forestryworks
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Jay's thoughts on the criticism J.M. Browning has received from their appearance on AxMen:
I did not make up the saying “Green Gold” or “Load Count” or dollar per load amounts. All jobs are different and we as a company could have done without the AXMEN series slogans.
When the cameras first started filming at the Military Green job, I was notching stumps and stringing haywire for the guylines. While working, I stopped to explain the process of setting up a big tower and gave reasons why we use them on these types of jobs. I also explained by using the tower how we can access timber on the steep grounds, stringing haywire with a helicopter so as not to disturb the reprod (in this case 3 thousand feet of 15 year old timber). I spent hours talking about sustainable forestry, replanting and thinning operations and about some of our salvage operations such as, the Nettle Buster, (a 3 million board foot sale I had bought and marketed); which never made the show.
Hampton Tree Farms and Oregon State Forestry spent days taking film crews out to watch their crews planting trees, seedling plantation and to visit 5 to 15 year old trees growing. Many hours were spent showing the commitment loggers and timberland owners have made to keep this renewable resource sustainable. The main reason for me doing the show was, hopefully, to help educate people across the country about the logging industry’s high respect for the land we log. I once said to the film crew, “We probably should be called stewards of the land, but we still like being called Loggers.”
We did not get paid to do the series. There were times it was a pain having 3 to 4 cameras rolling and people all over. The film crews were great people. Somewhere between LA and New York, though, something got lost. Every logging crew has some sort of drama, but the best crews I ever worked with, from Alaska to Oregon, had its share of comedians. In my experience the funniest crews were the best and the most productive.
I will state, I could do a better job of leading by example. My employees are well trained in all safety regulations. They do know better but they know I can be a rebel. Jesse is not proud of his whining. He has grown from the show. In life, like Janet Jackson, sometimes things slip out. You didn’t mean them too and wished they hadn’t, however; this can certainly stir things up. By the way, Jesse does have a brother named Jared. Both of my sons are a huge asset to this company.
After watching the show many people have expressed concerns, I agree with one thing, too much cussing! Many young people watch the show and some people are offended. This could be contained a little better; however, loggers cuss and that’s that.
All and all, I am very proud of my company. It has not been easy, I have worked hard and the most important thing to me is that I am honest. We pay as well as we can, provide benefits, and steady work. We have been doing pre-employment drug testing and random drug testing for 20 years. We are professionally logger trained, EMS certified (Environmental Management Systems) and SFI certified (Sustainable Forestry Initiative). I am very committed to this industry and my employees.
Many people have used newsletters and industry magazines to criticize my guys for doing Ax Men. Some people have taken down right cheap shots at us; I guarantee no one else in the logging industry does better. One comment made was we set the industry back 30 years. I say we have been behind the curve for a long time. I pay as high of wages as I can afford and provide good benefits. I cannot compete with Federal subsidized construction jobs. We also have other industry in our area the government has subsidized.
Our area has many good competitive professional logging companies; our labor pool shrinks every year. I have tried hard to show the plight of the gypo logger. For instance, a new log loader costs about $100,000.00 more than the same sized backhoe, yet in logging you end up running them for about half the hourly rate compared to construction. I used to replace log loaders every 3 years – now I’m going 5-6 years. They have doubled in price in the last 10 years. The same is true with log trucks. Has anybody bought a new yarder lately or want to pay my replacement costs? This is daily working capital so that I can pay FUEL.
I have respect for any logging company keeping his head above water and paying his crew and his bills. It is really too bad we can’t all work together more and rely on our politicians to push for more American lumber to be used to build projects like Habitat For Humanity. In addition, they could get retail stores to sell AMERICAN lumber products – we certainly grow enough trees.
Our industry needs this show to be more realistic and show the positive effects of logging. I would like to see the Dahlgren Logging Company be on the show. The Dahlgrens are an impressive logging family from Washington. They are my mentors. Although, because of this show, we now have 4 million people that respect us and now know a little more about our industry.
Respectfully,
Jay Browning
http://www.jmbrowningloggingandtrucking.com/press/letter.htm
I did not make up the saying “Green Gold” or “Load Count” or dollar per load amounts. All jobs are different and we as a company could have done without the AXMEN series slogans.
When the cameras first started filming at the Military Green job, I was notching stumps and stringing haywire for the guylines. While working, I stopped to explain the process of setting up a big tower and gave reasons why we use them on these types of jobs. I also explained by using the tower how we can access timber on the steep grounds, stringing haywire with a helicopter so as not to disturb the reprod (in this case 3 thousand feet of 15 year old timber). I spent hours talking about sustainable forestry, replanting and thinning operations and about some of our salvage operations such as, the Nettle Buster, (a 3 million board foot sale I had bought and marketed); which never made the show.
Hampton Tree Farms and Oregon State Forestry spent days taking film crews out to watch their crews planting trees, seedling plantation and to visit 5 to 15 year old trees growing. Many hours were spent showing the commitment loggers and timberland owners have made to keep this renewable resource sustainable. The main reason for me doing the show was, hopefully, to help educate people across the country about the logging industry’s high respect for the land we log. I once said to the film crew, “We probably should be called stewards of the land, but we still like being called Loggers.”
We did not get paid to do the series. There were times it was a pain having 3 to 4 cameras rolling and people all over. The film crews were great people. Somewhere between LA and New York, though, something got lost. Every logging crew has some sort of drama, but the best crews I ever worked with, from Alaska to Oregon, had its share of comedians. In my experience the funniest crews were the best and the most productive.
I will state, I could do a better job of leading by example. My employees are well trained in all safety regulations. They do know better but they know I can be a rebel. Jesse is not proud of his whining. He has grown from the show. In life, like Janet Jackson, sometimes things slip out. You didn’t mean them too and wished they hadn’t, however; this can certainly stir things up. By the way, Jesse does have a brother named Jared. Both of my sons are a huge asset to this company.
After watching the show many people have expressed concerns, I agree with one thing, too much cussing! Many young people watch the show and some people are offended. This could be contained a little better; however, loggers cuss and that’s that.
All and all, I am very proud of my company. It has not been easy, I have worked hard and the most important thing to me is that I am honest. We pay as well as we can, provide benefits, and steady work. We have been doing pre-employment drug testing and random drug testing for 20 years. We are professionally logger trained, EMS certified (Environmental Management Systems) and SFI certified (Sustainable Forestry Initiative). I am very committed to this industry and my employees.
Many people have used newsletters and industry magazines to criticize my guys for doing Ax Men. Some people have taken down right cheap shots at us; I guarantee no one else in the logging industry does better. One comment made was we set the industry back 30 years. I say we have been behind the curve for a long time. I pay as high of wages as I can afford and provide good benefits. I cannot compete with Federal subsidized construction jobs. We also have other industry in our area the government has subsidized.
Our area has many good competitive professional logging companies; our labor pool shrinks every year. I have tried hard to show the plight of the gypo logger. For instance, a new log loader costs about $100,000.00 more than the same sized backhoe, yet in logging you end up running them for about half the hourly rate compared to construction. I used to replace log loaders every 3 years – now I’m going 5-6 years. They have doubled in price in the last 10 years. The same is true with log trucks. Has anybody bought a new yarder lately or want to pay my replacement costs? This is daily working capital so that I can pay FUEL.
I have respect for any logging company keeping his head above water and paying his crew and his bills. It is really too bad we can’t all work together more and rely on our politicians to push for more American lumber to be used to build projects like Habitat For Humanity. In addition, they could get retail stores to sell AMERICAN lumber products – we certainly grow enough trees.
Our industry needs this show to be more realistic and show the positive effects of logging. I would like to see the Dahlgren Logging Company be on the show. The Dahlgrens are an impressive logging family from Washington. They are my mentors. Although, because of this show, we now have 4 million people that respect us and now know a little more about our industry.
Respectfully,
Jay Browning
http://www.jmbrowningloggingandtrucking.com/press/letter.htm
