A Blodgett-based company will be among those recognized next month by the Oregon Department of Forestry.
Greg Johnson Logging earned a merit award from the Northwest Oregon Regional Forest Practices Committee for a commercial thinning and harvest operation along the McKenzie River.
The operation addressed forest health issues, hazard tree removal and what is known as a “Plan for an Alternate Practice” in as close alignment as possible with Forest Practices Act vegetation retention rules and streambank management.
Criteria for the award nomination included consistency of the operator, difficulty of the operation, innovation or extra effort required and results.
The 2020 Operator of the Year awards will go to C&C Logging of Kelso, Washington (Northwest); D&H Logging of Coos Bay (Southwest); and Darrell Jacobs Trucking of Klamath Falls (Eastern).
Regional Forest Practices committees select the operators of the year and merit award recipients from among nominees sent in by landowners, Oregon Department of Forestry staff and others.
“Oregonians and people nationwide are counting on forest operators to provide the wood products we all need and use in our daily lives,” Private Forests Division Chief Kyle Abraham said in a press release. “We also count on them while harvesting to protect the soil and water in those forests as well as habitat for threatened and endangered species.
“These operators have shown an outstanding ability to do both while meeting landowner objectives,” Abraham added. “We’re pleased to recognize the leadership they show in exercising extraordinary care and diligence during even the most challenging harvest operations.”
Award recipients will be honored virtually at the Oregon Board of Forestry’s Jan. 6 meeting in Salem.
Videos about each of the three Operator of the Year award recipients can be viewed on the ODF website. Information on each operation can be found in a nomination packet that had been prepared for the Board of Forestry.