Page 10 - Georgia Forestry - Summer 2019

“ It takes more than trees and money to make a successful business.”
infrastructure in that regard in the South. But as the business ramps up, both on log trucking and on transporting finished product and other products from the mill, you need more capacity on the trucking side of things. That’s an area where we’re spending lots of time and effort working on that. I think it’s really important to recognize that, as we produce these prod- ucts, we have to move them to market, and the market often isn’t just down the street. So efficient transportation is a really big piece of the puzzle to be suc- cessful and break down the limitations on that. But a lot of effort is going into addressing those constraints. And I think
that’s positive.
GEORGIA FORESTRY MAGAZINE:
It sounds like you’re really optimistic and hopeful about the future growth of the industry in the Southeast.
DAVIES: Well, I wouldn’t be investing the kind of money we’re investing if we weren’t hopeful and optimistic about the future. This is a place we can invest and operate successfully.
GEORGIA FORESTRY MAGAZINE:
You’ve talked about the fair business climate and opportunities ahead for the forestry industry in our region. What are some challenges facing continued investment in the Southeast?
DAVIES: Well, I guess there’s a couple of things. The availability of labor, particularly skilled trades, is becoming a challenge, especially in an environment where the economy is improving and unemployment rates are dropping. It takes more than trees and money to make a successful business. The stability inside the employment base is a really, really important consideration. And as you’re moving to advanced levels of technology, that becomes a challenge.
We’ve done a bunch of work on the type of people we’re hiring, how much
we’re paying them, the kinds of working conditions that we’re asking people to work in.
We’ve also created our own train- ing and apprenticeship programs. So we’re growing our skilled trades. It’s something we felt was necessary in the Southeast, and we’ve seen some pretty significant gains being made, both from a turnover standpoint and from a skillset standpoint.
The other concern is transportation and logistics. As the North Ameri- can economy grows and production moves from some of the traditional supply regions, more of the product is going to move by rail, which brings some additional challenges to the business. More is going to be shipped overseas, which means more access to ports. Fortunately, there’s very good
GIVING FORESTERS AND LANDOWNERS MORE TIME TOGETHER
The American Tree Farm System is a program of the American Forest Foundation.
Spending time with a landowner is one of the best ways a forester can help them achieve their goals around wildlife, water, wood and recreation. But for foresters, time is hard to come by.
THE AMERICAN FOREST FOUNDATION (AFF) works with partners to create new tools for foresters that save time, helping them to focus on what matters most: SPENDING TIME WITH LANDOWNERS.
• A NEW OUTREACH PROGRAM connecting more landowners with foresters, and saving steps in reaching conservation goals
• A NEW APPROACH TO MANAGEMENT PLANS,
the Landscape Management Plan that significantly reduces process time, giving foresters more time in the field with landowners
• A NEW ONLINE TOOL FOR DATA COLLECTION reducing paperwork, expediting the American Tree Farm System certification process and getting to certified fiber faster
LEARN MORE AT: www.forestfoundation.org/growGeorgia
8 | GEORGIA FORESTRY
American Forest Foundation