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forest health. When adopting an active forest management strategy, biomass harvesting becomes pro-active” (www.deere.com). After timber is cut or thinned a lot of debris is left behind that has to be cleaned up before reforestation can occur. “Harvesting woody biomass from the forest can be a win-win effort,” writes Carol L. Spence for the Southeast Farm Press website with the University of Kentucky. “It can help manage pest, disease and fre issues, be used as a source of cleaner, renewable fuel and provide additional income for woodland owners.”

Biomass harvesting is also a way to make use of fre-burnt trees to supply a cleaner source of fuel to run electricity for pulp mills. By July 26, 2011 wildfres in Georgia had already burned over 342,000 acres according to the Incident Information Web (InciWeb). And the fres continue to burn. Mike and his crew have been kept busy harvesting the burnt acreage for fuel wood.

A Government Incentive program brought some people into biomass harvesting but when the money ran out, many couldn’t keep it going. “It’s a hard business to make work. You’ve got to know what you’re doing and you’ve got to

have people who know what they’re doing to work with you,” said Mike.

By 5:00 a.m. Mike is at his shop where James McGlashan, his foreman, has everything ready to go to the woods. Anyone not there gets left. McGlashan doesn’t wait around and the guys know upfront they can either come to work on time or stay home. “The work is hard,” Mike told those gathered for the session. “Some days it will be 6:30 at night before they come back in.” “This kind of work has one of the highest maintenance equipment breakdowns,” he explained and cautioned the listeners to be prepared to deal with it. The demand on the equipment requires him to need a full time employee for weekly repairs and upkeep. Jim James, who takes care of his equipment maintenance, and James McGlashan are two of the reasons why Mike’s biomass harvesting company is able to succeed.

Mike’s experiences have given him a learning curve. “I’ll never ask you to do something I wouldn’t do and what I’m asking you to do, I’ve most likely already done more times than you can imagine,” he tells his employees. If they don’t have discipline and character when they come to work for Mike, they either