June 2022
CLARKRANGE, Tennessee – The Lord’s favor has been on England Logging since its founding in 2010. That’s what owner Josh England believes. England, 37, never envisioned the day he would be using his platform as a logger to spread the gospel. In fact, there were two things he was sure of as a young man growing up on his family’s cattle farm in Sparta: he didn’t want to be a farmer and he didn’t want to be a pastor, like both his father and grandfather had been.
Inside This Issue
COVER: Tennessee’s England Logging Heeds A Higher Calling
CLARKRANGE, Tennessee – The Lord’s favor has been on England Logging since its founding in 2010. That’s what owner Josh England believes. England, 37, never envisioned the day he would be using his platform as a logger to spread the gospel. In fact, there were two things he was sure of as a young man growing up on his family’s cattle farm in Sparta: he didn’t want to be a farmer and he didn’t want to be a pastor, like both his father and grandfather had been.
Article by Patrick Dunning, Associate Editor, Southern Loggin’ Times
SOUTHERN STUMPIN': Closing Time
Famously, the last two years have been good times for wood product mills, by and large. Good for them. But does a rising tide truly lift all boats? Apparently not if the wood that built the boats came from Southern loggers. While mills might be doing better than ever, their raw material suppliers seem to be doing worse than ever.
Article by David Abbott, Managing Editor, Southern Loggin’ Times
Full Circle
BARHAMSVILLE, Virginia – Dan Hockenberger didn’t start his career with any ambition of becoming a logging contractor. His interest was in forestry, but plans change, and he wound up in logging. His company, Virginia Forest Resources LLC, is based out of the office in his home in Barhamsville, a small community in New Kent County about 17 miles eat of Williamsburg.
Article by Tim Cox
BULLETIN BOARD: Our Best Leisure Selections From Our Not-So-Sharp Minds
The Amazing Tenacity Of Trees
FROM THE BACKWOODS PEW: Words In The Woods
Article excerpted from Faith, Fur, and Forestry, Bradley Antill, author.
INDUSTRY NEWS ROUNDUP
- As We See It: Canary In The Woods
- Caterpillar Expands Engine Program
- Timber Growth In South Holding Steady For Now
- Logging Show Set For Mississippi
- Claw Announces New Sawmill Plans
MACHINES-SUPPLIES-TECHNOLOGY
- Deere Harvester IBC
- Tigercat Swing Boom
- Diamond Drum Mulcher
- TCi Forestry Dozer
Tennessee’s England Logging Heeds A Higher Calling
Article by Patrick Dunning, Associate Editor, Southern Loggin’ Times
CLARKRANGE, Tennessee – The Lord’s favor has been on England Logging since its founding in 2010. That’s what owner Josh England believes. England, 37, never envisioned the day he would be using his platform as a logger to spread the gospel. In fact, there were two things he was sure of as a young man growing up on his family’s cattle farm in Sparta: he didn’t want to be a farmer and he didn’t want to be a pastor, like both his father and grandfather had been.
England’s grandfather purchased around a 100-acre farm in 1955, harvested some of its hardwood once in 1959 and never touched it again. The extent of England’s logging experience was observing his father, Gerald England, who wasn’t a logger by trade, harvest his own timber from time to time (his dad and granddad together would eventually own about 450 combined acres of farmland and timberland). The England farm primarily cultivated and harvested burley tobacco, row crops, corn and soybeans.
After graduating high school, England worked for the Tennessee Dept. of Corrections as a vocational instructor teaching residential wiring to inmates. He had no interest in timber harvesting. Then a spring storm damaged a small section of virgin timber on the family farm in 2009, changing England’s career trajectory forever.
“We had some timber blown down in a storm and a local logger was going to come clean it up, but he never got around to it so me and my dad cleaned it ourselves,” England recalls. “It was big virgin timber probably 36 in. plus. It wasn’t but maybe 10 loads of wood but in the process of doing that a tornado came through a few miles from us about one year later and blew down nearly 90 acres that joined my father-in-law.
The gentleman who owned the adjoining property lived in North Carolina and asked England’s father-in-law if he knew someone interested in cleaning up his 90-acre tract in Crossville. England was; he went to look at the timber and struck a deal with the man.
“That was our first job,” he says. The rest is history.
The young logger is sold on Tigercat’s reliability.
Crew from left to right: Archie Newport, Josh England, Gerald England, Jacob Bouldin, Tyler King, Tanner Stephens
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