As a B.C. logger, imagine relying on British Columbia Timber Sales exclusively to source all the wood your small log harvesting company requires and then selling the resulting lumber on the open market. Imagine doing that through a period when the independent Crown agency is under fire for inefficiencies from many quarters around the forest industry. And imagine continuing to do that successfully against a backdrop of what is arguably the most demanding operating conditions in the B.C. forest industry’s history.

B.C.’s E. Piva Contracting Ltd. has been more than imagining that—the tightly-knit logging company has been making the strategy work for about 10 years.

Ernie Piva, the company’s principal, based in Kamloops, British Columbia, credits a handful of key reasons for that. He says hard work, planning, good industry contacts and a great crew to do the essentials and pick up the pieces when necessary are all part of the survival package. And that is not to forget a healthy dash of good fortune along the way and the logger’s innate ability to pivot plans on a pinhead when needed.

“B.C. Timber Sales (BCTS) manages 20 per cent of the province’s Allowable Annual Cut (AAC) for Crown/public timber and generates economic prosperity for British Columbians through the safe, sustainable development and auction of public timber,” according to the B.C. government.

BCTS operates in 33 communities around the province and supports about 8,000 direct jobs. The government adds that the guiding principles of the BCTS are safety, reconciliation with indigenous peoples and sustainable forest management.

One of Piva’s guiding principles is trying to get enough sales lined up to provide a year’s worth of work. “I knew it wouldn’t be easy,” says Piva “and so far, it hasn’t been.”

To do the job in the bush, Piva Contracting has a decent—and varied—lineup of equipment, including John Deere bunchers and processors. The principal dealers for the company include Brandt Tractor (John Deere), Inland Kenworth (Tigercat, Link-Belt), and Southstar heads.

Piva has learned there are way more losers than winners when it comes to bidding on timber auctions. “And I always have to try and remember when bidding on timber sales and actually winning them that I still have to utilize all the fibre to keep a year’s of work in front of us.” He aims to produce at least 150,000 cubic metres a year. “It can be very challenging to ensure that much volume solely by bidding on it.”

But Piva has received invaluable help along the way. “We had the pleasure to meet and work with George Harrison. He was a log broker with BCTS sales and we did a lot of logging for him,” explains Piva. Like a mentor, Harrison explained to Piva how BCTS actually functions. “George was very instrumental in how I do business now with BCTS,” he credits.

Piva is understandably cautious about discussing BCTS’ latest apparent internal issues. “Most of the people that I have to deal with in BCTS are excellent,” he says. “But it takes a long time to get anything done. There’s a lot of red tape to go through first.” He figures updating some of the old rules within the organization would provide efficiencies for contractors and BCTS staff. “But the system does work.”

Piva comes from a forest industry background, one that includes variety and adaptability. “Grandpa Gordon started working with Weyerhaeuser back in the early 1960s and he became one of their largest and longest serving log hauling contractors with an Evergreen Licence,” he relates.

“Through the years, he had a few different ventures, including running a sawmill. And it was Grandpa who began bidding on small business sales along with my dad, Joe.” And Joe took his turn working for Weyerhaeuser as a logger in the late 1970s. His work included laying and harvesting beetle trap trees. Until recently, Ernie Piva continued a three generation-long relationship with the company, who were buyers of BCTS wood from Piva. This past September, Weyerhaeuser completed the sale of its lumber mill in Princeton, B.C., and its associated timber licenses, to the Gorman Group, who are also buyers of wood sourced through Piva’s BCTS sales.

Ernie Piva’s a fan of Link-Belt equipment, and the operation includes three Link-Belt log loaders. “They’re extraordinarily good on fuel and have minimal downtime,” he says.

“My dad took a while out to sell tractors in Kamloops, recalls Ernie. “But that wasn’t quite for him.” He returned to logging and Ernie soon joined him. “I had worked for him ever since I remember doing whatever had to get done.” Eventually he acquired his dad’s business and merged it with is own. Now it’s Joe’s turn to help out his son. All that experience comes in handy. Give him a bulldozer and he’ll build a mean road for you, says Ernie.

Ernie had taken his own time out to work for Mac Lind in Princeton, B.C.

“It was a real learning curve on how to produce wood efficiently. It was a really good experience and it definitely helped me get where I am.”

He also made some good friends, he adds.

Neither Gordon or Joe could have guessed how Ernie keeps up with the fast-paced pressures of bidding sales; he stays in his truck. His Starlink communication system provides global internet availability. “The work’s 100 per cent on line.”

The wood he bids on is still reassuringly familiar. “About 75 per cent of it is Douglas fir along with spruce, hemlock and some cedar.” But the equipment Piva uses today to produce accurate, customized wood for his sawmill customers has also undergone a sea change from Gordon’s time in the bush.

“To do our job we have a decent lineup of equipment and trucks,” says Piva. The lineup includes: a 2024 John Deere 959 K tilting feller buncher; a 2024 Deere 2154 processor with a Southstar head; a 2018 Link-Belt 3240 log loader with a Southstar head; a 2020 Link-Belt 3240; a 2016 Link-Belt 340 log loader; a 2014 Komatsu 2710 road builder; a 2013 Tigercat 635 skidder; a 2022 Tigercat 632 H skidder; a 2011 Tigercat 870 hoe chucker; a 2013 Cat D7E bulldozer; a 2002 Deere 850 C bulldozer; a 2014 Cat 140 M grader and the company-owned low-bed to move the equipment around. E. Piva Contracting also operates three Kenworth logging trucks and one Western Star unit.

“As a small contractor, we have to look at every efficiency we can when we buy a new piece of equipment,” he explains. Piva adds that he’s developed good working relationships with his local equipment dealers, resulting in fast response times when called upon. The principal dealers include Inland Kenworth, Brandt Tractor and Southstar heads, he says.

In the bush, Ernie Piva’s equipment line-up includes Tigercat equipment: a 635 skidder; a 632 H skidder and a 870 hoe chucker. Piva aims to produce at least 150,000 cubic metres a year, all of it purchased in BC Timber Sales auctions.

Piva’s a fan of Link-Belt equipment. “They’re extraordinarily good on fuel and have minimal downtime.” Kamloops is home base for Southstar processing heads. Piva specified the company’s QS500 4×4 heads for both the Deere buncher and the Link-Belt 3240.

“The heads are capable of cutting up to 26-inch diameter wood and we find their 4×4 wheels great, especially in bigger diameter stands. The feller buncher has also presented new possibilities with its tilting function. We’re finding we can cut far more wood than we could before with a flat bottom package. Using it along with the 870 hoe chucker, we are able to do very challenging ground.”

The tariff impositions from the U.S. are making a tough situation worse for the forest industry. “The uncertainty around tariffs has everyone in a tailspin—it’s extremely tough,” says Piva. The dynamics created by his crew, however, helps weather the storm. They’re what make the company work.

“Jack Lewis, our operations manager, started with us in 2012. He’s been an integral part of keeping things together. Jesse Nielsen, our foreman, is very similar. He’s hard working and gets the job done, no matter what,” says Piva. “All the people working here are extremely gifted, they know their jobs and do them well.”

And that can frequently involve working weekends and holidays. “It’s the atmosphere the crew creates that makes the struggles seem less like struggles. It’s more like being part of a family. That’s something you don’t get over.”