PAGE 8 MAY 5, 1978
D esp ite The R isk s . . .
I ’d R a th e r R e L oggin g
TEXT AND PHOTOS BY
CYNTHIA STOWELL
his d e p a rtm e n t’s loan lim it is
$100,000, but he has assisted
logging hopefuls in finding the
balance elsewhere.
Less than a week into the
The Small Business Admini
1978 logging season and break stratio n h as been a reg u lar
downs a re alre a d y p a rt of the
source for loans and some log
routine. Before November the
gers have even, received grants
loggers can expect much more from the BIA’s Indian Business
“ down tim e ,” heavy turnover
Development Fund. In a couple
among their crews, the chance of cases loggers went to banks
of a bad sale and bills up to their off the reservation where inter
hardhats.
est rates are inevitably higher.
But every productive minute
Proving himself to be a good
of th e ir 10-12 hour days m eans risk can be as much as a two
cash and fu rth e r proof th at “ I year project for a starting log
can do it.”
ger. First, Warm Springs Forest
At least five green loggers
Products must acknowledge the
have “done it,” with a new outfit
need for another outfit, then thè
about to prove itself this season.
prospective logger must put to
On May 1, a fte r m eeting with
geth er a .d etailed “ p ack ag e,”
BIA Timber Sales Administrat
including a three-year projection
ors and piling last year’s slash,
of incom e and expenditures
A lbert Comedown, Zane Jack-
based on the expected number of
son, J.R . Smith and Johnny
loads p er day balanced with
such ongoing costs as payroll,
Guerin sent their fallers, skid-
ders and loaders out to finish up
m aintenance and licensing. A
good accountant becomes a ne
sales abandoned when the snow
began to fly la st fall. Tommy
cessity early on.
Smith and Levi G reene have
Once the business is under
taken over the la rg e r half of
way, borrowed working capital
Russell Smith’s logging empire
might be a way of life and there
and will be tackling his huge
are always improvements to be
quota.
made with equipment.
For most of the Indian log
Finch, who works closely
gers the romance of the woods
with som e of the loggers each
faded long before they launched
summer, said of logging, “It’s a
their own outfits, but being boss
very high risk business. Every
is an especially la rg e dose of
thing is in big figures when it
reality th erap y . Y ears among
h ap p en s.” And yet none of the
the logging crew ran k s have
loggers are behind in their pay
m ade woods operations quite
ments, he noted.
familiar, but becoming business
Inflation is always looking
men and decision-makers often
over the loggers’ shoulders. In
proves to be a new experience.
ten years equipment costs have
The initial search for capital
more than doubled and p a rts
Zane Jackson owns one of the la rg e st logging outfits on the
reservation, cutting 21 million board feet each season. Inflation in
equipment costs has not prevented him from upgrading with this
Northwest log loader, nor has it kept him from smiling.
CDS Photo
separates the men from the boys have gone the same route. But
rig h t aw ay. To get into the machines must be reliable and
woods now a logger must look at as Zane Jackson said, “Although
6-figure sum s. New D-6 cats it’s costly to repair and replace,
s ta r t a t about $100,000 and a that’s money well-spent.” Log
ru b b er-tired skidder can cost g ers, am ong o ther things, a re
$65,000 or more. And then for the quite skilled check-writers.
grand schemers there are such
Keeping a logging outfit in
“frills” as shovel-type loaders business is a bit of a balancing
th at can be as high as $200,000 act. L oggers find them selves
and log trucks that run around working within a structure dic
$65,000.
tated by fixed allotm ents of
Loggers can enter1 the busi board feet (from 8 million board
ness at very different levels. In feet for Johnny G uerin to 24
1966 R ussell Sm ith started , out million for Russell Smith’s re
with one tractor and one front- tiring outfit) and comparatively
end lo ad er. This y e a r Tommy low log p rices ornthe re se rv a
and Levi Greene are taking on tion. Businesses grow to a point
an o u tfit of five c a ts, th ree and then must stabilize and stay
skidders, one loader, five trucks ahead of inflation by increasing
and a crew of 24. But regardless efficiency. Johnny G uerin in
of size, it involves lots of capital fact, has “grown sm aller” after
and as Albert Comedown said, making the mistake of starting
“Lots of talking.”
too big. D uring the first five
T rib al C redit h as helped years of logging he was tempted
each of the loggers to g re a te r to “ sell it all and skip the
and lesser degrees. Credit Man country,” but his trimmed down
ager Bob Finch explained that outfit is finally paying off.
Logging is a year-round
business, with all the planning,
bookkeeping and maintenance
that m ust be done. The four or
five off-season m onths a re not
vacation time for most owners
who can be found mechanicking
under a cat, juggling, books,
pouring over log sale maps and
work plans, riding sales on
snowmobile or upgrading their
equipm ent. The quiet months
m ight also be spent “ visiting
other loggers and kicking our
problems around,” as one owner
said. If lucky a logger and his
fam ily m ight fit in a trip to
Disneyland or Reno.
When logging season starts,
every day counts. Loggers agree
that the biggest w orry during
the season is Breakdown, with a
Although logging outfit owner J.R. Smith works right in the
cap ital B. As A lbert said, log woods along with the crew, he says being an owner is “ a lot different
gers try to “plan” their break than being foreman.” J.R., who is starting his third season, said,
downs for the two-week m ill “ You take more pride in your work.”
shutdown in July, but they learn
hard hours which Albert Come single-m inded devotion can
to expect the unexpected.
J.R. Smith, who is starting down says “ you m ight as well bring logging out of the category
his third season after buying out put in for y o u rself.” Guerin of business and into the realm of
the smaller “side” of his brother takes pride in his after-hours lifestyle. It is often a life apart
mechanicking, saying “ I know — a world created and sustained
R ussell’s business, estim ated
th at when his shovel quits on I’m helping myself.” Once bitten by the logger and his family.
him h e ’s out $4000 a day. A by the bug of self-employment, a
And of course, th ere is the
logger usually can’t imagine any unfading hope of striking it big,
broken swing sh aft (which he
other way of making a living.
which some have indeed done. A
has replaced four times already)
Loggers are a fiercely inde rising standard of living is one of
costs $1600 and in the' down time
h e ’s losing 16 loads a day and pendent lot for whom toeing the the tangible rew ards th at is
line is intolerable. It is that worth the rocky times of insec
still paying his whole crew.
spirit of independence that drove urity and red-figured ledger
Most loggers count crew
turnover and absenteeism a-, them into logging ventures and books.
But behind the dream lurks
mong their seasonal headaches. continues to provide them with
Aside from a sm all nucleus of their chief source of satisfaction. the plain fact th a t for many
With the exception of a loggers the woods are what they
skilled, reliable employees, log
gers must face persistent crew councilm an and a real estate know best. The reasons for
investor among the ranks, the risking can boil down to Albert
changes.
N ature also has a way of loggers tend to maintain a low Comedown’s simple statement
profile in the community. Their — “I ’d rather be logging.”
throw ing w renches into the
works. Bad w eather can m ake
movement in the woods difficult
or impossible, and the length of
the season is dependent on n a
ture’s whims.
A bad sale can take years to
recover from, too. Loggers nego
tiate with WSFPI for sales and
they don’t alw ays <:ome aw ay
with the ideal units -- those with
high volum e, few defects and
easy te rra in . A strin g of bad
sales can b reak a beginning
logger and can even be difficult
for a veteran to absorb. Guerin,
who says he’s only had four good
sales in his eight years of logg
ing, remarked, “ It’s up to you to
pull it out of the bag,”
So a prospective logger
takes the big gam ble and de
cides to run the obstacle course
of owning a business. He finds
himself saddled with responsi
bilities bigger than the out of
doors he loves so well and he
trie s on half a dozen different
hats in his roles of businessman,
m echanic, financial analyst,
personnel counselor, and as one
logger suggested, “wet nurse.”
Why does he do it?
Eleven-season veteran Rus
sell Smith, who says he’s getting
too old for the hassles and wants
to give younger guys a chance to
make it, pointed to the sense of
accom plishm ent th a t derives
from the business. “I dedicated
everything towards working in
the woods,” he said, and spoke
proudly of the many equipment
operato rs he had train ed
through the years.
Russell’s successors, J.R.,
Tommy and Levi, are standing
Albert Comedown, like all the loggers, does as much repair work
a t the o ther end of the logging
road and calling that same jour as he can rig h t in his own yard. J u st before the beginning of the
season Albert (right) and his woods boss Don Waldrip repaired the
ney a “challenge.”
CDS Photo
In betw een a re the long, track on a cat.