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Johnson Forest Management of Red Creek, New York

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Johnson Forest Management of Red Creek, New York he small town of Red Creek, New York, lies just south of Lake Ontario in the Finger Lakes region of the state. TThe town might be named for the color of the water that flows in Red Creek – a mineral red hue, the result of iron ore in the waterbed. According to local lore, however, the name might also come from an old tannery that polluted the local water supply with red dye. Today, Red Creek is a town of about 500 people, many of whose families have lived there since the tannery days. Among those multi-generational residents are the Johnson family of Johnson Forest Management: Tom Johnson, Trevor Johnson, and Dustin Johnson. LAKE “We grow the nicest hard maple in the world in the Finger Lakes,” said Tom Johnson, who has logged around Red Creek for the past 40 years. “My grandfather and dad practiced forest management before anybody even thought about it. They always set people up on a 10-year rotation; they’d go in and harvest the stuff that was ready and then, 10 years later, go back and cut it again.” As a young man, Johnson watched his dad ONTARIO manage the forest to grow healthy trees, returning to woodlots four or five times over the years. Johnson prides himself in good forest management, as well. “Hard maple keeps growing, and we try to look toward the future for landowners and ourselves,” said Johnson. Tom Johnson got his start logging in 1979, fifty years after his LOGGING grandfather, Ed Johnson, started the family logging business with a crosscut saw, a T-20 International Crawler Tractor, a log truck, and a 1937 Ford. Johnson’s father, in turn, entered the business when he was only 15 years old and worked until he JOHNSON passed in 2002, when Tom took over the business. When the time came, Johnson was prepared; he had been working in the woods almost since he could remember. “It was all my dad could do to keep me in school,” said Johnson, “and I started working for him full time right after I graduated. I wanted to work FOREST that bad. I’ve been doing it ever since.” Johnson Forest Management works predominantly on small parcels (“If we get a 100- or 200-acre parcel that is kind of huge for us,” said Johnson). Three quarters of their standing timber sales MANAGEMENT are repeat work, and they average 20 loads a week in decent weather. They buy their own stumpage and mostly work on private sales. And they’ve come a long way since the days of the crosscut saw and T-20 tractor: today, Johnson Forest Management runs a John Deere cable skidder and grapple skidder, two bulldozers, OF RED CREEK, and a 2017 TimberPro feller-buncher. They have two employees and are considering opening up a new shop in the coming years to accommodate their growing business. “The feller-buncher has changed the game for us in the past NEW YORK few years,” said Tom. “We went with it for two main reasons: first, safety. We don’t really have the ash borer here yet, but when we BY EILEEN TOWNSEND do there’s going to be so much more dead wood in the woods. Second, our climate is changing, and you seem to get more rainy days in the summertime. Winters aren’t as cold as they used to be. When conditions are right, you have to move the timber fast.” Johnson felt strongly that when his son, Trevor, and his nephew, Dustin, joined the family business (in 2013 and 2010, Howard Johnson’s 1945 Ford and 1989 Ford bought by Ed and Tom respectively), they should operate in the safest way possible. Johnson, respectively. 8 THE NORTHERN LOGGER | APRIL 2021 THE NORTHERN LOGGER | APRIL 2021 9 Above: Johnson Forest Management’s current log truck is a 2015 international, seen here loaded with Hard Maple in Sodus NY. Below: A Barko log loader and CSI slasher cutting logs to length and a pair of John Deere skidders. At right: Trevor Johnson harvesting timber. 10 THE NORTHERN LOGGER | APRIL 2021 When asked about the biggest change he has seen in his career, Tom replied that he is amazed at the cost of equipment. “When I started, a new skidder was $60,000, and now they’re $260,000,” said Johnson. “That’s a big difference. I feel sorry for anybody that is not in the logging business and wants to get started in it; you have to have a lot of money. These boys and I had something to get started from previous generations.” Johnson has also observed a lot of change in the markets in his region: “Grandpa always sold to one sawmill,” said Johnson. “Now we’re dealing with a lot of different buyers. We deal with seven or eight sawmills at a time and do a lot with the Amish. When I started, there was a saw log market, a pallet market, and a firewood market. Now on our landings we have so many different sorts: Veneer, saw log, hardwood pallets, softwood pallets, matt logs, firewood. We try to maximize the woodlot for the landowner.” As for navigating relationships with landowners, Johnson credits his father with teaching him the lay of the land. From the time Johnson was 16 years old, the elder Johnson would take him to buy woodlots. The family has always worked on handshake deals. “I ask them if they want a contract and if we’ve dealt with them before, they say it is not necessary. That makes you feel good,” said Johnson. “We’ve never had to travel more than 50 miles to cut timber and rarely over 25-30 miles. We’re only five miles from Lake Ontario so we can’t go too far north, or we run into water.” Like his father before him, Tom Johnson raised his son, Trevor, in the woods. His nephew, Dustin, also grew up working alongside Tom. “By the time I was in middle school, I knew all my trees just from the time I spent walking through the woods,” said Trevor. “When I was a kid, my dad would always teach me how to shake people’s hands when we would go meet landowners.” Dustin echoed Trevor’s sentiment: “It helped on the book end of things also, to be able to look over Tom’s shoulder and keep things consistent there. We’ve learned a lot about running a business.” Both Trevor and Dustin made the decision to attend Paul Smith’s College in the Adirondacks rather than start work immediately out of high school. They still worked summers, but both say the education at Paul Smith’s was worth it. Tom put pressure on both of the boys to get four-year degrees. Said the elder Johnson, “When Trevor was a senior, he told me he was coming right to work and I said, ‘No, you’re going to college. You’re going to get out of this area and see what other parts of the country are all about.’ And it worked out. He met his wife there!” Now Tom’s goal is to shepherd the family business to the next generation. That means continuing their business’s combination of hard work, responsibility, and good forest management. When Dustin and Trevor finished school and joined the business, Tom made them partners. “They showed an interest in it and showed that they wanted to make the business grow, so I made them equal partners along with myself. They had a vested interest in it, in moving it along into the next generation. I’m proud of them. Nine times out of ten, a landowner will come out and make a special point to say ‘You know what, you’ve got two nice young men.’ That means more to me than anything else.” NL THE NORTHERN LOGGER | APRIL 2021 11.
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