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A Hatton-Brown Publication Co-Publisher David H. Ramsey Co-Publisher David (DK) Knight Chief Operating Officer Dianne C. Sullivan PUBLISHING OFFICE Street Address: 225 Hanrick Street Montgomery, AL 36104-3317 Mailing Address: P.O. Box 2268 Montgomery, AL 36102-2268 Telephone (334) 834-1170 Fax 334-834-4525
Foremost Authority For Professional Loggers Browse, subscribe or renew: www.timberharvesting.com
Executive Editor David (DK) Knight Editor-in-Chief Rich Donnell Western Editor Dan Shell Senior Associate Editor David Abbott Associate Editor Jessica Johnson Associate Editor Jay Donnell Art Director/Prod. Mgr. Cindy Segrest Ad Production Coord Patti Campbell Circulation Director Rhonda Thomas Marketing/Media Jordan Anderson CLASSIFIED ADVERTISING Bridget DeVane 334-699-7837 bdevane7@hotmail.com ADVERTISING SALES REPRESENTATIVES
Vol. 64, No. 2: Issue 655
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OurCover Owned by brothers Mark and Greg Turner and based in Banks, Ore., Turner Logging, Inc. is a 57-year-old company founded by their father, Bill. A successful cable thinning specialist for 25 years, Turner Logging today is balancing regeneration cuts with first-entry thinning jobs, having recently adjusted its equipment mix accordingly. Story begins on PAGE 8. (Dan Shell photo)
OurFeatures
SOUTHERN USA Randy Reagor • P.O. Box 2268 Montgomery, AL 36102-2268 (904) 393-7968 • Fax: (334) 834-4525 E-mail: reagor@bellsouth.net
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MIDWEST USA, EASTERN CANADA John Simmons • 32 Foster Cres. Whitby, Ontario, Canada L1R 1W1 (905) 666-0258 • Fax: (905) 666-0778 E-mail: jsimmons@idirect.com
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WESTERN USA, WESTERN CANADA Tim Shaddick • 4056 West 10th Avenue Vancouver, BC, Canada V6L 1Z1 (604) 910-1826 • Fax: (604) 264-1367 E-mail: tootall1@shaw.ca
Chipola Timber Ups Game
INTERNATIONAL Murray Brett Aldea de las Cuevas 66, Buzon 60 03759 Benidoleig (Alicante), Spain +34 96 640 4165 • Fax: +34 96 640 4022 E-mail: murray.brett@abasol.net Timber Harvesting & Wood Fiber Operations (ISSN 21542333) is published 6 times annually (January/February, March/April, May/June, July/August, September/October, November/December issues are combined) by HattonBrown Publishers, Inc., 225 Hanrick St., Montgomery, AL 36104. Subscriptions are free to U.S. logging, pulpwood and chipping contractors and their supervisors; managers and supervisors of corporate-owned harvesting operations; wood suppliers; timber buyers; businesses involved in land grooming and/or land clearing, wood refuse grinding and right-of-way maintenance; wood procurement and land management officials; industrial forestry purchasing agents; wholesale and retail forest equipment representatives and forest/logging association personnel. All non-qualified U.S. subscriptions are $50 annually; $60 in Canada; $95 (airmail) in all other countries (U.S. funds). Single copies, $5 each; special issues, $20 (U.S. funds). Subscription Inquiries— TOLL-FREE 800-669-5613; Fax 888-611-4525. Go to www.timberharvesting.com and click on the subscribe button to subscribe/renew via the web. All advertisements for Timber Harvesting magazine are accepted and published by Hatton-Brown Publishers, Inc. with the understanding that the advertiser and/or advertising agency are authorized to publish the entire contents and subject matter thereof. The advertiser and/or advertising agency will defend, indemnify and hold Hatton-Brown Publishers, Inc. harmless from and against any loss, expenses, or other liability resulting from any claims or lawsuits for libel violations or right of privacy or publicity, plagiarism, copyright or trademark infringement and any other claims or lawsuits that may arise out of publication of such advertisement. Hatton-Brown Publishers, Inc. neither endorses nor makes any representation or guarantee as to the quality of goods and services advertised in Timber Harvesting & Wood Fiber Operations. Copyright ® 2016. All rights reserved. Reproduction in whole or in part without written permission is prohibited. Periodicals postage paid at Montgomery, Ala. and at additional mailing offices. Printed in USA.
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From Northwest Florida Base
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Second Generation Keeps Hardwick Business Thriving
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Oregon Logging Conference: Cypress Activity At A Glance Another Spirited Event
In Louisiana A Century Ago
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MyTake DAVID ABBOTT david@hattonbrown.com, 334-834-1170
Mid Star’s Trucking Endeavor Emphasizes Safety, Efficiency Mid Star Timber Harvesting, Inc. is a large, diversified and fast-growing conglomerate based near Toxey, Ala. It now includes seven harvesting crews, a road crew and two trucking entities— Mid Star Wood Haulers and Mid Star Express, which moves various products over-the-road. Mitchell and Wanda Presley started the company in 1999. Seven crews can cut a lot of wood, but it’s all for naught if you can’t transport it. Mid Star Wood Haulers (MSWH) involves 33 trucks—26 company-owned and seven contractor-owned. The logistics could be daunting, but the management team approaches every challenge with a well researched, well-thought out plan. It all starts with the driver, but finding and keeping good, conscientious ones can be tricky. When screening an applicant, Mitchell says the first step is to pull up the driver’s MVR—moving violations report—to see if he can be insured. “If he doesn’t pass, we go no further.” Insurance carriers have stricter regulations for larger fleets, he notes. “The insurance requirement is a good standard.” Passing a pre-employment drug test is also required before a driver can be trained and placed in an older truck. Drivers are closely monitored until they prove themselves. Mid Star Express uses a dispatcher for its long-haul trucks, but dispatching is a shared responsibility for MSWH. The Presley’s sons, Doug and Steve, oversee log/chip production and communicate with crew foremen as to what trucks are needed where and when. Hauling capacity may be shuffled, depending on the specifics of each tract. If one crew needs additional trucks on a given job, or if another has some it could spare, crew leaders communicate that among the team. Mid Star stresses scheduling. It’s inefficient to have four trucks at the landing simultaneously, so truck arrivals are staggered, starting before the crew arrives. “Turnaround time in the woods is as important as turnaround time at the mill,” Mitchell asserts. Though not fully implemented yet, 4
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Mid Star’s management team is developing a lead driver program. One lead driver for each crew will communicate important information between management and all drivers on that crew. Mitchell says the position will also function as a safety advocate to create awareness among drivers. Mid Star desires stakeholders, not just employees. Case in point: seven of the company’s 26 trucks are leased to drivers, who have a vested interest in the truck’s profitability, thus increasing their efficiency. “That pays dividends to the driver and the company alike,” Wanda says. This program is not available to all drivers, only to those who have exemplified the right qualities after a year with the company. Though not all drivers want to lease, it’s a coveted spot, she says. “We have plenty who would like to try, but we pick them.” Since they haul across state lines, management pays drivers by the day, rather than by the hour or the load, to give drivers some security and to dampen the temptation to speed or to do something careless. The company does offer production incentives, but consistent pay is the goal. The company conducts monthly safety meetings and an annual training session. Mid Star is also developing a semi-annual audit, in which one truck is thoroughly inspected. Auto insurance and workers’ comp rates are on the rise, Mitchell warns, adding that it is substantially more expensive to insure an over-the-road truck driver than an equipment operator. Mid Star has successfully managed to maintain rates at a reasonable level, but only with effort. “You must have a safety program in place,” he advises. Otherwise, insurance costs can spike, forcing some companies out of business. Thus, Mid Star’s robust safety program is spearheaded by two managers—safety coordinator John Johnson and administrative manager Natalie Presley. Lyle Broughton, a man of many hats at Mid Star, wrote an official company policy regarding distracted driving. Cell
phone use is strictly prohibited without a hands-free headset. The company provides SouthernLINC headpieces to communicate with drivers. Even then, calls are direct and brief so as to minimize distraction. Drivers cannot make outgoing calls unless the truck is stopped. When it ran a smaller fleet, Mid Star had GPS installed on all its trucks. The management team eventually decided the money spent wasn’t worth it and stopped using GPS entirely. Just in the last year the company has gradually starting adding it back to a few of its forestry trucks. GPS is found on all its over the road trucks. “Because of the way we manage our (logging) trucks so closely, we found GPS didn’t make a huge difference and we didn’t feel we needed it,” Michell explains. “It is a useful tool to monitor turnaround time and efficiency, but we feel we get the information we need by just having it on a few trucks.” Still, he doesn’t rule out the possibility of returning to complete GPS assistance in the future. And, while Mid Star has not installed dash cams on any of its trucks yet, it is something the team has considered closely, and will likely eventually make the investment. All Mid Star trucks-trailers use onboard electronic scales, and the target is 29 tons per load. The terrain in the area calls for a heavier suspension and axles, meaning a heavier truck than some might choose. “You want to get as light as you can without giving up durability, safety and road worthiness,” Wanda says. Lightweight trailers help to offset the limitation, but the goal is to balance it with a sturdy frame. Drivers check trucks daily and turn in an inspection checklist every week. When things go wrong between 15,000mile maintenance intervals, a team of mechanics performs repairs in the field. The shop team also has a night shift, so repairs are often scheduled after-hours to keep production on track. Trucking is regarded by many as the biggest problem in the industry today—a shortage of qualified and responsible drivers, poor training, long hauls to mills and rising insurance rates are but a few reasons. Innovative, forward-thinking players like Mid Star are finding ways to solve some of the probTH lems.
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NewsLines German Pellets Fate Hangs In Balance
TEAM Safe Trucking: Elevate The Standard
A week after an insolvency court in Germany initiated proceedings against the assets of German Pellets GmbH, one of German Pellets’ affiliate wood pellet operations in the U.S., Louisiana Pellets (also German Pellets Louisiana), commenced filings on February 18 for Chapter 11 with the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Western District of Louisiana. Peter Leipold, leading family principal and CEO with the privately owned German Pellets, in a declaration statement notes that construction of the pellet plant in Urania, La. was planned for two startup phases for a total production capacity of 1 million metric tons. Leipold says phase one of the project for startup of half of production was substantially completed in late 2015 and put into limited production to conduct required emissions and production tests. However, according to Leipold, those tests revealed defective and substandard electrical work. After those issues were addressed, the plant expected phase one production to reach capacity by this summer. Leipold notes that phase two is still under construction and may require an additional 12 months to complete. Louisiana Pellets defaulted under taxable finance bonds due to an inability to make a required payment of more than $4.2 million at the first of 2016. Louisiana Pellets is exploring options to address the need for liquidity to complete phase one and two construction, including a potential transaction with one or more interested parties—discussions which are ongoing, according to Leipold. German Pellets started up its first pellet plant in the U.S. at Woodville, Texas last July and built a handling and shipping facility at Port Arthur.
Good Earth Power AZ Plans Huge Sawmill Good Earth Power AZ reports it is building a state-of-the-art sawmill with 300MMBF of production capacity in northern Arizona (Coconino County). GEPAZ currently operates small sawmills in Heber and Williams, Ariz. with a combined production capacity of 40MMBF. GEPAZ expects to start construction 6
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Enthusiasm is building for the ambitious plan of TEAM Safe Trucking (TST), a broad-based non-profit group seeking to elevate the standard and performance of the American forest industry’s deeply troubled transportation sector, which organizers contend is the most serious problem confronting the wood fiber supply chain. TEAM Safe Trucking is developing a module program that will embrace awareness/education and intensely focus on driver training. It can be tweaked for use in different regions and sub-regions and will be available to those who have log/chip transportation operations or are exposed to such operations. Drawing on a $5,000 commitment from Forest/Loggers/Mauck Insurance Agencies, based in Newberry, Mich., along with other resources, the group expects to launch a web site by spring and have the program in gear by August. Now regional in scope, TST expects to expand its program nationwide as it secures additional funding through donations from stakeholders and from grants. Virginia Tech University has committed funds and a graduate student to conduct log/chip truck accident research, beginning later this year. The two-year study will help guide the project’s work going forward. Consisting of logging companies, paper/wood products manufacturers, truck and trailer manufacturers, insurance companies and logging and forestry association representatives, the organization aims to emulate the success of TEAM Fire, another cooperative effort created 20 years ago that eventually drove down logging equipment fire incidents and claims, lowered insurance premiums and helped make automatic fire suppression systems more affordable. TSI is guided by Rick Quagliaroli, owner of Swamp Fox Agency, Inc., an established South Carolina-based business that interfaces with forest industry interests in three states. According to him, many loggers and log truckers now do a commendable job but the industry’s trucking segment overall is performing poorly, resulting in increasing mishaps and multiple forms of costly, disruptive, traumatic fallout. This is forcing some truckers to the side of the road and causing some insurance providers to abandon the market. “TEAM Safe Trucking’s goal is to set a high standard for driver training and continuing education, and we’ll focus the training program specifically on hauling logs and chips,” Quagliaroli comments. “The program will be designed to help make the industry’s log and chip trucking segment safer and more efficient, and every party that has an interest in trucking will need to ‘buy in’ for it to be truly successful. It will take some time. For the good of the industry as a whole, we’re asking for support up and down the line.” For more information, email or call Quagliaroli: rick@swampfoxagency. com, 843-761-3999; or Jimmie Locklear: jlocklear@forestrymutual.com, 910733-3300. in May and complete the facility in May 2017, followed by several months of ramp-up. It will continue to run the mills in Heber and Williams. GEPAZ is currently starting a third shift at Heber and installing a bagging line at Williams. Meanwhile GEPAZ has entered into an agreement with International Forest Products for IFP to serve as the exclusive representative for all lumber products from the Arizona mills. IFP has offices and sales personnel throughout the world. “The IFP agreement provides certainty on the sales side, which will allow GEPAZ to focus on expanding forest and production capacity, while expediting development of new biomass products,” GEPAZ states.
Since September 2013, GEPAZ has had the U.S. Forest Service contract for the restoration of 300,000 acres of heavy ponderosa pine stands over a 10year period on the Coconino, Kaibab, Apache-Sitgreaves and Tonto national forests. The project is known as the Four Forest Restoration Initiative (4FRI).
Sierra Pacific Industries Closes California Sawmill Sierra Pacific Industries (SPI) is closing its sawmill in Arcata, Calif. “This is a particularly sad day for Sierra Pacific and for my family,” says A.A. (Red) Emmerson, Chairman and President Emeritus of SPI. “Our company started in the Arcata area when my father and I
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NewsLines leased our first mill there in 1949 near Jacoby Creek. We went on to build the Arcata mill on the Samoa Peninsula, which we’ve run steady since 1951.” About 123 crew members are affected. According to SPI, reduced harvests of suitable timber and regulatory burdens are the primary reason for the closure. SPI had been transporting logs from the interior of California, and barging logs from British Columbia and Washington. The company owns and manages 1.9 million acres of timberland in California and Washington, and has 13 other sawmills operating in California and Washington.
Hood Industries Purchases Miles Hood Industries, Inc. has acquired the Joe N. Miles & Sons lumber company. Miles operates southern pine sawmills in Silver Creek, Miss. and Bogalusa, La. Hood Industries operates sawmills in Waynesboro, Miss. and Metcalfe, Ga. Former Miles shareholders, David
Miles and Johnny Miles, who have managed the Miles lumber operations, will remain with the business in connection with the transaction. The Miles family lumber tradition began with portable sawmilling in 1933 before it establish a stationary mill following World War II in Lumberton, Miss. They built the Bogalusa mill in 1972 and added the Silver Creek operation in 1975. They shut down Lumberton in the late 1980s. In addition to its lumber operations, Hood Industries operates two southern pine plywood plants in Mississippi and 14 distribution centers which supply hardwood lumber, hardwood plywood, import lumber, decking, and cabinetry components to the millwork and cabinet trades.
Forest Owners Want Clarity From EPA Regarding Biomass National Alliance of Forest Owners (NAFO) is urging the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to clarify its policy on forest biomass as set out in
the Clean Power Plan (CPP) in its implementation guidance to states. “EPA states in the preamble to the CPP that biomass is part of the solution in helping states meet their carbon-reduction goals yet provides no useful direction in draft guidance to states on how they can include biomass as a compliance option,” says Dave Tenny, NAFO President and CEO. “EPA must clarify its guidance to the states to avoid confusion and jeopardize the ability of states to fully capture the carbon benefits of biomass energy under the CPP.” EPA’s “Carbon Pollution Emission Guidelines for Existing Stationary Sources: Electric Utility Generating Units,” also called the “Clean Power Plan,” was published in the Federal Register in mid-October. It has since temporarily stalled in the courts. The EPA plan cracks the door open for new forest biomass power generation as part of renewable energy considerations in the state plans, but doesn’t guarantee acceptance of biomass as carbon neutral.
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Turner Logging Embraces Transition Cable thinning specialist to do more clear-cuts; take on first-entry thinning work.
L
DANShell
ongtime northwest Oregon logthe company’s capabilities and strengths gers/brothers Mark and Greg can be a challenge. “We’re not opposed Turner, owners of Turner Logging, to doing clear-cuts and have done them Inc., are coming to a crossroads after in the past, and we can be just as effialmost 25 years of specializing in cable cient in certain types of timber, but on a thinning. As thinning programs wind typical clear-cut the guys with the big down among various public and private yarders, processors and loaders are hard timber owners in the area, many landto compete with,” he explains. owners are now switching to more reMaking matters tougher for smaller generation timber sales. contractors like Turner Logging, In response, the Turners, based in which operates two crews and occaBanks, are looking to not only adapt sionally a third, is the way larger comtheir company to be more efficient panies with four or five or more crews when working clear-cuts, but also to can afford to have a mix of profit levtake on more of the remaining availels at any given time. able thinning work, such as smaller “It just seems like smaller operators timber first-entry thinning jobs. need a niche, like thinning is for us,” Two recent equipment purchases Turner says. “We do better on thinreflect the balancing act of going big ning sales, and we have to make a and small—to an extent—simultanesolid profit on every job; we can’t ously. “We just purchased a 260 Kohave a sale that loses money.” belco with 622 Waratah processing head, when usually we’d buy a 210Backstory size machine,” Mark Turner says of Turner Logging has followed that the machine built to handle larger timphilosophy for the past 57 years after ber associated with clear-cuts. Mark and Greg’s father, Bill, started And last year, the company bought the company in 1959. Working in and a used Timbco 445 with Keto 600 proaround the Banks-Vernonia area his cessing head—a machine that’s more whole career, their father began small efficient handling smaller timber on thinning jobs. “We had a couple of sales coming up where we were required to process in the woods and not at the landing, so we used the Timbco for that, and we’ve also done some 35-year-old first-entry thinnings where it worked really well,” he says. According to Turner, finding jobs that best fit The brothers: Mark, left, and Greg 8
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with an old Cat, then upgraded to a Garrett 10 skidder in 1963. Turner ended up building a small sawmill near Banks in 1970, still keeping the logging company. He also partnered with local logger Keith Wolff, who ran a couple of crews. The company remained small, concentrating on jobs mostly under 50 acres, and stayed busy. Mark and Greg joined in the woods work early. After graduating from the Oregon Institute of Technology, Mark nearly disappeared into the big city when he took a job with Northrup in southern California in the early 1980s. “I never really fit in in LA,” Turner says. “They say you can take the logger out of the woods but you can’t take the woods out of the logger, and I started missing it, the outdoors and everything about logging,” he remembers. In the late ’80s both Mark and Greg worked for Turner Logging, and also off and on in Alaska, but by the early ’90s were back in Oregon full time. Mark remembers the first thinning job the company took in 1992; it involved a rebuilt Skagit SJ4 swing yarder. But bigger changes were afoot when
Company founder Bill Turner
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Kobelco 210 carrier fells and processes with Waratah 622B attachment.
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Wolff retired in 1994, and Bill Turner died two years later. The brothers taking over the company at a relatively young age in their early 30s contributed to their willingness to try something new: cable and ground-based thinning using swing yarders and Idaho jammer packages. “After we took over the company we looked at what we had, and what we had was a bunch of old junk,” Mark remembers. While the company had previously worked mostly with small, private landowners, the brothers sought to grow into larger industrial timberland work. This required more productive and more reliable equipment. Turner Logging’s first thinning iron lineup included a Diamond D210 swing yarder bought in ’96 and a Kobelco 210 with jammer package in ’98. “We were really gearing up for thinning,” Turner recalls. “We enjoyed doing it and a lot of other loggers didn’t want to do it so we felt like we were developing a good niche.” A Diamond D2000 yarder was purchased in 2000, then it was replaced by a Diamond 2646 with 2,500 ft. skyline reach in 2008. Yet all the crews could do with the new yarder for a few months in 2008 was look at it after the bottom fell out of the economy and loggers across the country were shut down. Turner still has bad memories of the time, when state timber sale purchasers were given some relief from their contracts while loggers were just sent home. “We went from full employment to nothing in a week,” Turner remembers. “We got all the employees together, explained the situation, put together a plan to keep their health insurance and tried to weather the storm.” It was almost three months before Turner Logging was able to get another job going.
Operations Today one of Turner Logging cable-thinning crews revolves around a Diamond D2646 swing yarder and the other around a Kobelco 210 loader that features a Jewell jammer package. A mix of log loaders and processor equipped-excavators support each crew, and there’s enough spare iron to run a small shovel-logging side if needed. Greg operates the ground-based side while Mark does most of the running around, looking at timber and bidding jobs. Mark also runs all the yarding corridors and handles pre-job layout work for the yarder side, which he 10
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Skilled jammer operation adds to company’s flexibility and proficiency.
oversees along with yarder engineer Garland Shipley. “Sometimes we can put the whole crew on the same job and that’s when we can be most efficient, when we’re both on-site and Greg’s crew can pick up the short corridors,” Mark says, adding that his brother is a highly skilled jammer operator with both tongs and chokers. “We work really well together, always have.” Mark and Greg’s sister, Diane, accounts for all of the loads shipped and does all of the accounting for subcontractors as well. Greg’s wife, Julie, Diane Turner Maller does payroll and manages the insurance. Altogether Turner Logging employs 16, including the Turners and a full-time shop employee. “We have one guy who’s been with us 20 years, another for 19 years and I know Garland has been with us 16 years, so our average seniority is definitely 10-plus years, because even the ‘new’ employees, now that I think about it, have been with us longer than that,” Turner exclaims. The company offers health insurance and a 401k program. “We offer a good policy because basically if our guys don’t get health insurance from us they’re probably not going to get it,” Turner says. “We’ve determined that it’s really important, and we go out of our way to do what we can to help them out.”
While his brother and some employees are “late adopters” when it comes to technology such as smart phones and e-mail, Mark says he’s always sought to utilize the latest technology in operating the business.
Technology Turner Logging keeps its business accounting with Quickbooks software and Ticket Tracker Accounting software for log accounting. All pertinent data for each completed job is put into a PDF file that notes production and costs. The files are used to help determine job bids for future work. A good example of Turner’s use of technology is the touch-screen GPS he uses to scout new jobs and lay out yarding corridors. It has a special feature that shows terrain, and Turner correlates it with Google Earth and a topo map to give a realistic picture of a potential timber sale. “It really helps with laying out corridors because you can truly see what’s on the ground, he explains. “You can see the lay of the land, mark a landing spot and see where you need to be to get the lift and angles you need.” He adds that since he began using the GPS he seldom does any backtracking and can sometimes run corridors both ways, coming from and going to the landing. Once Turner is finished marking the corridors, when the rigging crew arrives he hands the hook tender a map with all landings and the corridors running off each one pre-located and numbered. “When he starts stringing haywire to get the skyline out, he doesn’t have to spend a lot of time figuring things
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out,” Turner says. The result is a better-planned operation, and also more productivity that allows Turner to do more with his days that include lots of job scouting and finding jobs that match the company’s capabilities.
On Site Timber Harvesting visited Turner Logging at the end of fire season in early fall 2015. The company was working two jobs on state of Oregon and Bureau of Land Management (BLM) land, respectively, but grappling with state fire restrictions that required all operations to cease by 1 p.m. The 350 acre sale in the Tillamook State Forest was a testament to sustainable forestry in that it was located in what had been a treeless moonscape in the 1930s after the historic Tillamook Burn. The sale was all thinning, with various leave tree prescriptions in different areas. About 40% of the sale was ground-based skidding; the remainder called for yarder operations. The job was yielding mostly Douglas fir with some hemlock—nice timber 50-60 years old. Logs were going to Stimson Lumber’s Forest Grove facility, Hampton Lumber’s Tillamook sawmill and Banks Lumber in Banks. A big issue confronting Turner Logging at the time was the sale’s purchaser, a longtime customer, who had made a decision not allowing Turners to operate a yarder due to fire danger even though state forestry officials had granted a waiver to operate until 1 p.m. The move had forced some equipment shuffling, with the Kobelco 210
Timbco fells and processes.
jammer moving onto the site and doing the log moving, handling stems that had been contractor hand-falled then hand-bucked at he stump. A Kobelco 150 shovel loader was working above the jammer, handling logs and loading trucks. “We’ve been doing as much cutting as we can with machines,” Turner says. “It’s getting tougher to find hand fallers, plus the yarding is more efficient.” The larger, more than 100 ft. tall timber on the sale was better suited to hand bucking, according to him. On the 300 acre BLM sale, the operation was moving Douglas fir and hemlock primarily to Hampton Lumber facilities. On a ground-based hillside, the crew was felling and processing with a Timbco 445D feller-buncher with Keto processing head; 210 Kobelco with 622B Waratah processing head; and a 260 Kobelco with 622B Waratah processing head. A Doosan DX 225LL loader and Ko-
Doosan shovels and decks logs and also loads trucks.
belco 210 loader were handling logs and loading trucks. A cousin of the Turners was running a Link-Belt 210 shovel-logging machine on another part of the tract as a subcontractor. The concentration of machinery reflected the yarder shutdown on the other job, and the size of the BLM sale. “Normally we wouldn’t have all these machines on one job, but it’s a bigger sale with almost 10 million board feet, and we need more capacity,” Turner said. “Normally the Doosan operates under the yarder, and we’ll move it back next week.” Most of Turner Logging’s log hauling duties are handled by numerous independent contractors. Most of them have been hauling for the Turners for more than 10 years. Laurence Lardy Trucking has been there for more than 20 years. Turner Logging does operate one log truck, an ’07 Kenworth. “We want to make sure we understand the costs involved in hauling, and it’s also convenient when we need to shuttle a load of logs or get in a bind, and we can do it ourselves,” Turner says. The company also has a pole trailer to help when taking out pole trees, plus a lowboy package with ’89 Kenworth tractor. Additional and spare equipment includes a Cat D4H TSK with ESCO swing boom grapple, D7G Cat, 550 Case, Kobelco 200 and Komatsu PC75UU excavators, Deere road grader and Kenworth dump truck.
Issues In addition to all the work involved with running a logging company, Turner has also worked closely with Associated Oregon Loggers (AOL), serving as the organization’s President in 2015. Two of the biggest issues he sees are labor and succession and fire/ weather concerns. He had talked with AOL Executive Director Jim Geisinger about a recent gathering of timber company executives where they voiced concern about having enough contractors in the future (no doubt to keep log costs down), without once mentioning the need for choker setters, yarder engineers, equipment operators and others who make a logging company go. “I remember thinking these guys don’t know anything about what’s going on,” Turner says. Even though they’re both in their mid 50s, Turner says he and his
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brother are considered “younger loggers” compared to others. “Most of the other guys are in their late 50s, 60s and 70s,” he adds. Within the company, Greg’s son Colton has shown some real promise and potential when working during the summers while attending college. “We’re not sure exactly what he wants to do, but he could be a big benefit for us.” Visiting a logger at the end of a tough Northwest fire season is sure to provoke some comments and Turner is no different, but he adds that loggers are now taking more hits from both ends of the weather spectrum, winter and summer. Contractor Brent Tannock starts another journey to the mill. “A big challenge is fire issues. These kinds of summers really hauling and other operating restrictions, eat into profits, and it’s also getting especially on public land, now there are harder to operate full-time in the winmore complete shutdowns. ter here,” Turner says. If we can’t log as much in the winter, Loggers in the region have dealt with in the summer we really have to make winter rains forever, and while contracbank,” Turner says. “There’s more work tors had been seeing increased winter in the summer and a lot more competi-
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tion for fewer sales in the winter, which means you have to bid lower.” For timber companies hoping to ensure “enough” contractors in the future, policies such as shutting his yarder down when the state allowed it are particularly counterproductive, and ironic. “We’re seeing increased regulations from the state, feds and even timber companies themselves,” Turner says. “They should understand that if we can’t log we can’t make money and won’t be around.” More recently, Turner reports a tough winter weather-wise. A super-wet December, including 17 straight days of rain at one point and the wettest December on record in many nearby towns, led to “quite a few restrictions” on winter operations. Also, the company has ordered a new Hitachi 210 with Jewell Mfg. boom, jammer package and extra winch to operate as both jammer and “yoader.” when needed. TH
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Chipola Timber Ups Its Game Northwest Florida company blends procurement, logging, marketing, administration.
P
JAYDonnell
ositive market developments have enabled Chipola Timber Harvesting (CTH) of Chipley, Fla. to expand from four company crews to six in the past year, with the most recent addition coming earlier this year. Located in the Florida panhandle, the organization’s goal is to harvest 375 loads per week. Recent upgrades at Rex Lumber Co. sawmills in Graceville and Bristol. Fla., and Spanish Trail Lumber Co. in Cypress, Fla., longtime markets for CTH, meant more lumber production coming out of the mills and the need for more logs coming in. CTH was up to the task. “We had such a backlog of timber to harvest that we decided to fire up this
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sixth crew. We feel like that’s the environment we’re going to be in for quite a while,” says co-owner David Morris. CTH harvests pine almost exclusively. Products include pulpwood, chip-n-saw, larger sawlogs and poles. In addition to the Rex Lumber and Spanish Trail Lumber facilities, CTH serves WestRock in Panama City, Fla., Abbeville, Ala., and Cottonton, Ala.; Enviva in Cottondale, Fla.; and Georgia-Pacific in Hosford, Fla., Brewton, Ala., and Cedar Springs, Ga. Recently CTH had two crews in Bay County, two in Liberty County, one in Gulf County and another in Bar-
bour County (Ala.). These are threeman cutter-skidder-loader crews, but two crews often include a fourth man and second skidder as needed and determined by skid distance. The ever-growing developments at Chipola Timber are the continuation of a remarkable story that began with the new millennium, when Morris, Barry McGaughey and Cheryl Martin formed Panhandle Forestry Services, Inc. (PFS).
Opportunity Arises When U.S. Forest Industries, Inc. went bankrupt in 1999, it left several
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timber buyers, procurement personnel and contract logging operations wondering what to do next. Two of those employees, McGaughey and Morris, had extensive experience with several companies in timber procurement for sawmills, paper mills and chip mills, so they decided this was their opportunity to create something of their own. In 2000, McGaughey, Morris and controller Martin started PFS and began working closely with many of the logging contractors that had been “set adrift” by the demise of U.S. Forest Industries. Almost immediately, as the industry oscillated through one of its oversupply cycles, they ran into restrictive quotas; they had a six load weekly pine pulpwood quota for one mill and sporadic wood orders from others. They also encountered the prevailing feedback from the area wood supply chain, as McGaughey recalls, “that we should go away.” But PFS didn’t go away, remaining flexible and resilient. McGaughey and Morris carefully moved forward. “We slowly amassed a logging force the old way,” McGaughey reflects. “We financially assumed the liability of the man we hired and helped them man-
age their business toward success— partners, not sharecroppers.” Fast forward to today. The company marketed 1,164,000 tons of wood in 2015. In addition to McGaughey, Morris and Taylor, the staff includes office administrators Cheryl Martin and Amber Jimenez, who have a combined 40 years of timber industry experience, and newcomer Amy Howard; three procurement foresters in Charles Brasington (18 years experience), Tim Free (25 years) and Doug Loy (15 years); and two reforestation employees, Jeff Allan (20 years), and Mark Register (15 years). Morris has special praise for the office staff, which stays abreast of transactions for PFS, CTH and D&S. “It’s as good as there is in the industry,” he asserts. “There is rarely anything that slips through the cracks and there’s a lot that goes through this office. Mills that we supply often rely upon our accounting precision.” PFS subcontracts with 15 independent logging contractors, who produce timber marketed through PFS. Of the 15, seven are part of a core that operates exclusively with PFS, which has assisted several of them in establishing independent banking
relationships. Permanent contract loggers include Robert Mills of Mills Timber Harvesting, Harold Boykin of B&B Logging, Bob Crosby of B&T Forestry, Billy & Jeremy Bryan of Bryan & Sons Logging, Jeff O’Brian of Longleaf Timber Products, Stanley & Tracy Richardson of North Bay Timber, Clay Shannon of Canal Wood, LLC (with multiple crews under his supervision), and Randy Morris of Randy Morris, LLC. “These contractors, many of whom have been with us from the beginning, are our friends and allies and an integral part of our identity,” McGaughey emphasizes.
New Model In 2004 PFS hired Dwayne Taylor, whom Morris had repeatedly approached to join the team. Taylor, a third generation logger, had worked in the woods for 13 years for two area loggers before forming D&S Logging in 1995—named for Dwayne and his wife, Sherri. The addition of Taylor provided the company with a logging contractor who had a positive reputation and valuable insight into the nuts and bolts of logging. This was the impetus that helped bring about a more integrated
Some of Chipola’s dozen Tigercat skidders feature a “Turnaround” operator console which, among other benefits, reduces operator fatigue. Foremost Authority For Professional Loggers
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wood fiber supply model: “One operated on sound business practices, one that could be expanded rapidly with a goal to be the best, with a hard working forestry services company in our area; honoring God and treating people as we would like to be treated,” the principals proudly point out. McGaughey and Morris had contemplated setting up logging crews of their own, deciding to team up with Taylor and create CTH in 2007. D&S Logging, Inc. became the trucking arm. PFS continued to operate as a timber procurement and brokerage business, while the newly formed CTH became the stump-to-truck production arm.
In-House Logging This isn’t the first time CTH has run six crews. “We had six before and shrunk it down to four,” Morris informs. “We’re flexible. If it tightens up we can scale down or we can grow, depending on what our environment is. When you have good people around you, it’s easier to manage.” One of CTH’s crews was clear-cutting a 205-acre tract on gentle to challenging hilly terrain in Alabama when Timber Harvesting visited. It was expected to yield more than 20,000 tons and take seven to eight weeks to harvest. The job was an hour and a half from CTH’s home office. This three-man crew, which is referred to as Crew 4, consists of foreman/loader operator Dewayne Walters, cutter operator Alan Walters, and skidder operator Bryan Curry. Walters has been logging for 32 years and started working for PFS as a contract logger when PFS started in 2000. In 2010 he sold his company to PFS and began working for CTH. He enjoys his current status. Last year his crew cut, sorted and loaded 107,000 tons. He proudly notes the team averages between 75-80 loads a week with one skidder. “We get out of his way and just let him go,” McGaughey says of Walters. “He is a proven individual in all aspects.” Walters’ crew features a Tigercat 620E skidder and Tigercat 720E feller-buncher, machines Walters firmly believes in. “Tigercat has come a long way,” he says. “When you come up in these hills and slicks, it’s going to get tested.” Walters operates a Barko 495ML loader on his job. Other crews owned and run by CTH 16
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Chipola owners, from left, Barry McGaughey, Dwayne Taylor, David Morris
are: Crew 1: foreman Sam Burnham, 25 years of experience; Crew 2: foreman Kevin Simpson, 20 years; Crew 3: foreman Charles Paul, 25 years; Crew 5: foreman Milton Rushing, 25 years; Crew 6: foreman Clint Barefield, 10 years. CTH employs approximately 23, including shop personnel Leve Dumas, outside service who brings 25 years of mechanical, electrical and hydraulic prowess to the ongoing success of the operation; Chris Vaughn, truck fleet manager with 20 years of oversight ability; and Todd Jenkins and Randy Beck, support staff in training. Chipola-owned crews run basically identical machine sets, which range from several years old to new. CTH buys new Tigercat skidders and new Barko loaders and looks for low-hour Tigercat feller-bunchers, but when such low-hour machines are not available, they purchase new Tigercats. Their primary equipment dealers are Tidewater Equipment in Evergreen, Ala., and Knight Forestry in Whigham, Ga. In 2015 the business purchased two Tigercat 620E skidders and a Barko 495ML loader. “The 620E is more fuel efficient than the 620D model,” Taylor says. Morris, McGaughey and Taylor have all been impressed with the performance of the new equipment. It doesn’t take long to accumulate a lot of hours. “People are astonished at how many hours we have put on some of our equipment,” McGaughey says. “We have one Tigercat skidder that has 20,000 hours on it. They’re rebuildable.” When evaluating equipment, McGaughey says they’re not beyond doing “the Pepsi challenge”—running different makes of equipment side-by-side.
They’re routinely approached to fieldtrial other brands but to date have always come back to Tigercat and Barko. The current lineup includes two ’15 Tigercat 620E skidders, a ’15 Barko 495ML loader, three ’14 Barko 495ML loaders, a ’13 Tigercat 620D skidder, ’12 Tigercat 720E feller-buncher, two ’11 Tigercat 720E feller-bunchers, two ’11 Tigercat 620D skidders, one ’12 Barko 595 loader, a ’10 Tigercat 724E feller-buncher and a ’09 Tigercat 718E feller-buncher. A 650 John Deere crawler is manned by Billy Joe Mitchell for building roads and cleaning up property. Machines are greased three times a week at the end of each day and oil is changed every 250 hours. Chevron Delo oil (15W-40) is preferred. CTH mainly runs Firestone and Primex tires on harvesting equipment. It spends an estimated $250,000 per year on parts, supplies and repairs. Equipment vandalism has been a minor issue, with only a handful of mostly minor incidents. Fuel being stolen prompted CTH to post signs that warn about job site surveillance cameras.
Trucking D&S runs 28 Mack trucks, all fitted with Fleetmatics GPS tracking for their IFTA (International Fuel Tax Agreement) reporting for three states. These quarterly fuel tax reports include mileage traveled, destinations and gallons purchased and are used to determine net tax or refund due the jurisdictions. The Fleetmatics system also is used to schedule maintenance. It alerts management and the shop of services due and scheduling. During that service, the driver is provided a
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spare truck and trailer to use for the day. Inspections are performed on trucks and trailers during these out-ofservice intervals. In addition, the program provides speed and location data in the event of an accident. Crew foremen have access to truck locations via smart phone. “Routinely running in three states, the GPS tracking has become a go-to feature we are sold on,” Morris says. CTH runs primarily Pitts Loadpayin’ series and some Pitts plantation trailers. To date D&S has installed Vulcan on-board scales on about half of its trucks, doing one to three at a time. This process started in response to stringent monitoring and grading of payload targets on St. Joe Land Co. timberland. D&S soon realized that aside from the liability of overloading, the real benefit is in not being underloaded, but overweight fines have also been minimized. D&S specifies trucks with lighter weight components. Hiring good truck drivers can be a bit of an issue because of insurance rates. “The better your insurance rate, the more difficult it is to find a driver because the standards are higher,” McGaughey explains. “We have people that we know are good drivers and grew up doing it, but the insurance companies won’t pass them for some reason that we really don’t understand. We want to have a high standard, but that makes it more difficult to find people that the insurance company will approve.”
Insurance rates themselves have remained stable, he says, with no issues with availability. D&S experiences one to two claims per year on average. D&S employs 21 drivers. When a new driver is hired he/she must first ride along with an experienced driver to get a better feel for how D&S operates, and less experienced drivers are required to “co-pilot” a minimum of five days. Drivers aren’t necessarily assigned to the same logging crew. Low fuel prices have obviously benefited CTH and D&S over the past year. But Morris notes hearing of mills in the area wanting to lower cut and haul rates because of the drop in fuel costs. “They don’t look at what’s happened to hydraulic oil, which hasn’t really gone down in price,” Morris says. “Equipment costs have gone up pretty drastically, maybe 20%. The only thing that’s gone down is fuel; everything else has gone up.” Drivers are paid by the load with a minimum daily rate, plus bonuses. Unloading times at the mills are generally relatively brief, Morris reports.
Employment Utility man Donny Pendleton holds monthly safety meetings for each harvesting crew. Separate meetings are held for truck drivers. Pendleton also fills in as a truck driver or machine operator. While CTH has grown in size and stature, it still has employee turn-
The felling/loading tandem: Tigercat and Barko MARCH/APRIL 2016 19
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over. But the phone still rings regularly from those looking to join the company. The business is a member of a drug testing employment consortium. Much of the labor issue can be attributed to the lack of public education about the logging industry and the lack of exposure teenagers have to the industry, McGaughey believes. “They’re not exposed to it until they’re already into something else and there aren’t training mechanisms for them anymore. You would think a community college would offer a program where you come to the field and shadow or drive with a driver. Just something to expose them to job opportunities. You get people who know how to do it because their dad did it and that’s the pool you have to choose from.” He laments that labor laws don’t allow young adults in the woods for exposure. “I would say our best employees are those who went to the woods with their father and grandfather and learned the work ethic that built this country.” McGaughey says the reality of the situation is that some of his guys running a tractor make more income than
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Chipola’s goal is to harvest 375 loads a week.
a lot of kids who get out of college with a four-year degree, and if they stick with it they can make a very good living. Despite these issues CTH seems to be thriving. Dwayne, 54, and David, 46, plan on running the business for many
years to come. Barry, 64, is inching closer to retirement. “When he gets ready to retire we’ll continue on just like we’ve always done,” Morris says. PFS is a member of the Florida Forestry Assn. and Southeastern Wood TH Producers Assn.
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Seamless Transition
Forest Family Series
Planning maneuver paved the way for Hardwicks to continue on strong course.
S
WENDYFarrand
ustainability is a word that’s heard daily in the forest products industry. Donnie Hardwick Sr. took that term far beyond forest management and applied it directly to his family business. A legacy that can be matched by no other is the ability to work hard, maintain honesty, build integrity, and survive into the future. In 1978, like most loggers in the Northeast, Donnie Sr., at age 19, started logging with a chain saw and a
skidder, a John Deere 440 cable model. Later, his wife Teri, and eventually, their four sons—Donnie Jr., Jeb, Ben, and Joey, joined him. The family incorporated in 1986 and became D.H. Hardwick & Sons Inc., the well-known New Hampshire logging business that exists today. The family headquarters is located in Bennington, a small town in the picturesque Mount Monadnock region in the southern part of the state. Spe-
cializing in logging and land clearing, the company deploys two fully mechanized whole tree operations involving 20 employees. The sons handle everything in the woods, including trucking. Hardwick & Sons also has a construction side and operates a sand and gravel pit. Very professionally operated, Hardwick maintains a web site and uses its attractive chip vans to advertise the company and promote the forest prod-
D.H. Hardwick & Sons uses its trucks and trailers as a “rolling billboard” to project a positive image about the forest products industry.
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ucts industry. For example, the vans carry the company’s logo and the message, “Local Wood, Local Good.” Also appearing is the question, “How have Forest Products touched your life today?” The message also encourages the public to “Support Sustainable Forestry.” The year 2004 was a red letter one for the company in that it was honored as the NH Timberland Owners Assn. Outstanding Logger, the Northeastern Logger’s Assn.’s Outstanding Logging Operator, and the Forest Resources Assn.’s (FRA) Regional Outstanding Logger. The latter qualified Hardwick as a finalist for FRA’s National Outstanding Logger Award. What used to be a winding woods road into the middle of one of their woodlots now serves as the driveway entrance to their main office and business compound, which consists of the office, maintenance facility, sand/gravel pit, and bulk fuel storage area. The latter was an investment that seemed hard to justify years ago but it has paid off far more than the family could have imagined. It has saved the business money, thus helping sustain it—just another way Donnie Sr. looked to the future for the sake of his family.
of the hands-on tasks, while learning how to delegate. They rallied, and because of the foresight and intuition of husband and dad, were able to smooth out the bumps and carry on. Donnie Sr. made sure his legacy extended beyond money and business to include an acute work ethic, accountability and a strong respect for the forest as a renewable resource. D.H. Hardwick’s slogan is “We stake our reputation on your satisfaction.” This slogan is reflected by the things they do in the woods and indicates that the attitude and values instilled by Donnie Sr. are still in play. Jasen Stock, Executive Director of New Hampshire Timber Owners Assn.,
Running a sustainable business means not only keeping up with business trends but also technological advances. Hardwick’s recently updated web site, the result of much of Teri’s hard work, originated in 2006. She learned a lot about SEO, or search engine optimization, and Word Press, giving her the skills to update and control the site. Teri emphasizes the web site’s value: “People will notice our trailers on the road, or see our operations at a jobsite, then they’ll go home and look us up online.” When asked about Facebook, Teri admits she was slow to warm up to the idea, but once the page was up and running, she realized how powerful of
Succession Planning Planning for the end of life is a selfless act that most people tend to avoid. The Hardwick enterprise lives on because of the founder’s keen business acumen and decision to plan ahead. In mid-summer 2012 Donnie Sr. lost his battle with cancer at 53, but his decision to look ahead set his family on a strong course to continue what he began. “Once my husband and I knew our kids had a true interest in logging, we knew we needed to act on planning for our business succession,” says matriarch Teri. She speaks with great pride about how they were prepared for the business to transfer seamlessly to the next generation. Teri would love for loggers everywhere to think about estate planning. “It makes good sense for us all to spend our energy to focus on the ‘here and now,’ but I highly suggest putting aside some time for the ‘after,’” she says. Adjusting to their new business structure while grieving the loss of father, husband and leader was no easy feat. Teri recalls the biggest struggle for the entire family was time management, and letting go of some
The Hardwick family, from left, Ben, Don Jr., Teri, Joey, Jeb. (Photo: Ned Therrian)
sums it up: “D.H. Hardwick & Sons is committed to long-term forest management. This commitment can be seen in the quality of the work they do on the ground. It is also evident in the conservation work they have done on some of their own lands through conservation easements that will protect the land from development, and at the same time insure it remains a viable part of the state’s working forest and economy.” The concepts behind sustainable forest management live on through the family’s commitment to establishing conservation easements that provide work for the future generations of Hardwicks while also protecting forests. Creating a sustainable business takes commitment, strategic planning and focus.
a tool it could be. They advertise open positions, educate the public as to what good forest management looks like, connect with other industry professionals and use it as an instrument to educate their employees and others in the industry. “I try to post something relevant to our company every month,” she says. “The newest post will be the Hours of Service Rule for truck drivers, the ELD (Electronic Log Device) Rule just started Feb 16th.” She is learning a lot along the way and overall feels this is definitely a valuable use of her time, and an asset to the business.
Family Teri feels that the strong heritage of a logging family is what keeps them
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Using various types and brands of equipment, the company harvests/sorts/chips about 139,000 tons per year.
close. “I consider the fact that we are a family business a bonus,” she says with a smile. Together they deal with the rising cost of equipment, trucks, and supplies and the fact that markets fluctuate without keeping up with inflation. Dealing with the day-to-day stress of logging can, and does, result in occasional disagreements. Teri’s eyes smile, recalling how her late husband refused to call such disagreements arguments. “We like to call them family debates,” she says with a chuckle. “The important part is we are willing to listen to each other, and all the different ideas that come out.” Loggers around the world face the same strain, and Teri feels that the common thread shared among the family is that they support each other through the ups and downs of doing business. “Loggers have a special connection and historic camaraderie,” she acknowledges. “I know many loggers will say ‘never start a new job on Friday;’ that it is an omen and will make bad things happen. This is the kind of thing that ties our rare breed together,” Teri says. She is proud that they maintain a friendship with many employees who have come and gone. “They are all a piece of our history,” she asserts.
The Boys Of March Many say that logging is a way of life, and the Hardwick family gives new meaning to that phrase. Dedication to keeping their business strong goes hand 26
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in hand with keeping their family strong. All four sons took accelerated courses or attended night school in order to graduate high school early to work in the woods every day. They all live within miles of each other, celebrate birthdays together, hunt together and have children close in age—“in batches,” as Teri refers to it. Interestingly, the Hardwick sons were all born in March. Donnie Jr. was born on March 8, 1983 and Jeb arrived one year later on the same day. Ben, the next to the youngest, missed arriving on March 8th by 4 hours one year later in 1985, showing up early on the 7th. Joey, the youngest, was due on the eighth, but disrupted the pattern by showing up a couple days late on the 10th! Teri jokes that it appears like they planned “mud season babies” but confirms they did not. Reminiscing about the years when all the boys were young, she is quick to praise her mother-in-law, Dot Hardwick, who worked as bookkeeper back then, and still works in the office today at the age of 79! The office, with its warm wood paneling, serves as a hub for the family’s business, personal and family lives. There is a front-to-back family room that serves as a gathering spot for the whole family. Toys, books, games and a wall-mounted TV are there to entertain the visiting grandchildren who will become the next generation of Hardwick loggers. Stately deer head mounts cover the walls—trophies for a family of avid
hunters. On the first day of hunting season it is tradition that the family gathers there for a mid-day snack. Whether they draw a check or not, all the wives are very much involved as well, according to Teri: “All the wives have put time in at the office over the past 10 years, and know the business pretty well. They hear about the weekly events, and definitely know when we have a bad week! The guys take it home with them, and work discussions are almost always included in family gatherings.” Teri is working to make sure that her daughters-in-law know enough about the support side of the business, should anything happen to her. She is working hard to schedule and document all the things she does by utilizing technology in the office. Donnie Sr.’s legacy was more than job security; it was a conscious effort to train the sons in good business practices, and the ins and outs of running a successful logging company. Donnie Sr. schooled his boys on the job every day. They learned how to sustain strong business relationships in order to get things done. The boys learned early on how to tweak equipment, handle breakdowns and who to call with maintenance issues. That hands-on learning experience helped to mold them into the keen professionals they are today. “They are not only excellent operators but are great at managing and have great communications skills,” she beams. Donnie Jr. followed in his father’s
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footsteps and gradually took on more tasks: bidding jobs, contract negotiations and running from place to place, along with operating the slasher and chipping. He did this up until about a year ago, when Ben trained a skidder operator how to slash and chip. Now Donnie Jr. hits the road full time, juggling all the responsibilities in order to annually move 139,000 tons of products, 75% of which is low grade. They lean heavy towards firewood, and softwood and hardwood pulp, and chip both bole and whole tree chips. Jeb runs a skidder and looks after the maintenance shop, which is now staffed with full time help. Teri feels the training Jeb received from Donnie Sr. and hands-on experience in the shop over the years make him a better manager. “Hands on training is important, “she emphasizes, “if you have not lived in someone’s shoes, it is harder to orchestrate for them, and you have a better appreciation for the work they do.” Ben is number one on the landing. He’s a seasoned slasher/chipper operator with the knowledge of logistics and wood processing that helps cushion the company’s profit margin. Ben’s juggling skills, (yes, he is a bonafide juggler), helps keep the wood processed and sorted while dispatching trucks. Joey can jump into any machine on a moment’s notice and perform 100%. He is a master feller- buncher operator, and for a while cut for two crews, putting in some 100 hour week. “He sees a woodlot like no other, and foresters just love him,” says Teri. She shares how he has the ability to receive a verbal prescription and apply it with unbelievable results. He also has a wealth of knowledge when it comes to machines and trucks.
Shop/office/fuel depot is located adjacent to sand/gravel pit.
costs and aid in daily maintenance. “Sometimes it takes very little time and investment to increase productivity with innovative ideas. A well thought out plan to modify existing equipment can result in cost savings as well as increased production,” Teri notes. This company’s strict attention to minimizing waste, shortening cycle times, and improving safety have led to many in-house modifications. Every piece of equipment is looked at with an eye for improvement to find ways to do more with less, and faster to boot. The end result over the long run is to increase the bottom line. Their newest TimberPro feller buncher, a ’15 TL745C, is a gem that was custom painted black and outfitted to satisfy Joey’s specific wants and needs. “They put heavier compensator
Other
Innovation Process improvement and innovation are key to sustaining a strong logging business. Analyzing the process in search of ways to improve is one hallmark of this company’s reputation. Some of their creative ideas have worked to save them time and money while lessening the impact their equipment has on the environment. Their 2014 TimberPro 745 was factory modified to the their specifications. It has a longer track frame to minimize ground pressure, a longer reach to minimize damage to regeneration stems, and other modifications to decrease repair 28
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springs and different spools in the valve bank to create more flow to speed up the booms,” Joey explains. “It also has more horsepower and a bigger saw pump to help productivity.” The shiny black color gives it a stealth look. According to Joey, black was chosen simply to match the color of his truck. “TimberPro will paint it any color you want. I love to run this machine, which is considerably better on fuel. On the right woodlot I can put down 40 loads per day with this machine.” In addition to the two TimberPro feller-bunchers, both of which swing model 22C360 Quadco sawheads, the company runs two Morbark chippers. One job has a 2010 Prentice (Rotobec grapple) with 2010 Prentice delimber, and a Propac 500 slasher. The second job has a ’13 Caterpillar 559 loader (Rotobec grapple) with CTR delimber and Propac 500 slasher. They also have four John Deere 848H skidders, ranging from 2011-2014. Haul trucks consist of 10 Western Stars, two Fords, one Sterling and one Peterbilt. Their construction equipment leans heavily toward John Deere.
This ’15 TimberPro f-b was customized to Joey’s specific wants and needs.
Supporting their industry, D.H. Hardwick & Sons is a long time member of New Hampshire Timberland Owners Assn. and New Hampshire Farm Bureau Federation. The company is certified by NH Professional Loggers program and licensed to harvest timber in Massachusetts. The Hardwicks are dedicated to their community, where the family sponsors and supports local activities. One of the favorites for the wives is the annual Festival of Trees in Antrim. The wives involve everyone, including their 12 children, in planning and decorating a tree with handmade ornaments. TH
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2016 OLC Offers New Technology Cross-laminated timber, tethered felling draw interest.
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lear skies greeted loggers from across the Pacific Northwest who made the trek to the 78th Oregon Logging Conference (OLC) here at the Lane County Fairgrounds in late February. Loggers who made the trip to the 2016 OLC were welcomed by the latest in logging technology and machinery, educational opportunities and more. The OLC’s 2016 theme “Reaching New Heights With Forest Products,” reflected not only the latest in logging technology machinery on display, but also seminars and workshops centered around the theme. Show officials were happy with the event, noting that an estimated 6,000 people attended during all three days of the OLC. “This year’s gathering
Oregon SpeedMax XL .404 Harvester Bar with new replaceable nose sprocket
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The 2016 OLC's thousands of visitors and exhibitors was the best since 2008.
was the biggest since 2008,” according to OLC Conference Manager Rikki Wellman. “There were more exhibi-
Summit Attachments' tethered felling system boom attachment
Pierce Grapple Processor
tors this year, both outside and inside at the fairgrounds.” According to 2016 OLC President
Tigercat LX870C f-b with ER Technology boom system and Tigercat 5702 sawhead
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Jeff Unger of Unger Logging, Reedsport, Ore., “The theme reflects how today’s innovations and modern technology in logging equipment are helping our industry grow with more productive and operator-friendly machines.” Of particular interest was a discussion about cross laminated timber (CLT) building products. Both Oregon State University Dean of Forestry Thomas Maness and Vancouver, BC architect Michael Green describe the use of wood when constructing tall buildings as “game changing.” Mannes said with a CLT plant in southern Oregon already expanding and CLT showcase projects going up in Portland, Oregon can “lead the way” in the new demand for cross laminated timbers. Green called using wood to build tall buildings “the most environmentally appropriate way to build our cities in the future.” One topic that interested many loggers in attendance was steep slope felling systems and the introduction of “tethered” felling machines to the Pacific Northwest that allow access to slopes previously considered too steep to harvest mechanically. A typical system includes a tracked feller-buncher tethered by cable to an excavator at the top of the slope that has a specialized boom attachment and
winch system enabling the f-b to operate and maneuver safely on ultra-steep slopes. Two companies displayed tethered felling attachments in the outdoor display area: Technical Forest Solutions of Kelso, Wash., formed by longtime loggers Frank Chandler and Frank Chandler Jr. of C&C Logging, was promoting the Tractionline system imported from New Zealand. Summit Attachments & Machinery, also in Kelso, is operated by logger Eric Krume and winch and attachment industry veteran Bruce Skurdahl. The steep slope harvesting topic was also covered in a well-attended seminar. Multiple factors come into play with such systems, including getting occupational health authorities to sign off on their safety and the willingness of landowners to spec or require the system on their tracts. (Look for a special report on tethered felling technology in an upcoming issue of Timber Harvesting.) In other show news: ● A big story going around the OLC was the acquisition of log processing head manufacturer Southstar by longtime sawhead and attachment manufacturer Quadco. Launched by Waratah Group founder Dave Cochrane in 2007, Southstar entered the North American market in 2012. Quadco is based near Montreal, with Canadian
operations in Quebec and British Columbia. Quadco’s U.S. division has facilities in Lexington, SC and Longview, Wash. ● Educational efforts supported by the OLC Foundation got a boost from a two-day auction that raised $27,000 and will provide scholarships to deserving students who are studying in forestry and logging-related fields. ● After three tries overall and coming oh so close twice when he finished second in 2011 and 2014, Zane Bryant of Bryant Logging in Beaver Creek, Ore. took home the first place trophy at the OLC’s 2016 Log Loader Competition, sponsored by Triad Machinery and Link-Belt. The top three also included two past loader competition winners in second place finisher Bryan Chipps of Green Diamond Resource in Korbel, Calif. and third place operator Ross Cribbs of Van Well Timber in Dallas, Ore. (Chipps had won the competition in 2015, and Cribbs won it in 2014.) Interestingly, only three seconds separated all three as Bryant won with a time of 3:29 while Chipps and Cribbs tied at 3:32. ● Retired Rosboro Lumber timber cruiser Roger Goodwin won a $250 Cabela’s gift card as winner of the “Guess the Load” contest where visitors guess the board feet in a load of logs. TH
Peterson 6710D horizontal grinder
Deere 2954D with Southstar QS605 grapple processor head Technical Forest Solutions' Tractionline tethered felling system Link-Belt 3740 w/ LogMax 7000XT Extreme head
Waratah HTH-623C harvesting head
Wood-Mizer LT70 Super Wide sawing system
Deere 859M f-b with Quadco 24B sawhead
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Trucking Issues Dominate SCTPA Meeting DK KNIGHT
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important trucking element, Locklear asserted, pointing out that conscientious ones are aging and new candidates are hard to find. He noted that willing drivers often cannot pass a drug test or meet insurance/government requirements, and some are simply not capable of handling a loaded log truck. Other driver stumbling blocks include relatively low pay that can be impacted by weather, markets, and long lines at the mill; low freight rates; few if any benefits; inherent health issues (limited physical activity); little opportunity for advancement; unforgiving off-road conditions; and high workers’ comp costs. Biggs noted that new drivers tend to have the most accidents, “then it levels out for a few years before trending up again as experienced drivers become somewhat complacent.” He pointed out that many employers pay drivers by the load, tempting some to speed, and that a majority of truck accidents are related to speed. On the workers’ comp front, he said 23% of Forestry Mutual’s claims involve truck drivers, noting that not all claims stem from traffic mishaps. Hervey encouraged business owners to be diligent in hiring—“don’t hire your next workers’ comp claim; ask questions; call previous employers; do a careful MVR review”—and to be selective in assigning new hires to a ve-
rucking issues dominated the program and conversation at the 17th annual meeting of the South Carolina Timber Producers Assn. (SCTPA), held in Myrtle Beach February 5-7. There was also lots of talk about excessive rainfall and muddy conditions seen in much of the state since last fall, and poor working conditions may have actually boosted attendance. Some 435 members, family reps, associates, and friends turned out for the event, which attracted record sponsor participation, according to Crad Jaynes, CEO of the organization. A three-part presentation titled Log Truck Safety—The TEAM Approach, featured Jimmie Locklear and Keith Biggs of North Carolina-based Forestry Mutual Insurance Co. and Randy Hervey, veteran manager of BITCO Insurance Co.’s Forest Products Program. Last year Biggs and Locklear took the lead in pulling together TEAM Safe Trucking (TST), a broad-based effort seeking to stabilize and improve the forest industry’s deeply troubled transportation sector, which Locklear described as the most serious problem now confronting the wood fiber supply chain. Locklear stated that while many loggers and log truckers do a commendable job on the highway—“the nation’s most dangerous work zone”—the industry’s trucking segment overall is performing poorly, resulting in increasing mishaps and multiple forms of disruptive, traumatic, costly fallout. In addition to injuries and the occasional fatality, such fallout includes property damage, loss of income, legal entanglements, negative public perception, and higher insurance premiums. All this is forcing some truckers to the side of the road and causing some insurance providers to abandon the market, he said. At the hub of the trouble is the driver, the most The SCTPA annual meeting attracted another large crowd: about 435. 32
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hicle. “Don’t put a new hire in a ’15 Peterbilt if you have a ’99 Mack available.” He pressed for continuous training, reducing speed in relation to existing conditions; improved visibility of both tractor and trailer. “Screen subcontractors and insist they comply with insurance coverage and government regulations,” he said. “Make sure they have your business covered as an additional insured party on their policy, and hold insurance agents accountable.”
Driver Training Focus Still evolving, the TEAM Safe Trucking coalition seeks to emulate the success of TEAM Fire, another cooperative effort created 20 years ago that eventually drove down logging equipment fire incidents and claims, lowered insurance premiums and helped make automatic fire suppression systems more affordable, according to Locklear. A non-profit organization, TEAM Safe Trucking is formulating a program that will embrace awareness, education, and training, one that will be available to those who have log/chip transportation operations or are exposed to such operations. The group consists of logging companies, paper/ wood products manufacturers, truck and trailer manufacturers, insurance
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companies and logging and forestry associations. TST’s work is being guided by newly elected president Rick Quagliaroli, who owns Swamp Fox Agency, Inc., an established South Carolina-based organization with close ties to the forest industry. Now regional in scope, TST expects to expand its program nationwide. According to Locklear, the program will intensely focus on the training of new drivers and the ongoing training of experienced ones. Forest/Loggers/ Mauck Insurance Agencies, based in Newberry, Mich., has committed $5,000 to the program. Quagliaroli plans on appealing to various other companies for financial support and a push will soon be underway for grants. “TEAM Safe Trucking’s goal is to set a high standard for driver training and continuing education, and we’ll focus the training program specifically on hauling logs and chips. It will be tweaked for use in different areas and regions,” explained Locklear. “The TST program will be designed to help make the industry’s log and chip
trucking segment safer and more efficient, but every party that has an interest in trucking will need to ‘buy in’ for it to be truly successful, and it will take some time. For the good of the industry as a whole, we’re asking for support up and down the line.” (For more information, email or call Quagliaroli: rick@swampfox agency. com, 843-761-3999; or Locklear: jlocklear@forestrymutual.com, 910733-3300.)
Other Speakers Next up was Mike Lucas, president of The Lucas Group, a Lancaster, SCbased transportation safety company. He briefed the group on trucking safety and regulatory matters and answered questions. Earlier in the opening session, Richard Schwab, current president of the American Loggers Council and director of procurement for M.A. Rigoni, Inc., a Perry, Fla.-based logging-trucking-wood fiber brokering business, updated the group on ALC’s national legislative agenda and appealed for
more loggers to participate in ALC’s April 14-16 Washingon, DC Fly-In. He also encouraged loggers to support the TEAM Safe Trucking initiative and to look expectantly beyond the soggy conditions that continue to prevail in much of South Carolina. In her remarks about the 20-year history, accomplishments, and relationship-building successes of the Sustainable Forestry Initiative (SFI), Kathy Abusow, SFI president and CEO, promised that a logger representative would be added to the governing SFI board this year. SCTPA bestowed its highest honor, the Gene Collins Logger Activist Award, on Austin Logging, Inc., Gaston, SC. Headed by brothers Danny (Stump) and Joey Austin, the company goes back 60 years to the short pulpwood days and their grandfather. The Austins, who help make up a crew of eight, took over the business in 2000 when their father, Frank Austin, retired. In accepting the award, Joey Austin challenged fellow loggers to engage the people they encounter and educate them about forestry and logging. TH
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BIG Trees, OLD Times Here’s a glance at Louisiana cypress activity a century ago.
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ust over 100 years ago, cypress logging and lumbering were throbbing in Louisiana. Two significant players in the cypress trade were Avoyelles Cypress Co. Ltd. and Ascension Red Cypress Co. Ltd., both headquartered in New Orleans. Avoyelles established a sawmill at Cottonport in 1909; Ascension did likewise at McElroy (Ascension Parish) in 1912. Both companies were owned by the Williams lumber syndicate. According to accounts in Southern Lumberman, a leading lumber journal of the period, Avoyelles, while cutting out its timber holdings near Cottonport (Avoyelles Parish), acquired the famous and prized Edenborn Brake (cypress stand) in Winn Parish in 1911 and forthwith began making plans to relocate its “extra heavy duty” Cottonport mill to that parish near the Louisiana settlement of Atlanta. Within weeks after the mill was idled at Cottonport, it was dismantled, transported to Atlanta, located about 65 miles to the northwest, and re-erected. The 9-foot bandmill could handle logs up to 108 inches in diameter and cut boards 88 inches wide. Its bandsaw was 54 feet long and 14 inches wide. Such a heavy-duty mill was necessary to accommodate the massive logs cut from the monstrous trees growing nearby in the stately stand, which had attracted prospective pur34
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The unique, peculiar 1,000 acre Edenborn Brake contained numerous cypress giants. TIMBER HARVESTING & WOOD FIBER OPERATIONS
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chasers for a quarter century and was said to be the most widely known tract of cypress in the world. Anecdotes regarding its value and appeal were as numerous as they were intriguing. Legend had it that the “Cooche Brake”—its original name—over the years had been sold for taxes, swapped for a pony, sold for $100, $1,000, $8,000, $15,000 and $90,000. After Avoyelles did indeed buy it, one observer noted: “You may safely say that it has been sold for the last time, and that the price was not thousands of dollars, but hundreds of thousands.” Some estimates had the tract containing from 40 to 60 million board feet. Folklore had one tree alone scaling 23,000 feet; six on one acre yielding 60,000 feet; another acre of trees estimated at 200,000 feet. It was reportedly very straight and practically free from defect. From Southern Lumberman’s October 5, 1912 issue: “The tract is unique in itself, and peculiar. The land embraced is only about a thousand acres, and not all of this is covered with timber. The brake is peculiar in that no other cypress timber is to be found for many miles. The brake occurs in the midst of a well-timbered yellow pine area, occupying a circular depression said to be 45 feet lower than the surrounding land, evidently the basin of an ancient lake. Scores of the trees in the brake will scale 10,000 feet board measure, while a tree scaling less than 3,000 feet is rare. Scores of cypress operators have made efforts to purchase the Edenborn tract. The very size of the timber, however, was a deterrent and a discouragement. Few sawmills were capable of economically handling such timber.” Distance from the sawmill to the prime tract was only about three miles, so it was convenient and economical for the owner to put in a railroad to log and transport the timber to the mill. Although not as large or quite as good in quality, the timber going to Ascension’s McElroy mill was nonetheless first class. At 11,000 acres, the Lacey Tract was said to have contained 285 million board feet of cypress and another 85 million feet of mostly tupelo. At both locations, steam-powered Lidgerwood combination skidders and loaders were used to skid and load the big logs after they were felled and TH bucked with crosscut saws.
Cypress trees were girdled with axes well ahead of crosscut felling teams so that they could dry somewhat and thus float in streams and/or in the mill pond.
Companies specializing in cypress built elevated, steam-powered sawmills.
Wide boards were a hallmark of Avoyelles’ sawmill at Cottonport, La.
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PeoplePower! WENDY FARRAND wendyfarrand@gmail.com, 207-838-4435
The Many Benefits Of Practicing SSP We are all selling something. As a logging contractor, you work to sell wood, ideas, and your services to landowners. There are times when you even have to sell the thought of harvesting timber to a landowner. When you visit a potential tract you are actually selling yourself to the people you are hoping to do business with. If you don’t have confidence in what you do, and they see it, you may not get the job. The same is also true of the foresters you work with. When I was in sales, I had a regional manager who worked to build my confidence. He believed in me, maybe even more than I believed in myself. True to form, as a good leader should, he worked to help me recognize my strengths. “Wendy,” he said, “you have got to learn how to practice SSP.” Of course my reaction was, “what the heck is SSP?” He told me that SSP stood for “shameless self-promotion,” and he felt I should be doing more of it. He explained that when signing big contracts I needed to show the client that I had the knowledge, skills and attitude to get the job done right. Now, I am passing on that same advice. You need to practice SSP, not just for yourself and your business, but also for our industry. It means not only having the confidence to promote the things you do to potential landowners and foresters, but also to your community and beyond. That confidence shows that you are competent, that you have the knowledge, skills and attitude to take on a job and complete it in a conscientious, professional manner. Consider that the average small landowner does not have a clue about the extent of knowledge, skills and attitude that goes into good, sound forest management.
Knowledge If I read 100 books on timber harvesting and studied them front to back, it would be safe to say that I would have the knowledge. I could arrive on a landowner’s doorstep and talk up a storm about all the aspects of logging. 38
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In reality, that is somewhat true about me. I know a lot about logging, but I have only cut one tree, (by pushing a button in a processor) and loaded one stick of wood into the bunk of a forwarder, which took me about 30 minutes! So it is safe to say that even though I have a lot of knowledge about logging, you don’t want me cutting wood for you.
Skills We all know that practice makes perfect. Week after week, month after month, year after year, you fine-tune all the skills that collectively result in rhythmic, productive performance. Examples include selecting the safest place for public road access, building the road, crossing streams, avoiding sensitive areas, placing the landings, planning the cut, protecting the environment, becoming a better machine operator and/or log merchandiser and/ or supervisor, and shortening cycles, all in a safe manner. You keep on improving until you become the cream of the crop, the best you can be.
Attitude You can have broad knowledge and admirable skills, but if you don’t have the right attitude chances are you will not go as far on the road to success as you could have, whether you are a logger or a logger’s employee. We all know people who show promise and have talent, but they don’t have the attitude to push themselves to achieve excellence. That is why good leaders know how to nudge those who have the right attitude to gain the knowledge and skills to reach their maximum potential. We all have met that person who is an awesome operator, but something happened between him and the crew, or the foreman, and his bad attitude prevents him from working at his best. Imagine, if everyone on your crew reached maximum potential, what an amazing crew that would be! There is another level to SSP, and it involves the public. I encourage you, as a professional logger, to show the
world that you are knowledgeable and skillful in doing your work and view the forest with the right attitude; that you are doing your part to promote forest sustainability. Show the public that you work hard to protect forests because without forests, you have no tomorrow. Share your knowledge with those who don’t understand that loggers are good forest stewards. Tell them that without forests to manage, landowners often sell their property to developers, and that a forest will never grow in a development. Every person to whom I have explained that using more paper actually keeps forests thriving always says, “Wow! I never looked at it that way!” The problem is they are getting too much of the other message, that logging is bad. We have to change the message, and no one is more qualified to spread that message than you! Some time ago I was at an event where Kevin Hancock, President and CEO of Hancock Lumber Co. Inc., and Hancock Land Co., gave an engaging and thought-provoking presentation. He shared that whenever he goes into a men’s room where both an electric hand dryer and paper towels are available, he always opts for paper, and usually uses two or more pieces. From that day on, I had a different perspective about supporting our industry and spreading the word about using paper. In a world were certain people try to make us feel guilty for using paper, we need to fight back and say we should feel guilty for NOT using paper. Hancock was practicing SSP on behalf of the forest industry. You are busy, scrambling to get things done, but when you have a chance to spread the true story about logging, you have to take it. If you or one of your employees has a chance to go to career day, visit with school children or address a civic group, by all means do it. Practice SPP and spread the logging truth. You just might change someone’s mind about logging. Take advantage of knowledge-sharing opportunities. If you are not willing to do it, then find that person in your company who doesn’t mind speaking in public. Help them become an ambassador for your company, and for the industry at large.
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EquipmentWorld
Clearing The Way For Remote Control? Caterpillar forestry machines were recently operated via remote control for the first time in a project that ultimately could lead to a wider application of the technology in a more conventional setting. In an undertaking recently completed at Fort Bragg, NC, three 521B tracked feller-bunchers removed trees and other vegetation. One of the machines felled large timber with a disc sawhead; the others cleared smaller trees and brush with mulching heads. The work was carried out on the site of a former gunnery range, an area littered with unexploded bombs and other military ordnance. Because of the risks involved, the machines were equipped to allow workers to remotely operate them from nearby trailers via laptop computers and controls. They had several video screens to observe the work—multiple cameras were mounted on the machines with magnets to enable good visibility—and control the machines. Also, the site, 980 acres, was constantly monitored with drones to provide an aerial view of the work zone in high definition video. “Success in this project will lead to more near-term opportunities at Army sites in Georgia and Louisiana, as well as longer-term opportunities globally,”
says Kevin Thieneman, President of Caterpillar Forest Products. “Caterpillar is on the cutting edge of technology,” says Kolin Kirschenmann, Product Manager for Caterpillar Forest Products. “This technology helps Cat customers work more productively, efficiently, and safely in the most demanding applications and environments.” When the entire project is completed—the land cleared, ordnance removed and range facilities constructed—Army aviators will be able to train on site instead of traveling to other installations. The range also will be used for training by military aviators from other bases. The Army selected Environmental Chemical Corporation (ECC) to be its contractor on the project. ECC, a global business that specializes in site remediation work for the military and government agencies, has done similar work at Fort A.P. Hill in Virginia and Fort Polk in Louisiana. To provide the equipment and the know-how for the project, ECC turned to another firm, Applied Research Associates (ARA), to supply the remote control system and work with the primary equipment vendor, New England-based dealer Milton Cat. ARA
reached out to Mike Mangin, leader of the track feller-buncher product team for Caterpillar Forest Products, to collaborate on a solution that would leverage the electric-over-hydraulic controls of the machine. ARA provided the latest version of its teleoperation system to the, a kit that can be mounted on a machine in a matter minutes. ARA worked with Caterpillar so the company’s remote control kit essentially “would plug in and play,” says Greg Hewitt, ARA unmanned systems group leader. The control kit plugs into a data port, and the machine can be operated remotely from up to two miles away.
Steep Slope Package?
Caterpillar Forest Products is advancing this technology to develop a purpose-built steep-slope package. Caterpillar was a sponsor of a steep slope logging conference recently conducted in Richmond, BC. The benefit of the technology in such an application parallels the Fort Bragg application: it removes the operator from a hazardous environment and ensures his safety. Instead of working in the cab of a machine navigating steep terrain or manually felling timber with a chain saw, the operator would be located nearby and operate the machine remotely, completely safe. Safety for operators is the paramount concern. “Remote control definitely eliminates danger,” agrees Egan, who notes that whether it is steep slope logging, demolishing buildings, removing toxic waste or unexploded ordnance, mining or other tasks, any application that can help eliminate hazards to an operator “is a good place for remote control.” Aside from using remote controlled machines to mitigate hazardous work environments, the technology may have wider applications in the forestry sector, which has difficulty recruitThe Fort Bragg project involved input from Caterpillar Forest Products, Milton Cat, Environmental Chemical Corp. and ing, training, and retaining Applied Research Associates. good equipment operators. TH
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InnovationWay Tigercat Steep Slope F-B
With massive cylinders, thick steel and tapered roller bearings, the leveling system provides reliability and long life. Visit tigercat.com.
John Deere E-Series Loader
The new Tigercat LX830D feller-buncher for steep slope felling features tight tuck boom geometry and minimal tail swing. The 330 HP Tigercat FPT C87 Tier 4f engine is housed in a completely redesigned upper enclosure with significantly improved right hand side visibility. At the push of a button, the clamshell style enclosure fully opens with swing-out side doors for easy access to critical components, daily maintenance points and both sides of the engine. A larger fuel tank increases capacity to 155 gallons and includes ground level fueling. The new cab structure with narrower front posts and larger side windows enhances visibility. The skylight has been replaced by a camera system, providing the operator with a much wider field of view. The LX830D is now standard-equipped with LED lighting for improved productivity in nightshift operations. The updated cab interior is quieter and instrumentation is placed to optimize ergonomics. The electronic control system interface is an intuitive 7" color touchscreen for machine monitoring and function adjustment. There are also multiple mounting points for additional electronic devices, an auxiliary input port, Bluetooth audio with hands free calling and two 12 VDC power outlets.
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John Deere’s latest upgrade to its lineup of logging equipment is the Tier 4f 437E knuckleboom loader, which is full of features that will further improve job site productivity and uptime, while lowering daily operating costs. Most noteworthy, the 437E delivers a 5% increase in swing torque and boom lift over previous models for more productive delimbing and truck loading times. The 437E boasts a 173 HP engine that uses the same FT4 after treatment that’s in the 700K forestry crawler dozers, providing the reassurance of a proven system. The 437E also uses the same hydraulic system that has proven to be reliable on previous models. The 437E boasts improved serviceability as well. A ground-level oil drain and filter change make hydraulic oil and filter maintenance much faster and safer. Additionally, an optional electric refill pump simplifies service even further. Hydraulic oil reservoir capacity has been reduced from 80 to 35 gallons. Additional improvements include a faster, easier CB radio installation and an updated electrical system. Integrated circuit boards replace the fuse panel and relay board, offering improved reliability by eliminating relays and a dramatic reduction of wiring and connections in the circuit board area. Visit johndeere.com.
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SelectCuts As We (ALC) See It
Professionals Need To Step Up, Speak Up RICHARD SCHWAB Today’s forest management is shaped by public policy, and the laws and rules regulating it are shaped by public perception and opinion. When it comes to protecting and sustainably utilizing our natural resources, the men and women working in forestry and the logging industry have knowledge and experience few others can match. Schwab Yet simply providing information to policymakers isn’t enough. Timber harvesting professionals need to be engaged in the process and take advantage of opportunities to positively engage policymakers at hearings, town halls and other public meetings. Importantly, professionals must be able to interpret their knowledge and experience in a way politicians and the public can understand. In a Journal of Forestry ar-
ticle written by Paul Adams of Oregon State and Dave Cleaves of the U.S. Forest Service, the authors wrote: “If we don’t do a good job of providing ‘knowledge services,’ citizens and decision makers will develop judgments without us...” The article was written in 1993, and two decades later it’s as relevant as ever. Today we are living with the results of policies that were largely shaped by misconceptions of the forest products industry. Fortunately, opportunities still exist for professionals to get involved and help change forest management for the better. Originally written as advice for foresters, the article by Adams and Cleaves offers a number of tips that all industry professionals can use to better communicate their knowledge and experience on the issues. Here are just a few: ● Describe yourself—Give your
name and any groups that you belong to or represent. Call attention to training or experience that relates to the issue at hand. Don’t apologize for not having a Ph.D. or for not being a senior executive. ● State your concern for natural resources—Loggers nearly always have a strong and compelling interest in the sound stewardship of natural resources. When dealing with contentious issues, this concern may not be readily apparent and then your message may be less effective. ● Offer a perspective—Don’t be shy even if you are not a journalist, scientist, or upper-level manager. Your thoughts about an issue are no less valid, and your experience with onthe-ground timber harvesting techniques may be impressive. ● Keep at it—Forestry issues are not resolved overnight. New issues will emerge and old ones will be revisited. Use these as opportunities to develop your knowledge, skills, and potential influence as a professional. Remember, no one can listen if you don’t speak up! Current president of the American Loggers Council, Schwab is the procurement manager for M.A. Rigoni, Inc., a full service timber harvesting and forest management company located in Perry, Fla. The American Loggers Council is a non-profit 501(c) (6) corporation representing professional timber harvesters in 31 states. Visit amloggers.com or phone 409-625-0206.
Dwight Harrigan II Was Influential SYP Leader William Dwight Harrigan II, a longtime producer and leader in the southern pine lumber industry, died at his home in Fulton, Ala. on February 28. He was 78. Harrigan grew up in the family lumber business at Scotch Lumber Co. in Fulton. He became mill manager, then president and CEO, and played a key role in the expansion of the company with the addition of Scotch Plywood, then Scotch Forestry and Land Management. He also formed and led his personal company, Harrigan Lumber Co., in Monroeville, Ala. His dedication to the forest industry led to years of volunteer service. He was president and treasurer of Alabama Forestry Assn. as well as the recipient of its Lifetime Achievement 48
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Award. He was chairman of Southern Forest Products Assn., and a director of Southeastern Lumber Manufacturers Assn. He served on the Forest Industries Council of Timber Valuation and Taxation, National Forest Products Assn. Board and Auburn Forestry Advisory Committee. Harrigan provided financial support to many educational institutions, hospitals and civic organizations. He loved the outdoors and was an avid hunter, fisherman and conservationist.
Tri-State’s John Kimbel Memorialized In Tennessee John C. Kimbel, former sawmill owner and later founder of Tri-State Auction & Realty Co., Kingston, Tenn., was remembered at a February 7 service commemorating his life. Kimbel, 82, died on February 4. Kimbel spent all his life in Roane County and was a member of Shiloh Baptist Church, Kingston. Widely known across the Southern sawmill and logging community, he worked as an auctioneer for Kimbel more than 35 years and was a long-time member of the National Auctioneers Assn. & Certified Appraisers Institute. He had been retired for several years. Survivors include his widow, a son, a daughter, and several grandchildren, step-grandchildren and great-grandchildren. The family requests that any memorials be made to Shiloh Baptist Church, 4242 Decatur Hwy., Kingston, TN 37763.
American Loggers Council Membership Means Representation In Washington, DC In 1994 a group of loggers from around the country met and formed the first-ever national trade association dedicated to representing independent logging contractors and log truckers. Made up of state and regional logging associations, the American Loggers Council today represents professional timber harvesters in 32 states. Over the years it became apparent that there were many loggers who were not being represented by the ALC simply because their state or region did not have a logging association. So in 2004 the ALC bylaws were amended to add an individual logger membership category. Individual loggers are represented on the council’s Board of Directors. They may join regardless of whether or not they live in a state that has a logging association. According to ALC Executive Vice President Danny Dructor, “for the ALC, it is all about representation. Our goal is to represent professional timber harvesters in every state where commercial logging is found. Our issues are often unique to the tim- ➤ 54 50
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SelectCuts 50 ➤ ber harvesting industry; our positions may not always concur with other forest industry organizations; and it is better to have an organization that understands the issues from a harvesting perspective representing loggers in Washington, DC.
“Last year, we added two new state organizations, the Associated Contract Loggers & Truckers of Minnesota and the West Virginia Loggers Council. The ALC is already benefitting from having these associations on board. We recently lined up co-sponsors for the Securing America’s Next Generation of Safe Goodson Honors Employees Loggers and Truckers Act, H.R. 3283, as a direct result of the work of the ACLT. “There are many loggers who do not have the organizational structure within their state or region and are not being represented on the federal level. We would be At its annual safety meeting in January, Goodson’s All Terrain happy to visit with them Logging, Inc., of Jacksonville, NC—the family company made and discuss the possifamous on the hit Discovery Channel TV series “Swamp Logbility of forming a state gers”—honored three of its employees for 25 years of service. association, or they From left are office worker Kim McGowan (holding her could consider joining grandchild Harper), owners Bobby and Lori Goodson, crew the ALC individually. foreman/loader operator Justin Goodson and feller-buncher Either way, they would operator Simitrio Ruiz. benefit by having ALC
Listings are submitted months in advance. Always verify dates and locations with contacts prior to making plans to attend.
March 25-26—Washington Contract Loggers Assn. annual meeting, Campbell’s Resort, Chelan, Wash. Call 800-4220074; visit loggers.com. April 5-7—Kentucky Forest Industries Assn. annual meeting, The Brown Hotel, Louisville, Ky. Call 502-695-3979; visit kfia.org. April 6-8—Intermountain Logging Assn. Equipment Show & Conf., Mirabeau Park Convention Center, Spokane Valley, Wash. Call 208-245-3425; visit intermountainlogging.org. April 9—Massachusetts Forest Alliance annual meeting, Log Cabin, Holyoke, Mass. Call 617-455-9918; visit massforestalliance.org. April 11—Great Lakes Timber Professionals Assn. Spring Celebration, Island Resort and Casino, Harris, Mich. Call 715-282-7986; visit timberpa.com. April 14-16—Michigan Assn. of Timbermen Convention, Bavarian Motor Inn, Frankenmuth, Mich. Call 989-6527200; visit timbermen.org. April 20-22—Virginia Forestry Assn. Summit, Sheraton Virginia Beach Oceanfront Hotel, Virginia Beach, Va. Call 804-278-8733; visit vaforestry.org. MARCH/APRIL 2016
Last Rites Held For CSI’s Prevette Memorial services were conducted December 10 for Gurney (Solon) Prevette, retired northern region sales representative for Cutting Systems, Inc. Prevette died on December 7 at his home in North Wilkesboro, NC. He was 82. Prevette Prevette retired in 2014, having worked for CSI for 14 years. He had worked for more than a decade for CTR, the forerunner of CSI. Survivors include his widow, two daughters, one son, seven grandchildren, eight great-grandchildren, one sister and one brother. Memorials may be made to Hospice of Iredell County, 2347 Simonton Rd., Statesville, NC 28625.
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represent them on the Hill.” For more information call 409-6250206 or visit amloggers.com.
Easy Access to current advertisers! http://www.timberharvesting.com/advertiser-index/ This issue of Timber Harvesting is brought to you in part by the following companies, which will gladly supply additional information about their products. American Logger’s Council BITCO Insurance Cannon Bar Works Cat Forest Products John Deere Forestry Demo International Doosan Infracore Construction Equipment East Coast Sawmill Expo Forest Chain Hendrickson Manufacturing Husqvarna Forest & Garden Intermountain Logging Conference Log Max Mid-South Forestry Equipment Show Morbark Northeastern Loggers Association Olofsfors Oregon Cutting Systems Peterson Pacific Pferd Prolenc Manufacturing Risley Equipment Southstar Equipment Team Safe Trucking Terex Environmental Equipment Tigercat Industries TraxPlus Wallingford’s Waratah Forestry Attachments Watts Auction Realty Appraisal Western Trailer
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