Looking for a Job, Tri Cities

[Lumber_Jack]

I am newly married working in knoxville, my wife is in medical school so I would love to find a job in Johnson City, that is an awful commute . I am a Forester, I have a BS in Forest Resource Managmenet from UT and have been a Forestry Consultant for 6+ years. Let me know if anyone knows of any work in the Tri-City area

[Guest Glock23ForMe]

What does a Forestry Consultant do?

Run off all the loggers... :D

[Lumber_Jack]

haha, no we just make sure the loggers are following the law and not ripping off the landwoner. Most landowners have no idea what their timber is worth so when a logger offers $25,000 to cut they think, "wow that alot of money". But in reality that timber could be worth 2, 3, 4 times that amount. Plus we decide what gets cut on a basis of forest health and prolonged income, vs what can be made all at once. You could get $100,000 dollars for 300 acres of timber but may not get to cut there again for 100years, or you can scale back and cut less and be able to cut again in 10 years or less. Thats not to say that all Loggers are crooks because they are most certaily not, but there are a lot that are, and without a timber evaluation you dont know how to tell who is who.

BTW Lets not confuse FORESTER with HIPPIE, we are for cutting trees, we just want to have a plan!

[Guest Glock23ForMe]

All my child hood life, my father owned a Sawmill and Lumber company. We would saw upwards of 100,000 ft a week and my grandfather did it, my father did it, and now... I'm not doing it.

That's cool. I never knew someone did that..

All I know is that the Lumber/Timber industry has been crippled for a while now, and it is slowly, very slowly, creeping back to where a dollar can be made. When it was in it's rough times, no one would sell Standing Timber because 15 years ago, a logger would offer $25,000 for a lot, and they held onto it, and in the past 4 or 5 years, they called them back and said, "I wanna sell you my Timber now" and the logger would say, well, due to lumber prices it's now worth $15,000, and no one would take it because they thought it was "worth more". It's only worth what the sawmill can make a dollar on. That seems like a cool job. Honestly, if the lumber industry was still firing on all cylinders, I wouldn't be at MTSU or where I am right now. I would be at home, running a sawmill, like my father taught me how. Sometimes I think of that and it makes me sad, other times I am thankful. Maybe one day!

(P.S. You tree hugging, hippie, you.... )

[Lumber_Jack]

yeah its really too bad about how the market works sometime. We dealt with the same thing, people held on to there timber until they needed the money. It just turns out the market was so far depriciated that it wasnt worth cutting. We told lots of people unless your going to be foreclosed on, just hold out untill the market rebounds otherwise your going to lose your ivestment you've been holding onto all this time.

[Guest Glock23ForMe]

Exactly!

But China is killing the American Lumber Industry. I talked to a broker the other day, for Mullican Flooring, and he said that it was CHEAPER to ship FAS/Green Lumber from Memphis to China than from Memphis to anywhere out West. Crazy.

China is dictating it, because if our prices get too high on Red Oak or anything of value, they will just buy the cheap Water Red Oak from Russia for next to nothing and sell it as "Solid American Red Oak," when it reality it is Particle Board with Russian Water Oak Veneer on it.

[Alpha13]

cool job! good luck!