September/October 2020
COVER STORY – 2020 Timber Harvesting Logging Business of the Year – 
WINNFIELD, La. – In 1983, Tony and Liz McManus, alongside Tony’s father, borrowed $35,000 and started a logging job with just their family and one other – a log cutter who ran the chain saw, Robert Nichols, whose son ultimately became one of McManus’ best friends. The families have remained close to this day because that’s the kind of guy McManus, 62, is: He hires you in 1983 and remains your life-long friend. He doesn’t see employees as anything other than family. He says part of that is because when he first started the company, he ran the job himself and really didn’t have any help – it was just Tony and Liz. “We had to depend on each other,” McManus says of the early years. “I’m so thankful to her.” It was just family, so once McManus Timber got big enough to add on, those employees became the McManus Timber family. View official LBOY 2020 video.
Article by Jessica Johnson, Senior Associate Editor, Timber Harvesting
My Take: McManus Reaches Out: In Crisis, Look For Helpers
There’s a saying attributed to Mr. Rogers that his mother used to tell him when he was a little boy and would see something scary on the news: “Look for the helpers. You will always find people who are helping.” If you really start to think about it, in every crisis, there are always people who are willing to help. And for loggers in Louisiana, every time there’s been a crisis, Timber Harvesting Logging Business of the Year award winner Tony McManus and his wife Liz, daughter Toni and son-in-law Josh McAllister are those helpers. Article by Jessica Johnson, Senior Associate Editor, Timber Harvesting
NewsLines
Virginia Loggers Receive Tax Relief; Log Haul Routes: Interstates Are Safer; American Loggers Council Cancels 2020 Annual Meeting; Virginia Logging Business Loses Shop In Fire; Arizona’s 4FRI May Ride On Elections; Enviva Purchases Large Pellet Mill; Ashton Lewis Buys Virginia Sawmill; SC Loggers Working With Roads Officials; WVU Developing Feedstock Solutions; Georgia Power Seeks Biomass Plant Bids; Cousineau Plans Rebuild After Fire; Salamander Lives With Logging; Shasta College Training Next Logging Generation
Disaster Drives Innovation On Hurricane-Damaged Tract
YOUNGSTOWN, Florida – Located 20 miles north of Mexico Beach, Florida and just east of Youngstown, the 98,000 acre tract in the Bear Creek watershed had the eye of Category 5 Hurricane Michael rip right up the center of it in October 2018, leaving in its wake a scene of blast-zone devastation that’s hard to describe. Disaster was the driver of innovation as a group of people developed systems to handle the various conditions on the tract and ultimately re-establish plantations in the debris fields. Article by Dan Shell, Managing Editor, Timber Harvesting
Skidders & Components
Deere L-Series Skidders: Streamlined Systems, Better Guarding; Forest Chain Fixed, Multi-Ring Features; NAF Gear-Drive Bogie Axles Support All Applications; Nokian Ground King Tires Offer New Sizes; Olofsfors ECO-Wheel Tracks Increase Traction, Efficiency; Tigercat H-series Skidders: Larger Cab, Improved Serviceability; Wallingfords BABAC Chains: Longer Wear, Less Breakage; White Mountain NETLINK Chain Delivers Extreme Traction
Innovation Way
AFM 75 Processing Head Has Punch; Komatsu Upgrades Feller-Buncher; Remote-Controlled Tracked Slasher; Compact Hose Assembly Device; Tigercat Enhances 220E Loader; Titan Expands OTR Tire Lines; Indexator Harvester Rotators
Select Cuts
As We (ALC) See It: Update: Logger Relief Funds; Federal Government Cuts Off H-2B Visas; Longhorn Beetle Discovered In SC; Conservative Group Buys Maine Tract; Wood ID Lab Moves To Oregon State University
