Loggers facing market issues By James Ronald Skains The official Louisiana representatives expected to attend the American Logging Council annual conference in Flagstaff, Arizona September 24-25 are Tony Lavespere, Allen Lang and Travis Taylor. Taylor is also a candidate for Secretary/Treasurer of the ALC. If Taylor is elected to that position, under the officer rotation plan of the ALC, he would move up to the presidency of the American Logging Council in three years. John Bradley of Jefferson, Texas is the Texas logger's representative on the ALC Board while Greg Wahl from Okolona represents Arkansas. Ken Martin of Mendenhall is the Mississippi ALC representative. Louisiana is the only state with more than one representative on the American Logging Council board of Directors. "The major issue facing the loggers in the Ark-La-Tex-Miss region is the same that is facing loggers all over the country," Danny Dructor, Executive Vice President of the loggers organization told the Piney Woods Journal. "We must have markets for what our members are producing," Dructor explained. "We can talk about truck weights, IRS and environmental regulations, and labor issues all day long but until more lumber and wood fiber sales are made, we are going to have trouble working our way out of our industry's problems." "The total use of wood in the last quarter was down 31% from a year ago," Dructor told the Journal. "The northeast has been hit even harder."\par }{\plain "There has been a lot of emphasis put on the emerging biomass energy markets as a source for loggers to deliver their products," Dructor pointed out. "However, as these markets begin to show signs of emerging, the Federal Government is stepping in with lots of proposed rules and regulations." "The major forest product manufacturers seem real concerned that biomass for energy is a price threat to their operations," Dructor acknowledged. "Rules and Regs pertaining to the size of the biomass, haul distance, and methods of harvest are being proposed. "One initiative that seems to have merit is the Biomass Crop Assistance Program or B-CAP as it is becoming to known," Dructor added. "However, most of the pertinent parts of B-CAP are still to be finalized. Also, very little money, something like $23 million nationwide has been appropriated for this program." "B-CAP was created by the 2008 Farm Bill and is administered under the Farm Service Agency," Dructor, a former East Texas logger himself noted. 'B-Cap could lead to a reimbursement of up to $45 per ton on woody biomss, but the window of opportunity under the current program structure is only for two years." 'Our concern is that either biomass energy conversion facilities will not be willing to participate in B-CAP because of the federal oversight involved, or if the Biomass Conversion Facilities (BCF) do participate, they will make a concerted effort to capture as many of the federal dollars as possible, once again leaving the loggers and forest landowners with the short end of the stick," Dructor said in describing the potential effects of B-CAP on the American logging industry. "Also, the wood pellet market looks promising but again we don't know how all the rules and regs will ultimately effect that potential market," Dructor noted. "The pulp and paper industry found a windfall tax incentive in the 2008 Farm Bill when they were able to blend their black liquor with diesel fuel," Dructor pointed out. "By doing this, the pulp and paper industry received the alternative fuel blender's tax credit." The 2009 ALC meeting will mark the eighth year since Dructor, a logger from Cleveland, Texas was first selected as the Executive Vice President of the Council. Dructor replaced a founding member of the ALC, Cheryl Russell of Maine. Russell had decided to pursue a career as a college level administrator. The Journal asked Dructor if he missed the logging woods. "It depends on which day of the week it is," Dructor responded with a laugh. "If it a rainy or cold day or the haul quotas are down, the answer is no." "However, if the days are pretty and the guys are making a little money, then the answer is yes," Dructor noted. "In actuality, I miss being a logger." "There is no other career that I know of that is more unique and satisfying than being a logger," Dructor added. "I guess that is the reason that I really like trying to help preserve a way of life and make it better for so many people who enjoy he logging business as I do." Dructor and his wife now live on the Texas side of Toledo Bend Lake in a lakefront house. They also have a pontoon boat and a bass fishing boat parked in the drive. However, Dructor was quick to point out that the biggest job he had with his boats was to keep the dust and rust off the boats from lack of use in the lake. "There is so much to do to try and help keep the logging industry afloat during these difficult times," Dructor pointed out. "Some of the guys on the East Coast are having to fight through problems with IRS over road use tax." "Nationwide as well as in the Piney Woods, we are constantly doing battle about truck weights and environmental regulations," Dructor elaborated. "Biomass as a feedstock for renewable energy has definitely given the logging industry a spark of hope, but there seems to be so many unanswered questions," Dructor related. "I don't think the federal government has yet definitely defined what really qualifies as biomass. The same is true for dry tonnage." "Also, there are concerns about how the Renewable Electricity Standards (RES) will shape the biomass segment of our industry," Dructor explained. "Another question that is on our mind is the Cap and Trade legislation." "How will it affect our industry?" Dructor asked. "It should be a positive for us in the long run but we need positive things to happen for us now." "In reality, there maybe a lot of road blocks for the loggers in the biomass markets,' Dructor noted. "The quickest relief that we could get is if the new housing market picks up in the near future. Although I don't have actual researched statistics, I believe that our logging force has shrunk by around 30% in the just the last few years," Dructor stated. "One of the reason that so little statistical data is available on our logging force is that so many of our loggers are mis-classified and lumped into other categories," Dructor said. "It seems that the federal government and industry classification data has a hard time figuring out where loggers fit." "After Hurricane Katrina and Rita, the loggers were promised that action would be taken to assure that loggers were able to get involved in future hurricane debris clean up and timber removal," Dructor elaborated. "That was four years ago and we are just now getting a rough draft of the governments plan for loggers." The current president of the American Logging Council is Allen Ribelin of Flagstaff, Arizona. The new president will be Mike Wiedman of Enterprise, Oregon. In 2011, Matt Jensen of Crandon, Wisconsin will move into the top leadership of the ALC. "We have tried to structure the time line of our Flagstaff council meeting around efficient use of our time," Dructor explained. "We feel that it is important in these tough times to keep our expenses down including those loggers attending the meeting. We would have liked to have a couple of sessions devoted to the biomass issue but that is not going to be possible," Dructor said. "However, we are going to have an informal session before our president's banquet to talk about the potential of biomass for our industry." "We have a couple of industry experts who will be attending and will share their knowledge and forecast with us," Dructor concluded. |