Story by David Knight,
Co-Publisher/Executive Editor
Among the more interesting topics that surfaced at the early October annual meeting of the American Loggers Council (ALC) in Coeur d’Alene, Id. were a couple of out-of-the-box presentations made by Mike Wiedeman of Oregon and Richard Schwab of Florida.
A past president of the ALC, and formerly logging in both Alaska and Oregon, Wiedeman pulled away from logging during the depth of the recession and shipped his yarder and other equipment to Texas, where it continues to work for a mining company in an application unrelated to logging. Wiedeman reported that he is in talks with Ukraine officials about taking on the challenging and dangerous task of clear-cutting vast stands of trees impacted by radioactive fallout from the Chernobyl nuclear power plant meltdown in Ukraine in 1986. He said some of the trees would be chipped to fuel a proposed wood-fired power plant.
According to Schwab, the United Nations is backing a proposed plan designed to benefit the deprived Miskito indians of Nicaragua (Central America). Backed by the government of Nicaragua, the plan involves the erection of a new sawmill that would process tropical hardwoods owned by the Miskitos. The Chinese are eager to buy what the mill could produce. M.A. Rigoni, Inc., or perhaps an affiliate of Rigoni, the logging company owned by Schwab’s father, Rodney, and business partner Gary Brett, would perform the logging. Both the elder Schwab and Brett are no strangers to Nicaragua or the Miskitos, having gone there for several years on mission trips. Among other things, they arranged to get a motor grader donated and shipped to the country and visit periodically to operate the machine to help maintain rural roads.
Mike, Rodney, Gary and Richard are to be commended for their willingness to explore new opportunities, which in their cases may be considered extreme. Also to be commended is ALC Executive Director Danny Dructor, who at the 11th hour incorporated their examples into the program.
Concerning the ALC, and with all due respect to current president Travis Taylor, it’s good to see a younger trio of officers lined up behind the shrewd, seasoned Taylor, better known as the Cat hat man. This bodes well for the future of the organization.
- Regarding diversification, check out two features in this issue: Michigan’s Jason Lutke and New Hampshire’s Chris Crowe (pages 14 and 20, respectively). Lutke blends logging, chipping and trucking with a used equipment entity, a hydraulics shop/power equipment store, firewood operation and a steel fabricating endeavor. His mechanics also take on outside machine repair work. Crowe logs, chips, produces firewood, performs site-specific management enhancements, builds roads and provides various excavation services.
- As the economy improves, finding and keeping dependable, skilled labor will be an uphill challenge for many loggers, particularly those operating near centers of mining, oil and gas related activities, auto supply and assembly plants, ports, etc. In many cases it won’t be simple for an established logger to expand, even if lucrative opportunities beckon. As well, logging will challenge those rookies who may be compelled to give it a go.
- The matter of limited logging capacity continues to bedevil many who procure logs and wood fiber for consuming mills. Raw material inventories at some mills appear to be sufficient, but supplies are relatively slim at many others, all as sawmills and other wood products plants are experiencing an uptick in product demand and as winter knocks on the door.
There are pockets where the logging capacity shortfall is coupled with a shortfall in pulpwood availability, the result being an increasing volume of small sawlogs, which seem to be plentiful, showing up in the traditional pulpwood mix.
It’s ironic that in some cases the very mills on the supply edge are often those that 1) hang on to traditional procurement practices and expect different results, or 2) change policies without considering the potential negative impact.
For example, in the case of 1), consider the negative impact on logging capacity by drawn-out unloading time on the yard (whatever the reason); excessive culling of loads; restricted hours of yard operation; and changing wood orders about as often as political ads appear on TV during an election year.
As well, changes in policy, though well intentioned, can backfire. In one instance a company with multiple mills not so far from each other implemented a closely controlled dispatch trucking scheme, the idea being fewer trucks on the road; fewer crossing mill scales; a higher percentage of loaded miles; overall lower costs; and faster turn times.
However, after more than a year into the system, some loggers contend they don’t always get the trucks they need, at times resulting in undelivered loads. Elsewhere, another company stopped or slowed down in-woods chipping operations when it began taking indexed loads (butts and tops alternately placed front and back on a trailer) of roundwood. While this was intended to help treelength loggers build capacity loads (short, small stems) on trailers, it actually resulted in prolonged unloading time.