Equipment & Supplier News

Stihl and LandMark Systems are the latest companies to contract for space at Timber Expo Southeast, the South’s original live equipment demo and the only one scheduled for 2009. The event is set for April 17-18 in Baxley, Ga.

Stihl manufactures chain saws, pole saws and harvester bars, as well as other hand-held power equipment. LandMark makes advanced software used in forestry applications.

These companies joined Yancey Bros., Cutting Systems, Haglof, John Deere, Tigercat, Rayco, Fecon, Rotobec, Pitts Trailers, GCR Tire Centers, Vermeer Southeast and Ritchie Brothers, which signed up earlier this year.

ArkLa CTL: The Party’s Over by David Abbott

In its July/August 2006 issue, Timber Harvesting reported on Plum Creek Timber Co.’s efforts to apply cut-to-length harvesting to its extensive holdings in southern Arkansas and northern Louisiana. Peter Remoy, PC’s Crossett unit marketing manager, said the company had enough suitable timber to keep its CTL contractors busy indefinitely and envisioned dozens of CTL operations in the area over time. As of early summer 2006, five logging companies had accepted the challenge.

Jonathan Davis, then local branch manager for Warrior of Arkansas, sold John Deere CTL machines to several participants. Others bought Ponsse equipment from Joe Dee Dicus in Bastrop, La. Davis asserted that although past CTL experiments had failed in the South, this time, all the right elements were aligned.

Betting on Biomass

Energy issues are changing the face of traditional logging as state and national mandates and incentives to use more “green” or sustainable fuel sources are implemented, with wood fiber in various forms becoming a major contributor to the biomass fuel stream in many areas.

With sawmill and panel plant log demand reduced due to the national housing slump that has drastically reduced lumber production, Eugene-based N.W. Lands made a move to biomass earlier this year, trading in most existing logging equipment and going in a new direction.

The company was started in 1991, primarily a ground-based mechanized logging operation with shovels and processors that at one time employed more than 25 and deployed up to four crews.

Chipping Ahead by David Abbott

After considering it for years and observing other operations, Brad Hassig last April started up a chipping crew, his first step toward what he believes is the future, at least in part, of the forest industry.

“We are like everybody else, excited about the promise of biomass,” says Hassig, 39, who does business as Prime Acres Inc. “I am really intrigued about the production of cellulosic ethanol, maybe because we use so much fuel.” Hassig says his area has a lot of potential for biomass, with pulpwood supplies overrunning markets.

Forest Ecosystem Regenerated by Bob Williams

Atlantic white cedar (Chamaecyparis thyoides) is found along the Atlantic and Gulf coasts from Maine to Florida and west to Mississippi. Historically, this species has been a very valuable timber species, and remains so today.

Over the last three centuries, the area occupied by Atlantic white cedar has declined drastically, and it is now classified as a globally threatened forest ecosystem. Hurricanes, flooding, wildfires, natural plant succession, and a rising sea level all continue to affect a decline in the overall acreage of this important wetland forest ecosystem.

Logging Congress Highlights by Ken Boness | Photos by Wayne Boness

There is no sports venue more legendary than Lambeau Field, home of the Green Bay Packers. On September 4-6, 875,000 sq. ft. of the eastside parking lot at Lambeau and another 75,000 sq. ft. of nearby inside space were temporarily claimed by some 9,500 visitors who participated the Lake States Logging Congress (LSLC).

With 225 exhibits enticing timber professionals, the venue carried everything from cut-to-length equipment to trucks, from portable sawmills to firewood processors.

Arizona’s Ribelin Assumes ALC Helm by Jim Mooney

When most people think of Arizona, images of expansive desert, the Grand Canyon and Navajo Indians come to mind. These pictures are accurate, but Arizona also contains the largest contiguous ponderosa pine forest in the West, 4.3 million acres.

Arizona is also home to Allen Ribelin, the American Loggers Council’s (ALC) new president. Ribelin is secretary-treasurer and CFO of High Desert Investment Co., (yes that’s a logging company) and has actively represented loggers at various levels for years. He is still one of High Desert Investment Co.’s CDL truck drivers.

New Products & Technologies

John Deere has upgraded its skidder line with a new lock-up torque converter option for the 640H and 648H models and a standard brake declutch on all direct drive units.

With the lock-up torque converter, operators will get a significant increase in productivity versus a standard torque converter. Deere’s lock-up torque converter stays locked during shifting and through a wider range of ground speeds than competitor units. This keeps machine momentum through shifts and helps ensure a smoother ride.

Developments, Meetings

The Northern Forest Sustainable Economy Initiative (SEI) released its Strategy and Recommendations for Economic Resurgence in the Northern Forest in October. Formed in 2006 to advance the findings of the Northern Forest Lands Council, SEI’s purpose is to create strategies for community and economic development throughout the region in order to revive the Northern Forest’s rural economies.

The region includes 30 million acres in Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, New York and parts of Canada and is home to more than two million people. When asked what benefits this study had to offer for the forest industry, Dr. Lloyd Irland, Lecturer and Senior Research Scientist at Yale School of Forestry & Environmental Studies, comments, “The study shows that this industry still matters. I think many in the urban and suburban environment may have forgotten that.” However, he adds, “This type of study will only accomplish something if someone chooses to do something with it.”

√ Good Neighbors, X Community Raiders

Good neighbors are the bedrock of a good community. They keep everyone’s best interests in mind while respecting their privacy and private property rights. They are trustworthy.

For decades, members of the timber community were perceived as good neighbors: landowners sharing forest management experiences, loggers becoming more professional, and manufacturers supplying markets so that forest landowners and timber harvesters could be profitable.

Industry News

Greenpeace activists protested at the Montreal headquarters of AbitibiBowater on September 24, claiming the forest products company is destroying the Boreal Forest.

The protest followed a breakdown of discussions between the two parties on forest management practices.

David Paterson, President and CEO of AbitibiBowater, says the impasse concerned specific harvesting areas in which Greenpeace demanded that AbitibiBowater cease its forestry operations. The areas identified by Greenpeace are publicly owned and regulated woodlands and AbitibiBowater cannot change where and how it harvests in them without first obtaining the support and approval of other public, private and community-based stakeholders, according to Paterson.

From Disaster To Opportunity by Jennifer McCary

Those who have a few decades under their belt know change is inevitable. Sometimes, such as when one achieves a specific goal, it is welcomed. More often, though, change comes unbidden and can be accompanied with challenges that seem insurmountable. Most people get a generous helping of both kinds. But it is what they do with it that determines their course in life.

“With change comes opportunity,” asserts third generation logger Steve Hanington, owner of Hanington Brothers Inc., (HBI) Macwahoc, Me., now emerging from what seemed like disaster only a few months ago.