LOGGING BUSINESS DIVERSITY AMONG VIRGINIA’S PHYSIOGRAPHIC REGIONS

Surveys/Studies: logging

November 2010
www.forestresources.org/members/serpub/10-R-30.html

INTRODUCTION: There are an estimated 1,000 logging businesses in Virginia. These businesses are as diverse as the state itself in relation to employees, equipment configurations, and harvesting productivity across the state’s distinct physiographic regions. A recent survey of Virginia’s SHARP loggers provided data to quantify some of those operational differences across regions. In the summer of 2009 all current participants in Virginia’s SHARP (Sustainable Harvesting And Resource Professional) Logger program were mailed a questionnaire designed to gather information related to the characteristics of Virginia’s logging businesses.

Fig. 1: Boundaries of Virginia’s three physiographic regions, as used in the logger survey.

RESULTS: Surveys were mailed to all 1,569 current SHARP Loggers. Nine hundred twenty two surveys were returned and of those, 488 indicated that they were logging business owners. Of the business owner responses, 144 were based primarily in the mountains, 240 in the piedmont, and 82 from the coastal plain physiographic regions of the state. The remaining businesses were either primarily based outside of Virginia or did not indicate their area of operations.

Fig. 2: Average production by region in loads per week per crew.

Results indicate that the average production of logging businesses located in the mountains of Virginia is 11 loads per crew per week, while piedmont loggers produce over 22 loads per crew per week and loggers in the coastal plain produce over 32 loads per crew per week. The difference in logging productivity by region is closely tied to topography and the resulting level of mechanized felling on logging operations. In the steep mountains of western Virginia, 91% of logging business owners reported chain saw felling as their most common method for felling timber, while in the coastal plain less than 10% of logging operations most commonly use chain saws for felling.

Other key operational characteristics also varied by region. Logging businesses in the mountains reported an average of 1.05 crews per business, 1.12 in the piedmont, and an average of 1.43 crews per logging business in the coastal plain. Mountain logging businesses also had fewer workers per crew with an average of 2.8 workers per crew. Piedmont logging crews had an average of 3.3 workers per crew, and in the coastal plain each crew has an average of 4.2 workers.

Fig. 3: Percentage of businesses indicating chain saw felling as their most common felling method.

CONCLUSION: In Virginia, logging businesses tend to increase in productivity and level of mechanization from West to East. Logging businesses in the Western mountains tend to be smaller operations with lower total production and loggers in the coastal plain are more mechanized higher production operations. Loggers in the piedmont region show characteristics of both loggers in the mountains and coastal plain, but in general tend to be more like those in the coastal plain than the mountains. In addition to having higher productivity per crew, logging businesses in the East are also more likely to have more than one crew per company, as well as more personnel working on each crew.

For a copy of the full Survey summary, please contact either author.

Scott Barrett M.
SHARP Logger Program Coordinator
Virginia Tech Department of Forest Resources &
Environmental Conservation
228 Cheatham Hall (0324)
Blacksburg, VA 24061
540-231-6494
sbarrett@vt.edu

Chad Bolding, PhD
Assistant Professor, Forest Operations/Engineering
Virginia Tech Department of Forest Resources &
Environmental Conservation
228 Cheatham Hall
Blacksburg, Virginia 24061
540-231-6924
bolding@vt.edu

Reviewed by:
Rick Meyer
Appalachian/Southwide Region Manager