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MID-STAR TIMBER HARVESTING: 2005 NATIONAL
OUTSTANDING LOGGER
RELEASE: March 11, 2005
CONTACT: Neil Ward (301/838-9385)
nward@forestresources.org
 Rockville, MD –
The Forest Resources Association honored Mitchell and Wanda Presley,
owners of Toxey, Alabama’s Mid-Star Timber Harvesting, as the
2005 National Outstanding Logger at its March 7 Awards Dinner in New
Orleans, Louisiana. FRA Chairman Rick Frost, who had worked with Mitchell
earlier in his career, presented Mitchell and Wanda with an axe plaque and
commented, “A lot has happened in 25 years. Mitchell Presley has become
quite an entrepreneur.”
Rick also noted a generous cash award from Stihl.
Mitchell Presley accepted the award, remarking, “We’re certainly honored
to be recognized tonight and receive this award. I’d also like to thank
our dedicated employees, and my business partner and wife. We found
ourselves with an opportunity, and we took it.”
Mitchell stressed the important role Wanda has played in guiding the
business. “Both of us challenge each other and look at how we might become
stronger and more versatile.”
Mitchell Presley began his career as an employee of Scott Paper Company’s
Woodland Operations and later as a crew foreman for one of Kimberly
Clark’s Delta logging crews. In 1999, the Presleys started Mid-Star Timber
Harvesting with equipment purchased from Kimberly Clark.
Since then, Mid-Star has grown remarkably, from one crew to three
harvesting crews and one road crew, totaling nearly 50 employees. “Our
Mission,” says Mitchell, “is to be the best wood supply group in the
Southeast, through safe operations producing quality results, while
meeting customer needs and maximizing stakeholder value.”
Mid-Star Timber Harvesting has a performance rating system for monitoring
the safety and productivity of each employee. On-the-job training and
participation in Alabama’s Professional Logging Manager training program
is stressed in regular “follow-up” sessions. Specialists at MacTrain
Safety Consultants support Mid-Star’s goal of an injury-free workplace.
Mitchell and Wanda developed a written business plan for Mid-Star at the
inception of their company and continue to use and update the plan as the
business grows. The plan is very specific about the people they hire,
skills that employees must acquire, tracking employee performance, and
opportunities for employees to become stakeholders in the company.
Mitchell and Wanda both participated in the financial score-keeping
portion of the “Coaching the Professional Logger” video produced by the
Alabama Loggers Council with financial assistance from FRA’s Timber
Harvesting and Transportation Safety Foundation. The Presleys are active
in many other Alabama Forestry Association & Logger Council projects,
including Log A Load for Kids®.
FRA has honored 16 National Outstanding Loggers since establishing the
national award in 1990. Recent National Outstanding Loggers include Travis
Reed of Georgia (2000), Randy Pew of California (2001), Michigan’s Dave
and Sue Sidell (2002), Ken and Lynetta Griner of Florida (2003), and John
and Nipper Bunn in 2004. Nominees for this year’s award passed through
state-level recognition to regional award programs administered through
FRA’s Region structure. A jury of 25 national-level leaders in
forestry and conservation selects the winner.
The other nominees for this year’s National award were:
Jeffrey Boland, Boland Timber Company, Perry, Florida
Charles & Chuck Courtney, Courtney Timber Harvesting, Greenville,
Kentucky
Tom & Sherry Fox, Tree Management Plus, Ethel, Washington
Donald Hardwick, D.H. Hardwick & Sons, Antrim, New Hampshire
The
Outstanding Logger program is designed:
1) to recognize outstanding logging contractor performance;
2) to raise the visibility of competent, professional independent logging
contractors in the forestry community;
3) to encourage other independent logging contractors to emulate the
outstanding performance of the award winners; and
4) to improve forester-logger relations by publicly recognizing
outstanding logging performance as an essential element of every planned
timber harvest.
The Forest Resources Association Inc. is a nonprofit trade
association concerned with the safe, efficient, and sustainable harvest of
forest products and their transport from woods to mill. FRA represents
wood consumers, independent logging contractors, and wood dealers, as well
as businesses providing products and services to the forest resource-based
industries.
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Photo caption: “FRA Chairman Rick Frost (left) congratulates Mitchell
and Wanda Presley, owners of Mid-Star Harvesting, this year’s National
Outstanding Logger.”
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