Main Page

Features

Index Page
Contractor Profile 1
Contractor Profile 2
Guest Column
Harvesting Equipt
Industry Shows
Sawmill Upgrade
Spotlight
Supplier Newsline
Value-Added Mfg
----------------
Departments

Calendar of Events
Reader Service
Classified Ads
tech_update

-----------------
Site Information

July August 2006 - The Logging and Sawmilling Journal

INDUSTRY SHOWS

tHE LATEST LOGGING TECHNOLOGIES

The latest technologies will be front and centre in the equipment demonstrations at the Live in the Woods show of the Pacific Logging Congress, being held in September.

By Diane Mettler

Technology is the key word at this year’s Pacific Logging Conference Live in the Woods show. The show will highlight technological advances that improve not only performance and efficiency in the logging industry, but will also help increase environmental protection.

The show will take place September 20-23 on Longview Fibre’s 86,000-acre Nehalem Tree Farm, just minutes from downtown Clatskanie, Oregon. The Live in the Woods show will feature live demonstrations of the most advanced logging and on-the-ground forest technologies available. Thousands of loggers, foresters, teachers and other interested spectators from the United States, Canada, Finland, Brazil and Australia are expected to be in attendance. This will be the fifth Live in the Woods show the Pacific Logging Congress has put on since its inception 20 years ago.

Logging equipment manufacturers will demonstrate a large variety of equipment on over 180 acres of timberland at the PLC’s Live in the Woods show.

Manufacturers will be demonstrating the latest in forestry and construction equipment on over 180 acres of timberland. A number of other companies will participate in static or booth displays. “Most people are completely unaware of the positive changes technology has brought to the forestry and logging professions over the last 20 years,” says PLC’s 2006 president, Ed Hanscom, a logger from Eagle Point, Oregon. “The show gives equipment manufacturers and distributors the opportunity to demonstrate their latest technological advancements. Attendees will get a closeup look at active logging operations and have an opportunity to visit with those of us who make our living in the woods.”

Education is another key aspect of the PLC and Pacific Forest Foundation. As many as 5,000 elementary school children and teachers from the Portland area are expected to visit the show this year. Education Day tours on the 20th and 21st will highlight the safest and most environmentally advanced logging methods available for those in attendance.

Each individual will be supplied with a hard hat and each group of students guided by a professional forester. Bus transportation is paid for by the Oregon Forest Resources Institute. PLC’s “It Takes A Tree” program continues to be a very popular education tool used throughout the United States and Canada. This program has been distributed free of charge to thousands of science teachers.

“We’ll have several mechanical systems running, a helicopter standing stem demonstration by Erickson Air Crane and hand-felling demonstrations,” Hanscom says. “Our objective is to feature every equipment type in use in coastal and interior forests, including chipping and grinding systems used by the region’s increasingly important biomassto-energy industry.”

Initial layout work for the show began last August on the 200-acre Longview Fibre plantation. Nehalem Tree Farm manager Craig Olson, who is in charge of layout, says the Douglas fir and hemlock plantation features terrains ideally suited to demonstrating a wide variety of technologies. This is the third show to be held on the Longview Fibre property because of its close proximity to both the Seattle and Portland markets.

The Nehalem Tree Farm is a unique property, in that it is managed for multiple resources including timber, natural gas, municipal water and fish and wildlife habitat.

Originally organized in Seattle in 1909 to address logging and camp conditions, the Pacific Logging Congress is—at 97 years old—the oldest logging association in the United States. Its membership today is drawn from the Pacific Northwest and Intermountain Regions, British Columbia, Alberta and New Zealand. Typical members are: managers and owners of logging companies; lumber mills or forest products companies; manufacturers and dealers of equipment used in the logging industry. The organization has over 250 company memberships, but attracts non-members to many of its programs.

This page and all contents ©1996-2007 Logging and Sawmilling Journal (L&S J) and TimberWest Journal.
For personal or non-commercial use only.
This site produced and maintained by: Lognet.net Inc
Any questions or comments on this site can be directed to Rob Stanhope, Principal (L&S J).
Site Address: http://www.forestnet.com.

This page last modified on Thursday, December 07, 2006