May 2025
ROANOKE RAPIDS, NC — Ryan Medlin, 48, spent 15 years working as a procurement forester for Coastal Lumber Co., first at their pine mill in Suffolk, Va., then at their hardwood mill in Weldon, NC. That’s where Medlin served most of his 15 year Coastal career, other than a brief stint in 2004 in Columbia, SC, where he bought timber for Coastal’s Walterboro and Denmark mills. That was just too far from home for him, he says. “About a year of it was all I could take,” he laughs. He wanted to be near his own more familiar stumping grounds, and more importantly, near that special someone he’d only just recently met.
Inside This Issue
COVER: Ryan Medlin Switches Tracks In North Carolina
ROANOKE RAPIDS, NC —Ryan Medlin, 48, spent 15 years working as a procurement forester for Coastal Lumber Co., first at their pine mill in Suffolk, Va., then at their hardwood mill in Weldon, NC. That’s where Medlin served most of his 15 year Coastal career, other than a brief stint in 2004 in Columbia, SC, where he bought timber for Coastal’s Walterboro and Denmark mills. That was just too far from home for him, he says. “About a year of it was all I could take,” he laughs.
Article by David Abbott, Managing Editor, Southern Loggin’ Times
SOUTHERN STUMPIN': ...More Green Choice
Way back in our November 2024 issue, I presented excerpts of Bruce Vincent’s keynote address at the American Loggers Council annual meeting in California last October. Vincent is an author and third-generation logger from Libby, Mont. There was too much material to fit into one Southern Stumpin’, so I only got less than half of it in. I said then that we would try to present the rest of it at a future date if we could, but I wasn’t sure anyone would be interested. As it turns out I actually got several emails from people who appreciated Vincent’s words and wanted to see the rest. So, picking up where we left off, here you have it: Bruce Vincent, part 2:
Article by David Abbott
BACKWOODS PEW: Cotton Pickin'
My grandmother grew up in Arkansas, as did my mom. Grandma was a cotton picker. That generation of folks, who grew up in a time when agriculture still had segments that required extensive hands-on labor, is passing away; and with that passing, we will lose a connection to nature that will be hard to regain. Of course, speaking for my mom, and many of her cousins, all of whom spent a tour of duty in the cotton fields: “Good riddance to cotton picking!”
Excerpt from Woods, Worship,and Wasteland, Bradley Antill author.
INDUSTRY NEWS ROUNDUP
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Shifting Gears
When his mill closed, former forester Ryan Medlin changed directions mid-stream to become a logger.
Article by David Abbott, Managing Editor, Southern Loggin’ Times
ROANOKE RAPIDS, NC —Ryan Medlin, 48, spent 15 years working as a procurement forester for Coastal Lumber Co., first at their pine mill in Suffolk, Va., then at their hardwood mill in Weldon, NC. That’s where Medlin served most of his 15 year Coastal career, other than a brief stint in 2004 in Columbia, SC, where he bought timber for Coastal’s Walterboro and Denmark mills. That was just too far from home for him, he says. “About a year of it was all I could take,” he laughs. He wanted to be near his own more familiar stumping grounds, and more importantly, near that special someone he’d only just recently met. “I was single when I left; then I met my wife, but she lived here in town.” They were married that next year, in 2005 (happy 20th anniversary!). Coastal transferred him back in late 2005 and there he stayed until 2011, when Coastal closed down that Weldon hardwood mill.
Thus, Medlin Forest Products, LLC was born six years ago, and the former procurement forester was now a full-fledged logger all on his own, buying and cutting his own timber with a single crew.
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