Public relations

[Frickman]

On May 31 I purchased a small timber sale / lot clearing job in an "upscale" neighborhood. Forum member Reid Crosby referred me to this property. I figured this would be an in and out job, cut, skid and haul six or so loads in a week or so, get in and get out. Well, the township this property is in won't let me bring in triaxle log trucks to haul the logs out, as this property is on a 10 ton, weight restricted road. The contractor next door can bring big trucks in all day, every day, to deliver materials and equipment, as he is local delivery. I'm not, I'm resource extraction, and I could face a $15,000 fine if I'm caught using the road. Anyways, Reid helped me find a small, single axle truck and with the help of my farm tractor and his forklift I'm bringing the logs out in small batches.

This delay in getting the logs hauled is in a way a good thing. I'm spending alot more time on the job than I anticipated, and have gotten to know most of the neighborhood. Whenever one of the neighbors inquires about what's going on I stop what I'm doing and explain everything to them. Most of these folks are at least two generations removed from a rural lifestyle and have little or no idea where things like wood, meat, and milk come from. I've encountered a few "tree huggers", but these folks have just been listening to the big-city media too long. When you can show them in person where their oak floor or cherry cabinets come from it can only benefit our industry in the long run. I can't change all their beliefs in one conversation, but if I can plant a seed of an idea in their head maybe the next guy can cultivate it further.

Let's see, Reid found me the timber, found me the truck, and lent me his forklift. Looks like I owe him big time.

[Ron Scott]

Sometimes those supposed small jobs become the biggest "headaches" from unexpected surprises. I've had a few of them and most problems have been from road jurisdictions and changes in road use rules.

it sounds like you are being patient and doing a good job.

[dutchman]

I'm happy to hear you've been able to cope.
Hope you get high grade lumber for your efforts.
Keep up the good work.

[UNCLEBUCK]

He sure is being patient about it .  Thats nice to see . I would have come in at midnight and put it all on  :

[Tom]

Good show on backing off of a full fledged attack.  Along with doing a lot of good being able to talk to neighbors, you are probably benefitting by not having the stress of fighting a losing battle with the local government.  It's a smart fellow that realizes when to back off and coast a little. 

[Frickman]

Ron Scott,

These small jobs are my bread and butter. There's lots of nice timber on small woodlots that others have overlooked for years. Many times I can string together four or five in one area and end up with one big job.

Unclebuck,

I've done the come in at night thing before. I'm working hard at trying to clean up our industry's image, and coming in at night and breaking the law isn't the way I like to do things. If it was just one load no one would say much or care, but six or seven loads is a bit much to run illegal.

dutchman,

The high-grade lumber is why I'm there.  ;)

Tom,

Avoiding stress and a big legal fight is why I went the way I did. As slow as the legal system works it might be several months until I had the matter resolved. In that time my already harvested logs would degrade considerably. I've done this before, years ago, when I still had more trucking capacity. The last few years I have been contracting out most of my trucking. It looks like I will have to start doing more of it myself.

The PR part has helped changed some opinions. Yesterday I stopped by a lady's house just down the street when I saw her working in the yard. A month ago she was a dyed-in-the-wool tree hugger and against any use of resources. During our conversation she finally started to realize where her oak flooring and maple furniture came from. I don't have her completely on our side yet, but I'm working on it. I give her information in small bites that she can digest instead of overwhelming her all at once.

The one thing that gets me about her, and other folks like her, is how they think they should control someone else's property. She was kind of upset that I cut trees to clear for a homesite, as she enjoyed looking at these trees as she drove by. I asked her why she didn't purchase the property, so she could own the trees and preserve them. She replied that she didn't want to pay for the property and the trees on it, she just wanted to look at them. Incidentally, this property is one of the last to be developed in this housing plan, and most of the other properties had timber cleared to build houses. It was OK for those folks to cut trees, just not OK for their new neighbors.

[DanG]

Frickman, I like the way you think.