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.

I am sure that a look of panic fell over my face, followed by question marks in the center of my eyes. Hmmm I had never given that a thought, why would I?