Harvest Levels Timber Harvest Levels Tell a Striking Story By Charlie Levesque Everyone in the forest products industry in the northern US – from the Lakes States to Maine – knows that significant changes have been taking place over the last 10 to 20 years. Among them are transformations in the supply chain, a reduced and aging logging and trucking workforce, the loss of low-grade markets, and the ups and downs experienced by those producing solid wood products from logs. While great changes have always been a constant in the forest products industry, recent deviations will greatly impact y ..read more

Women in the Industry Behind the Front Lines By Robbo Holleran Palmer and Lauri Goodrich of P&L Trucking and Excavating While logging has been traditionally a “man’s world” there have always been a few women out in front, felling trees, running equipment, or running whole businesses. I would like to draw attention to the women who work behind the scenes in various supporting roles. We don’t have to look far to find that this is common, and almost typical. Women, often the wife of the main fellow whose name is on the truck door, are typically bookkeepers, office managers, or full partners ..read more

Women in the Industry Jenee Smith By Erin Kessler  Jenee Smith and her dog Jax in the Legendary Landworks, LLC JD skidder. “What brought Ray and I to the woods?” Jenee Smith ponders the question. Logging had been part of her husband Ray Brewster’s life from a young age, while Smith had grown up cutting trees, pulling brush, and splitting firewood with her six siblings. “As a baby, my mom would put me in a stroller and the sound of a chainsaw would put me to sleep. To this day, I can’t help but start yawning when I hear a chainsaw.” Growing up, Smith says she had a lot less than others ..read more

Silviculture Should We Manage Forests? By Robbo Holleran Low-density multiple-aged management in oak-pine-hemlock forest. This will have a high growth rate overall, and on larger crop trees. Also, a very low mortality rate, modest levels of carbon storage, and a high percentage of durable wood products available from the next harvest. As active stewards of forests in our region, we are often called to respond in support of our profession. This might come in the case of daily sales of our services, or just interacting with a neighbor. Better yet, we might have an opportunity to speak at a loc ..read more

Trends and Forecasts Forest Industry Trends and Forecasts 2024 By Eric Kingsley The forest industry across the Northeast is in a bit of a slump – things aren’t necessarily bad, but it certainly isn’t a time of expansion and profitability. This is a huge shift from a year ago when many markets were booming, mills were looking everywhere for wood, and the supply chain was stretched to its limits. Here’s a look at what is happening by sector. Pulp and Paper On the pulp and paper side, the last half of 2023 was marked by reduced demand, causing most mills to take downtime or other steps to redu ..read more

Wood Products Dartmouth College's "Forest to Dorm" Project Story and Photos By Ross Caron Logger Bryan Lambert pulling a hitch with his 1993 Cat 518C cable skidder on the Second College Grant. At the start of this fall semester, students who moved into Dartmouth College’s Andres Hall were greeted with beautiful brand-new wooden furniture made from trees harvested on Dartmouth’s own land. Each student in the dorm was issued a bed, desk, dresser, and bookcase made from sugar maple cut last winter on Dartmouth’s Second College Grant, (the Grant), a 27,000-acre tract located in northern New Hamp ..read more

Annual NELA Legislative Activities Washington DC Fly-In 2023 By Erin Kessler It was a balmy, 80-degree day in late March. Cherry trees were in full bloom along the Potomac River and dotted throughout the US Capitol. As I accompanied members of the northeastern delegations on their way to legislative appointments on March 23, the day of the American Loggers’ Council 2023 Congressional Fly-In, we admired how green the city was this time of year compared to up North, where there was still snow on the ground. Throughout the rest of the day, members of state delegations visited Senate and House l ..read more

The Global Issue Canopy Timber Alternatives Finds Opportunity in Global Economy By Erin Kessler The log and lumber market has expanded and has experienced some tumultuous times over the last 15 years or so. In the years before 2008, some would say domestic log markets were marching along relatively well, that they were even “healthy.” Then the Great Recession forced log sellers to find new markets – one of which was the export market. Although log exporting had certainly been going on at that time, breaking into it seemed difficult and complicated. Few had access. But savvy entrepreneurs fou ..read more

Cross-Laminated Timber Local Species Cross-Laminated Timber Nearly Commercial in the Northeast By Charles Levesque We’ve been hearing a lot about “mass timber” lately, and for good reason. This building technique, which uses glulam beams and cross-laminated timber, is starting to take hold in the commercial building field. Mass timber is much more carbon friendly – replacing traditional concrete and steel – and can often compete on price partly because the construction phase for this technique is so much faster than concrete and steel. Think prefab. And now with new building codes being adop ..read more

Education Education That’s Never Finished: The Vermont Forest Business School By Steve Bick Is education something that can be finished? Shouldn’t continuous learning be a habit, rather than a requirement? The Vermont Forest Business School’s (FBS) six-month Essentials program was built from lessons learned in two hundred or so single-day workshops I taught for loggers, foresters, and landowners over 24 years. Teaching workshops in far-flung places like Aroostook County, Maine, and Hocking College in Ohio exposed me to many different people with similar educational needs in the forest produ ..read more