There’s not much emotional satisfaction in cleaning up a skimpy 10 acre tract when your standard operating procedure is harvesting tall, quality timber. Yet sometimes that’s just how the chips fall.

Veteran logger Danny Lewis, 50, has found the system that works for him. Not too big and not too small, his two crew operation performs thinning and clear-cuts for International Paper, after contracting for 28 years with Louisiana-Pacific.

Responses to Timber Harvesting’s 2004 Logging Business Survey portray a downsized and leaner logging force reeling from substantially higher operating costs and poor profitability. A majority appear to be caught between the proverbial “rock and a hard place” in that they continue to work for out of date pay because they have few, if any, options.

Once you learn Pem Jenkins’ background, there is a little irony in the fact that Jenkins’ Turn Bull Lumber Co. sits off of Sweet Home Church Rd. Jenkins did not come to the forest products field by following in his father’s footsteps or even working his way up through the ranks.

Robert Huff is in the garden tending to a row of butter beans on this uncommonly warm spring morning. The 73-year-old gentleman appears as a frail figure, with a wiry frame and missing his left hand, but don’t let that fool you.

On a hot, dry summer morning in the Appalachi-ans, a timber cutter was selectively harvesting sawtimber trees on a mountainous tract. The 46-year-old timber cutter had completed his state’s logger training and education program, and he had recently attended a chain saw safety workshop.

Scofield Timber Co., Atlanta, Ga., is celebrating its 30th anniversary. Scofield is a full service timber company, handling harvesting, landowner services, developer services, land investor services and timber farms. Pictured: Scofield’s staff, from left: Scot Teverino, chief forester; Chris Hart, forester; Jay Bear, chief executive officer; Kelly Dean, chief operations officer; Tunya Gaddis, office manager; Steve Coone, forester; and Jonathan Nelson, chief of logging operations.

Tigercat debuts the new extreme duty 1014 forwarder. The entire hood enclosure tilts forward by hand to provide easy access to the 228 HP Mercedes 906 engine. The 1014 uses electronic canbus control technology to govern machine functions.

Robert Huff, front center, celebrated 50 years in the logging business at a May 1 barbecue at his residence in Dadeville, Ala. About 150 of family members, friends, employees and their families were on hand. Huff, pulling his weight on the job every day, says retirement is not in his near-term plans. Crew members, from left, are Ricky Huff (son), Rodney Alvies, William Johnson and Dwayne Holly. Johnson has worked for Huff for 45 years.