Supporting the Industry
About Us
For over sixty years the Northeastern Loggers Association has published a highly respected monthly magazine that focuses exclusively on our region – The Northern Logger and Timber Processor. NELA also produces training programs, pamphlets and books, and the region’s largest exposition of forest products and tree care equipment. If you are interested in becoming a member, please click the link below.
Features
Selected articles from The Northern Logger & Timber Processor magazine.
Chuck Zimmerman: Logger and “Jack of All Trades”
When The Northern Logger caught up with Chuck Zimmerman on a damp, snowy day in early April, he was working in his shop repairing some equipment.
Zimmerman has been logging for over 20 years in north central Pennsylvania and southern New York. He has a two-year degree in Forestry from Pennsylvania College of Technology and is the owner of CZ logging out of Port Allegany, PA. He has two full-time employees and a part-time employee.
From “A Guy With a Chainsaw” to “Logger of the Year”
Don Ryder’s first date with a chainsaw was a bloody one. He was just a kid growing up just outside Boston when his dad dropped a saw from a willow tree and hit him in the face, chipping his front tooth. “I got blood all over my face,” Ryder recounted to The Northern Logger, “and a big smile.” Ryder’s father loved to burn wood. “We always had a fire,” he remembered, and firewood eventually became a way of life for him as well.
After high school, Ryder’s love of skiing drew him to New Hampshire, where he split time between weekend trips and working near Boston. He moved north full-time in the early 1980s, just as heating fuel prices doubled and many switched to burning firewood.
French Trucking Adapts to Shifting Markets
These days large trucking companies that haul almost exclusively for the logging industry are few and far between in the Northeast and Lake States. Owner-operators have
become the norm as overhead costs have skyrocketed, while larger log trucking companies have downsized or branched out into other specialties.
French Trucking, based in northern upstate New York in the town of Fine, has defied those trends. Herb French started in the business right out of high school, first hauling for his father, David.
Following in his father’s footsteps in 1995, he bought his own truck, then another, growing his business with the help of his wife, Karen.
Sign up for our newsletter!
Get all the latest industry news, event information, NELA and Northern Logger updates by signing up for our email newsletter!