Randy's Ramblings

I just felt like rambling, so here it is. Get ready, it’s a little long winded.

Logging and forestry have been a part of me for as long as I can remember whether it be when I was in diapers and my father changing them on the skidder to when I was 10 and riding with him delivering firewood and hauling wood to the mill early in the morning to late at night, day after day. I can remember being in my teens and listening to Mark Greeney’s Western Maine Timberlands crew on the two way radios and wanting my dad to buy more machines and trucks and grow to be as big as them. But, one thing my father has taught me, is to be incredibly slow and methodical about growing and don’t get in over my head. When I was 22 and I thought I knew everything, I was ready to buy in and go full bore. I thought to myself “I’ll show him (dad) how to do this”. But he insisted that I wait, and I wait, and wait some more. He knew I wasn’t ready to do this my own. Then, before I knew it I was 28 with my first child on the way, and man I’m glad I didn’t own any equipment yet. Kids! Soon enough I was 31 and we had another on the way and I started buying some of the old mans equipment. Nothing gets handed to you in this business, rightfully so. It must be earned. And no, it wasn’t as easy as just buying it, it took a lot of hours and money and time to be able to do that. The biggest surprise to me on owning my own equipment is that it’s easy to count the money that will come in as the loads go out, but it’s not so easy to know the true cost of business until you own it and see the money go out!

Back when the biomass plants were in full swing and we were trying to beat posted roads, we worked all night and my father would sleep while I loaded him and I would sleep while he was gone to deliver the load just to get in as much wood as we could before the spring thaw. I used to leave school early just to get to the woods to learn how to run these machines and even skip school sometimes just to go to work . I called it my tech school. I even quit high school early just so I could get going with my ambitions. (Yes I did get my Diploma.) For the most part, those that know me well know that in my teen and young adult years, I didn’t spend my time partying and hanging out with friends. My head was down and I had goals that I wanted to achieve. I have achieved many and many are taking much longer than I anticipated, but I’ll get there. I’m sure of it. I have great people like my father, other contractors, and other professionals to guide me. They will all answer their phones, even ones I don’t see eye to eye with. But I will tell you, there isn’t a single one that will give you anything. You’ll have to earn it on your own, as you should.

There are many people and groups of people, I’d call them professionals but they are not, that will take advantage of you and your business. They will exploit you and use you to their advantage. Don’t allow this to happen! Business to business should be give and take not all take. One of the biggest things i have learned is to know your value know the quality of your work. If you do it the way it should be done and you hold yourself in high regard and respect, people will see. They will see confidence but not ego, and they will trust you . One of the most satisfying parts of the process of trying to grow, is having a client call us with a woodlot to manage and harvest and then working with them on their goals. The fact that they called us, something my wife and I have worked very hard on, is very gratifying I hope we continue to grow because of it.

I believe in my industry and all my fellow loggers, landowners, mills, foresters, wood buyers and all who take part in the forest products world. This is probably, no this is the toughest it has been in many years. People need to understand the effect mill closures, downturns ,and COVID is having on our industry. This industry is going to look a lot different very soon if something doesn’t give. And when I say that our “industry” will look different, consumers are also a vital part of the industry, so life for everyone will be impacted if the forest markets don’t thrive. The loggers just can’t keep operating at cost or below for very long. It’s just not sustainable. We have an economic relief package being considered right now to help us out. None of us got here from handouts and we certainly don’t want to need one now. It certainly won’t fix our industry’s deep rooted problems, but it might help keep us afloat so we can get across to the other side of this crisis and continue to work for change.

Between the Covid pandemic and the Pixelle mill in Jay losing its digester, prices of wood started falling. The timing of the mill could not have been any worse because not only did Pixelle stop buying wood, all of their pile down yards were full of wood from the winter harvests. We all knew that wood sitting in their yards would have to go somewhere, which would further decrease demand. The mills that are left just can’t handle the flow of wood that loggers in this state need to cut in order to maintain their current operations. Then, to kick us in the teeth, Sappi is shutting down their biomass boiler this fall which will put another 275,000 tons of wood in the market that needs to go somewhere . So that’s about 1.5 million tons of wood in less than 10 months that will not get consumed. We all know what supply and demand is, and when there is an abundance of supply that means quotas and low prices. This will make it tough on everyone in our industry. Now on top of all of that we are dealing with the cmp corridor and if that goes thru our state it is going to make it very difficult for the stand alone biomass facilities to keep operating with so much more power on the grid. If we lose ReEnergy biomass facilities right now logging and forestry in this state will not be the same and maybe never will be . We cannot let this happen . Why don’t we make it easier for these biomass mills to run so they can provide home grown, renewable energy to the grid . Let’s encourage research and figure out how to make it better, more efficient and incentivize that instead of letting a foreign company and another nation take advantage of us. Forestry is one of our largest industries in the state that could provide more good paying jobs and long term jobs . It frustrates me we don’t hear more about this so that is why I’m writing this. Another problem with our industry is that, as young man in it, we don’t see any new Mills that consume wood in large amounts being built . It would be wise for our state to incentivize developers and innovators to build here in one of the most forested states in the country which is right next door to the worlds biggest consumers.

This summer has been tough to say the least but I think change comes when you’re at your worst. Everyone in the industry is anxiously awaiting the announcement if the pixxele mill in jay is going to rebuild or not. But for right now, what we can do to help is work to prevent the CMP corridor. Remember to vote YES on the ballot because yes means NO CORRIDOR!