Climbing fuel prices......what's a logger to do? It always seems to be a struggle, I’ve been involved in this business for just about a year and a half now, and the little pockets of time where we could sigh a sigh of relief, have been few and far between.

The Coalition to Lower Fuel Prices in Maine is making headway, hoping to find relief for loggers and truckers alike. After a successful meeting on November 17th in Lincoln, members of the Coalition have been working hard to get things accomplished. After quite a few speakers who passionately shared their struggles, a smaller group sat down and rolled up their sleeves and set to work. John Kerry who heads up the Office of Energy Independence and Security stayed to work at gathering the information to take to Governor Baldacci.

Thanks to Albert Raymond and his wife Belinda we have been able to secure a working meeting with some of the Governor's staff. We are moving in the right direction. Hopefully we can work to see what can be done to meet some of the Forest Products Industry requests to help find some relief.

Diesel gets the wood to the landing, diesel runs the cranes and slashers to cut and move the wood to the trucks, where the on road diesel takes the load to the mill, where it is processed. Hopefully we can keep the wood moving in a state where in 2002 forest based manufacturing contributed $6.9 Billion to the state's economy.

If you work in the woods, operating machinery and your company goes out of business, where do you go for a job? Some of the loggers have been in the woods their whole lives, and it is a way of life. It's not like they can move in the same industry to another company.

The Coalition has organized another meeting that will take place in Damariscotta on Saturday, December 1st at The Great Salt Bay School to begin at 9am.

Caroline Cornish, reporter from WCSH Channel 6, drenched from head to toe, stood in the middle of the woods interviewing Tom. Her cameraman Charlie was equally as wet. Getting there wasn't easy, but getting out was a whole different story.

Channel 6 called, and based on my last post, they wanted to cover the story about the rising cost of fuel, the impact it's having on the forest products industry, and the first meeting of the Coalition To Lower Fuel Prices. Since Tom is the President of the Professional Logging Contractors of Maine, they wanted to capture his views to add to their story.

When we arrived on the job, it was cloudy and damp, but the rain was holding out. So Caroline, Charlie, Tom and I headed into the woods to film the interview using the harvester as a backdrop.

It was fun, talking about logging, jumping off the trail as the skidder pulled hitches by us in it's own lumbering way. As we got closer to the whirring sound of the feller buncher, the skies started to open up. When I say "open up" I mean, "Open up WIDE".

I left my raincoat in the truck, don't know why....maybe because it was on the warmer side, but things cooled off fast. My shirt was drenched, my hair was dripping, and my jeans were clinging to my legs and caked with mud. The only part of my body that was warm and dry were my feet thanks to my RedWing Logger's Boots, unlike Caroline's black leather reporter shoes, which were collecting moisture and mud all along the way.

As we worked our way back to the landing, the danger of Caroline falling increased. I latched onto her hand so that we could both benefit from my boots.
The was an air of adventure and spirit from our new Channel 6 friends that made me think of reporters around the world. This is their job, and they love it. They have a passion for bringing the world into your living room, and like loggers they can't always get the perfect weather.

Zach came by in his skidder and rescued the camera and Caroline. So not only did she experience the elements that loggers face in the woods, but she got to ride in a skidder!

I was moved by her determination to experience the whole shoot even though she was so clearly stricken by the elements. I have never thought about what it takes to be a great reporter, but I am sure that it's that determination Caroline exhibited that would place her in that category.

We finished the story with a few shots of the crew on the landing and then it was time to bid our soggy friends goodbye.

So far the weather has been kind to us this year, but now we are being attacked by rising fuel prices!

Think of how much fuel we use on a regular basis. We run two skidders, two cranes, four tractor trailers, one service truck, one harvester and one chipper on diesel. Oh, and don’t forget one excavator and one bulldozer. I am not even going to add in all the regular gas that it takes to fuel all our company vehicles. Diesel is the lifeblood of the Forest Products industry and some of our comrades are dying a slow death. Most contracts in our industry do not have fuel adjustment procedures. We are working on some jobs where the contracts were signed a good six months to a year ago.

Some loggers are being forced to shut down, and others are bowing out gracefully. Once again we are put in yet another desperate situation.

There is a Grass Roots effort to draw attention to our situation before we are forced into a more drastic situation, where the flow of wood could come to a screeching halt!

One of our fellow Master Logger’s has sent out an appeal to all the concerned people of Maine asking them to please call some of our political leaders in an effort to capture their attention. He feels we should jump into action before it’s too late. The following is a list of numbers so that we may join the cause.

Governor Baldacci: 287-3531
Senator Susan Collins: 224-2523
Senator Olympia Snowe: 224-5344
Representative Mike Michaud: 225-6306

There has also been some talk of rallies around the state to draw attention to this desperate situation. If anyone knows of the locations of these rallies, please post them here so the word will get out.

Some of the mills are starting to help. Thanks to those who have recognized we are all in this together!