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Timber thinning grows in importance Photo from AP In less than one minute, Dave Conklin of Timber Resource Management processes a newly cut Douglas fir into several 15-foot logs in the woods east of Astoria. Modern machinery stirs forestry market By MARK HINES The Associated Prses ASTORIA -- The machine rolls through the forest, popping trees out of the ground like toothpicks. It extends its hydraulic arm and clutches the trees tightly as an automated chain saw tears through the trunk. Flipping the tree on its side, grappling arms strip away the limbs and bark before the saw quickly cuts the trunk into 16-foot lengths. A living, standing Douglas fir is converted into logs in just seconds. Dave Conklin sits comfortably in the cockpit, listening to Fleetwood Mac. He presses buttons and reads digital readouts, available in seven languages, on monitors while three computers run the high-tech machine, known as a single-grip harvester. The modern machine has turned what used to be one of the most dangerous professions known to man into an industry comparable in danger to working in a warehouse, Conklin points out. Oregon insurance companies are now offering comparable health insurance rates for both industries, he said. Commercial thinning operations in state forests like this one are becoming more profitable as logging has become restricted on most federal lands in Oregon, Conklin said. "Small wood is worth something now, when 10 to 15 years ago people wouldn't touch it with the glut of federal land," he said. Many mills have retooled for cutting smaller trees. Thinning is becoming more common in state forests, where managers are attempting to create more diverse forests with improved wildlife habitat. Smaller, weaker trees are cleared so the healthiest can grow larger and faster. Improved technology enables companies to thin stands with minimal harm to the remaining trees and forest floor, while operating efficiently enough to make a profit, operators say. The 500-acre Mill Creek site where Conklin is working is the first place the single-grip harvester has been used in the Clatsop State Forest. The machine, developed in Finland and Sweden, has seen a big increase in use in the past decade. Dave and his father, Dick Conklin, run Timber Resource Management of Portland. The father-and-son team has invested $450,000 in the harvester, and $330,000 in the forwarder in anticipation of increased opportunities for commercial thinning. A whole stand of trees is transformed into an orderly log pile in minutes as the Conklins' machine eases through the forest. Conklin can drop and cut 250 to 400 trees a day while protecting the remaining trees and ground cover. The machine strips trees at a rate of 16 feet per second, pumping out 1,200 to 1,550 logs a day. The machines have enabled the Conklins to work through the winter, when traditional operations often shut down to reduce impacts to the land during the wettest months. During cold months, Conklin, who commutes from Portland every morning, can program the machine to start while he is still out on U.S. Highway 30, so the engine and cab are warm when he arrives, ready to roll. The Conklins, who own the only Northwest Oregon company with the equipment, were subcontracted by D & R Johnson Logging, a southern Oregon company that was the only bidder on the state timber sale. D & R Johnson is hauling the logs 280 miles to its mill in Riddle, where the wood is used to make studs. Tom Varley, timber manager at D & R Johnson, said companies have been forced to hunt far and wide -- and cut smaller trees -- to survive as federal lands managed by the U.S. Forest Service and Bureau of Land Management have been placed off-limits or become embroiled in court battles. The decline in logging on federal lands, and a slump in timber markets, drove Oregon harvests in 1998 down to the lowest levels since 1926. That is a 13-percent decline from 1997, and a more than 50-percent drop from a decade ago, according to state Department of Forestry statistics. D & R Johnson, which owns five mills in southern and central Oregon, hauls logs from as far away as British Columbia and Susanville, Calif. But thinning is an economically marginal endeavor, Varley said. The contract would not have been worthwhile if it had not included some clearcutting as well. But better technology helps make thinning worth the effort, he said. "Until all these court injunctions and things are worked out, they just aren't selling much timber, so we have to reach out," Varley said. Today's Business Index Mail Tribune Copyright � The Mail Tribune 1999, Medford, Oregon USA