Only in Newfoundland
An inhospitable climate, vast distances and small trees are all in a day’s work for loggers in Canada’s most easterly province.
by Bill Tice
It’s an overcast morning in early June and the temperature display on the dash of Alvin Stuckless’ pickup reads just 2 C. “Welcome to Newfoundland,” says the longtime logger, not making any excuse for the weather, but noting, “summer here is short,” with just a hint of a smile that tells you he is amused by sharing a cool day with a non-Newfoundlander.
For Stuckless, the weather is the least of his concerns. It makes for a good topic of conversation on the ride out to the block, but more important things are on his mind, such as finding decent wood, and when he does find it, getting it to the production facilities. “We can be dealing with some big distances between the wood and the plants in this province,” he explains.
The block we are heading to is a good example. It’s a couple of hours west of Gander, Nfld., but the mill the logs are destined for is Sexton Lumber, which is a stud mill located almost two hours southeast of Gander in Bloomfield, Nfld.
Stuckless, who owns Glenwood, Nfld.-based Stuckless & Stuckless Inc. with his brother Seth, is working closely with Sexton’s own in-house logging crew in this area, although each company looks after a separate block and has its own gear and crews. The wood in this area is part of Sexton Lumber’s wood allocation from the Government of Newfoundland and Labrador. But there is simply too much to be done here in a limited window for Sexton’s own in-house crew, which is limited by size and equipment. To make sure they get all of the wood they need within the limited time frame available to them, Sexton Lumber contracts part of the work to Stuckless & Stuckless, which is their main contractor.
Diversifying
With all of the fibre supply changes happening in the Newfoundland wood products business, and in particular the uncertainty in fibre supply created by the shutdown of the Abitibi paper mill, Alvin says they have made major efforts to diversify the company while remaining as an independent contractor. Today, Stuckless & Stuckless employs 45 people for most of the year. That includes two mechanics and a welder in the company’s three-bay shop in Glenwood, three additional field mechanics, Alvin’s daughter Tammy Hanlon and Seth’s daughter Jennifer Shea, who both work in the office. Alvin’s son, Jeff, also works with the company on the construction side and Alvin says they have an operations manager, Robin Stoyles, who handles the day-to-day activities of both logging crews.
Alvin adds that the mechanics are kept busy year-round, as he is a strong believer in extending machine life through proper maintenance. “We have two harvesters with over 30,000 hours on each of them and they are running every day,” he notes when talking about maintenance and repairs.
As for diversifying, Alvin says they are moving to more road building and construction, including bridge building and the decommissioning of some roads. “Our goal is to have about 50% of our business focus on construction,” he explains. “We don’t want to put all of our eggs in one basket and even on the construction side, we are doing mainly logging roads, but last year we also decommissioned a bridge for the provincial Department of Transport and we decommissioned five kilometres of road for federal fisheries.”
Typically, Alvin says they will build 50 to 80 kilometres of road annually and have been constructing eight to 10 bridges per year, mainly on logging roads and up to 150 ft. in length. The bridges are generally brought in on a float and then assembled on site, a procedure that Alvin says will normally take 2 to 8 weeks, depending on the size.
Crews and Gear
On the logging side, Stuckless & Stuckless is currently running two sides, the one we are heading out to visit for Sexton Lumber, and a second side that works for Cottlesisland Lumber in Cottlesisland, Nfld., which is a sawmill and value added lumber producer.
For the crew that is harvesting for Sexton, Alvin says they run mainly John Deere equipment, including a 1070 wheeled harvester with a Timberjack 754 harvester head, three 1270 wheeled harvesters, two of which have Timberjack 758 heads and one which has a Timberjack 762 head, and a Timberjack 608 tracked carrier with a Timberjack 762 head. A Timberjack 1410 forwarder, a John Deere 1210 forwarder and a John Deere 200 with a grapple log loader round out the main gear used by Stuckless & Stuckless’ first crew.
The other Stuckless & Stuckless crew is running a Timberjack 608 tracked harvester with a 762 head and two John Deere 1270 wheeled harvesters with 762 heads. For forwarders, they have a Valmet 860 and a Rottne 12- tonne model.
As for road building, Stuckless & Stuckless runs one crew, which in addition to building roads, does grading in the summer and handles snow clearing in the winter. For equipment, they have seven excavators, including three John Deere 200s, a John Deere 892, a John Deere 270, a John Deere 240 and a Caterpillar 320. They also have a John Deere 750 dozer, and this year they purchased a John Deere 770 grader. An in-house float truck is used to move equipment around, but Alvin says they have to contract out some of the equipment moving.
Sexton Logging
For Ted Russell, woods foreman for Sexton Lumber’s logging department, working with a company such as Stuckless & Stuckless is key to keeping the mill’s log supply where it should be. With his limited crew of seven, including himself and Cliff Briffett, who looks after planning, permitting, logistics, and environmental and sustainability issues, Russell says they just can’t do it all themselves. “We will do about 60,000 cubic metres per year with our own crew, but we need 185,000 cubic metres to keep the mill running,” he explains.
Russell is a natural for the job, as he says he “grew up in the mill,” starting there part time as soon as he was old enough. His stepdad is Kevin Sexton, who owns the mill with Russell’s mom, Susan Sexton, but most importantly, he says his familiarity with the mill and its fibre supply means he knows just how important it is to keep the wood flowing. He also says the addition of Cliff Briffett was a good move. Briffett came out of retirement last year to join Sexton Lumber, but he is no stranger to the company and its wood supply, as he has spent 33 years on what he jokingly calls “the other side,” working in Newfoundland’s woods as a forest technician for the province’s Department of Natural Resources. “I was having to work with these guys on their permits and cut blocks, but now I’m on their team,” he says with a smile. With his background, he knows how to keep the logging crews on the right side of the regulations, and he is well versed in keeping the logs moving while keeping the costs down.
“I handle a lot of the paperwork and the permits,” notes Briffett. “But, I also look at ways to minimize moving, as every time you move equipment, it costs you time and money. Minimizing the cost is all in the logistics.”
Sexton Iron
The Sexton crew runs just one side on one shift, five days a week. For gear, they have a Timberking (now Cat) 711 with a Waratah 616 head for processing, but Russell says they can also use it for harvesting. They also run a second Timberking, a 721 feller buncher with a GNRoy head. The other main machine they use is a Volvo 240, equipped with a Quadco head. For moving the felled wood, they have a Timberking 458 fowarder and a Rottne 12-tonne forwarder they picked up this year. “We had heard some good things about the Rottne from other loggers and it was a competitive price, so we decided to give it a go,” notes Russell when asked about the new iron. “It seems like it is still a good time to buy equipment,” he adds.
One of the biggest challenges for Russell and Briffett is the sorts. Much of the wood in Newfoundland is small. For the Sexton Lumber mill, they are looking for a minimum of a 3 to 3.5 in. top with an average log size of 5 to 6 in. Anything over 12 in. is too large for the Sexton mill, but they will generally still bring it into the log yard and then resell it on the market. Anything smaller than the minimum or with defects is sorted out at roadside. Russell says when they have enough piled up, they will bring in a truck and ship it to Corner Brook Pulp and Paper. “Basically, we are looking at the straightness of the stick and the size,” he says. “We don’t want to be sorting logs at the mill. We want to do that in the woods.”
As a loaded logging truck starts to move out of the block for the almost four hour drive to the Sexton mill and I get ready to head back to the paved road for the long drive to St. John’s, it’s a little past noon and one of the guys checks the temperature. “Hey, we’re up to 4 degrees,” he proclaims with some enthusiasm in his voice. “It must be summer.”
Only in Newfoundland.
