Second honeymoon: with a major investment in training and equipment, including a customized Madill 2200B harvester, TimberWest is making the switch from old growth timber and conventional logging to second-generation forests and a mechanized operation

Canadian Forest Industries, Aug 2001 by Tice, Bill

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For many of the 3000 residents of Lake Cowichan, the rumble of passing logging trucks is a welcome intrusion. Throughout the history of this sleepy southern Vancouver Island community, the forest industry has played a key role in its economic success.

About 1.5 hours north of Victoria and one hour south of Nanaimo, Lake Cowichan traditionally has been recognized for its old growth timber. Although there is plenty of old growth left, many of the logging trucks now passing through town are loaded with timber harvested from second-generation forests. This is a growing trend according to Dave Whiteley, operations superintendent for TimberWest's Honeymoon Bay operation.

"Just over three years ago, 20 to 30 per cent of our log production was second growth," says Whiteley. "This year, we expect that number to grow to about 70 per cent, and for 2002 it looks like it will be even higher."

Whiteley attributes the rapid growth in the harvesting of second growth timber to a number of factors, including current market conditions.

"We are experiencing a poor market for old growth hem-bal, and on top of that, the old growth timber has a higher stumpage rate," says Whiteley, noting that second growth fir is now the mainstay of the operation's production. "We are very fortunate to be working on a landbase with a great supply of second growth timber and to still have traditional old growth to supplement our production."

Mechanical Methods

The TimberWest operation encompasses 90 000 hectares of Tree Farm License (TFL) and 30 000 hectares of private land. They harvest about 500 000 cubic metres annually from the TFL, while they cut 220 000 cubic metres from the private land.

With the switch from old growth to second growth, the operation has also moved to mechanized harvesting. This change has been readily embraced by the crews, according to Gord Vaughan, the operation's mechanized supervisor and a contract employee who was hired to manage the switch from conventional to mechanized harvesting.

"We realized that the opportunities are in second growth and that we needed to get good at it if we were going to succeed," says Vaughan, who brings 28 years of experience to the division - most of them working as a production superintendent in the Johnstone Straights area of northern Vancouver Island.

"Two years ago, I came down to Honeymoon Bay to help them out for two weeks with the switch to mechanized harvesting, and I am still here," says Vaughan, who appears to thrive on the challenge.

Vaughan and Whiteley both credit the operation's crew for much of the success they have experienced in moving from traditional harvesting to the highly skilled mechanized process.

"We developed a mechanized group that includes about 18 hourly employees who are committed to making this work," says Whiteley. "They recognize that this program can help to provide job security at the operation and they have taken ownership of the program. For these guys, it is not just a top-down, management driven experiment."

Vaughan says for this program to be a success, it was critical for the crew and all of the staff at Honeymoon Bay to buy into it, as adjustments were required in almost every aspect of the way the operation runs. "Changes were required in engineering and we had to get the foresters involved to deal with site degradation. The accountants were also involved so that we could keep closer track of our costs. We also had to ensure our hand fallers were on side, as on some sites we use hand falling and mechanized logging in the same block. Our shop staff had to make huge changes to go from fixing logging trucks to working on circuit boards."

Training is a major component of the mechanized program with virtually all of the skill upgrading done in-house.

"We have found in-house training to be the most effective way for us to have the crew share in the success of our change to mechanized harvesting," Whiteley says. "This has required a big commitment from us and a big investment in the business. There has been a cost to that, but we are starting to see the payback," he adds, stressing the importance the camp committee has played in the training program. "We have been working extensively with the camp committee to teach as many people as we can about the business. We are all in this together for the future."

The mechanized program started when they introduced a feller buncher to the operation two years ago. Today, their mechanized equipment inventory includes a Madill feller buncher, four Madill 3800's used for loading and hoe chucking, a Madill 2850 hoe chucker, a 400 Kobelco log loader, a 690 John Deere utility hoe used for sensitive ground work, two Chapman log loaders, three assorted line loaders, two 7280 American grapple yarders, two 122 Madill grapple yarders and a recently delivered Madill HT2200B harvester equipped with a Waratah HTH624 super head.

Custom processor

The latest Madill, which was delivered in January 2001, is what Vaughan calls the "ultimate processor." Vaughan and crew members at Honeymoon Bay teamed up with Madill's engineering department in Nanaimo to modify the standard 2200B levelling processor to meet their exact needs.