As with most areas of the economy these days, sales of new logging equipment have slowed down. Many loggers are wisely reluctant to take on new debt in uncertain times, and as such are often buying used equipment or trying to keep their existing machines running longer with increasingly meticulous maintenance routines. Even so, there is still some action on the new equipment front. Case in point: Tracy Walden, 43, owner of Walden Logging, Inc., purchased two new 2011 model machines late last year—a Barko loader from Knight Forestry and a John Deere skidder from Flint Equipment, both replacing older units.

In March 2006, Doug Hassell Jr. got a phone call that catapulted his small fence row land clearing business into the major leagues clearing right-of-ways (ROWs) for the booming oil and gas pipeline industries. Since then Hilton Services LP has grown from a single machine to nearly 50 with as many as six crews scattered across four states. The east Texas based company has contracted with several big oil companies and worked on jobs as far out as Wyoming, Colorado and Missouri in addition to jobs in Texas, Arkansas and Louisiana.

If you are making a living from the trees in Maryland, North or South Carolina, West or Commonwealth Virginia, then you are either slowly going broke, slowly making headway, holding your own or looking down the road with high-powered binoculars and desperately hoping to spot the tail end of the Great Tree-cession.

In between an earthquake and a hurricane, the Virginia Loggers Assn. (VLA) pulled off its annual meeting August 26-27 in Blacksburg, Va., home of Virginia Tech. Just over 100 members, supporters, and guests attended the meeting, held at the Prices Fork Holiday Inn and hosted by the Virginia Tech College of Natural Resources.

On April 24, 1965, Verne Harper came for an inspection visit to Brewton. Earlier in a meeting with Director Zilgitt and his staff in New Orleans, most observers were convinced that he would recommend closing Brewton’s longleaf pine research.

Bud and Junior were very different—they came from different generations, had very different upbringings. Bud had grown up working on his dad’s farm, picking cotton and milking cows after school. He’d lived in the country, their closest neighbors a mile away, in a town that made Mayberry look like Metropolis. He remembered outhouses and bathing in a tub in the yard. Junior had grown up in what was effectively a suburb of a mid-sized city, on a paved road, with neighbors just across the fence. He’d played video games after school, grown up with internet and cable television and cell phones. Bud’s earliest memories were of an America after World War II, in the Eisenhower and Kennedy administrations. Junior was born in an America changed after Vietnam, after Nixon, and his worldviews were formed with Bill Clinton in the White House.

In association with Expo ’79 in New Orleans, Barko Hydraulics hosted a booze cruise on the Mississippi River for customers, dealers and friends. The Florida gents who stood for posterity were, from left, Terrell Smith, J.A. Cruce (aka A.J. Cruce), Reagan Fox and Eddie Usher. Smith and Fox managed the company-owned Timberjack store in Perry for Eaton Corp. and Cruce and Usher were their Timberjack and Barko customers. Usher has since died, Smith and Cruce are retired and Fox continues to log despite three hip replacements. FYI, the “two thirds of a head” guy at right is Mal Crawford, a spy for Prentice.

Equipment seminars, model updates and new machines were the headlining acts for a worldwide audience of dealers at the Bandit Industries 2011 Dealer Meeting held August 23-26 at the company’s headquarters in Remus, Mich. Bandit hosted 155 attendees from 19 countries, making it the largest dealer meeting in its 28-year history.

The proper grease application to machine components regularly exposed to water and other contaminants is essential to maintaining forestry equipment. Grease acts as both a lubricant and sealant to protect components such as bearings, universal joints and pins and bushings against wear, dust, water and other work-site contaminants. It is composed of a base oil, a thickener, and additives that provide specific anti-wear and anti-corrosion protection.