The Dumb Logger

I remember as a young girl my mom always told me that a good man has rough hands. I thought she was gross. Who wants rough hands? At 20 years old, after dating several soft handed guys, I found myself standing next this guy, Randy Kimball, telling him about a massage I had gone for that day and the masseuse was a man with the softest hands. Apparently, my mom’s brainwashing worked because it creeped me out and I was retelling this story to this guy I barely knew. Randy flipped his 20 year old callused, sandpaper-like hand over and asked me, “Will this do?” Pardon the sappy love story for a moment… but that’s when I knew. In that exact moment I knew this was an intelligent, hardworking, committed young man and I needed to marry him! In our dating years I was watching and learning about Randy, his family, and this thing called logging that I knew nothing about. I had literally never known any breed of human to work as hard as these people. Not only did he wake up at 3am every morning and drive from my college apartment in Farmington to be at his job site on time, he stayed late at his father’s garage to saw and load firewood and deliver it for him because he had recently had a medical event that prevented him from driving. He was 20. I was 20. According to common assessment, I would have been declared the smart one. I was in college working to earn a bachelors degree as a community health educator. Randy would always say to me, “I’m just a dumb logger.”

Wait. What?? Dumb?? For starters, he was already way ahead in the financial arena. Earning money, saving money, and learning all at the same time. I was busy throwing my money at college and frying my brains several nights a week at college parties. I am pretty well convinced he was the smarter one here. Flash forward a few years and I found myself changing career paths and graduating from nursing school. Randy’s self-assessment as a “dumb logger” made him a bit nervous that I would leave him for a “smart surgeon.” I would reassure him that their hands were too soft, and it was no danger.

Long story long, I am tired of hearing “dumb logger.” There continues to be this stigma to this day that loggers are just a bunch of uneducated men that move a joy stick. In the 15 years I have been around this logging business I have seen the smartest, hardest working men I know treated like they are the bottom of a totem pole. Policies at the government level, propaganda served up by a few within the industry, and miseducation of the public contribute to this stigma, but most importantly, the loggers themselves have not demanded the respect they deserve for fear of “not having a job.” Frequently, we have to bid or compete for jobs with other logging contractors. This is a common practice among all sorts of contracting jobs, however, I always wonder if this is best practice? Does this always serve the best interest of the landowner? Is the guy who will work the cheapest the best guy for the job? Do we help our industry and fellow loggers by acting like a bunch of drooling dogs begging for the next bone? No. All this does is de-value the loggers and allows them to be taken advantage of. It is time to all agree that we all serve a purpose in the forest product chain, we are smart in our own ways, and we are all a vital part to the forest products industry.

It was kinda funny when I opened up the "The Logger’s Voice” and read Dana Doran’s article titled “Future” and I saw he referenced an analogy that I often think of. That is of an architect to a client. I’m sure architects bid out jobs too, but in the end if you’re going to spend the time and money on real architecture, do you again want the cheapest guy to throw up the structure, or do you want the most knowledgable, honest, valuable one? This analogy is similar to the way we manage woodlots. There are 3 ways to harvest a woodlot, I suppose. Just like building your home. There is the DIYer with a chainsaw. There is direct logger to landowner. And, finally, there is forester, landowner, and logger. Foresters are the architects of the woods. They are college educated and licensed by the state. They possess fantastic scientific knowledge that could benefit the health and financial return on your woodlot. This does not make them the only ones in the equation with the knowledge necessary to produce a successful harvest. Many logging companies have been family operated for generations and woodlots are frequently re-entered by the same family of operators. They have first hand, direct knowledge of how their operations effect a woodlot. They are not just the “dumb loggers” mindlessly cutting trees and sorting into piles. It takes knowledge and skill to operate and maintain the equipment. It takes knowledge and skill to identify, sort, and ensure greatest profitability of the harvested timber. It takes knowledge and skill to protect a forest floor from our heavy equipment. It takes knowledge and skill to manage erosion and water quality. On top of all of that, it takes knowledge and skill to nurture quality employees, manage all of your own book keeping, run your own marketing campaigns, negotiate contracts, and most importantly it takes knowledge and skill in the actual harvesting of the woods to ensure the satisfaction of a land owner.

With the help of Master Logger Certification, Professional Logging Contractors of Maine, and professional foresters, I hope that as we go forward in the future, we can help landowners identify quality loggers who are true professionals and deserve to be compensated for providing such quality. In order for the good loggers to continue to be “good” we need to be able to hire skilled employees and that will only be possible if the contracting companies are not forced to work for bottom dollar. We must make a profit to pay good people to operate our equipment. Fellow logging contractors, start putting a value on yourself and your business and we will all prosper.

For the record, I did not marry a dumb logger. I married a wicked smart one!