April 2024
RAMER, Tennessee – Coming from a family that has worked in the woods for generations, Scottie Robertson, 50, has been around the logging business all his life. His grandfather mixed sawmilling with farming nearly 100 years ago. Scottie’s dad, James Robertson, followed in those footsteps; he also split his time with farming when he first started logging in 1969. James bought his first new skidder in 1973 and continued logging full-time for 50 years before he retired.
Inside This Issue
COVER: High Ground
RAMER, Tennessee – Coming from a family that has worked in the woods for generations, Scottie Robertson, 50, has been around the logging business all his life. His grandfather mixed sawmilling with farming nearly 100 years ago. Scottie’s dad, James Robertson, followed in those footsteps; he also split his time with farming when he first started logging in 1969. James bought his first new skidder in 1973 and continued logging full-time for 50 years before he retired.
Article by David Abbott, Managing Editor, Southern Loggin’ Times
SOUTHERN STUMPIN': Open Canopies
Good forest management—responsible, sustainable and effective—is an essential service in our society. We need to manage our forests for a variety of reasons: so that we can benefit from the resources they provide (building and shipping materials, paper products, fuel for heat and energy, and so on), and to provide jobs; but also for our recreational enjoyment (hunting, camping, etc.), for wildlife habitat, and of course for their own intrinsic beauty and value. No matter how you cut it, logging, done properly, is a necessary aspect of forest management.
Article by David Abbott, Managing Editor, Southern Loggin’ Times
FROM THE BACKWOODS PEW: Canopy
In the woods, like in life, everyone strug gles to survive. The faster, stronger, more aggressive ones always seem to get in front first, and often stay there. But every now and then a turtle shows up, moving slow and steady, and wins the day. In the woods, the fight is for the sunlight, and to get that you need to be in the canopy, which is the ceiling of the woods.
Excerpted from Trees, Traps, and Truth, Bradley Antill, author
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High Ground
2023 Tennessee Logger of the Year Scottie Robertson’s roots run deep.
Article by David Abbott, Managing Editor, Southern Loggin’ Times
RAMER, Tennessee – Coming from a family that has worked in the woods for generations, Scottie Robertson, 50, has been around the logging business all his life. His grandfather mixed sawmilling with farming nearly 100 years ago. Scottie’s dad, James Robertson, followed in those footsteps; he also split his time with farming when he first started logging in 1969. James bought his first new skidder in 1973 and continued logging full-time for 50 years before he retired.
James’s son Scottie went to work on the crew full-time after graduating high school in 1992. James and Scottie started a second crew then, with one running in pine and the other dedicated to hardwood all the time. They logged hardwood tracts during that time for Selma, Ala.-based Miller Lumber Co., which used to be one of the largest timberland owners in western Tennessee, according to Robertson.
Scottie took over the family business, Robertson Logging, LLC, from his dad in 2013, just over 10 years ago. “I’ve seen a lot of change over my lifetime out here,” Robertson says. “I love being out here.” But, he admits, his perspective of it has changed since he took on the owner’s mantle, with the responsibility for the business’s finances and sustained viability on his shoulders.
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