Fine stick handling: Ontario logger Brent Easton may play old-timers hockey across Europe, but there's little old time or European about his logging operation. It's all mechanical, and all North American

Canadian Forest Industries, Mar 2003 by Jamieson, Scott

Hard work pays off. To see this motto in action, drop in some time on Brent Easton's select cutting operation. The mechanical logger from the eastern Ontario town of Balderson has been logging for over 18 years. He has grown from a chainsaw operator to one of the area's major producers, with a mechanical crew running almost year-round. Talking about employees or suppliers, Brent's got nothing but good things to say about anyone willing to put in a full day's work - but he expects nothing less.

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Starting Small

Brent grew up among the hills and gently sloping countryside of the scenic Ottawa Valley just 50 km from the nation's capital. After a brief stint working in carpentry and roadbuilding out west, Brent came home to start a manual logging business with his brother-in-law.

"I liked it on the chainsaw working in the woods, and I've never looked back. Me and another brother-in-law bought a skidder and started working in some nice, big, white pine, things went well, and eventually I went out on my own. I figured out pretty early that if you're willing to work hard every day in this industry, you're going to make her."

Brent is reluctant to say he's "made her," but his business has grown by leaps and bounds since hitting the bush with a chainsaw in his hands. E&S Logging currently runs 10 pieces of iron full time to handle everything from roadbuilding to hauling: Volvo Autocar (2) and Kenworth (1) logging trucks (two self-loaders with pup trailers and Rotobec loaders); a Kobelco excavator with thumb attachment and Cat D5H dozer road-building team; Cat 515 cable and 525 grapple skidders; John Deere 648G grapple skidder; Prentice FB620 self-levelling, zero tail swing buncher with Quadco hot-saw/full-tilt wrist; and a ProPac side mount slasher with Rotobec 220 loader.

Supporting this fleet is a large dual-bay service building/office, as well as three 1/2-ton pickups, all new model GMC Heavy Duty crew cabs. Brent's full-time crew of 12 is helped out on a regular basis by contract heavy mechanics, welders, and the logger's 15-year-old son Andrew, who does routine maintenance work on the weekends. It's an impressive operation built from scratch, but like many loggers, Brent keeps it in perspective.

"It has taken a long time and hard work to get here. Still, the bigger you are, the bigger the debt, so you're kept on your toes either way."

Mechanical Select Logging

Brent's growing fleet reflects a steady move to mechanical logging throughout much of the mixed-wood forests that make up the Ottawa Valley. Like similar forest zones in southern Quebec and New England, most of the harvesting done in the Ottawa Valley is select logging, with loggers removing marked trees according to Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources' (MNR) objectives. For this reason, mechanization has been slower to take hold here than in most of the softwood regions further north.

From the sawmill owner or logger's perspective, smaller removal volumes have made it harder to justify the investment in bunchers and grapple skidders, whereas MNR folk and landowners have long feared that more and bigger machines would mean more and bigger damage. Still, a growing shortage of skilled manual cutters and the need for more consistent wood volumes in the mill yards have driven mechanization in this region over the past few years.

For much of its 18 years in business, E&S Logging has logged for Herb Shaw & Sons Ltd., a family sawmill in Pembroke, ON. Brent says that both Shaw & Sons and the MNR were initially reluctant to move to bunchers and grapple skidders. Yet for the past four years E&S has been skidding bunched wood, first behind a sub-contractor's buncher, and since this past October behind their own Prentice FB620. Brent says that his crew has managed to pleasantly surprise just about everyone in terms of steady production and minimal residual damage.

Production you can bank on: Working with marked timber and broken terrain, the E&S crew limits itself to a single 10-hr/day shift, 5 days/wk. Selective cutting both hardwoods and softwoods (spruce, white pine, birch, poplar) of widely varying quality, the crew manages to cut 60 000 m[Symbol Not Transcribed]/yr on Crown land for Shaw & Sons, and another 20 000 m[Symbol Not Transcribed] on private land, which is sold to a few steady clients.

Brent cites several reasons for his crew's ability to maintain this pace year in and year out. Every effort is made to limit down-time, from thorough, regular maintenance to replacing gear before it gets too old. As well, spring breakup is limited to five or six weeks a year. Brent also credits his No. 1 client, Shaw & Sons, for organizing his work well in advance and ensuring a quick, clean move from one block to the next.

"I hear about loggers being shut down for a week here and there waiting for their next block, and Shaws are really good that way in having work fixed up way ahead of time for us. You don't have to have too many of those kind of shutdowns to see your margin disappear."