The Bear In The Woods

Article by DK Knight, Executive Editor/Co-Publisher, Timber Harvesting November/December 2015

Note: Given the late summer death of logging activist-legend Earl St. John, Jr., and the news article on St. John’s career that appears on page 6 of this issue, it is appropriate to present the following piece about St. John that appeared in the October 1999 edition of Timber Harvesting, the one that made the case for the magazine’s naming St. John Forest Products as its Logging Business of the Year. The column was written by Rich Donnell, now our Editor-in-Chief, who spent two days with St. John and came away with tremendous respect and admiration for him.

When I met logger Earl St. John in late August on the front steps of his lovely home in Spalding, Mich., he shook my hand and then put a piece of paper in it. The paper was a copy of a page from this magazine, dated exactly 10 years ago this month. On it was my photo beneath an editorial I had written, entitled, “If It’s That Bad…”

The editorial basically criticized loggers (I was fairly bold in my younger days) for complaining too much about their situations, especially treatment from mills, and especially rates, and yet failing to establish a national organization that could represent loggers on the important mill-logger issues of the day, including rates (not in violation of anti-trust mind you, but through powerful unified messages). I noted at the time the recent formation of the Associated Contract Loggers in Minnesota, and the stirring of a few statewide loggers’ groups.

After my initial reaction—wow, an editorial from 10 years ago! Look how young I look!—I started reading the piece and it quickly occurred to me what St. John’s point was. Then perhaps in case it went over my head, which happens from time to time, St. John stated, “We proved one thing. We’re independent, but we can get together.”

St. John was referring to the establishment of American Loggers Council, a national organization for loggers that St. John helped to found in 1994, and which since then has strengthened its punch, especially with regard to mill-logger issues. This summer, ALC even showed strength in pulling its punch when its members refused to participate with mill interests in the Sustainable Forestry Initiative National Forum.

What I would come to understand during the next two days of combing the Upper Peninsula with St. John is that St. John doesn’t forget things easily. The editorial I wrote 10 years ago had obviously touched a chord. Why else would he file it away and remember to retrieve it on just the right occasion?

Neither, I would learn, had St. John forgotten when as a young logger he traveled to Green Bay in search of parts for a bulldozer. The sales agent asked St. John what construction company he was with. St. John replied, “St. John Forest Products.” “Oh,” said the agent, “you’ll have to pay with cash; we don’t charge to loggers.”

Neither had St. John forgotten how timber brokers had taken advantage of his grandfather and great-grandfather. “My great-grandfather couldn’t read or write; my grandfather couldn’t either,” St. John said. “They farmed all summer to pay for what they lost in the winter logging for these brokers. They were taken advantage of all through their life.”

Even St. John’s future in-laws weren’t happy when their daughter was dating St. John in high school, because he was a logger.

Neither had St. John forgotten when he became the first logger ever to serve on the board of American Pulpwood Assn. “Like any logger, I didn’t feel I was educated enough to be on the board with paper mill people,” St. John recalled. “I was afraid to speak out. I would actually sweat when I had to get up and say something.”

So when St. John told me, “It’s always been a goal of mine to improve the status of loggers,” this wasn’t a notion that had come up late in his career. He had tasted inferiority early in his life, and each subsequent taste of it during his career caused him increasing bitterness. “The chip gets pretty heavy on your shoulder,” he said.

The tremendous successes St. John achieved during his career obviously improved his quality of life, and the quality of life of his immediate family and will enhance the quality of life of future St. Johns. But those successes have also provided St. John in the latter years of his career the time to vigorously pursue his goal of improving the status of loggers.

St. John’s work with the American Loggers Council—indeed, his overall impact on the logging ranks— should never be forgotten.

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