New Ways to Brighter Days - 73rd Intermountain Logging Conference

By: Mike Crouse

Several hundred loggers, foresters, and industry specialists assembled at the Mirabeau Park hotel in Spokane Valley, Washington for the 73rd annual intermountain Logging Conference (iLC), under generally sunny skies, nice because many had traveled through snow and ice to make it.

The intermountain LC has a long history of outstanding programs, and optimizing everyone’s time with a mix of technical, political, and breakout sessions.

The programs begin before the official opening of the conference with technical Sessions in the morning, moderated by Joel Doupe’ with Modern Machinery. in addition to Doupe’s presentation, others presenting were made by Jim Ferguson (Schaffer Manufacturing Co.), and Tim Kelley (PMi Sales) speaking and demonstrating the Tri-Max fire Suppression system outside following his program.

The opening ceremonies were presided over by this year’s iLC President Kyle Kerby (J.i. Morgan, inc.), who noted with some pride he was the fourth member of his company to preside over the iLC’s 73 year history.

Keynote speaker for this year’s conference was Jack Blackwell, vice President of the Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation, outlining some history on the foundation and the projects, including collaborative efforts they’re undertaking. “We need each other more than ever,” Blackwell said of collaborative efforts, “to work together, communicate and look for opportunities to promote (even) more collaborations.”

The first session on, “Collaborative Group Success Stories: how to make Win/Win a reality,” was moderated by Josh Anderson (Yaagen Bros. Lumber). the panel included Lloyd Mcgee (Nature Conservancy), Bill Higgins (idaho Forest Group), John Konzen (Lincoln County, Mt, Commissioner), and tom Crimmins, (Coeur D’Alene Forest Coalition).

Crimmins is a retired USFS forester and well seasoned in the collaborative process, and outlined a series of dos and don’ts he demonstrated with “a lesson from geese: when we work together in a community we can get further faster.”

What was particularly refreshing in Crimmins approach was in pointing out the benefits and drawbacks, what can spell success or failure in the venture. “ultimately success is sharing the task,” he said.. “Collaboration is not negotiations or compromise... it allows a group to identify common ground but it does not guarantee success.”

Friday morning’s panel, “ Equipment Management: “Purchase or Punt” was moderated by Mark Mahon tom Mahon Logging), with panelists John Rol l ins, Sean Martell, and Justin Bailey (Western States Equipment) presenting a spread sheet outlining considerations to take into account on when to buy, sell, and track the value, costs, and performance of equipment in your operation, both pre and post tax. the overall objective, beyond the number of interacting factors in any machinery, is “where’s the sweet spot between expenses, repair, and income on a machine where you consider trade/purchase on a new machine?”

Perhaps the highlight of the conference was Mark Brinkmeyer, (idaho Forest Group), speaking on the industry as a whole and ongoing efforts both with new products and regulatory changes (see From the Stump, Pg. 2 of Log Trucker May, 2011).

There were a series of break-out special sessions that afternoon, and on Saturday a session on forest Stewardship Contracting.

The iLC packs a lot into their three day session, and is very well run thanks in no small part to conference coordinator Julie Schwanz, and a hard working and dedicated board of directors who make it all possible.