Case study of three high-performing contract loggers with distinct harvest systems: Are they thriving, striving, or just surviving?

This article focuses on the narrow margins faced by contract loggers under various harvest systems in the forest products supply chain of the northeastern United States. Contract logging firms conduct a majority of the harvesting across the various forest cover types of the region-from spruce-fir to white pine to northern hardwoods-supplying sawlogs, pulpwood, chipwood, and firewood to various markets. Over the past few decades, performance expectations have increased owing to the expansion of harvesting regulations, including best management practices, and the adoption of forest and logger certification programs. These rising expectations have corresponded with increasing logging costs, resulting in narrowing margins for contract loggers. Using results from a recent logger case study, we examine operating margins for three harvest systems under varying terrain, harvest levels, and systems configurations. Results suggest that across all harvest systems, there is a fine line between just making a living (striving), succeeding and growing (thriving), and only partially covering costs while losing equity to uncompensated depreciation (surviving).