TOLEDO, WASHINGTON – It’s unusual to find a logging company that focuses on reforestation as much as Tree Management Plus (TMP). The company, in business since 1977, and has always focused on the entire lifespan of forestry management.

Tree Management Plus, founded and owned by Tom Fox, is based in Toledo in southwest Washington, not quite 50 miles south of Olympia. Fox’s company manages land in that region, working with landowners regardless of the size of their property.

Tree Management Plus helps clients “care for their forest land through management of the stand’s overall health,” said Fox, who will turn 75 in May. “We advise clients of the proper care and treatments needed to meet their management plan.” Tree Management Plus primarily works for small landowners although sometimes it provides services for industrial companies, like Sierra Pacific Industries.

“We rarely buy standing timber,” said Fox. “We mainly work on a per thousand board feet or per ton (basis) and do a percentage split on the revenue generated from the timber.”

When Fox started the company, its main business was planting trees and Christmas tree farming. The business grew quickly. By the 1980s it had up to 50 people planting trees and planted over 1 million seedlings per season. Now in its third generation, it continues to provide planting services and sell seedlings, as well as performing logging operations.

Fox has always been interested in logging and forestry. He grew up near Springfield, Oregon, and worked in a sawmill as a young man, earned his associate’s degree in forestry, and then worked for some landowners for a few years before setting up his own company out of his back porch.

Today TMP has three generations on its leadership team, including Fox’s daughter, Alicia Fox, and his twin grandsons, Bennett and Camden Bull. Alicia handles the financial and administrative tasks of the business, Bennett meets with landowners, submits permits, and oversees operations, and Camden helps manage the logging sites, manages the reforestation side, and is an equipment operator.

“The twins have jumped right in and are constantly on the go,” said Alicia Fox. “It’s great to see the younger generation care so much about our family business.”

The company’s services include cut-to-length logging, clear-cut timber harvesting, pre-commercial thinning, reforestation for private or family forest owners, and seedling sales. They also work with conservation districts on many projects, including reforestation initiatives.

The business currently employs 14 people. Seven work on the tree planting crew, two on cut-to-length projects, three to four on clear-cut projects, and they have one mechanic.

The company’s logging crew is equipped with a Timbco 475 feller buncher, a Cat D4H dozer with a grapple for skidding and site prep work, and a pair of Doosan (now DEVELON) DX225LL track loaders. One Doosan is paired with a CTR processor saw for delimbing the trees and bucking the logs to length, and the other Doosan is dedicated to decking and loading.

The Doosan machines are a fairly recent addition and were purchased from Cascade Trader in nearby Chehalis. “They’ve been a great customer,” said Jim Wark, sales manager for Cascade Trader.

The DEVELON DX225LL is the industry’s only log loader to feature a pattern control valve, enabling the operator to pick the operating pattern. Other features include 36-foot logger boom and live heel, fully guarded upper structure, and high walker undercarriage with 28-inch, 2-bar grouser pads and full length rock guards.

An Electronic Power Optimizing System provides four work modes, auto-idle and machine diagnostics. To help save fuel, auto-shutdown is standard. When enabled, it will shut down the engine when the preset idle time is met; operators can configure the idle time from 3 to 60 minutes.

(For more information about DEVELON machines, visit www.na.develon-ce.com.)

Fox said he was drawn to the Doosan machines for a couple of reasons. “The initial price of the machine and its availability were attractive along with having two shovels that are identical,” he said. “Having two of the same machine has been great for filters, parts and the operator learning curve. The knowledge of the same machine makes it easy for an operator to be in either Doosan.”

Fox recently invested in a John Deere 1270G 8-wheel harvester and a John Deere 1910G forwarder for the cut-to-length crew. Both machines were purchased from Papé Machinery in Tacoma.

The harvester was purchased to replace an aging piece of equipment. They selected the model because they already had experience with John Deere, had purchased a simulator with similar controls, and therefore wouldn’t need to invest in further training to operate it.

“We could just plug and play with our operators and didn’t have to go through a new training program,” said Alicia Fox.

They also like the fact that it has two more wheels than their previous harvester, which helps reduce ground disturbance. The machine also is equipped with a harvester attachment that can fell and process larger trees.

“We consider Cascade Trader and Papé to be part of the TMP team,” said Fox. He bought one of his first skidders in 1978 from Wark. At the time the equipment company was known as Cascade Loggers Supply.

“Jim and I have had a great relationship for almost 50 years,” said Fox. “He is and has been a top notch salesman over the years. Jim’s knowledge about the equipment and his constant support to our company has been an asset that Tree Management Plus has felt very fortunate to have. He’s a saint, honestly, – there for us through thick and thin!”

Like other loggers who work in the Pacific Northwest, they often work on wet ground. Equipment and trucks can cause significant rutting when working in extremely wet conditions. Fox counts on his tracked and multi-wheeled equipment to help prevent or to minimize ground disturbance. In addition, the slash is used strategically to help prevent rutting.

“Slash can be left on the ground for coverage to help decrease soil damage and compaction,” noted Fox. “It allows us to work in conditions that may otherwise create mud issues.” As it breaks up and eventually decomposes, the slash also returns nutrients to the soil.

With the John Deere 1270G harvester, the operator can process the trees so the limbs and top fall in front of it, creating a mat the machine can travel on and preventing rutting and damage to nearby root systems.

The company’s other crew is equipped with a Timbco 475 feller buncher, a Cat D4H dozer with a grapple for skidding and site prep work, and a pair of Doosan DX225LL track loaders. One Doosan is paired with a CTR processor saw for bucking the logs to length, and the other Doosan is dedicated to decking and loading.

Clear-cutting, also referred to as even-aged harvesting, harvests all trees in an area while leaving certain trees for stream buffers and wildlife. Tree Management Plus also provides pre-commercial thinning, removing undesirable trees and brush to help crop trees achieve proper growth and to reduce fuels.

Other services include forest management plan writing and implementation, reforestation, and seedling sales. The company has two cold storage units to store seedlings for over 20 species of trees and native plants, which it grows or brokers from other nurseries.

Although there’s quite a variety of tree species on the lands where the company works, it mainly encounters Douglas fir, Western hemlock, cedar, red alder, and big-leaf maple.

Logs are supplied to Sierra Pacific mills in Centralia and Aberdeen. Cedar goes to Alta Forest Products near Shelton and RSG Forest Products in Kalama. Hardwoods are taken to either Northwest Hardwoods in Longview or Cascade Hardwoods in Chehalis. Markets have been challenging in recent years, but prices are beginning to rebound, according to Fox.

He has recently been supplying pulp logs to Pacific Fiber in Longview, DaPaul Chip in Tumwater, and Cascade Hardwoods.

Tree Management Plus does not have its own trucking operations, relying on trucking contractors to deliver wood to mills. Most mills are within 20 to 60 miles.

In addition to providing logging and forest management services, the Foxes own and manage 440 acres of forestland known as the Tagshinny Tree Farm, an award-winning tree farm enterprise. In 2005 they negotiated an 80-year Habitat Conservation Plan and a Candidate Conservation Agreement with Assurances with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and National Marine Fisheries Service. The agreements conserve the habitat for 17 fish and wildlife species while allowing the family to plant and harvest timber. They do this as an example of their dedication to proper forest management for clients. Their property was awarded county, state, regional, and national Tree Farmer of the Year by the American Tree Farm System in 2004-2005.

Fox appreciates the risks associated with logging work and puts a clear emphasis on safety. He trains all workers on CPR, logging safety, and the Master Logger certification course. Every job has a written safety plan, and crews regularly attend regional safety conferences.

“We approach our staff as family,” said Fox. “We understand the dangers of the industry and work vigilantly to protect our staff.”

Company benefits include paid time off, holiday pay, a medical stipend, cell phones, and work vehicles.

In 2000 Fox co-founded the Family Forest Foundation. It seeks to ensure family forests in Washington remain economically and ecologically viable into the future. Fox served as president of the foundation for 20 years and continues to serve on its board of directors.

Over the years, Fox has learned that there are two things he cannot control: weather and wood markets.

“Those are the two things you have to be able to pivot on at the drop of a dime and figure out which direction to go, and it might not be the direction you had planned,” said Fox. “It’s a struggle to make ends meet in the logging industry right now. I think you have to look in every direction for ways to make money and tap into what the market’s bringing your way.”