Several Arkansas contractors contacted Timber Harvesting in early January about a rumored, across-the-board $1-per-ton cut in logging rates being considered by Weyerhaeuser. Here are some “facts” about this “rumor.” It’s more than a rumor. Two Weyerhaeuser officials have confirmed to me that the company is looking at reducing logging costs (more on this in a minute).

Oregon State University is hosting the International Mountain Logging & 10th Pacific Northwest Skyline Symposium at its Corvallis campus March 28-April 1. The event will focus on “New Technologies For Harvesting Systems, People And The Environment In Mountainous Terrain.” The International Union of Forestry Research Organizations (IUFRO) is a co-sponsor.

A new saw chain performance mechanical simulation system is shortening the product development cycle at Oregon Cutting Systems (OCS) to less than a year. OCS, based in Portland, Ore. and a division of Blount International Inc., has been a leading supplier in the chain saw industry for more than 50 years. The company manufactures chains, sprockets and guide bars for major OEMs such as Stihl and Husqvarna, as well as the replacement market.

Forest tillage is on the grow throughout the South. Much of the development in recent years has involved combination plows that subsoil, disk and bed in a single pass (three-in-one plows). Jim Tillman, salesman for Super Trac and Marden, has been on the front line of this development from the beginning. He knows the players.

The 65th annual meeting of American Pulpwood Assn. (APA) will be held April 10-13 at Disney’s Coronado Springs Resort in Lake Buena Vista, Fla. Theme of the event is “North American Forestry: On the Threshold of a New Millennium.” In addition to the usual committee and task group meetings, a panel discussion—“Forging Strategic Alliances to Meet the Challenges of North American Forestry in the New Millennium”—will occur the afternoon of April 12.

I am writing in response to the article, “Is Cut-To-Length Dead In The South?” (Wood Tick Trail, November-December issue, by Mike Tankersley). The answer is no, but I do believe that a system designed only to process one species of wood is truly dead. It is unfair to base your entire article on the opinions of men whose livelihood is not dependent on the production of wood with these systems.

The story was the traffic jam, not the death of a good man who might well be a hero. It was front-­page news. It led on radio and TV, the “hellish commute,” the “thou­sands of frustrated morning com­muters,” the “enormous headache” a rolled-over tank truck caused. It was the talk of the town—the in­convenience of snarled traffic.

I have used this column in recent months to articulate some of the challenges the American Loggers Council has had regarding the Sustainable Forestry Initiative. For readers to think SFI is the only issue ALC is concerned with, would be an unfortunate consequence of my trying to articulate professional loggers’ concerns.

The New Hampshire Timber Harvesting Council recognized more than 100 graduates of its Professional Logger Program at the fifth annual New Hampshire Loggers & Truckers Convention held recently at the Grand Summit Hotel in Bartlett. The Professional Logger Program was created by the council in 1994 and is a voluntary certification program providing loggers and truckers with information to improve their safety and knowledge of harvesting laws and forestry principles.

DTAC, a manufacturer of HVAC systems for off-road equipment and over-the-road trucks serving the logging industry, takes an “in your face” approach. “To do the job right in a logging truck or some other piece of heavy equipment, we have our units blow down on top of the driver’s head or under his right armpit,” says Marc Davis, DTAC’s Vice President. “We’re not real coy about putting air where it’s needed, and I think that’s what people in the logging industry like about us.

Partek Forest introduces the Valmet 901C/690 for applications requiring power and maneuverability, zero tracking and narrow profile. Like other Valmet single-grip harvesters, the 901C/690 is engineered for early thinning. The 901C carrier comes with a 148 HP, 6BT Cummins engine and a new thinning harvester with Valmet 945 head. The head is mounted on a Cranab 690 parallel-boom crane.