November 2019 Issue
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Vol. 4 Issue 5
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In this issue
topics to be presented at the Oregon and Washington Forest Practices seminars are announced, our Better Ideas/New Technology in Logging and Effective Communications panels are identified, and a sneak peak at a few of the items to be included in the 2020 Oregon Logging Conference Foundation auction.
Easy Quick Links
to the 2020 OLC program schedule, panel and seminar topics, social events, competitions and other activities can be found on the last page of this newsletter.
CLICK TO REGISTER NOW!
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Forest Practices Seminars Presented
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Oregon Forest Practices Seminar
Friday, February 21 ● 8:30 a.m. to 11:30 a.m. ● Wheeler Pavilion
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Seven presentations are planned for the Oregon Forest Practices seminar, which will be m
oderator by
Eric Gehrke, Weyerhaeuser, Coos Bay, OR.
Snowmageddon 2019: Implications on Future Insect Damage and Fire Potential
is the topic to be addressed by
Christine Buhl
and
Link Smith.
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Christine Buhl
E
ntomologist
Oregon Department of Forestry
Buhl has a BS from Oregon State University and a PhD from University of Wisconsin in entomology. Her background includes work with insects as food for endangered birds in Hawaii to insect forest pests in the country of Lebanon. As an entomologist for the Oregon Department of Forestry, Buhl gives technical guidance to landowners, and monitors forest health using ground and aerial survey research.
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Link Smith, District Forester
Oregon Department of Forestry
Western Lane District
Smith began his career with the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection in 1985 and spent seven seasons working there, three of those seasons working with a nine-person Helitack crew. He moved to Oregon in 1992 and since then has worked for the Oregon Department of Forestry. He currently oversees a district that provides fire protection on 755,000 acres of private, BLM, and state-owned lands within Lane County. Over the years, he has worked in a variety of positions in the Southwest Oregon, West Oregon, and Western Lane districts. Smith is also the Incident Commander on one of ODF’s three Incident Management Teams.
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Doug Thackery
Stewardship Forester
Oregon Department of Forestry
Thackery will talk about the
Industrial Fire Precaution Levels waivers in southwest Oregon.
He will cover the process to obtain waivers to work and log on ODF protected lands in southwest Oregon. Thackery received a BS in forest management from OSU, worked as a Logging Manager for Swanson Group from 2003 to 2006, and as a Harvest Supervisor for Plum Creek Timber from 2006 to 2016. He has been a Stewardship Forester with ODF since 2016.
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Kyle Williams
Director of Forest Protection
Oregon Forest & Industries Council
Williams presentation will be a
legislative update as it applies to forestry in Oregon.
In his current position, he brings more than 17 years of fire protection experience on both private and public forestland in Oregon. Williams holds a BS in geography from Western Oregon University. Previously he worked in private industry as a harvest manager and senior environmental forester. Williams also has nearly 13 years of experience in various positions at the Oregon Department of Forestry, including Stewardship Forester, Wildland Forest Protection Supervisor, and Unit Forester. He is also a small woodlands owner
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Steve Wetmore
Stewardship Forester
Southwestern Oregon District
Low water crossings – Rules and BMPs Surrounding these Activities
will be the topic addressed by Wetmore, who has served as Stewardship Forester in the southwestern Oregon district since 2003. He started his career as a seasonal forestry technician on the Routt National Forest in 1988, worked as Assistant District Forester in the Wyoming State Forest Division from 1990 to 1995, and then as Operations Forester for the southwestern Oregon District state lands in the Grants Pass unit from 1999 to 2003. Wetmore has a BS in Natural Resource Management Environmental Science and Forestry. He also received the Bronze Star Meritorious Service recognition in association with Operation Iraqi Freedom.
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Ron Graham,
Fire Protection Div. Deputy Chief of Planning
Oregon Department of Forestry
Graham will give an update on the
ODF/BLM Fire Protection Contract.
Graham joined to Oregon Department of Forestry in 2015 as the Deputy Chief of the Fire Protection Division. He began his career in wildland fire fighting in 1988 working as a seasonal firefighter for the Michigan Department of Natural Resources and worked in various positions there until 2004. In 2004, Graham became District Fire Management Officer with the New Mexico State Forestry Division in the Chama District. From 2007 until going to work with ODF, Graham worked for the Wyoming State Forestry Division as Assistant Fire Management Officer and then Assistant State Forester in Fire Management. He attended Gogebic Community College studying Criminal Justice-Law Enforcement, Michigan Technological University studying Forestry, and Washtenaw Community College studying Natural resource Law Enforcement.
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Jay Walters
Forest Practices Field Coordinator
Oregon Department of Forestry
Steep Slope Tethered Logging and Oregon Forest Practice Rules – Guidance and BMPs Surrounding the Practices
is the topic that Walters will present with an emphasis on resource protection. In his current position Walters provides technical assistance to ODF’s stewardship foresters in the field and works on policy topics at the state level. He previously served as a stewardship forester in Roseburg. Prior to joining ODF in 2013 he held multiple forestry, GIS, and natural resource positions in western Oregon and southwest Washington working for a forestry consultant, Native American tribe, and an industrial timberland owner. Walters has a Bachelor’s degree in forest resources from University of Washington.
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Washington Forest Practices Seminar
Friday, February 21
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8am to 10am
Southeast Meeting Room
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Exhibit Hall
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Five presentations are planned for the Washington Forest Practices Seminar which will be moderated by Doug Mays, Weyerhaeuser Co., Vancouver, WA.
Drone Use to Protect Resources and Improve Efficiency
is the topic to be addressed by
Mark Standley Jr. and Shane Szczerba.
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Mark Standley, Jr
Vice President
Bighorn Logging Corp
Standley is a fifth-generation logger and started working on a rigging crew right out of high school. He has worked in numerous logging related positions over the last 20 years. Seeing the need for the industry to thrive in the future, he worked with Pacific UAV Technology, LLC to develop a working drone for logging. For the last several years, Bighorn Logging has incorporated a drone into its operations in the woods. Standley also serves as Vice President of the Dan Hilger Memorial Foundation, which sponsors scholarships for students in forest related programs
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Shane Szczerba
St. Helens Tree Farm - Forester
UAV Operations
Weyerhaeuser Company
Szczerba has worked in the forest industry for 16 years in California, Arkansas, Oklahoma, Louisiana, Texas, and now Washington. He works as a forester, harvest engineer, and harvest manager with Weyerhaeuser and is also on its UAV North Canada/USA Operations team. He holds a Bachelor’s degree in Forest Management from Stephen F. Austin State University.
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Roy Hauser
Region 6 Consultant
USFS and BLM
Writer of The Art of Felling Timber
Hauser will discuss
Training for Success to Safely Stay Within Your Ribbons – Including an Overview of the Electric Saw.
Hauser has more than 30 years of experience in the field of hazardous timber felling. By designing new course materials, he works to educate for timber faller safety. He wrote a book titled
The Art of Felling Timber
to teach fellers what to expect before facing dangerous and complex felling scenarios. Hauser has also worked in the logging and forest industry for more than 20 years, managing private timberlands for wildland fire prevention, having worked as a contract timber feller on many wildland forest fires all over the Pacific Northwest.
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Chainsaws to Tethered Machines on Steep Slopes – the Evolution of Pacific Northwest Logging
is the topic being addressed by
Ben Flint and Jessica Homyack.
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Ben Flint
Harvest Manager
Weyerhaeuser Co.
Flint has worked for Weyerhaeuser for six years in various engineering and operational roles and is currently the Harvest Manager with the Timberlands operation in Pe Ell, WA. Previously, Flint worked as a natural resource engineer for the Washington Department of Natural Resources and as a graduate research assistant with the Forest Engineering, Resources & Management Department at OSU. He has a bachelor’s degree in Forest Operations from West Virginia University and a master’s degree in Forest Engineering from OSU.
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Jessica Homyack
Program Manager of Environmental Research
Weyerhaeuser Co.
Homyack is a Certified Wildlife Biologist and has worked for Weyerhaeuser for 10 years as a wildlife scientist. Her current position has responsibility for timberlands in Oregon, Washington, and Montana. Homyack has a PhD in Wildlife Science from Virginia Tech and her work contributes to science-based management and policy decisions for the forest industry. She recently received the Award of Professional Excellence from the University of Maine and is an alumnus of the National Conservation Leadership Institute.
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Effective Communication
Seminar presented at the OLC
Friday, February 21
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1pm
South Meeting Room
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Exhibit Hall
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Mike Cafferata
Forest Grove District Forester
Oregon Department of Forestry
Moderated by Bodie Dowding, Interim Private Forests Field Support Unit Manager, Oregon Department of Forestry, Salem, OR
How to more efficiently understand and communicate with others is the focus of this seminar. Those attending this seminar will learn how Improvements in communication and understanding can help achieve more favorable outcomes in the workplace. The classroom portion of this seminar features a PowerPoint presentation and videos.
Cafferata has taken a number of Oregon Department of Forestry internal training programs on communications and will share materials from these programs. He will also share stories from his career working for a public agency, and his constantly answering questions on forestry and forest practices.
Cafferata has a Forestry degree from OSU and a master’s degree in Forest Economics from Virginia Tech. After graduate school he returned to Oregon and went to work for ODF.
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Better Ideas - New Technology In Logging
Friday
● February 21
● 2pm to 4pm
Wheeler Pavilion
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This panel will be moderated by Fred Blaylock, Blaylock Inc, Coquille, OR.
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Eric Krume
Summit Attachments & Equipment
Krume’s topic will be
Automation in Harvesting.
Krume grew up in Forks, WA during a time when big timber and big towers were still the norm. After working in and around Forks, Krume moved to southwest Washington and began working for Frank Chandler of C&C Logging. Chandler was a driving force behind Krume’s desire to own and operate his own company. Krume established Summit Attachments in an effort to bring innovations to the harvesting side of the timber industry, which in his view was not capitalizing on new processes and technology.
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Sam Lovelace
Weyerhaeuser Co.
Central Tire Inflation
is the topic of Lovelace’s presentation, which will discuss the benefits of central tire inflation to roads, trucks, and drivers on the St. Helen’s Tree Farm. He graduated with honors from OSU in 2010 with a BS in Forest Engineering and a minor in Business and Entrepreneurship. While in school Lovelace completed two summer internships with Weyerhaeuser in Aberdeen and Longview. He has been a full-time Forest Engineer at Weyerhaeuser since 2010, and also has been the Longview Tree Farm road system manager since 2014.
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Shane Szczerba
Weyerhaeuser Co.
Szczerba’s presentation topic is
Silviculture Drone Use.
He has worked in the forest industry for 16 years in California, Arkansas, Oklahoma, Louisiana, Texas, and now Washington. He works as a forester, harvest engineer, and harvest manager for Weyerhaeuser and is also on its UAV North Canada/USA Operations team. He holds a Bachelor’s degree in Forest Management from Stephen F. Austin State University.
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Pat Ybarra
Pat Attachments & HWM Equipment Repair
Presentation Topic "Hydraulic Grapple Carriage"
Ybarra will give a presentation on
Hydraulic Grapple Carriage.
Ybarra will talk about his newly created non-motorized grapple carriage, designed to save lives by keeping people out of harm’s way and promote employee safety. At the age of 18 Ybarra began his three-year career working for Professional Reforestation of Oregon, deciding at age 21, it was time to go into business on his own. This is when HWM Equipment Repair was established. In 2006 Ybarra designed a tree machine that was displayed at OLC the following year. The machine was sold and is still in use today. Then in 2008 he worked as an equipment operator for D&H Logging. All the while Ybarra kept dreaming and designing as part of HWM, including the just completed non-motorized grapple carriage prototype. He is currently working with Pierce Pacific Manufacturing to design and produce the carriage., with the intention of building two sizes of grapples, one for a yoder and one for a yarder, that can adapt to run on various cable sizes.
Earn Professional Logger Credits by
Attending OLC Program Sessions
The credits earned by attending OLC seminars, panel discussions, and hands-on demonstrations can be applied toward Professional Logger’s certification and fulfilling requirements in the Sustainable Forestry Initiative.
Each person signed up to attend OLC will receive a punch card in their registration packet, and using the hole-punch system again this year, each card will be punched at the end of each session attended to keep track of credits being earned.
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Interactive School Tours at
Oregon Logging Conference
Thursday, February 20, 2020
Approximately 1,000 4
th
and 5
th
grade students are expected to descend on the Lane County Fairgrounds on the opening day of the 82
nd
Annual Oregon Logging Conference. These school tours are designed to connect the students to Oregon’s working forests, and are sponsored by OLC, Oregon Women in Timber, and Forests Today & Forever.
The day is a whirlwind of activity with all students moving through the program in less than six hours. Each group spends 1½ hours at the OLC, rotating through three stations.
First stop is an introduction to careers in the woods, presented by Talk About Trees educators, where students learn about the many jobs available in our forests. Students then break into small groups to meet real-life foresters and learn about ‘tools of the trade’, like how to age a tree with an increment borer. At this stop, students also learn about the resource itself! The final rotation is a tour of the big equipment, where students can see the state-of-art machines and learn how they are used in logging operations.
Teachers have indicated that the OLC school tour field trip is one of their favorites. When asked why she brings her students to the OLC one Eugene teacher said, “It is engaging and there is something for everyone interest-wise. I love how logging/forestry connects to STEM skills,” she added, “(and) it’s so important for students today to see the wide variety of uses for computer science and mathematics.”
The OLC School Tours provides a fun and comprehensive look at forestry for our elementary audience. "We believe that this fun and interactive experience for students highlights the importance of the forest sector to our local communities, as students, teachers, and chaperones become aware of the great social, economic, and environmental benefits of sustainable forestry” said Beth Krisko, Forest today & Forever representative.
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Talk About Trees facilitator teaches students about trees and the value of trees and forests in our daily lives.
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Students participating in the School Tours are always excited to view the big machines.
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Educational Program Auction Not To Be Missed
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The money raised at the Oregon Logging Conference Foundation (OLCF) auction on February 20 and 21, 2020 will fund scholarships for deserving students and previous auction proceeds have supported past recipients who have gone on to be leaders in the logging industry.
The OLCF is a 501(c)3 charitable organization, and all donations and purchases are tax deductible.
The auction takes place on both Thursday and Friday mornings (at 8:00 a.m.) of the 82nd Annual Oregon Logging Conference in the Wheeler Pavilion at the Lane Events Center and Fairgrounds in Eugene, OR.
Here's a few of the items donated:
Visit the
OLC website
for updated auction donations. If you are interested in donating auction items to this charity event, please contact the OLCF office at 541-686-9191.
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Friday Night OLC Celebration Party
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Get the party started on February 21 with a cocktail hour from 7 p.m. to 8 p.m. featuring beer and wine from local breweries and wineries. Then enjoy a buffet dinner and dance to live music by Redneck Mother to cap off the night. This event is sponsored by General Trailer and Peerless Corp.
The hearty buffet dinner includes prime rib, tasty chicken and finger lickin’ good sticky ribs.
This event takes place in Playwrights Hall at the Graduate Eugene Hotel. The cost is $55 per person, t
o purchase tickets call the OLC 541-686-9191.
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Log Loader Competition will Determine
Operator with the Best Skills
SIGN UP EARLY AND RECEIVE A 82nd OLC TEE SHIRT!
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Calling all expert log loader operators! Sign up for the 11
th
Annual log Loader Competition, show off your skills, and compete for cash prizes. Sign up early (before January 25, 2020) and receive a free 82
nd
Annual OLC tee-shirt (to be presented when you compete). Competitors will be assigned a day and time for demonstrating their skills
This event is sponsored by Triad Machinery and Link-Belt Forestry Equipment. It takes place on Friday, February 21 from 12 noon to 3 p.m. and Saturday, February 22 from 10 a.m. to 12 noon.
Click here to learn more.
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RESERVE YOUR EXHIBIT SPACE TODAY!
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Industry Happenings and News!
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- Eugene, Oregon, Gets The Hip Hotel It Deserves With Graduate Eugene. Read more.
- Wood waste helps keep the lights on in rural communities. Read more.
- Bridging the Gap: Concrete may provide new market opportunities for forest materials. Read more.
- Could mass timber be a game changer for stadium design. Read more.
- Shaping cross-laminated timber walls for seismic isolation. Read more.
- Washington State Is Thinning Out Forests To Reduce Wildfire Risk. Read more.
- Workforce Connections – Pacific Northwest. Read more.
- Linn County wins timber trial. Read more.
- The Emmerson family got started 70 years ago as a small sawmill operation in California. Read more.
- A New Study Warns of Increased Health Costs From Oregon Wildfires as the Climate Crisis Progresses. Read more.
- Hiring Veterans – An Opportunity for the Forest Industry. Read more.
- Japan proposes wooden cars made of plant-based cellulose nanofibers. Read more.
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Editor - Publisher - Writer
Mary Bullwinkel
Freelance Writer
Rikki Wellman
Conference Manager
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If you have photos or an article you would like to submit for future newsletters call 541.686.9191
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