Behind the Lines - April 2016

Friday, April 8, 2016

Space did not allow Senior Staff Editor Don Stoneman to use nearly as much material as he gathered for our cover story on sustainability. Something that didn't make it into the story was an interview with Montana logger Bruce Vincent. There are strong parallels to agriculture, especially as far as animal welfare and sustainability of forests is concerned.

Vincent, a long-time logging industry spokesman, related that the logging industry was under attack by public interest groups and despite a lot of "shouting what the industry considered to be the truth," made no progress.

Loggers sat down and listened carefully, acknowledged their critics' concerns and "presented our position as part of the answer to what they believe the problem to be," Vincent says.  "The public wants three things. They want the truth, warts and all. They want the truth from someone they trust. And they want transparency; they want you to lift your skirts."

He believes that "there is a knee-jerk negative reaction by the public to 'capital I' industry. They do want to hear from a real person with their feet on the real ground." And, most critically, the mills, logging's equivalent of pork-packing plants, had to agree to buy only from loggers that took part in the sustainability initiative and spent more money to do things right.

The logging process took years and many meetings. Don't expect progress overnight in the pork industry.

And unfortunately there are no guarantees when dealing with an ever-changing marketplace. BP

ROBERT IRWIN