May/June 2012
Timber Harvesting’s May/June issue spotlights central Georgia’s Tanner Timber Harvesting, which took up the challenge of swamp/bottomland logging a dozen years ago, going with some key tracked machinery that has been systematically upgraded. Today five tracked machines, including a John Deere 553J feller-buncher, play front line or back-up roles in the company’s operational success. The Wood Tick Trail section discusses tracing the progress of tracked machines. Also featured are Fla.’s T.W. Byrd’s Sons, Inc., a diversified logging operation that has been officially recognized as the FRA’s National Outstanding Logger for 2012, and Tex.’s Dough Hassel, a right-of-way contractor who enjoys explosive growth in the oil/gas sector.
Wood Tick Trail
It’s interesting to trace the evolution, application and acceptance of tracked logging equipment in the U.S., particularly the gear used for felling-bunching, loading, shoveling and processing. It’s equally interesting to note how loggers, not to mention the occasional logging equipment dealer and/or forest products company, influenced tracked machine design and the ingenious methods they devised to harvest timber in extreme (steep/swampy) conditions.
T.W. Byrd's Sons, Inc.
The “new” year is almost to its halfway point, and it’s shaping up to be a good one for T.W. Byrd’s Sons. Inc. The diversified logging operation, and the four sons in the name, were officially recognized as the Forest Resources Assn.’s (FRA) National Outstanding Logger for 2012 on April 20 at the group’s annual awards luncheon in Jacksonville.
Texas' Hilton Services
In March 2006, Doug Hassell Jr. got a phone call that catapulted his small land clearing business into a new orbit as a major league right-of-way service provider for the booming oil and gas pipeline sector. Since then Hilton Services LP has ballooned from a single machine to nearly 50 and as many as six crews scattered across four states.
Timberscope
Loggers’ concerns for the health of their businesses are well documented in each issue of Timber Harvesting. But what are their sawmill markets feeling these days? According to a recent survey conducted by Timber Processing magazine, an affiliate of Timber Harvesting magazine, 74% of owners and managerial personnel of softwood lumber and hardwood lumber sawmills in the U.S. expect their lumber businesses to still be in operation 10 years from now.
Equipment World
Morbark, Inc. announced territory expansion for Papé Machinery into northern Idaho. A respected Morbark forestry and recycling dealer for almost 20 years, Papé Machinery adds Boundary, Bonner and Latah counties in Idaho to an already well-established territory throughout California, Washington, Oregon and western Nevada.
Select Cuts
Our spring Washington DC trip still weighs heavily on my mind, and I wanted to share with you a few of the thoughts that I have had since that visit. Results of these trips are hard to measure immediately but I know we left some good impressions with our representatives in DC. I am very proud of everyone who showed up to represent the loggers of America and the American Loggers Council, as they are a part of the process.
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