About Chad Stevens…
I first became involved in forest management and harvesting at the age of nine as a week-end observer, and cooking fire tender on my father Harvey’s horse logging operation. He and his brother Wilf were cutting birch veneer and cedar logs on the family farm woodlot for their sawmill business - Hilton Beach Lumber. I progressed to hands-on cutting and loading firewood week-ends at age 14 on a hardwood lot my father and uncle owned. I later took on a management role of that same lot in 1997 and continue a 63 year tradition of hardwood management to this day.
Since that time we have expanded our wood-lot ownership to 650 acres and participate in the management of several hundred more for family and clients. Our equipment selection has evolved from horses and chainsaws, to a line skidder and forwarder combination still carefully hand felling with chainsaws. I am also an experienced mechanical harvester and forwarder operator trained to state of the art Scandic standards, having worked locally as well as in the Timmins, Ontario region, Alberta and British Columbia. I also have further advanced training with tickets for operating excavators, backhoes, bulldozers, and graders and common core training for forestry road construction.
Over the years I took the initiative to take a professional grade training course in log scaling and received top marks. I further studied hardwood scaling and grading informally with mentor-ship from my log buyer of 23 years Mark Bishop of M.B. Hardwoods and also with another family friend, Superior Veneer Mill owner and log scaler the late Ted McCaig.
I self-studied hardwood tree marking and management by reading the Ontario ministry of natural resources guidelines and material from various North American and European sources. I have become adept at identifying various diseases and defects affecting the health of timberstands. Over the last 23 years I have aspired to a conservation based management and harvesting system. Continual hands-on experience in the entire process including property acquisition, working with surveyors on property lines, timber cruising, stand marking, road planning and construction coupled with harvesting and market knowledge has provided extensive experience to reflect upon.
Specializing in hardwood management and harvesting with the goal of promoting the long-term health and growth of the stand and a continuous canopy we use a low impact hand felling and wheeled equipment system in
the Scandic cut-to-length tradition. We also continue an equally long-standing tradition in the northern white cedar market, with many years of harvest management, milling, and grading on our own operations we have also supplied many of the mills in our region.
Our equipment and extraction system involves minimal skidding, rutting and stem damage to the residual stand with wood grappled and carried out clean on a forwarder to roadside. The harvest is set-up carefully with the property boundaries well marked. Truck roads, landings and “tote” trails for the hauling of wood are planned to be efficient, trouble free, and aesthetically pleasing.
They are also designed to ensure continual and easy access for storm clean- up, recreational vehicle use and successive harvests. Some of our extraction systems incorporate original pioneer and logging roads in use for over 150 years. If formal documentation is desired we can also arrange certified “woodlot management plans” at the clients request.
Timber stands are marked prior to harvest with care to select not only trees that are prime for harvest but with attention to remove those that are less commercially valuable due to poor form, storm damage or rot. Key trees with the best potential for future growth and quality will be reserved and allowed space to flourish insuring profitable and sustained successive harvests. Trees with mast or features important for wildlife are also reserved space often on slopes, near wet-lands or opening edges important for controlling light.
Employees are carefully selected, mentored and indoctrinated in our system - with a priority to work safely, cause minimal damage, and to have an eye for promoting growth and quality, and optimum use of the resource. Working alongside others in forestry creates strong family orientated bonds and deep friendships lasting generations among fellow workers, associates and clients alike.
Stevens Sustainable Forestry is pleased to offer it’s services to the St.Joseph Island community and area. Please contact me about your project.