Page 14 - Georgia Forestry - Issue 1 - Winter 2022

Fast Transition
to Virtual
Early in the pandemic, forestry pro- fessionals adapted quickly to keep operations going amid unprecedented restrictions like physical distancing, a new term for most of us.
“Before 2020, I had heard of Zoom, but I hadn’t used it much,” says Todd Mullis, vice president of operations with Forest Resource Consultants, Inc. (FRC) in Macon. FRC manages approximately two million acres of timberland from Texas to the Carolinas with just over 100 employees in 12 offices. They ramped up videoconferencing capabilities, but this limited important personal interactions with clients and stakeholders. “Especially in our business, relationships are key. It hurt some of our business development activities, like meeting with clients, or taking them to a Braves game or hunting. Most of those activities ground to a halt for about six months.”
FRC’s leadership created a plan to keep small, core staff teams working on site, with everyone else working from home, says Mullis. Huge, nearly empty offices allowed on-site workers to stay relatively safe.
“The heart of our operations are forest- ers. They’re outdoors 75% of the time. We manage property, and part of that work is supervising contractor harvesting oper- ations. We saw many instances where contract logging operations were impacted by COVID among the logging crews. Early in the pandemic, there were also many mill operations that were shut down for a period of time. Many wood-consuming facilities are still working through reduced hours at times, due to employee short- ages,” he says. “Our operations adapted, because we had to adapt.”
Continuing Education
Continued
In 2020-21, logger education programs also shifted to COVID-safe virtual formats. Georgia’s Sustainable Forestry Initiative (SFI) Implementation Com- mittee trains loggers and foresters on techniques to meet sustainable forestry initiative standards, such as responsible wood procurement, through its Georgia Master Timber Harvester Program.
About 1,500 Georgia forestry profes- sionals participate in Master Timber Harvester workshops and continuing
Andres Villegas, president and CEO of the Georgia Forestry Association, interviews Senator Raphael Warnock for the virtual Forestry in Focus event.
Stay Connected, Keep Moving
Georgia’s foresters and logging educators pivoted to virtual communications during the pandemic. Here’s what they’ve learned.
By Susan Bernstein
In every season, Georgia’s forestry industry keeps moving. Even during widespread shutdowns forced by the COVID-19 pandemic in early 2020, Georgia’s logging operations and mills stayed open to provide essential products for shipping and construction. Forestry businesses and industry agencies turned live events and training
sessions into virtual meetings.
As employees slowly return to work in offices, and in-person conferences
returned in mid-2021, forestry professionals say virtual meetings and on-demand education will remain part of the mix due to the benefits, including convenience for busy forestry professionals working across our large state.
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