Story by David Knight,
Co-Publisher/Executive Editor
You’ve no doubt noticed there is something different about this issue of Timber Harvesting & Wood Fiber Operations, which, by the way, is number 638 in a series that began in 1953. Pulpwood Production, as it was known then, was launched seven months after Dwight D. Eisenhower was sworn in for his first presidential term.
Our new model, if you will, incorporates multiple changes, additions and refinements, all of which help make this product more useful, enlightening, appealing and entertaining.
Clean and interesting, the new logo is graphically refined. It’s also powerful, befitting both the magazine and the robust industry it serves. The previous logo was modified to include & Wood Fiber Operations in 2008 but had not been updated since 1994, so it was past time for a redo.
You’ll notice our revived and slightly altered slogan, Foremost Authority For Professional Loggers, which is a most appropriate description of this prime information resource. We believe our body of work over time has helped loggers become more professional and we’re committed to continuing this assistance by offering more than can be found anywhere else. We’re raising the standard, again.
We’ve created several new departments, among them Building Blocks, which offers information and advice to help strengthen logging businesses, improve operations and plug cost drains. Others are Risk Watch, which addresses legal matters, insurance concerns and/or safety issues; Questions & Answers, a conduit for learning more about various companies, organizations, programs, policies and more; Dust & Rust, which contains interesting forest industry historical nuggets; and Downtime, a collection of jokes, truths and miscellaneous items.
We’ve also renamed some departments, for no other reason than we sensed it was the thing to do. Timberlines is now My Take, Timberscope is Newslines, and Product Showcase is Innovation Way. Both Equipment World and Select Cuts remain as they were. (Wasn’t it Mark Twain who said, “If you can’t come up with a better name, keep the one you have”? Perhaps it was his brother.) Our goal is for all departments to appear in a given issue, but considering the difficulty we’ve experienced in getting this issue together, we acknowledge that this may not always be the case.
Feature stories remain a key component of this product’s editorial soul, and going forward we will offer a more diverse mix geared to timber growing, harvesting, land clearing and chipping. We’ll occasionally cross borders to present how logging is carried out in other parts of the world. Timber Harvesting & Wood Fiber Operations will be on display and Associate Editor David Abbott will be on the ground at the world famous Elmia Wood exposition in coming weeks. Accounts of his stops in Sweden, Finland and other countries will appear later this year.
Like no other publication, we will continue to address entrenched and emerging issues that impact the wood fiber supply chain, among them logging capacity, logger-mill relationships, transportation, new markets, labor, technology, equipment innovations, timber supply, forest certification, high court decisions and government regulations, and to conduct timely surveys to gauge the overall condition of the challenged logging community.
It’s fitting that all this substance be complemented with more sizzle, so we’ve bundled all of it in a fresh graphics and higher quality paper package to accentuate the magazine’s 60-year reputation and deep-rooted integrity. It’s worth noting that few if any non-association forestry magazines in North America have survived this long.
While we’ve given this makeover significant head time, we may have overlooked subjects and areas that were so obvious we missed them. Personally, that seems to happen more and more these days. Your suggestions are encouraged, as we’re certainly open to additions and adjustments.
Thank you for subscribing to the improved and revamped Timber Harvesting & Wood Fiber Operations. We trust you’ll find it more beneficial than ever.
PS: Special thanks to Shelley Smith for her diligence and patience in engineering this makeover.