Two things seemed to be on everybody’s mind: the heat, and woody biomass. The Childs logging family from Georgetown, Tenn. was somewhat typical of the crowd, as brothers Tim and David, their father, mother and other family members departed their home at 3 a.m. and drove straight to the show site. Currently running two crews and producing pulpwood and logs, the Childs were scoping out the abundance of chipping machinery, thinking in terms of cleaning up the hardwood tops following their jobs.
DeWayne Oakley of Florence, Ala., who started up a chipping crew last year, to go along with several logging crews, was thinking about buying a grinder for his Oakley Biomass operation. Oakley said the momentum of the wood bioenergy industry in the past two years is “one of the best things that’s happened in the timber industry,” providing possible new markets for loggers and because “the landowner is happier because he’s getting a better, cleaner job that we can give him.”