Inside This Issue
COVER: Big Timber
BONNERDALE, Ark.—Steve Mehalic, 59, was just a boy when he started spending summers on his father’s
logging crew.
Article by Patrick Dunning, Associate Editor, Southern Loggin’ Times
SOUTHERN STUMPIN': What's Up w/Diesel??
If you’re reading Southern Loggin’ Times, then it’s a safe bet you don’t need us to tell you how high diesel prices have climbed in recent months, nor do you need us to explain what impact that has on logging and log trucking profit margins.
250 Years Down
WILLIAMSBURG, Va.—Rising diesel prices, shrink ing timber markets, workforce shortages and federal forest management policies dominated discussions at the American Loggers Council’s (ALC) 2026 annual meeting, where logging professionals from across the country gathered to address challenges facing the industry.
By Patrick Dunning, Associate Editor
INDUSTRY NEWS ROUNDUP
- As We See It—Loggers Need Fuel Relief Too
- Red Diesel Tax Suspended
- Isaias Damages Timber
- Weyerhaeiser Scouts Biocarbon Plants Sites
- Pacolet Milliken Acquires GRP
- Forestry Endowment Invests $5 Million
Should We Call It Pulpwood?
By Michael Campbell, President, South Carolina Timber Producers Assn.
For generations, the southern forest industry called small-diameter timber “pulpwood.” This name made perfect
sense because pulp and paper mills were the largest markets for these smaller trees, thinnings and lowervalue timber. But today, using broader terminology may help producers attract more consumers for these products. At the very least, it would more accurately describe where we are heading, and not where we have been.
Big Timber
Steve Mehalic harvets almost 70-year-old pine stand.
Article by Patrick Dunning, Associate Editor, Southern Loggin’ Times
BONNERDALE, Ark.—Steve Mehalic, 59, was just a boy when he started spending summers on his father’s logging crew. His dad had started a treelength outfit in 1970, setting chokers, running chain saws and averaging three to four loads a day. Mehalic graduated high school in 1985 and went to work for him full time. Five years later he started buying his own equipment one piece at a time and putting them to work on his father’s jobs. Eventually the Arkansas native had a full lineup and struck out on his own to establish Steve Mehalic Logging Inc.
His older brother, Kevin Mehalic, 61, has worked alongside him since 1986 and still runs the cutter. Steve says everything he’s learned over the last four decades came from the two of them. “My dad helped me get started, and everything I know about logging, my dad and brother taught me,” the younger Mehalic son says. “In 1990 he gave me a used skidder to trade, and whatever they gave me on the trade-in I had to pay him back.”
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