forest products week 2011

2 | BANGOR DAILY NEWS | Friday | October 21, 2011

By Brian SwartzCUSTOM PUBLICATIONS EDITOR

Five or six days a week, AndyWard awakens at 3:30 a.m. “I put-ter around the house for a while,getting some things done, then Ileave for work,” he says.

“I get here around 5:30 to 6[a.m.] right now,” Ward says, refer-ring to his workplace — which onthis particular autumn morningstretches between A Road and CRoad off Route 116 in Woodville.

Ward’s a logger who operatesmechanized harvesting equipmentfor Chester-based Treeline Inc.,owned by Brian Souers. The 51-year-old Ward has worked forTreeline since mid-August 1990,but like so many other Maine log-gers, his woods-related careerbegan in his 20s (and often earlierfor some loggers).

By mid-morning on this partic-ular day, Ward has alreadytwitched logs to the C Landingwith a Cat 525 grapple skidder. Byday’s end, he will operate a delim-ber to trim and stack the twitchedlogs, then relocate to B Road tostart opening another section offorest with a 753G John Deerfeller-buncher equipped with an18-inch G.N. Roy felling head.

Commuting from his Chesterhome, Ward beat the sunrise to the395-acre site owned by MaineLand Inc., a Treeline subsidiary.Like the other Treeline employees,he will work long hours to harvestwood fiber needed by Maine mills.

On this particular tract, Wardpractices selective harvesting; he

culls marketable trees and undesir-able trees so that young, healthytrees can thrive. As Ward opens thedense forest canopy, additionalsunlight will reach the forest floorand cause the remaining trees togrow faster.

Souers describes the tract as “amixed wood stand” covered bycedar, desirable hardwoods, fir,hemlock, and spruce. “This is apiece [of woodland] that’s going tobe under long-term management,”Souers explains his land-manage-ment strategy. “We’re doing a verycareful selective harvest and thin-ning, setting it up for an 8-to-10-year [harvest] cycle.”

To accomplish this particularstyle of selective harvesting, Ward

cuts trees that some logging con-tractors might consider not worthharvesting, usually due to bollthickness or tree height. He helpedTreeline specialize in such harvest-ing, which requires differentequipment.

Take the feller-buncher’s fellinghead, for example. The traditionallarge-diameter head performed“not so well” in cutting small-diameter trees, Ward recalls.“Brian emailed all the companiesthat make” felling heads and askedif any company “had a smallerhead that would work.”

G.N. Roy Inc. responded quick-ly by designing and fabricating an18-inch felling head. The Treeline-conducted field tests proved thatthe head worked “extremely well,”Souers says.

With the G.N. Roy felling head,Ward cuts a tree at its base and setsthe tree into a pile that a skidderoperator will twitch to a landing.Like a gardener pulling weeds, hesnips multiple smaller trees andstacks them en masse beside thetrail created by the feller-buncher.

Larger trees he cuts and laysdown one by one. The feller-buncher keeps a tight grip on suchtrees; after cutting a tall beech,Ward briefly steers the 753G JohnDeere to the right while the fellinghead tightly grips the tree trunk.

For a brief moment, the uprightbeech seems to be “walking”through the forest; then Ward laysit aside and extends the feller-

buncher’s boom to cut anothertree.

Selective harvesting alsoinvolves removing larger, mar-ketable trees, sold as higher-valuelogs or lower-value firewood orpulpwood. With his years of expe-rience in the Maine woods, Wardcan tell by various factors — theparticular tree species, a straight orcurved trunk, etc. — a tree’spotential future use.

Throughout Maine, experi-enced loggers can look at a treeand get a good idea of its best use(hence its highest value). Today,other Treeline loggers are runningfeller-bunchers and skidders anddelimbers at different harvest sitesscattered on private and publicwoodlots.

Ward is only one of “50 guysand one lady” employed by Tree-line, he stresses. “I couldn’t dowhat I do without them.”

Today, co-workers are nearby.Treeline Vice President BobBethune of Howland loads trucks

with a Barko log loader. Souersmoves equipment across the tractto a new harvest site off A Road.Treeline drivers haul logs to differ-ent Maine mills.

Unlike many co-workers, Warddid not grow up around Maine-based logging. Hailing from Tole-do, Ohio, he studied equipmentoperation and timber harvesting ata Wisconsin technical school. Then“I worked in the woods in Wiscon-sin for 10 years” until his wife,Jane, took a position at GreatNorthern Nekoosa headquartersin Ohio, Ward recalls.

At her job, Jane met “some real-ly nice people” who worked forGreat Northern Paper inMillinocket, Ward remembers.When Great Northern Nekoosaclosed its Ohio HQ, the Wardsdecided to relocate to Maine “justfor the bigger country, a betterplace to work,” Andy Ward says.

Scheduling four interviews withPenobscot County logging con-

Chester logger selectively harvests trees to benefit Maine forest

CCoonntteennttssLogger from Chester practices selective harvesting . . . . . . . . . . . . .2The “Hub of Hardwood” lies in the Passadumkeag forest . . . . . .4-5Forestry-related firms need proper insurance coverage . . . . . . .6-7FCC narrowbanding rules will affect Maine loggers in 2013 . . .8-9Insect pests dine a la carte on Maine Christmas trees . . . . . . .10-12Caribou Software helps loggers track business expenses . . . . . . .14Loggers harvested more than 70,000 cords on state woodlands . .15Guilford logger discusses challenges encountered in 2011 . . .16-17Abbot harvest will accomplish landowner’s goals . . . . . . . . . .18-19Forest-dwellers find food and “love” in Maine’s vernal pools . . . .20Nortrax sells and services John Deere forestry equipment . . . . . .22Freightliner, Western Star introduce new heavy-duty trucks . . . .24Certified Logging Professional program turns 20 in 2011 . . . . . .26Rudman Winchell works with forest-products businesses . . . . . .27Customer demand fuels growth in wood-pellets manufacturing .28CB Kenworth supplies the trucks sought by Maine loggers . .29-30University of Maine at Fort Kent . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .31Forest ranger takes 1st place in Regional “Game of Logging” . . . .32

See LOGGER, Page 13

BDN PHOTOS BY BRIAN SWARTZ

Employed by Treeline Inc., logger Andy Ward of Chester (above, left) operates mechanized harvesting equipment at different harvestsites in the upper Penobscot Valley. While working recently in Woodville, Ward twitched logs from the forest with a Caterpillar 525

grapple skidder (above) and later “trimmed” the branches from those trees with a delimber (below).

BANGOR DAILY NEWS | Friday | October 21, 2011 | 3


By David M. FitzpatrickCUSTOM PUBLICATIONS WRITER

American Forest Managementis one of the largest such firms inthe U.S., managing 4.5 millionacres of private timberland withoffices in 15 states. One office is inPassadumkeag, co-located withMadden Timberlands, the firmthat handles and cuts AFM’s logs.

And there are a lot of logs. Thesite, a sprawling landscape withtowering stacks of hardwood, is onthe site of the former DiamondOccidental stud mill; only onebuilding remains, along with oldfoundations, but there’s plenty ofactivity there. “If you added whatcame in and came out every day,we probably handle 100,000 cordof wood that actually comesthrough here,” said owner ScottMadden.

The yard is a central hub forAFM’s hardwood in Maine. Trucksbring wood from former Champi-

on, James River, and InternationalPaper lands for processing, fromacross Maine and even some fromNew Hampshire. Madden handlesabout 27 grades of various hard-woods, and AFM ships it as faraway as China. Plenty of it stayshere, though. Madden pointed outa stack of cut ash destined forPeavey Manufacturing in Edding-ton, where it will become leg-endary Peavey logging tools.

Between the Passadumkeagoperation and the cutting he doesin the woods around Maine, Mad-den employs 33, plus about 15subcontractors. At the processingfacility, they cut with specializedequipment, stack the logs cut toordered lengths, and ship themout. The company has a less than 1percent wood loss and shoots forless than that, reclaiming every-thing from sawdust, bark, and logends, which all find use.

Hardwood can be at a seriouspremium, and people are willing

“Hub of Hardwood” represents Maine innovation in Passadumkeag

See MADDEN, Page 5

BDN PHOTO BY DAVID M. FITZPATRICK

Using a remote control, Scott Madden, owner of Madden Timberlands, moves a custom machinehe and his crew created. The combination of a crane and an old grapple skidder has resulted in a

crane that moves easily through any terrain, picks up logs, and cuts them.


M a i n e • C o n n e c t i c u t • N e w H a m p s h i r e • M a s s a c h u s e t t s • N e w Y o r k • V e r m o n t

Lumber is an industry fraught with risks, both natural and manmade. You need an insurance company that

understands that. Not just from an insurer’s perspective, but from yours. Acadia. We’re closer to your business.

And to you. With specialists in your neighborhood ready to serve you 24/7. Visit acadiainsurance.com.

r is an industry fraught with risks, both natural and manmade. You need an insurance compa

From your standpoint, there’s more to look out for than falling timber.

to pay for it. Madden said some hardwoodcan sell for as much as $3,000 per foot. Butit’s not always hardwood. Depending onclient needs and the time of year, Maddenhandles softwoods, too. Cedar and spruceare not uncommon, and in the winter itcompany cuts a lot of pine.

Now, Madden is about to expand intocustom machinery. Loggers have oftenchopped up old machinery and welded ittogether to create new devices, but Maddenis taking it to the next level. He and his crewhave merged cranes with old grapple skid-ders, and even designed one hybrid thatworks by remote control. The clever inven-tion doesn’t get stuck often and affords greatversatility in the woods.

“We originally built these … so that younever have to get down out of your crane, sowhen the operator gets up there, he can juststay there,” Madden said. He hopes to havecustom hybrids ready for sale in the spring.

Madden’s logging history began with hisfather, who began working in the woodswith horses as a teenager, before the GreatDepression. Scott Madden began working

while in grammar school, hauling woodwith a bulldozer. He bought his first cableskidder in 1978 and went into business, anda decade later got into mechanical loggingand now runs four harvesters.

Madden’s three brothers were also in thelogging business, and today his son, threenephews, and two great nephews are in log-ging. His wife, son, and daughter-in-law workthe business with him. “It’s really just a familything,” he said. “We’ve all had our own busi-

nesses, but we’ve all worked together.”With logging so ingrained in his family,

it’s no surprise Madden has great pride forthe Maine logging industry. He cited thingslike the Master Logger Program and theCertified Logger Program as importantorganizations for keeping the industry top-notch.

“The standards for logging are well abovewhere they used to be,” he said. “They’veraised the awareness of what is involved in

harvesting wood. Basically, you’ve got to doit respectfully, or you won’t have a businessto come back to.”

Loggers are held to standards by theindustry and land owners, but under theMaster Logger Program, “we hold ourselvesto an independent audit … to make surethat we’re carrying out all the proper laws,the best-management practices,” he said.

Madden said that Roxanne Quimby’srecent statement that major landowners inMaine are committed to a forest-productsindustry model that hasn’t worked in yearsis just not accurate.

“There’s more wood here now than therewas a hundred years ago,” he said. “We aregrowing more fiber now than we werebefore — it’s just in a different form.” Thatmeans smaller trees but more of them,grown more quickly. Mills are adapting well,and the model works.

The answer, he says, isn’t to block off vasttracts of land for national parks; that’s thekind of thing that will damage Maine’s log-ging model. Future generations, he said,have more to worry about the loss of viabletimberlands than the myth of overcutting.

“I would say that [Quimby is] probablymore dangerous to the state than any log-ging company we’ve ever had,” he said.

MaddenContinued from Page 4

BDN PHOTO BY DAVID M. FITZPATRICK

A yard worker moves logs at Madden Timberlands in Passadumkeag.


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By David M. FitzpatrickBANGOR DAILY NEWS

Compared to other businesses, insurance has uniquechallenges in the logging world.

First, logging has many segments: cutting, hauling, saw-ing, and more. Some companies do some or all of those.

Second, logging has changed. Instead of a crew of guyswith chainsaws, today they use expensive equipment such asskidders, fellerbunchers, harvesters, and delimbers.

“Insurance companies spend a lot of time analyzing theequipment,” Jonathan Cross from Cross Insurance. “Theywant to make sure that the fire-suppression equipment isadequate.”

Cover a machine with flammable wood fibers, add oil andheat, and stick in the deep Maine woods far from any 911service, and fire is an alarming concern. Machines need fireprotection, and operators need training to handle fires.

Equipment loss could be devastating, especially to a smallbusiness, which could be down for weeks. Company profitsand employees’ paychecks could be on the line, all with loanpayments on the equipment still due. Statistically, a businesswill suffer from three to six times the actual claim amountin lost revenue.

“It’s always in your best interest to try to avoid thatclaim,” Cross said. “That’s why the insurance companies dotheir part in providing safety and loss control services.”

There’s more than equipment insurance, of course. Log-gers need to insure log trucks, office space, and sawmills.

They also have the usual coverage for general liability, prop-erty liability, and worker’s compensation, which all have log-ging-specific considerations.

“Worker’s compensation is a big part of their piece,” Crosssaid. “As the logging contractors have transitioned from thetraditional ‘logger with a chainsaw’ to now being moremechanized so the employees are sitting in the equipment…that has done a lot, safety-wise.”

Ensuring that clients have all the coverage they need, andthat it’s the right coverage for what they’re doing, is essentialto provide the client proper asset protection.

“People have three ways of handling risk,” said Jim Brownof United Insurance. “One is to avoid it. Two is to ignore itand hope that they never have a lawsuit, auto accident, orequipment fire. The third is to transfer the risk by buyinginsurance.”

Brown said a detailed discussion with a client is key tounderstanding his needs, so the agent can have a clearunderstanding of what the client is doing and identify thatvaluable equipment.

“The days of someone buying a chainsaw and a 20-year-old used skidder and getting into the logging business arepretty well over,” Brown said. “Now we’re talking about mil-lions of dollars worth of equipment. It’s very important thatthey insure adequately.”

The right safety features, such as fire-suppression systems,can lead to reduced premiums, not to mention excellent

Proper insurance is vital for logging industry’s unique challenges

BDN PHOTO BY BRIAN SWARTZ

A logging contractor must insure every bit of equip-ment, from a feller-buncher to a log truck hauling logs

to the mill.

See INSURANCE, Page 7


We know our way around the Maine woods.

Bangor Savings Bank is proud to support Forest Products Week in Maine.

With a Maine lumberman as one of our founders, we’ve always appreciated the role of the forest products industry in our state.

Our support only continues to grow.

www.bangor.com 1.877.Bangor1 Member FDIC

asset protection. It’s the same con-cept as sprinklers and smokealarms in a home, but on a largerscale.

“In 30 years, I don’t know thatI’ve ever had anyone, after a loss,say that they had too much insur-ance,” Brown said.

Along with knowing what aclient is doing, Scott Austin of F.A.Peabody said getting a completeinventory of all equipment andemployees is vital. “We definitelydo an on-site inspection of theiroffice and work sites,” Austin said.

Subcontracting adds a new layerof challenges, because the insur-ance company doesn’t have con-trol. “Our clients don’t always veri-fy coverage when they hire on anextra truck,” Austin said. “That’s awild card sometimes.”

Usually, contractors sub outwork because they’re behind theeight ball, need a job done ASAP,and forget to ask for updated

paperwork. “They just want thejob done — get the wood to themill and get paid for it so they cankeep plugging,” Austin said.

Recently, some big companieshave begun working 24-hourshifts, which creates new insurancechallenges.

“Number one, the machinesdepreciate twice as fast,” Austinsaid. “Number two, they want tomake sure they’re getting propermaintenance.”

Insurance premiums oncegeared for just daytime operationhas to account for these other newfactors. And these aren’t cheap

items, either. “I’ve got somemachines insured running 24hours … one of them is a $450,000grapple skidder,” Austin said.“You’re talking serious, seriousmoney there.”

Insuring can go beyond just thenumbers game. One insurer, Aca-dia Insurance, shares its knowl-edge and expertise with equip-ment manufacturers to help createsafer equipment that protects notonly the employees operating itbut the company’s assets.

Since 1996, Acadia has sharedfire- and safety-concern informa-tion with their insured customersand the region’s major dealers.

“Perhaps unique to Acadia,though, we have also been sharingour investigative photos andobservations with the design engi-neers for the equipment,” said DonCurtis, Acadia’s senior loss controlconsultant.

In the mid-1990s, one manufac-turer’s fellerbuncher was the sub-ject of two tip-over incidents thatled to major fires. Acadia shared itsobservations with the manufactur-

er, which led to redesigning a fuel-tank vent. The incidents neverrecurred, and hundreds of feller-buncher operators were safer as aresult.

In another case, an excavator-based delimber model had experi-enced several major fires. Acadiashared its evidence with the manu-facturer: woody debris, such aspine needles and bark, fell intoexhaust elements and ignited fires.A redesign fixed the problem.

A third case involved a majorfire that resulted from a heat-rup-tured hydraulic hose located tooclose to a high-temperatureexhaust; the operator had to jumpeight feet to the ground to escape.Acadia’s involvement led to themanufacturer adding a heat shieldbetween the exhaust andhydraulics, which apparentlysolved the problem.

While insurers assist customersin controlling risk, those are verynontraditional examples. Acadiahas also been involved in safetyissues in other ways, working with,and listening to, its customers, its

agents, equipment dealers, servicetechnicians, and logging-relatedorganizations to learn more,increase safety, and decreaseclaims.

“No process or intervention isperfect; we have had to learn frommistakes, adapt and change ourefforts along the way,” said Curtis.“Listening is as important for meand my colleagues at Acadia as it isfor those with whom we hope tocooperate for safety improve-ments.”

Maine’s logging economy coversmany people: the land owners, thetree planters, the cutters, the truckdrivers, the millwrights, the arti-sans, and more — from companiesthat deal with wood to those whosell it in retail channels.

“We need to be encouraging thelogging industry,” Cross said. “Thereason why we’re sitting here inBangor today is because of the log-ging industry … We should beencouraging the loggers, the cutter,the land manger, the mills — weneed it to help sustain the econo-my.”

InsuranceContinued from Page 6


By David M. FitzpatrickCUSTOM PUBLICATIONS WRITER

Public-safety groups know about narrow-banding, but private businesses that usetwo-way radios seem to still be laggingabout this major change with a Jan. 1, 2013deadline. If they don’t get all their ducks in arow now, they’re likely to find themselvesslapped with FCC fines.

Born of a need for more channels, nar-rowbanding is a federal mandate to convertcommunications frequencies from the 25KHz range to 12.5 KHz.

In Maine, there are plenty of availablechannels, but in larger areas, such as NewYork City, they’re out of them. We all have todo it the same way, so everyone must con-vert. (And this is the first of two steps. Thesecond will likely come in 2018, when theband will narrow again to 6.25 KHz. Thatswitch will be very easy once you’ve donethis round to 12.5 KHz.)

Many private businesses using FCC-licensed two-way radios seem unaware ofthis requirement. Any company using two-way radios must upgrade its license and

convert its radios.Radios are a vital part of working in the

Maine woods, where cell-phone towers andsignal strength are mighty scarce — butinstant communications are vital for safetyand ease of operation.

Two-way radios are important whetheryou’re working a harvester in the deepwoods, hauling logs to sawmills or lumberfrom them, or just communicating withyour sawmill crew.

Regardless of your company’s size, if youuse two-ways, you must convert to narrow-band.

And Maine, like many northern borderstates, has an extra challenge. Because theairwaves between the U.S. and Canada over-lap, some licensees in Maine have to getapproval not just from the FCC but from theCanadian equivalent.

If you use radios just north of Bangor,beyond the so-called “Line A” — and manyloggers certainly do — you need approvalthrough both governments.

Here, the extra red tape really slows thingsdown. It will take about four to six weeks toupgrade your existing license, even if Cana-

Loggers are among private businesses affected by narrowbanding

See RADIO, Page 9


Loggers working in the Maine woods face a Jan. 1, 2013 deadline to comply withnew narrowbanding guidelines mandated by the Federal Communications

Commission.


da is in the mix. (New licenses take six to 18months, so if you’re a new business, youreally need to get moving.)

“With red tape going through Canada, itslows it down a lot,” said John Kingsbury,owner of Whitten’s 2-Way Service in Brewer.

“You’ve got to jump through a lot ofhoops to get it through Canada,” Kingsburycommented.

Kingsbury said he’s seeing many busi-nesses waiting as long as they can to spendthe money, and in fact knows of many thatjust won’t do it.

“I have heard from some business cus-tomers that, due to the narrowband conver-sion, they will most likely not convert theirradios and will stop using radios on January1, 2013,” Kingsbury said.

Such customers hope to rely on cellphones. That won’t fly in the expansiveMaine woods, and it isn’t a viable optionwhen multiple people have to have one con-versation.

“I also believe that some users will useradios unconverted to narrowband and takethe chances on getting in trouble with the

FCC,” Kingsbury said.“And some customers are still just hearing

about the narrowband mandate — which isa little troubling, as we have tried to make apoint on notifying all of our customers,” hesaid.

So did the Maine Emergency Manage-ment Agency, which sent out notices to allFCC-license holders in Maine in 2010(because the FCC hasn’t, and won’t).

That spurred many into action, but thereare still plenty of unconverted entities left.

Kingsbury noted that conversions arepicking up; he’s converting about one pub-lic-safety department per week at this point.But he’s also noticed the FCC is gettingslower on applications — probably theresult of too many late conversions.

Risking fines and a lack of communica-tions isn’t the answer. Here’s what you needto do:

UUppggrraaddee yyoouurr lliicceennssee.. It will cost about$80 to upgrade your FCC license. You alsoneed to upgrade your Canadian license, ifyou need one.

RReepprrooggrraamm yyoouurr rraaddiiooss.. If your radios areless than 10 years old, they’re probably pro-grammable and can easily convert to the12.5 KHz frequencies.

Check with your radio dealer to be sure.

RReeppllaaccee oolldd rraaddiiooss.. If your radios are oldenough that they can’t handle the new nar-rowband channels, they’ll have to bereplaced.

This can be costly, and is more of a reason

to not wait until the last minute.If you haven’t converted yet, don’t wait

any longer, or your company may find itselfwithout the ability to talk to the outsideworld — and slapped with big FCC fines.

RadioContinued from Page 8


Located on Route 6 in Dover-Foxcroft, the Pleasant River Lumber Co. annually pro-duces 85 million board feet of spruce dimension lumber. The company is a major

employer in Piscataquis County.


Growers and insect pests wage war over perfect Christmas treesBy Brian SwartzSPECIAL SECTIONS EDITOR

What people decorate, bugs eat.Consider the balsam fir, for many Main-

ers the quintessential Christmas tree. Grow-ing on a tree farm, the beautiful balsam firtransitions from seedling to shaped tree toholiday décor replete with glowing lightsand attractive decorations. Such an easy life,growing amidst Mother Nature’s abundance…

Not so fast.For multiple bugs, that balsam fir or Dou-

glas fir or Fraser fir represents life in the fast-food lane, a coniferous Motel 6 with dine-inprivileges. Long before a Christmas treereaches marketable size in Maine, tree grow-ers wage war with insect pests seeking shel-ter and food on that same tree.

The same problem plagues trees that pro-vide “brush” for Christmas wreaths.

The good, the bad, and the ugly

According to Charlene Donahue, a forestentomologist with the Maine Forest Ser-vice’s Insect & Disease Laboratory in Augus-ta, many insects live in wild Christmas trees,albeit not simultaneously. Collectively, thebug species could be described as “the good,the bad, and the ugly.”

“Bad boys, bad boys”

Let’s talk about “the bad” first, especiallyany bug with “balsam” in its name.

• BBaallssaamm ttwwiigg aapphhiidd.. Described by Don-ahue as a “chronic problem” on Maine treefarms, this particular aphid lays eggs on bal-sam fir twigs. Hatching in the spring, thenymphs feed on existing growth, then feedinside opening buds. Later aphid genera-tions feed on new balsam needles.

While not lethal to a host tree, twig-aphidactivity curls and twists new needles andsometimes stunts tree growth, leaving a treeaesthetically unattractive. The balsam twig

aphid infests balsam fir, Fraser fir, spruces,and white fir.

Donahue indicated that tree growersshould control balsam twig aphids “only ontrees going to market in the next two years.”Mechanically “shearing” or trimming affect-ed branches eliminates the aphids and prop-erly shapes a tree. Growers can also treattrees with specific pesticides.

• BBaallssaamm ggaallll mmiiddggee.. “These are tinyorange insects that fly in the springtime,”Donahue said. Midges lay eggs on newshoots in mid- to late July, according to theMaine Forest Service. The larvae feed at thebases of new needles, which then encase thelarvae while growing. This case is a “gall” orswelling; a badly infested tree loses mostexisting needles and also loses its value as aChristmas tree or wreath source.

The balsam gall midge “comes in cycles”that erupt every seven years, although the

last serious infestation occurred in 1999,Donahue said. High populations were dis-covered in 2010, especially Down East, sheindicated. The gall midge affects balsam firand Fraser fir.

Growers can apply specific pesticides tocontrol the balsam gall midge. Donahue rec-ommended that growers avoid sprayinguntil “the foliage is elongated” and “the cur-rent year’s needles have flared out.”

Fortunately, a “good” midge feeds on bal-sam gall midge larvae. As the latter’s num-bers increase, so does the prey species, whichgradually eliminates enough gall midge lar-vae so that populations crash for a few years.

• BBaallssaamm sshhoooottbboorriinngg ssaawwffllyy.. Emerging inearly spring, this fly lays eggs inside anunopened fir bud. The larvae hatch insidethe bud and feed there, ultimately causingfir shoots to die after turning brown.

Infesting balsam fir and Fraser fir, the bal-

sam shootboring sawfly particularly dam-ages the latter tree. Although it does not killits host, the sawfly leaves “damage [that]looks similar to frost damage,” Donahuesaid.

Secure inside unopened fir buds, sawflylarvae evade destruction by pesticides. TheMaine Forest Service recommends that treegrowers apply specific pesticides to controlthe emerging adult flies.

• BBaallssaamm wwoooollyy aaddeellggiidd.. A cousin, thehemlock wooly adelgid, has received exten-sive attention since “invading” southernMaine hemlock stands in 1999. This Japan-ese pest has spread north and east into theMidcoast.

The balsam wooly adelgid has also immi-grated to Maine, and “entire stands ofmature balsam as well as understory havebeen killed in many areas,” with “the heavi-est damage” occurring “within 30 miles ofthe coast,” according to an MFS brochure.Landowners harvest such trees during sal-vage operations; the trees are often chippedand sold as biomass.

“Sensitive to cold temperatures,” the bal-sam wooly adelgid has fortunately existed in“low populations” for the past few years,Donahue said.

While feeding on a fir twig or bud, theadelgid injects chemicals that cause the hosttree to spur cell growth and create a swelling(a gout) at the affected site. The gout can killa twig by choking its vascular system; heavyinfestations can kill so many twigs and limbsthat a tree ultimately dies. Even a lighterinfestation weakens a tree and ruins its aes-thetic appeal.

According to Donahue, although “theseadelgids aren’t as mobile” as the hemlockwooly adelgid, the balsam version “is not aneasy insect to control. It is a very small suck-ing insect” that has left “the fir along thecoast … heavily infested.”

• EEaasstteerrnn sspprruuccee ggaallll aaddeellggiidd.. Not even thelowly spruce can escape an adelgid infesta-

See CHRISTMAS, Page 11

After hatching in the spring, the balsamtwig aphid feeds on balsam fir needles

and causes them to curl and twist. Thiscreates an unappealing appearance on

an otherwise marketable Christmastree.

The female Eastern spruce gall adelgidcovers herself with a white, waxy materi-

al while wintering on the twigs of aspruce tree. Her eggs hatch into

nymphs that feed on the twigs andcause a swelling (or gout).


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tion.Like its balsam and hemlock

cousins, the female Eastern sprucegall adelgid spends the winterattached to a host tree’s twigs, thencovers itself with a white, waxymaterial. A maturing female adel-gid lays her eggs inside this materi-al, the hatching nymphs feed onthe adjacent twig material, and aswelling (or gout) forms at theaffected site.

According to Donahue, treegrowers can use specific pesticidesto control the Eastern spruce galladelgid in early May. Dormant oilcan be applied at appropriatetimes, too.

• CCoooolleeyy sspprruuccee ggaallll aaddeellggiidd.Infesting Douglas fir and bluespruce, this adelgid also causesgalls to develop on host trees, ruin-ing their aesthetic appeal and caus-ing needles to turn yellow andtwist. Mechanical shearingremoves unsightly galls, and tree

growers can spray infested treewith specific pesticides in thespring, before the spruce budsopen.

Donahue indicated that growerscan help stop this adelgid from

spreading by planting blue spruceand Douglas fir some distanceapart.

• SSpprruuccee ssppiiddeerr mmiitteess.. Theseexceedingly small insects lay eggsthat hatch each spring. “The six-

legged larvae feed on foliage andcan reach maturity within a week,”an MFS brochure reports. Feedinglarvae cause “tiny chlorotic flecks”to appear on needles, “and thefoliage appears mottled,” thebrochure indicates. “Damagedneedles may dry up and drop off.Christmas trees may be severelydamaged by this mite.”

According to Donahue,extremely dry weather spursspruce spider-mite growth, butnatural predators often keep thisinsect pest under control. Treegrowers can treat affected treeswith Kelthane or Lorsban.

• WWhhiittee ppiinnee wweeeevviill.. Landown-ers who raise white pines arefamiliar with this weevil, which theMFS calls “the most serious eco-nomic insect pest of white pine.”The weevil attacks only a tree’sleaders (the highest branches) andkills them as the weevil’s grubstunnel beneath the bark.

If not removed, dead leaders canstunt a white pine’s growth. A wee-vil-damaged pine will create a new

ChristmasContinued from Page 10

Elongate hemlock scale, a Japanese import, feeds on hemlockneedles and gradually turns them yellow. Tree limbs die; so does

the host tree. This insect pest appeared in southern Maineaboard landscape trees imported from southern New England,

where elongate hemlock scale causes major headaches forChristmas tree growers.

The Cooley spruce gall adelgidcauses galls to develop on

blue spruce and Douglas firtrees. The galls ruins a tree’s

aesthetic appeal.

See INSECTS, Page 12


leader, which could grow crookedly andreduce the tree’s value for saw logs.

White pine weevils “are pretty endemic tothe State of Maine,” Donahue said, but treegrowers can cut and destroy infected leaders;the healthy tissue below the “cut” oftendevelops a new leader that grows straight.Donahue indicated that growers can controlweevils by applying Dimilin to a tree’s lead-ers in April or May; the MFS reports thatDibrom, Lorsban, and Talstar are also regis-tered white-pine weevil pesticides.

The weevil does not affect pines after theyreach 16 to 18 feet in height, according tothe Maine Forest Service. This weevil alsoaffects blue spruce, jack pine, Norwayspruce, and Scotch pine.

Ugly as sin

At least two insect pests rate as “ugly” dueto their appearance on host trees. Insects areinsects, but these bugs, collectively called“scale,” certainly aren’t pretty.

• EElloonnggaattee hheemmlloocckk ssccaallee.. Another Japan-ese import, this insect “is now consideredone of the major pests in southern NewEngland Christmas tree farms,” Donahuesaid. She described the species as “very easyto move,” which explains how the elongatehemlock scale reached Maine: aboard land-scape trees planted in southern Maine.

State entomologists confirmed the hem-lock scale’s presence in Cape Elizabeth, Ken-nebunk, and Kennebunkport in August andSeptember 2009 and in Kittery and OldOrchard Beach in November 2010. Estimat-ing that the hemlock scale arrived in Maine10 years ago, Donahue indicated the pest“has spread to native trees,” but not into anyChristmas tree plantations that “we knowof.”

According to a “Pest Alert” issued by theUnited States Department of Agriculture,after elongate hemlock-scale eggs hatch,“thecrawlers … settle beneath the thin, waxy

cuticle on the lower surface of the youngesthemlock needles and begin to feed.” Acrawler “removes fluids from the mesophyllcells through piercing and sucking mouth-parts.”

The crawlers, nymphs, and adults appearas dark or light splotches on hemlock nee-dles, which turn yellow and “drop prema-turely,” the USDA reports. “Dieback ofmajor limbs” gradually occurs, and “treesoften die within the next 10 years.”

Predator bugs, such as the aphelinid par-asitoid and twice-stabbed ladybird beetle,feed on elongate hemlock scale. Specific pes-ticides can control hemlock scale, too, butcareless application can wipe out predatorpopulations.

• CCrryyppttoommeerriiaa ssccaallee.. Any bug with theword “crypt” in its name can’t be friendly;fortunately, this insect pest “has not yet beenconfirmed in southern Maine,” Donahuesaid.

Able to live in “multiple conifer hosts,”

cryptomeria scale causes needles to turn yel-low.

The good guys

Fortunately for Christmas tree growers(and buyers), many “good” insects inhabitChristmas trees and feed on the pests.

Donahue described the “good” insects as“predators,” a definition based on their feed-ing on other bugs. Among the good guys are:

• LLaaddyy bbeeeettlleess.. Often viewed as pests whenthey attempt to move indoors each fall, ladybeetles eat “soft-bodies insects,” such asaphids, Donahue said.

In spring 2010, the Maine Forest Servicereleased a particular lady beetle, Sasajiscym-nus tsugae, in Saco and York to combat thehemlock wooly adelgid. Measuring 2 mil-limeters in length, this lady beetle eats adel-gid adults, eggs, and larvae. According toDonahue, the lady beetles will never elimi-nate the hemlock wooly adelgid, but as bee-tle numbers increase, less adelgid will sur-

vive to attack non-infested hemlocks.• LLaacceewwiinnggss.. After hatching, lacewing lar-

vae feed on aphids and mites. The larvaehave voracious appetites.

• PPrreeddaattoorryy mmiitteess.. These tiny insects feedon spider mites, aphids, and scale insects.

• SSppiiddeerrss.. The same brown-recluse spideror wolf spider that might send childrenshrieking into the house eats other insects,including those infesting Christmas trees.Many spider species exist in Maine, andwherever spiders spin their webs betweenbalsam or fir branches, insect pests arecaught.

“Spiders are good,” Donahue said. “Theyeat insects.”

• PPrraayyiinngg mmaannttiisseess.. These stick-like greeninsects “often feed at night,” so Christmastree growers are not always aware of “thegood they’re doing,” Donahue said.

• PPaarraassiitteess.. This category includes fliesand wasps, many so tiny that a microscopebest photographs them. According to Don-ahue, parasites lay their eggs on otherinsects, including insect pests; the hatchinglarvae then feed on the host bugs.

“They kill lots of insects,” she said, refer-ring to parasites. Donahue mentioned oneparasite that lay its eggs on voracious Japan-ese beetles.

Crowd control

Various management techniques helpChristmas tree growers control destructiveinsects. Donahue recommended that grow-ers employ “non-chemical” techniques first,such as:

• Pruning infested limbs or twigs;• Thinning tree stands;• Controlling weeds, which can shelter

insects;• Mowing, which also reduces insect shel-

ter.She described “chemical control” as “a last

resort” that often works well. However, asindicated by MFS literature about insectpests and how to control them, tree growersmust apply the correct pesticide in minimalquantities, Donahue indicated.

InsectsContinued from Page 11

Among the “good” insects that feed on thepests infesting Maine-grown Christmas trees are

the green lacewing (above), whose larvae feedon aphids and mites, and the lady beetle (right),

which also dines on aphids. The Maine ForestService has released a particular lady beetle to

combat the hemlock wooly adelgid.


tractors, Ward met such people asBill Gardner and Harold Bouchard— with whom he spent a day tour-ing harvesting operations alongthe Golden Road and elsewhere —before being referred to BrianSouers.

“I waited for him to return fromworking in the woods,” Ward says,smiling at the memory. “We talkedfor about an hour and then wentout in the woods to meet the guys.”

Ward offered Treeline his expe-rience as a skilled logger; Treelineoffered Ward “steady work, healthinsurance, and different types ofequipment [that] I could run,” hesays.

In mid-August 1990, Wardreported to Treeline and “went upon the Golden Road” at the timewhen GNP was shifting from cor-porate to private woods crews. “Iworked only one day there,” hesays.

For the next 17 years, Ward ranhis own skidder while working forTreeline. Including a 518 Caterpil-lar and a 540B John Deere, heowned three skidders, “one at atime,” he says.

Three months after Ward start-ed logging in Maine, Jane broughttheir two children, Cullen andLaura, to Lincoln, where the fami-ly rented a house for three years.The Wards then “built a house onthe river in Chester” and raisedtheir children there, Andy Wardsays.

Over the years, he worked atmany places, from Mount Chase toMaine Public Reserved Landsaround Nahmakanta Lake. Cullenand Laura attended Lincoln

schools and graduated from Mat-tanawcook Academy, and Janeworked for different companies;she now works for Prentiss &Carlisle.

“Trying to meet people washard,” Ward says, recalling his earlyyears with Treeline Inc.

About four years ago, AndyWard shifted to running Treeline-owned harvesting equipment,including the feller-buncher anddelimber. He often works Mondayto Saturday — depending onMaine’s notoriously fickle weather,of course — and his work yeartypically encompasses 45 weeks.

Logging operations often shutdown for mud season (Maine’sunofficially fifth season), so “youneed to earn 52 weeks of pay inthose 45 weeks,” Ward says. “WhenI had the skidder, every day youcould work, you had to work.”

With the John Deere feller-buncher, Ward does not travel asfar through the woods as he would

if driving a skidder. He describedoperating the feller-buncher as“more challenging” than running askidder: “You can track, cut, andlift all at the same time with thehydraulics on it,” he explains,referring to the feller-buncher.“Being able to do two things at onetime is pretty neat.

“I have to cut my way in[to thewoods] and set the trees aside,”Ward says, noting that he stackstrees “to the right, not the left.

“You have to be picking andchoosing [trees] as you go,” hesays. “It’s interesting work.”

Except for a short lunch break,Ward remains in the feller-bunch-er’s cab, working hours at a stretchas he harvests trees. He admittedthat “it’s pretty boring sitting therein a box without anyone to talk to.It’s like sitting in your car all day,and you don’t get out.”

Yet Ward cannot imagine work-ing elsewhere. “Out here I’vealways been comfortable,” he

explains. “I like this, doing physicalwork; it’s always been comfortable.I can support my family here; I canmake my living here.”

As to what still attracts him tothe forest, Ward responds, “Thechange in the forest every day, andit’s got to be the people I work withthat keeps me here. We’re con-stantly on the move. Everywhere Igo is new.”

Away from timber harvesting,“family is No. 1,” Ward says. “Welike to walk the dog and ride ourbikes near the house. We like to gofishing on the [Penobscot] river,spending time with the kids.” Henotes that after graduating fromMaine Maritime Academy in 2010,Cullen now sails on commercialvessels as a marine engineer. Lauragraduated from the dental hygien-ist program at University of Maineat Augusta-Bangor Campus.

In the winter, the Wards “like togo downhill skiing,” especially at

the Big Rock Ski Area in Mars Hill,he says. Ward really, really enjoysdownhill skiing; a smile toucheshis face as he talks about the sport.

Ward anticipates that he willwork in the Maine woods for yearsto come. He was among the first100 or so Maine loggers who tookCertified Logging Professionaltraining; among that class were“Scott Hanington, Michael St.Peter, and Eldon Pelletier,” herecalls.

By early afternoon, cloudspushed northward by an advanc-ing cold front obscure the earlyautumn sunshine. Brian Souerswatches as Ward harvests trees offA Road with the feller-buncher;“it’s like going into a garden andweeding it,” Souers comments.“He’s picking all the weeds to letthe younger plants, in this case theyounger trees, grow better.

“This will be a healthier forestwhen we’re done,” Souers says.

LoggerContinued from Page 2


After cutting a beech tree with a 753G John Deere feller-buncher(above), logger Andy Ward lifts the tree and briefly carries it

through the woods (right) before laying it beside his twitch path.


By Richard R. Shaw

Times are changing in the logging indus-try, and Caribou Software is leading thecharge into the 21st century. Based in Hin-ton, Alberta, a small town with a pricelessview of the Canadian Rockies, the companyis a premier provider of cost accounting andmanagement software for the logging andtimber industry.

Maine’s high-value hardwood businessesare catching on to the ease of tracking loadtickets with Caribou programs. But someloggers still favor old-fashioned spread-sheets or a sharp pencil and a 10-key addingmachine. That’s where company presidentTeresa Hannah and her staff use their soft-ware marketing skills.

“Our software helps people keep up withload tickets, time slips, equipment expenses,and overall job costing,” Hannah said. “It’san efficiency-enhancer for logging andtrucking companies, as well as land manage-ment companies, and even small sawmills.”

Founded in 2004, Caribou started outwith three United States customers. Thatnumber has ballooned to nearly 100, accounting for about half of the company’s clients. The rest are located mostly in forest-

rich Canada.As Caribou’s Web site says: “If your com-

pany operates heavy equipment and/oroperates log trucks to deliver loads to sawand pulp mills, or if you are a wood buyerthat contracts with loggers and truckers todeliver fiber to your customers, we have thesoftware solution for you!”

Caribou’s Web site is a good place to learnabout the right software for your operation.Another way is to speak directly with Han-nah, who will be at the Northeastern ForestProducts Equipment Expo in Bangor onMay 13-14. She has a world of knowledgeabout the Logger’s Edge office system andthe handheld Suzie Logger program.

In 2007, Northwoods Management, aland-management company based in Ban-gor, was introduced to the software. In thelast five years, Caribou’s customer base hasgrown to 15 clients in Maine, a number thatis likely to grow as word spreads of Caribou’seconomical and user-friendly programs.

Hannah shares testimonials of Logger’sEdge and Suzie Logger clients. Gerald Pel-letier Inc. of Millinocket, featured in theDiscovery Channel’s “American Loggers,”

Many Maine-based logging contractors rely on Caribou Software


In autumn 2011, a truck driver steers his load of logs eastbound on Route 6 inDover-Foxcroft. Logging contractors often use Caribou Software-supplied systems

to track load tickets, equipment expenses, and other business activities.

See CARIBOU, Page 21


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AUGUSTA — Maine’s Department of Conservationreports a near-record timber harvest on public reservedlands of 70,600 cords for the past winter season.

The harvest, which was above that of recent years, is val-ued at approximately $2.23 million. These funds supportmaintenance, operations, and public access on the statelands, said Tom Morrison of the Maine Department of Con-servation.

The harvest involved hiring local logging contractors in29 locations, harvesting timber across the state, and sup-porting more than 200 private-sector jobs, Morrison said.Logs were delivered to more than 40 Maine mills for value-added processing.

“Timber harvests on state lands are carried out by privatecontractors who sell to private mills,” said Gov. Paul LePage.“Our revenue goes toward managing our forests. This isabout private jobs and public access to the woods for Mainepeople.”

“We manage public lands for a combination of publicaccess for Maine citizens, preservation of sites of intrinsicconservation values and for timber production based on amultiple-use, long-rotation and sustainable basis,” saidCommissioner Bill Beardsley of the Maine Department ofConservation. “Our timber revenues bode well for futurestate revenues and private sector jobs.”

“Our state foresters have worked hard to oversee a greatwinter harvest season,” said Will Harris, Maine Departmentof Conservation’s director of the Bureau of Parks and Lands.

“We have helped the economy and held to our forest sus-tainability standards. We will use the revenue we get fromour timber management to maintain and increase publicaccess to our public lands. I hope the people of Maine arepleased with our management of their forest lands.”

“We’re very pleased with the outcome of this year’s tim-ber harvest so far and proud that this harvest not only sup-ports our Maine public reserved lands, but also is an eco-nomic benefit to our forest-products industry and ourstate,” Morrison said.

Maine has close to 600,000 acres of public reserved landsunder the management of the Maine Department of Con-servation’s Bureau of Parks and Lands. Public reserved landsdiffer from other state-owned lands, such as state parks andhistoric sites, in that they are managed for multiple uses,including special protection for unique natural and historicareas, recreation, wildlife habitat and timber harvesting.

Harvest operations in softwood stands also are designedto increase white tailed deer and snowshoe hare habitat, tobenefit populations. “This year, we had a very successfulharvest season,” said Morrison, who is a licensed profession-al forester as well as director of operations for the Bureau ofParks and Lands. “We had no particularly difficult weatherto deal with; the mills were taking wood, and the prices werestable this year.”

Morrison said the season’s winter harvest lasted from lateNovember 2010 until March 2011. The harvest produced

Logging contractors harvested 70,600 cords on Maine state lands


An oak tree lifts its changing leaves skyward on state-owned land in Franklin County. See STATE HARVEST, Page 21

16 | BANGOR DAILY NEWS | Friday | October 21, 2011 BANGOR DAILY NEWS | Friday | October 21, 2011 | 17

Weather, fuel prices, wood markets challenge Maine logging contractors in 2011By Brian SwartzCUSTOM PUBLICATIONS EDITOR

When even Mother Nature won’tgive you a break, you must be aMaine logging contractor.

Take today, for example: WhatMother Nature was supposed todeliver, she did not. At his home ona high ridge overlooking the Pis-cataquis River Valley in Guilford,Richard Thomas could see starstwinkling overhead before sunlightever glimmered on the easternhorizon.

Last night and this morning, theBangor-based TV meteorologistspredicted brilliant sunshine andscattered clouds. All day on localradio stations, a Weather Channelmeteorologist will wax eloquentlyabout the perfect autumn weatherthat Mainers are enjoying.

Then exactly what are thesedank, low-hanging clouds thatblanketed Piscataquis County by 8a.m.? Another trick played byMother Nature? If so, then Thomasis used to such tricks; he owns R.A.Thomas Logging Inc. and, as somany other logging contractorshave discovered, finds his workschedule adversely impacted byMother Nature in 2011.

“We was out of work pretty nearfour months this spring, from I’dsay the middle of March ’til prettynear into July,” Thomas says.

In Maine, most logging contrac-tors usually suspend harvestingoperations for several weeks untilthe roads and woods dry out afterMud Season. This year, Mud Sea-son seemed never-ending by late inrain-drenched May.

Too much rain fell and “kept thewoods wet,” Thomas recalls. “Thewoods never hardened up, neverdried out from the spring. Thenthey did dry out, I’d say from themiddle of July to the middle ofAugust, until the rain started again.

“The weather’s always been achallenge for us,” Thomas says as hegazes south to where fog nowenvelopes distant ridges. That fogwill develop into an intermittentmist later this morning.

So much for Mother Naturekeeping her sunshiny promise.

Practicing sustainable forestry

Thomas employs five loggerswho operate mechanized harvest-

ing equipment: two Rottne proces-sors, two Rottne forwarders, and aValmet forwarder. Thomas’s crewsharvest timber at sites primarilywithin a 30-to-35-mile radius ofGuilford.

“Right now, we have one job 2miles from here and one [job] 4miles from here,” Thomas says. Hewill visit the “distant” work sitelater today.

After six decades spent workingin the Maine woods, Thomas can“walk” a woodlot and quicklydetermine which trees should beharvested. “Forestry is basicallyagriculture,” he says. “You have tonurse that crop along and weed it,or you’ll get less food. In forestry, ifyou don’t harvest that [forest] landor thin it, you’ve shortchangedyourself and the economy.

“If it’s not cut at the right time,the wood has gone by and lost itsbest value,” Thomas explains. “Youlose the money value of your wood,and the mills lose good wood.

“Fir is a fairly short-life tree.There always is a market for fir, butyou want to cut it before it goes by.Then the value isn’t as good,” hesays.

Thomas indicates that R.A.Thomas Logging practices sustain-able forestry — and he purchaseshis equipment accordingly. Withsix rubber tires, a Rottne processor“is more environmentally friendly.You can harvest smaller wood withthat. It doesn’t leave ruts.”

As he works in a woodlot, aprocessor operator creates a trail bylaying down the limbs and topssnipped from harvested trees.

At the controls of an eight-wheeled forwarder, anotherThomas Logging employee travelsalong this leafy trail to load logsand transport them to a nearbywoodyard. The large rubber tiresfound on the processor and for-warder “ride” over the terrain anddo not damage the forest floor.

Sustainable forestry benefitswildlife, according to Thomas. In aforest where trees crowd togetherand the thick overstory limits thesunlight penetrating to the forestfloor, animals and birds find lessfood and cover.

However, “you see a lot moreanimals where the land is harvestedsustainably,” Thomas says.

He explains that sustainable har-

vesting removes desirable andundesirable trees. More sunlightreaches the forest floor to stimulategrowth in younger trees; suchgrowth produces more food, fromacorns on thriving oak trees tocones on fast-growing fir andspruce.

Young trees also produce thelush foliage — known as “browse”— sought by Maine moose.

R.A. Thomas Logging ownsabout 9,000 acres, all now harvest-ed sustainably. “I started buyingland when I was a sophomore inhigh school,” Thomas recalls.

In 1972 he harvested trees on a250-acre tract across the road anddownslope from his home. Thomashas harvested trees on that acreagethree more times since then, “andthere’s still a good crop in there,” hesays, noting that he recently pur-chased the large woodlot.

Logging contractors facechallenging times

Maine-based logging contractorsface several challenges in autumn2011. Thomas quietly states that“some of the log markets are down.

White pine. The hardwood logmarket is down, too. We’re sellingit, but not as much as in the past.

“Oak veneer is down,” but “thebirch veneer, the market’s good forthat,” he comments.

Described by Thomas as “a fast-growing tree,” white birch “is every-where” in southern PiscataquisCounty, and as business has pickedup at nearby Hardwood ProductsCo. LLC in Guilford, Thomas hassent more white birch logs there.

“The [white] pine, we’ve onlygot two places where we can sellpine logs,” he says. His crews shipspruce-fir pulpwood “directly” toMadison Paper in Madison and to aVerso Paper woodyard in Dover-Foxcroft.

“The housing market’s probablythe biggest thing affecting theeconomy and logging,” Thomassays. “If we could turn thingsaround so people were buildingmore houses, the markets wouldget better.

“The [price of] fuel’s been a realchallenge,” Thomas says, brieflydiscussing how diesel prices havenot tumbled as fast as gasolineprices have since late summer.

“Everybody’s been in the same boaton that.”

Finding experienced help

He worries about the availabilityof skilled workers. “In the loggingbusiness, finding people that knowwhat they’re doing is harder,”Thomas says.

Decades ago, youngsters learnedthe trade while working on thefamily farm or with relatives whowere loggers. Thomas’s first contactwith logging occurred when he was10, when his father, Clyde, “had merun a bark spud. It was all done byhand. The work was hard, but youlearned about working in thewoods.

“Years ago, most kids in this areawere in the woods, helping to getfirewood,” Thomas says. “I wasdriving a bulldozer when I was 10-to-11 years old, operating the dozerso my father and the guys workingwith him could put 4-foot logs on atrailer I was towing, With me driv-ing, they didn’t have to hop on andoff the bulldozer.”

He remembers traveling with hisfather to deliver logs to Maine

paper mills, from Eastern FinePaper in Brewer to Great NorthernPaper in Millinocket. Truck- ortrailer-mounted log loaders did notexist; loggers loadedand unloaded logs byhand.

Labor laws startedchanging in the late20th century.“The newlaws banned theyoungsters from work-ing around powerequipment, so theycould not learn how touse it,” Thomas says.“My own son, the onlyway legally I couldhave him around theequipment was tomake him a partner inthe business.”

An experiencedprocessor operatormust be “a forester, amechanic, know exact-ly what he’s cuttingand its best value,”Thomas says. “If yougo to the school (Pis-cataquis CommunityHigh) down over thehill, the kids wouldknow how to run oneof those processors,but I don’t know ifthey could identify thespecies of tree theywere cutting.”

Thomas volunteershis time as a Profes-

sional Logging Contractor ofMaine director. “We have tried tofigure how to get young people intologging,” he says. “There’s no one

answer.”One young logger recently

joined R.A. Thomas Logging.Thomas proudly reveals that a

grandson just earned a degree inforestry at Unity College and “cameto work for us. He’s out runningequipment today.”

Operated by Stan Folsom and owned by R.A. Thomas Logging, a Rottne SMV eight-wheel forwarder stacks harvested logs at a landingin Piscataquis County in late September 2011.


Richard Thomas has worked in the woods since, as a 10-year-old growing up on the family farm inGuilford, he ran a bark spud for his father, Clyde. Today, Thomas owns R.A. Thomas Logging Inc. and

employs five loggers who mechanically harvest woodlots within a 30-to-35-mile radius of Guilford.

Marked with a blue “V,”, these white birch logs harvested by R.A.Thomas Logging Inc. are destined for Hardwood Products Co. LLC

in Guilford.

Stan Folsom stands beside massive white pine logs that he transported to a Piscataquis County landing with aRottne SMV eight-wheel forwarder owned by R.A. Thomas Logging Inc. Folsom is the brother-in-law of Richard

Thomas, who owns the Guilford-based business.



ABBOT — Sporting a bluepaint scheme, a large wheeledvehicle flashes across a road open-ing beneath the monochromaticceiling that hovers over the BatesRoad this early autumn morning.

“That’s Stan in the forwarder,”says Richard Thomas, a masterlogger who owns Guilford-basedR.A. Thomas Logging. He refers tohis brother-in-law, Stan Folsom,and to the eight-wheeled RottneSMV forwarder that Folsom usesto transport harvested logs fromthe surrounding forest.

Fall colors — red leaves here,orange leaves there, fallen yellowleaves swirling in the light breezeover yonder — identify the seasonas Thomas visits the site whereFolsom and Jim Morin are work-ing in the rolling Abbot hills.Although gray clouds hang lowoverhead, the rain will hold off;

with their cut-to-length harvestingequipment, neither Folsom norMorin would experience muchdifficulty working in at least a lightdownpour, anyways.

This particular week they areopening a thick forest that growswhere fields once surrounded anearby farmhouse and outbuild-ings. Valuable timber will ship tovarious Maine mills, includingHardwood Products Co. LLC inGuilford and Hancock Lumber Co.in Pittsfield.

To harvest that timber, Morinoperates a six-wheeled RottneRapid EGS processor equippedwith an MK 200 boom and a pro-cessing head. Seated in a clima-tized cab, he cuts individual treesand lays them aside for Folsom toretrieve with the forwarder.

Before cutting a particular tree,Morin enters its species into theprocessor’s onboard computer.Once the processing head fells andgrasps the tree, the computer“tells” the processing head where

to cut the tree to optimal loglength. By day’s end, the computerwill calculate how many logs —including their length and thick-ness — of each species that Morin

will cut today.As he works, Morin spreads tree

limbs and tops ahead of theprocessor to create a leafy trail sep-

Abbot harvest will meet landowner’s goals & supply Maine mills


Working for R.A. Thomas Logging Inc. of Guilford, Jim Morin ofParkman (right) harvests trees in Abbot with a Rottne Rapid EGS

processor (above).

See ABBOT, Page 19


arating the machine’s rubber wheels fromthe forest floor. Big wheels let a processorand a forwarder move through the forestwithout damaging the soil.

The landowner on whose property Fol-som and Morin work this week has a fewgoals for the harvest. A 12-acre red-pineplantation stands where a field once spreadbeneath the Piscataquis County sky. Now atharvest height, the red pines will becomeutility poles, saw logs, or pulpwood; “thelandowner wants it all cut and put back intofield,” Thomas says.

Some red pines were spray painted withlight blue numbers by an employee of Pren-tiss & Carlisle, which will buy all the trees.The numbered trees will be converted intoutility poles; “they have a nice, straight trunkthat goes all the way up,” Thomas explains.

Elsewhere, Morin opens an area wherethe landowner will later toss the red-pinestumps and roots dug up during fieldrestoration. A previous landowner had leftstumps and other woody debris near thissite beneath the hill’s western crest, far fromthe nearby road.

Out of sight and out of mind, the stumpsand roots will slowly rot; their nutrients willenrich the forest soil. Although some log-ging contractors chip stumps, limbs, andsimilar material as biomass fuel, R.A.Thomas Logging will not do so here;Thomas explains that leaving the biomasson the forest floor benefits “the entire for-est.”

While Morin works, Folsom plucks felledlogs with the forwarder’s RK 90 boom andgrapple and stacks them on the forwarder’sattached log cradle. Once it’s full, he can

shift his seat 180 degrees and look “forward”as the machine heads to the yard, now some150-200 yards away from the processor.


The cutting head of a Rottne Rapid EGS processor cuts a log from a spruce takendown at a harvesting operation in Abbot. The contractor conducting the harvest

for the landowner is R.A. Thomas Logging Inc. of Guilford.

AbbotContinued from

Among the trees being harvested at alogging operation in Abbot are red

pines. Those painted with blue numbers are destined to become

utility poles.

See HARVEST, Page 20


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At the yard, Folsom lifts logsfrom the cradle and places themonto species-specific piles. Spruce,fir, and even some hemlock will gofor pulpwood; three white-birchlogs painted with large Vs (for“veneer”) will go to Columbia For-est Products in Presque Isle. Otherwhite-birch logs will go to Hard-wood Products Co. LLC.

Richard Thomas knows whatwood each mill needs. “I do all myown marketing,” he says. “There’s amarket for just about everything.”

Not far away on another ruralroad, Thomas pulls off and parksnear a metal gate he has installedacross a woods road accessing hisadjacent land. “I don’t post myland, never have,” he says, but folkshave illegally dumped old appli-ances, furniture, and other trashon some of his land, and “it’sexpensive to clean up,” he says.

Once Thomas installs another

post, he will lock the gate so noscofflaw can drive a trash-ladenpickup or SUV onto the property.The woods road runs to a landingthat his crew used a few years agowhile thinning an adjacent 25-acrespruce plantation.

The remaining spruce treesstand tall against the gloweringsky; ground-level stumps andpiled limbs mark where other treeswere harvested. “We took about 10cords an acre out of here,” Thomassays while walking the woodlot.

He’s obviously proud of whathis loggers accomplished here. “Wethinned it so the stand can grow[for] another 15 years. Then wecan come back and cut it again.We’re growing a new crop of treesby harvesting the already valuabletrees,” he says.

“The tops were starting totouch,” Thomas says, flicking hisgaze upward as he stands beside astraight-boled spruce. “When thetops start to touch, the trees reallyslow down in their growing. Bymanaging this [woodlot] right, wecan get a regular crop off it.”

HarvestContinued from

By Maine Forest Service

Vernal pools provide important habitat for manycommon and specialized forest-dwelling species. Timber harvestingactivities should avoid disturbinghigh-value vernal pools and limitimpacts to the immediate sur-rounding forest.

A vernal pool is a natural, tem-porary to semi-permanent body ofwater occurring in a shallowdepression that typically fills dur-ing the spring or fall and may dryduring the summer. Vernal poolsare small (usually less than anacre), have no permanent inlet, andhave no viable populations ofpredatory fish.

In Maine, vernal pools are alsodefined by the animals that usethem for breeding, including thefollowing indicate species:

• Spotted salamander;• Blue spotted salamander;• Wood frog;

• Fairy shrimp.Vernal pool-dependent organisms rely on the pool

itself as well as an intact forest immediately sur-rounding the pool to complete their lifecycle. Some

important habitat elements thatshould be maintained within 750feet of the are:

• Water quality;• Forest cover;• Uncompacted soil;• Woody debris.When planning a timber harvest,

look for potential vernal pools on:• National Wetland Inventory

Maps, where isolated depressionsare designated as PUB/POW (openwater), PSS (shrub swamp), PFO(forested wetland), or PEM(marsh);

• Aerial photographs (large scale,color infrared taken with the leavesoff the trees are best);

• USGS topographical maps(look for depressions and indica-tions of wetlands).

In early spring, vernal pools can be identified by

Vernal pools are vital for forest-dwelling species

The blue-spotted salamander(above) and the wood frog

(below) are two species thatbreed in Maine vernal pools.

See VERNAL POOLS Page 25

approximately 11,000 cords more than last year’s har-vest, he said.

“The timber was cut for a variety of productionuses, ranging from biomass, pulp, saw and veneerlogs,” Morrison noted. He said that 51 percent wasused for pulp wood; 37 percent for saw logs; and 12percent for biomass.

The 29 harvesting contracts were based on the saleof stumpage, Morrison said, and the various opera-

tions covered 500- to 2,000-acre harvest areas. Somelarger-scale harvests took place at Osborn, Eagle Lake,Andover West Surplus Township, and at Indian Pondnear Chamberlain Lake.

The BPL is required by statute to manage publicreserved lands, in terms of timber harvesting, to pro-duce a sustainable yield, Morrison said. An “annualallowable cut” has been established at 115,000 cordsfor the 400,000 acres of operable timberland on theselands. Because BPL manages the public reserved landsfor multiple uses, the bureau’s foresters develop pre-scriptions for exactly what can be cut, the directorsaid.


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uses the handheld on its harvesting jobs for North-woods. Mary Keegan of Thompson Trucking Inc.,based in Lincoln, a veteran of the logging business,immediately took to Caribou’s software.

“... When it came time to pass the business on to thenext generation,” Keegan stated in a spring 2010 edi-tion of The Northern Logger & Timber Processormagazine, “we realized we needed a data-tracking sys-tem that allowed us to monitor production, costs andrevenue carefully on a weekly and monthly basis.”

The Thompsons adopted the Logger’s Edge system

and use it to track everything from load tickets toemployee time sheets to equipment expenditures andmaintenance costs.

With production and hourly information in onesystem, Keegan can run reports from the system thatshow logging costs by phase of operation on each jobsite harvested, and she can track those costs on a perton or per cost basis.

Lincoln-based Robin Crawford and Son Co. Inc.also uses Logger’s Edge to track load tickets andstreamline the trucker and crew payment process aswell as revenue reconciliation. Crawford estimatesthey have shaved at least two days off the time spenton the paperwork prior to signing up with Caribou.

It’s success stories like these that have put Caribouat the top of its field.

CaribouContinued from Page 14

State harvestContinued from Page 15


A “moose catcher” installed on the nose of a logging truck hintsat one hazard of the trade for truckers moving chips and logs to

market in Maine.



John Deere, phone home!With John Deere telemetrics, a

logging contractor or a servicetechnician will soon be able to“talk” to Deere forestry equipmentdeep in the Maine woods. Thisability could potentially prevent“catastrophic [equipment] failure”and reduce maintenance-relateddowntime, said Kevin Fowler, gen-eral manager of the Nortrax storesin Bangor, Houlton, and Fort Kent.

John Deere owns Nortrax,which sells and services Deere-manufactured forestry equipment,including:

• Cut-to-length harvesting sys-tems (harvesters and forwarders);

• Feller-bunchers;• Cable and grapple skidders;• Swing machines, including

delimbers;• Knuckleboom loaders.According to Fowler, “Deere’s

commitment to the forestry mar-ket has been huge over the years.Deere and its dealer organizationsare totally committed to the indus-try, to the contractors, and to thelandowners. That commitmentmeans we are constantly updatingour equipment as technologyevolves.”

Deere has already introducedtelemetrics in its agriculturalequipment; with new Deereforestry equipment, “telemetrics isin play,” Fowler said.

He explained that in a telemet-rics-equipped Deere harvester, forexample, computer-controlledsensors monitor different machinefunctions. Telemetrics “is a way ofthe dealer and the [equipment]owner being able to dial into thatmachine and tell how it’s doing”based in information provided bythe computer, Fowler said.

From an office or computer ter-minal many miles away, a loggingcontractor or service tech coulddetermine service intervals, checkpre-failure codes, and obtaininformation about the machine’sdaily production and fuel con-sumption. “In the near future, thiswill all be available via GPS,”Fowler said.

“It’s looked at as preventive

maintenance. The [equipment]operator will get an indication inthe cab, and a signal is sent to theowner or dealer,” he said. “Theycan get an idea of what’s goingwrong” and “have a good idea ofwhat [parts] they should bringwith them before heading out.

“Our main goal with telemetricsis preventive maintenance, loweroperating costs, and guaranteed‘up’ time,” Fowler said. “Minimiz-ing downtime is critical; equip-ment makes money only when it’srunning.”

Technological changes areoccurring in other John Deereforestry equipment, “right up tothe new E-Series of cut-to-lengthharvesting systems,” Fowler noted.

The four E-Series harvesters arethe 1070E, 1170E, 1270E, and1470E. These six-wheeled har-vesters incorporate a new cab andthe TimberMatic automation sys-

tem. All are equipped withWaratah heads that range from 8-inches in diameter to heads thatcan cut 18-inch diameter trees.

According to Fowler, the clima-tized cab — also found on the E-Series forwarders — “pivots andlevels in the same direction” as theturning boom. “You’re alwayslooking at your job, instead ofturning your head,” he said, stress-ing that no matter how the har-vester or forwarder is angled inrelation to the forest floor, “the cabis always level.”

The rotating cab is standard onall E-Series harvesters and for-warders; the leveling feature isoptional.

The six E-Series forwarders arethe 810E, 1010E, 1110E, 1210E,1510E, and 1910E. A new featureon these forwarders is a hydraulicfan that cleans the engine cooler byautomatically reversing directionto blow dust and wood debris.

The E-Series has “been in pro-duction here for 1½to 2 years,”Fowler said. “It’s been very popu-lar. The operators really like whatDeere has done for them. Themachines are much moreergonomically friendly for theoperator,” who works in a clima-tized cab.

“It’s all about operator comforttoday,” Fowler said. “A person com-fortable in a nice cab isn’t going tofatigue easy” and lose production asthe workday passes. And an equip-ment operator pleased with workingconditions probably would stay onthe job, rather than find a job run-ning more ergonomically friendlyequipment elsewhere, he indicated.

The E-Series harvesters and for-warders benefit the environment,an important goal of John Deere,according to Fowler. He explainedthat “being environmentallyfriendly and staying ‘green’ hasbeen a major focus with JohnDeere,” currently involved with co-generation plants, wind energy,and other green-energy sources.Cut-to-length harvesting demon-strates that environmental focus,according to Fowler.

“In today’s market, with itsselective thinning and [tree] plan-tations, cut-to-length harvestingworks well,” he said. “It’s veryfriendly to the forest floor, withless impact and [creating less] dis-turbance.

“Some landowners want cut-to-

length [harvesting] on their land,”Fowler observed. “With cut-to-length, the majority of the [tree]tops and branches are left in thewoods. The operator spreads it outover the forest floor and leaves it todecay.”

Among the other John Deereforestry equipment carried byNortrax is the 600 Series skidder,which “has always been the work-horse of the fleet,” Fowler said.However, “more people are goingto the 800 Series with its greaterhauling capacity.”

Grapple skidders are outsellingcable skidders as logging contrac-tors shift from hand crews tomechanized logging, he indicated.John Deere builds four grappleskidders: the 548G-III, 648H,748H, and 848H.

Nortrax carries four John Deereforestry swing machines: the2154D, 2454D, 2954D, and 3754D.“The 2154 forestry swing machinewith a delimber on it, it’s designedfor the woods,” Fowler said. “It hasa forestry cab on it.” Known as aForestry Protection Standard(FOPS) cab, this type of cab “isdesigned for severe duty versushaving to take an excavator andhaving to build a café over it.”

John Deere manufacturestracked feller-bunchers (six mod-els) and wheeled feller-bunchers(two models). “Our 753J, thenewer model [in tracked feller-bunchers], has much more mod-ern hydraulics and the ability tomulti-function,” as well as “moreboom reach,” Fowler said.

The 753J can be equipped withan optional “D7 bottom thatmakes it (the machine) muchmore stable on rough terrain andwhen cutting larger wood,” henoted.

According to Fowler, the Nor-trax stores in Bangor, Houlton,and Fort Kent cover the regionstretching “from Waterville toCalais to Jackman and all the wayto the tip of northern Maine.” Eachstore is open at least 10 hours a dayfrom Monday through Friday andfrom 8 a.m.-12 noon on Saturday.

“All three stores have an after-hours call-in service for parts,”Fowler said.

“A lot of our customers work onSaturdays, and some of them doon Sundays. It’s important thatparts be available to them,” hecommented.

Nortrax stores sell and service John Deere forestry equipment

Among the John Deere forestry equipment sold and serviced byNortrax at its stores in Bangor, Fort Kent, and Houlton are the

1270E harvester (above) and the 2154D forestry swing machine,equipped with a delimber (below).

The John Deere 1910E forwarder is popular with loggers whoappreciate the machine’s ergonomically friendly cabin.


Two new heavy-duty trucks will appearsoon in the Maine woods, on the highways,and at construction sites everywhere.

According to Tim Caldwell, the Freight-liner of Maine General Manager, Freightlin-er and Western Star have introduced newmodels “designed for the vocational mar-ket.” These trucks are:

• The Freightliner 114SD (for “SevereDuty”);

• The Western Star 4700.“Both of these trucks would fit under the

category of ‘Baby 8s,’” Caldwell said, refer-ring to the Class 8 truck classification. “Bothtrucks are a step down from the premiumClass 8 products. They fill a niche in bothmakes,” with the 114SD “bridging the gapbetween the Freightliner M2 and CoronadoSD, which is a premium Class 8.

“The Western Star 4700 is Western Star’sfirst dalliance into a lighter truck,” Caldwellpointed out. “It’s designed to compete withInternational, Volvo, Mack.”

The 114SD and 4700 “would be great log

haulers, a tandem-axle municipal truck witha plow and a dump body on it, a concretetruck or a utility truck of various configura-tions. These trucks are not intended for along-haul sleeper application,” he said.“Both are available with heavy-duty frameratings and several suspensions, includingHendrickson, Chalmers, heavy duty air, andthe Tuf Trac suspension, which has extremearticulation, durability, simplicity and pro-vides a great ride.

“The Western Star 4700 would work wellwith a log loader behind the cab, especiallyin western Maine,” Caldwell said. “There’s alot of pine and big spruce down there and afew sawmills. Logging’s somewhat differentdown there than up in the County. There aremore private woodlots rather than longstretches of commercial forest. There arequite a few three-axle, self-loader trucks inthat area.”

The 114SD and 4700 feature the 2010emissions engines, which reduce emissionsby utilizing SCR technology with urea injec-tion. Similar engines are available in bothtrucks:

• On the Freightliner 114SD, a DetroitDiesel DD13 can deliver 350 to 450 horse-

power and up to 1,650 foot-pounds oftorque. A Cummins ISC can deliver up to350 horsepower and 1,000 foot-pounds oftorque; a Cummins ISL can deliver up to 380horsepower and 1,300 foot-pounds oftorque.

• On the Western Star 4700, the DetroitDiesel DD13 can produce 350 to 450 horse-power and 1,250 to 1,650 foot-pounds oftorque. The Cummins ISC can deliver 260 to350 horsepower and up to1,000 foot-pounds of torque, and the Cummins ISL candeliver 345 to 380 horsepower and 1,150 to1,300 foot-pounds of torque.

“Torque is what does the work,” Caldwellsaid. “The higher the torque rating, thegreater the load capacity the truck has.These trucks are built for heavy-duty appli-cations; depending on how customers wantto use them, they can be ordered with theright engine for the job.”

The Freightliner 114SD is available at theFreightliner of Maine locations at:

• 422 Perry Road, Bangor;• 10 Terminal St., Westbrook.The Western Star 4700 is available at

Freightliner and Western Star of Maine at 10Terminal St., Westbrook.

The trucks “are brand new,” Caldwell said.“We just got ’em (the 114SD).” The very firstFreightliner 114SD delivered to FOM “wasset up as a plow truck to put a dump bodyand a big plow on it. We sold it to [the Townof] New Gloucester Public Works [Depart-ment].

“They liked the visibility [from the cab],the maneuverability, the fact [that] the cabwas comfortable and easily accessible,” hesaid.

Several Western Star 4700s “are on orderfor our Westbrook store,” Caldwell said. Heexpects these trucks to arrive soon.

According to Caldwell, FOM has serviceagreements with Ouellette’s Garage (695Beaulieu Road, St. David) and the Big RigShop Inc. (502 Main St., Oxford). Both facil-ities are certified to perform Freightlinerwarranty work and sell parts ordered fromFreightliner of Maine.

Freightliner of Maine also has parts storesat 7 Rodman Road in Auburn and at 2 PiperWay in Waterville.


Two new heavy-duty trucks will soon appear in the Maine woods

The new Freightliner 114SD bridges the gap between the Freightliner M2 and theCoronado SD.

Designed for use in the vocational market, the new Western Star 4700 representsWestern Star’s first venture into a lighter vocational truck that competes with

International, Mack, and Volvo.


looking for:• Small, isolated wetlands that are at least

12 inches deep and are likely to hold waterfor more than 2½ months;

• Evidence of one or more indicatorspecies, as evidenced by mating adults, eggmasses, spermatophores, or larvae.

In drier periods, look for depressions inthe forest with:

• Compacted leaves and objects withwater stains of a film of sediment;

• Wetland plants (mosses, sedges, someferns, and shrubs) and soils;

• Fingernail clams, snails, and/or caddis

fly cases.After identifying a vernal pool, document

the pool’s existence. Identify it on a manage-ment plan map and/or include it in a plan-ning GIS layer. Plan timber harvesting activ-ities using the vernal pool habitat manage-ment guidelines.

Vernal pools that have been mapped assignificant wildlife habitat by the Depart-ment of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife havestatutory protection and may require a per-mit by rule for activities within 250 feet ofthe pool perimeter.

Habitat management guidelines havebeen developed to help forest managers,harvesters, and landowners protect elementsof critical habitat for vernal pool-dependentwildlife.

The guidelines are meant to beapplied within a working forestwhere trees are regenerated andgrown in the vicinity of impor-tant vernal pools.

It may not be possible to pro-tect all vernal pools during forestmanagement activities. Priorityshould be placed on protectinghigh-value pools that show sig-nificant breeding activity.

The habitat guidelines are bro-ken into three zones. Theseinclude the pool itself, the areawithin 100 feet of the poolperimeter (protection zone), andthe area between 100 feet and 400feet of the pool perimeter (lifezone).


West-bound on West Front Street (Route 2) in Skowhegan, a truck driver hauls logs past the deceptively somnolent Kennebec River just upstream from the Skowhegandam.

Vernal poolsContinued from Page 20

BDN FILE PHOTO BY JOHN CLARKE RUSS

A green frog surfaces in an Orono vernal pool inearly spring.

By David M. FitzpatrickBANGOR DAILY NEWS

The Certified Logging Professional pro-gram turns 20 in 2011, and to celebrate, theMaine TREE Foundation, which sponsorsthe program, will host a banquet at the SeaDog Restaurant in Bangor at 5:30 p.m.,Thursday, Oct. 27.

Launched in 1991, the CLP was designedto promote occupational safety and pro-mote professional development in the log-ging industry. The program covers manyforestry aspects, such as safety, forest man-agement, erosion control, and the occupa-tion as a whole.

A competency-based on-site evaluationenables CLP facilitators to identify anyproblem areas and give any needed one-on-one training.

Loggers from all corners of the state par-ticipate, whether they work for big compa-nies with harvesters, small companies withskidders, or individuals with chainsaws. CLPeducates and trains loggers of all persua-sions.

The CLP’s initial four-day program is sortof a “logging boot camp,” but doesn’t claimto train a logger from the ground up in that

time; CLP works with people who alreadyhave a strong understanding of the field.

It ensures that those who have beenthrough the CLP program have those basic,required skills, with a primary focus on safe-ty.

Graduates return a year later for a one-day refresher, and for one-day refreshersevery other year thereafter.

The CLP program focuses on six mainareas: safety, which has resulted in a reduc-tion in accidents that has led to up to 34 per-cent less for worker’s compensation ratesover non-CLP mechanical loggers; skill,from site layout to felling and marketingwood; knowledge, from technology to theenvironment; stewardship, includingwildlife protection, erosion and pollutioncontrol, and sustainable forestry; profes-sionalism, through training and experience;and pride, helping bring quality, safety, and

environmentally-sound practices to worksites.

CLPs also learn harvesting law, and howto deal with new or abnormal situations.Loggers are often hesitant to contact regula-tory agencies, so the CLP tries to put faceson those agencies.

Personnel from the Maine Forest Service,Department of Environmental Protectionand Inland Fisheries & Wildlife are ofteninvited to CLP training. Even Central MainePower has made appearances to talk aboutpower line safety.

These personal connections give loggers afamiliarity that enables them to make callsand ask questions. Loggers learn where theycan go if they encounter a situation in whichthey’re unsure how to proceed.

To attend the banquet, visit www.Maine-TreeFoundation.org. To learn more aboutthe CLP, visit www.CLPloggers.org.


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In late September 2011, a logger tows logs from the Penobscot County woods with a grapple skidder. Many Maine loggershave trained as Certified Logging Professionals under a program launched by the Maine TREE Foundation in 1991.

Rudman & Winchell was found-ed in Bangor in 1917 and hasgrown and diversified with the for-est products businesses underpin-ning our region’s economy. We aretrusted partners in the representa-tion of the forest products indus-try and other natural resourcebased enterprises throughoutMaine. We are proud members ofthe Maine Forest Products Counciland the Maine Wood ProductsAssociation and strive to stayabreast of issues affecting theirmembers.

Rudman Winchell has extensiveexperience in timberland title mat-ters, property exchanges, parti-tions, stumpage contracts, supplycontracts, tenancy in commoninterests, timber deeds, and accesseasements.

Our attorneys’ knowledge ofthe relationships among Maine’slarge landowners and conservation

entities enhances the quality andefficiency of our work for forestrelated enterprises. We have partic-ipated in many transactionsinvolving the diversification ofownership of Maine timberlands,beginning with significantlandowner divestitures in the1980s. We have served as counsel:

• For national and internationallenders providing financing tofarmers;

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Our attorneys have extensiveexperience with forestland regula-tory matters, such as the MaineLand Use Regulation Commissionsubdivision and developmentapproval process, and aquaculturalsubmerged land leases.

Rudman Winchell attorneyswith particular specialization in

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By Sheila Grant

Purchasing Maine-made wood pellets isless expensive than buying heating oil, woodpellets are virtually carbon neutral, andburning wood pellets keeps dollars workingin the Maine economy, according to BillBell, executive director of the Maine PelletFuels Association.

Each day, Bell posts the current price forheating oil on the association’s Web site. “Oilis $85 a barrel,” Bell said. “A year ago it was$77, and projections are that a year fromnow it will be $97. Yes, there are new sourcesavailable for oil, but the cost of retrieving itis going to be high. We’re not going to runout of oil, but the price of producing andrefining is going to continue to climb.”

There are four Maine companies manu-facturing pellets; these companies are locat-ed in Strong, Athens, Ashland, and Corinth.

“The previous governor convened aWood to Energy Task Force,” said Bell.“Theyconcluded after hearing from the MaineForest Service that Maine could convert overthe next five years 10 percent of our house-holds to pellet heat without making a dent

in the supply of wood for the forest productsindustry.”

Maine’s wood pellet industry has come along way since its infancy. The panic over oilprices in 2008 led some consumers to orderthree years’ worth of pellets, which skewedmanufacturers’ and retailers’ perceptions ofmarket demand.

That surplus of pellets and a drop in oilprices led to fewer orders and a glut of pel-lets in 2009-2010.

“Because of supply chain dynamics and

people not being used to a nice steady flow,there were bulges of inventory at everylevel,” said George Soffron, president of theMaine Pellet Fuels Association and CEO ofCorinth Wood Pellets LLC.

“The pellet industry has exhibited all thecharacteristics you would think a youngmarket would, with big swings and a learn-ing curve on how to smooth out inventory.The end user still used the same or morepellets, but demand is increasing by 10 or 20percent rather than 50 percent,” he said.

Soffron has about 32 employees and esti-mates that about 100 people are employedbetween the four plants. If work provided toharvesters and truckers was included, hesaid, Maine pellets provide jobs to fourtimes that many people.

Pellet heating systems have also evolved.That market is providing jobs in manufac-turing, installation, and service technology.Maine Energy Systems (MESYS) in Bethelassembles pellet boiler systems for residen-tial and large-scale buildings and distributesbulk pellets statewide.

“These systems are fully automatic,” saidDutch Dresser, co-owner of MESYS. “Theyfeed themselves pellets from a storage unitin your basement. You never see a pellet.They remove their own ash to a small ashreceptacle that you need only empty afterevery couple of tons of pellets. It takes twominutes, and you could do it in your finestclothes. The resultant ash is powder-likepotash, a common fertilizer.”

Dresser said that demand is up by a factorof four of five, with residential, municipal,and school district buildings leading theway.

Because the pellet boilers are staged inlarger buildings, hooked together in series,and are governed by one central control unitthat monitors actual demand for heat, theyare extremely fuel-efficient, he said.

“MSAD 74 is putting in nine or 10 ofthem in three or four buildings,” said Dress-er. “The City of Gardiner was our firstmunicipal project. We installed two in theirpublic works garage, and they were sopleased with the results that they are gettingready to do the city offices.”

Dresser said MESYS understood from thestart that boiler systems wouldn’t be suc-cessful without effective pellet delivery, sobulk delivery has always been part of thebusiness.

MESYS’s bulk pellets are manufactured inMaine, Dresser said. Bagged pellets fromMaine companies bear markings identifyingthem as Maine products, according to Sof-fron.

“Pellets are a heating fuel that is justabout half the price of oil,” said Dresser.“When you spend a dollar on heating oil,seventy-five cents of that never touches oureconomy. If you buy Maine wood pellets,that whole dollar stays in our economy.”

Between purchasing a local product, andsaving half the money that would have beenspent on oil to spend at other Maine busi-nesses, “the regional impact on our econo-my is just staggering,” he said.

“We think that Maine people are nowrealizing that when they have the chance,they want to get away from oil, and that weare the best alternative,” Bell said.

For more about Maine wood pellets, visitwww.mepfa.org.


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Demand remains strong for wood pellets manufactured in Maine


Autumn foliage backdrops a Western Star driver hauling a load of logs south onthe Lily Bay Road near Greenville.


A forklift operator loads a pallet of filledwood-pellet bags onto a truck parked ata wood-pellet manufacturing company in

Maine.


By Brian SwartzSPECIAL SECTIONS EDITOR

When Arthur and JoAnne Hicksacquired Kenworth’s Maine fran-chise in 1976, they quickly namedtheir company CB Kenworth. Theinitials “CB” stand for Chadwick-BaRoss and honor Bob BaRoss,who “helped my father get into thebusiness,” said CB Kenworth VicePresident Ben Hicks.

Today CB Kenworth operatesdealerships at 2239 Odlin Road,Hermon and 42 Wallace Ave.,South Portland. The company sellsand services Kenworth trucks atboth locations and International(Navistar) trucks at its Hermondealership.

Mainers involved in the forest-products industry like two partic-ular Kenworth trucks: the W900Land the T800.

“The W900L is a conventionalcab, set-forward axle, long-nose,”built with “heavy-duty specs,”

including “axle ratings, engines,and frame rails,” said Jeff Fogg, aCB Kenworth sales representative.Kenworth designs the W900L for

heavy-duty hauling, whether over-the-road or in the Maine woods.Listed applications for the W900Linclude bulk hauling, regional

hauling, and vocational (such as adump or self-loader log truck).

The W900L’s heavy-duty capa-bilities extend to heavy front axles(rated from 14,600 to 20,000pounds) and rear axles (rated from23,000-pound single axles to52,000-pound tandem axles). Theset-forward front axle distributesoverall truck weight better, a fea-ture appreciated by drivers haulinglogs to a Maine mill.

Paccar, which owns Kenworth,builds a proprietary engine — the13-liter Paccar MX, rated at 425-485 horsepower — for Kenworthtrucks; Cummins supplies suchlarger engines as the ISX, whichdelivers 425-600 horsepower.

Also built with heavy-dutyspecs, the T800 differs externallyfrom the W900L. Featuring a con-ventional cab design, the T800 hasa sloped nose and a set-back axle,which places the front tires nearerthe cab and shortens the truck’swheelbase. Matt Parker, anotherCB Kenworth sales rep, indicated

that the set-back axle gives a T800“a 45-degree wheel cut” that pro-vides “more maneuverability com-pared to [the] 32-degree” wheelcut available on the W900L.

“Gives you a tighter turningradius in these cul-de-sacs you seeat the ends of woods roads,” Park-er said.

The T800 can be adapted to dif-ferent applications, from localdelivery to OTR operations tohauling cement and gravel.Offered with the same enginesavailable in the W900L, the T800features 59-inch taperleaf springsand a sloped hood that improvesthe driver’s ability to see what’sahead on the highway.

Exclusive to Kenworth trucks isAir Glide, an eight-bag air-ridesuspension that replaces tradition-al steel springs with air springs.One option, the AG460, is rated at46,000 pounds; like all Air Glidesuspensions, the AG460 places twoair bags per wheel set, with each

Maine loggers gravitate toward Kenworth’s tough W900L and T800


Among the new Kenworths available at CB Kenworth in Hermonis this 2012 W900L day cab equipped with a Cummins 550 ISX

engine, an 18-speed manual transmission, and dual stacks.

See KENWORTH, Page 30


866-946-3927

Visit Our New Improved Website!www.windwardpetroleum.com

rubber bag inflated with compressed air.According to Parker, Air Glide “makes for abetter ride,” especially on canted woodsroads.

Matching customers with Kenworthtrucks

From CB Kenworth’s Hermon dealership,Fogg and Parker cover Maine north ofAugusta. They often travel “deep into thewoods” to meet with logging contractors,said Fogg, who has spent time at ClaytonLake and “sometimes 100 miles back in thewoods.

“We will talk about their truck needs orlook at a truck for trade,” he said. “We areavailable to our customers at any time,” evento deliver a new truck.

“In sales, if you’ve got your cell phone on,you’re open,” Parker said.

“It’s not unusual to find a CB Kenworthrep far back in the forest,” Hicks said. “Forour customers, their trucks are the equiva-lent of their offices. We go where our cus-tomers are working.”

According to Fogg, CB Kenworth “has astrong online sales presence” via the compa-ny’s Web site, www.cbkenworth.com. A deci-sion made at CB Kenworth last spring par-ticularly paid dividends for online truckbuyers.

“The sales group got together and spec’dout what our customers are ordering fortrucks,” Fogg said. The company thenordered several such trucks, which cus-tomers soon started buying.

“It has been a big advantage for us in anotherwise slow economy,” Fogg commented.“Customers would need a new truck, andtheir local dealer didn’t have what theyneeded. So they went online and found thetruck [that] they wanted was available here.”

Parker recalled a trucker whose rig “gaveup the ghost” in upstate New York. “He

called around out there and could not findwhat he wanted. Then he checked ourinventory on the Internet and bought a newtruck. I delivered it to him.”

“For being a Maine-owned small store,CB Kenworth has done well,” Hicks said.“We’ve sold trucks to Russia, Alaska, otherplaces out of state.

“I’d estimate that 40 percent of the truckswe sell have something to do with thewoods. It’s a big market for us,” he said.

“We sell to chip haulers, owner-operators,the guys pulling the actual logs out of thewoods,” Hicks said. Both CB Kenworth deal-erships sell medium-duty trucks, someequipped as service trucks, others equippedto deliver wood pellets. Hicks described howa delivery truck equipped with a blower “cando bulk [pellet] delivery at a home or a busi-ness.”

Fogg and Parker noted that sales have

picked up this year, a positive sign for CBKenworth and for the forest-productsindustry. “There is a pent-up demand” toreplace older trucks, Fogg observed. “In thelast five years, people have leaned moretoward repair than replace.

“People who would trade every three-to-four years have held longer onto theirtrucks. It’s reaching a point where they’remaybe looking at $130,000 for a new truckor $25,000 for a new engine, and somethingelse could still go wrong on that oldertruck,” he said.

“Our biggest sales point is best-in-classresale,” Parker commented. “Kenworthbuilds superior trucks; it has to do with thequality of the truck, [with] the cab design.The whole design is different than [in] therest of the industry.

“The walk-around is where the truck sellsitself,” he said. The “little touches count,”

from securing the truck mirrors to the cowl-ings rather than the doors to building all-aluminum cabs to reduce the weight inher-ent with steel cabs. Helping to reduce weightone-piece hoods and roofs made from Met-ton fiberglass.

“Kenworth is the Harley-Davidson oftrucks,” Fogg said.

Service after the sale

Out-of-state customers not only buy newor used Kenworths from CB Kenworth; theyoften “have them serviced here,” said ServiceTeam Manager Vinnie McIntyre. “Word getsout over the CB [radio] about who did agreat job servicing your truck; people hearabout us all over the Northeast.

“We’ve had customers load their truckson lowbeds in Connecticut and bring themup here” for service, he said.“We have a largeCanadian base.”

In Hermon, CB Kenworth employs 18service technicians; the service departmentis open from 7 a.m. to 12 midnight, Mondaythrough Friday, with on-call service avail-able 24 hours a day. A phone call made toCB Kenworth’s Hermon dealership routes toMcIntyre or Service Team Manager DanaYoung. Either can decide to dispatch a serv-ice technician; “it depends on the break-down,” McIntyre said.

Besides servicing Kenworth and Interna-tional trucks, the Hermon dealership repairsCaterpillar engines.

According to McIntyre, CB Kenworth is acertified Caterpillar TEPS (Truck EngineParts and Service) dealer; the company hasconsistently placed No. 1 in New Englandamong all such dealers for the past severalyears, he indicated.

At its South Portland dealership, CB Ken-worth cleans diesel particulate filters, withwhich “all diesel-engine trucks have beenequipped since 2007,” Hicks said.“The filtersrequire periodic cleaning to prevent prema-ture failures.

“We were the first company in the state tooffer DPF cleaning services,” he said.

KenworthContinued from

This 2011 Kenworth T800B sold at CB Kenworth in Hermon features a Paccar MXengine that produces 485 horsepower, an 18-speed manual transmission, a

20,000-pound front axle, a 20,000-pound tag axle, and 46,000-pound rear axleswith full locking differentials. The Hood 7000 log loader was mounted in Farming-

ton by DAVC0. Stairs Welding in Hodgdon welded the log bunks.


The University of Maine at Fort Kent and the Maine For-est Service have worked collaboratively to develop a Wild-land Firefighting concentration within UMFK’s two-yeardegree program in Applied Forest Management.

The program was developed by the university and the for-est service to help produce qualified candidates to fill forestranger positions. Graduates of the program will be qualifiedas forest rangers for the Maine Forest Service, as well as forfederal agencies, such as the Bureau of Land Management orthe U.S. Forest Service.

Successful students may advance their education with abaccalaureate degree in Rural Public Safety Administrationor Environmental Studies at UMFK or go on to complete afour-year forestry degree elsewhere.

Since the creation of the Maine Forest Service in 1891, therole of forest rangers has changed considerably. Today, thejob of a ranger is much different than forest rangers whoworked 30 years ago. While the primary mission of the For-est Protection Division still is to protect Maine’s forestresources from fire, rangers now work year-round and areinvolved numerous activities that help protect Maine’s mostabundant natural resource, its forests.

The Applied Forest Management program at UMFKcombines standard forestry training with wildland firefight-ing skills. Students complete basic forestry skills such as treeidentification, measurement, inventory, and mapping inboth the classroom and field settings. These provide thetechnical skills needed by rangers to enforce Maine’s Forest

Practices Act and timber trespass cases.Additionally, basic and advanced wildland fire training

provides the knowledge and skills that help graduates fulfillthe traditional role of a forest ranger.

Completion of the National Wildfire CoordinatingGroup course qualifies the recipient with nationwide feder-al wildland firefighter credentials. The course is designed toprovide students with the core competencies needed to safe-

ly and effectively perform the tasks required of a wildlandfirefighter functioning within the national Incident Com-mand System.

Maine Forest Service Rangers work with federal, state,and local agencies in the planning, coordination, andresponse to natural and manmade disasters across Maineand in other parts of the country.

So far in 2011, 35 different rangers have voluntarily mobi-lized to work on out-of-state forest fires and HurricaneIrene recovery efforts for two-week intervals. Locations havevaried from Georgia and North Carolina to Minnesota, Ver-mont, and Texas.

The mobilizations have helped Maine’s forest rangersgain wildland firefighting and all-risk experience and tomaintain their national firefighting qualifications.

During the last five years, forest rangers have respondedto an average of 500 fires each year. The fires differ in size,type of material burned, and cause.

On any of the fires, a forest ranger might assist with sup-pression efforts, enforce open burn laws, or investigate howthe fire started.

Forest rangers use their extensive knowledge and trainingto instruct hundreds of Maine firefighters in basic andadvanced wildfire training classes and the ICS system.

UMFK is the only Society of American Foresters-recog-nized college or university offering a forest technology pro-gram within the state of Maine and is one of only two suchprograms in all of New England.

UMFK, Maine Forest Service collaborate on firefighting concentration

PHOTO COURTESY OF TERENCE KELLY

Two Maine forest rangers investigate a wildfire startedby a serial arsonist. The UMFK forestry program nowhas a concentration in wildland firefighting; programgraduates can seek employment as forest rangers.


GREENVILLE — Maine Forest RangerSamuel Heffner of the Maine Forest Service,under the Maine Department of Conserva-tion, won first place in the Regional “Gameof Logging” during the annual competitionheld on Saturday, Aug. 13, at the Forest Her-itage Days event.

Heffner competed against loggers fromcentral and northern Maine and qualified tocompete in the National “Game of Logging”Finals to be held Oct. 7-8 in Ohio.

The “Game of Logging” competition is agroup of events that includes saw chain fil-ing, speed cutting, bore cutting, precisionstump cutting, spring pole cutting, precisionbucking, and precision felling. All eventshave a strong emphasis on safety while usingchainsaws.

“The division is very proud of RangerHeffner’s accomplishments and will benefitfrom his experience and skills associatedwith this competition,” District ForestRanger Bruce Reed said.

Heffner is a nationally certified instructorin the use of chainsaws on wildland fire-fighting and recently was the lead instructorof the Wildland Fire Chainsaw course

taught at the Maine Forest Service’s WildfireTraining Academy. The academy is offeredthe first two weekends of June each year andtargeted towards volunteer and full-timestructural firefighters to help them developvarious wildland firefighting skills.

Maine forest ranger captured first place inRegional “Game of Logging” in Greenville

A forest ranger with the Maine ForestService, Samuel Heffner (with chain-saw) took first place in the Regional“Game of Logging” held last August.

forest products week 2011

Documents

ward recalls

yearold ward

wardcuts trees

larger trees

roy felling head

brian souers

smalldiameter trees

undesirable trees