KELSO, Wash.— Taking over the company from their father just two short years ago, brothers Dale and Loren Levanen, ages 28 and 26, respectively, have upgraded their company’s logging lineup for more productivity and efficiency. The three-crew operation is working more with Weyerhaeuser, and running a swing yarding crew with grapple carriage as a key log mover.

Dale handles job scouting, pricing and scheduling, most HR and personnel-related functions. Loren handles equipment logistics, performance and maintenance. The company employs 30. “That includes drivers, shop and office people, everybody,” Dale says.

“We’re not a big company, and our crew has been what really keeps us going,” Dale continues. “We don’t have to hold their hands, and they are very self-motivated.”

The company Levanen, Inc. dates to 1989 when Scott Levanen and a cousin started up a logging partnership that ran successfully for 13 years before health issues led Scott to buy out his partner. Dale and Loren began working as kids in a family side business making bundles of campfire wood. “As soon as I could drive I’d go to the shop after school and start helping, cleaning, doing a little maintenance and equipment work and started doing some operating here and there,” Dale says.

Interestingly, both brothers struck out on potentially different careers after high school before coming back to the family logging business: Loren got a forestry degree from Mt. Hood Community College to open other opportunities within the industry, and Dale seriously pursued lineman work, going to training school and working in the field before he decided a logging site is where he’d rather be.