PLC Mission:
Promote logging as a profession, advocate for logging professionals, cultivate responsible forest management, promote safe working practices and sustain a strong forest products industry. Innovative and creative, and are always developing new ways to overcome obstacles.
PLC Vision:
The Northeast’s loggers are well qualified to meet future challenges. They have a tremendous work ethic, a diverse set of skills, many years of experience, exceptional problem-solving abilities, perseverance; are innovative and creative, and are always developing new ways to overcome obstacles. Although many challenges lie ahead, the future is bright for the Northeast’s highly adaptive, talented and evolving logging industry. A unified PLC will work to sustain timber, wood, and fiber production as a core of the region’s economy; promote safe working conditions; provide stable, well-paying forest products employment; supports recreation and tourism; protects air and water quality; and maintains wildlife and plant habitats within its forest.
PLC Story:
Since 1995, the PLC has been the voice of the logging industry in Maine, and in 2023, the organization expanded to represent timber harvesting and hauling businesses across the Northeast. The PLC is the region’s only regional non-profit educational organization which exists to give independent logging contractors and sole proprietors a voice in the rapidly changing forest industry. The Board of Directors is made up entirely of loggers, making the PLC a logging organization that is run by loggers for loggers.
From the outset, PLC has focused on logger advocacy, safety, quality operations and business innovation. Members realize that harvesting is more than just cutting trees. They are highly skilled business professionals and are an integral part of the region’s economic engine. Members do their best in the woods and are committed to excellence in the logging industry, “Professional Loggers”.
The PLC of the Northeast partners with the American Loggers Council (ALC) and other like minded organizations to ADVOCATE in Augusta, Montpelier and Washington DC. COMMUNICATE the message that logging is good for everyone. Harvesting trees provides jobs for millions of Americans and working forests are essential for a healthy environment, providing clean air, clean water, and wildlife habitat. CULTIVATE relationships in the business community to provide members with a competitive edge. INNOVATE by helping Members create opportunities to position them competitively in the marketplace and COLLABORATE to work with other forest industry groups on issues where we agree, but standing strong for loggers when we don’t.
In 2000, the PLC created the Master Logger Certification Program® (MLCP) as the first in the world point-of-harvest certification program, offering independent third-party certification of logging companies’ harvesting practices. Since then, the program has grown steadily and there are now more than 140 Master Logger Certified companies in the Northeast. The PLC is also a founding member of the ALC and works with the ALC at the federal level on national policy. This includes increasing the weight limit on I-95 north of Augusta to 100,000 pounds. In Maine, the PLC has been responsible for giving loggers tax exempt status for parts & equipment and for securing funding for the state’s first post-secondary mechanized harvest operator training program.