes Logging & Heavy Equipment Expo, Resch Expo, Green Bay, Wis. Call 715282-5828; visit gltpa.org. 11-13—Alabama Forestry Assn. annual meeting, Perdido Beach Resort, Orange Beach, Ala. Call 334-265-8733; visit alaforestry.org. 16-18—Virginia Forest Products Assn. Annual Conference, Hilton Virginia Beach Oceanfront, Virginia Beach, Va. Call 804-737-5625; visit vfpa.net.

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22-24—American Loggers Council annual meeting, Branson, Mo. Call 409-625-0206; visit amloggers.com. 24—TEAM Safe Trucking annual meeting, The Hilton Branson Convention Center, Branson, Mo. Call 207-841-0250; visit teamsafe trucking.com. 28-30—North Carolina Forestry Assn. annual meeting, Grandover Resort & Conference Center, Greensboro, NC. Call 800-2317723; visit ncforestry.org.

October 5-7—Tennessee Forestry Assn. annual meeting, Paris Landing State Park Lodge, Buchanan, Tenn. Call 615883-3832; visit tnforestry.com. 11-13—Arkansas Forestry Assn. annual meeting, DoubleTree, Little Rock, Ark. Call 501-374-2441; visit arkforests.org. 26-28—Texas Forestry Assn. annual meeting, Texas A&M Hotel and Conference Center, College Station, Tex. Call 936-632-8733; visit texas forestry.org.

November 2-4—Forestry Assn. of South Carolina annual meeting, Westin Hilton Head, Hilton Head Island, SC. Call 803-798-4170; visit scforestry.org.

August 2023 23-25—Forest Products Machinery & Equipment Expo, Music City Center, Nashville, Tenn. Call 504443-4464; visit sfpaexpo.com. Listings are submitted months in advance. Always verify dates and locations with contacts prior to making plans to attend.

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SLT 0822 digimag

Articles inside

Southern Stumpin’

Coming Events/Ad Index

Bulletin Board

From The Backwoods Pew

Industry News Roundup