October 12, 2026
By Jonzi Guill
Executive Director, Carolina Loggers Association
Every October 12, National Loggers Day recognizes the men and women who stand at the beginning of America’s forest products supply chain.
National Loggers Day was first recognized in 2022 following an industry effort led by the American Loggers Council and professional logging organizations across the country. That September, Senators Tammy Baldwin of Wisconsin and Susan Collins of Maine helped introduce a bipartisan resolution designating October 12, 2022, as National Loggers Day.
Since then, National Loggers Day has been recognized each year as an opportunity to honor America’s professional logging community. Because the Senate designation applies to a specific year, a new resolution is needed each year rather than creating a permanent federal observance.
The original resolution recognized professional loggers as the first link in America’s forest products supply chain and acknowledged the essential role they play in putting forest management plans into action.
At the center of that national effort was Scott Dane, Executive Director of the American Loggers Council. Dane became ALC Executive Director in 2021 after 17 years leading the Associated Contract Loggers & Truckers of Minnesota. When National Loggers Day was first recognized, he helped bring national attention to the men and women harvesting and transporting the renewable raw materials used in lumber, paper, energy, packaging and countless other products.
For Dane and the American Loggers Council, the day was about more than recognition. It was about giving professional loggers a stronger national voice and helping the public understand their role in sustainable forestry and the wood products economy.
Stronger Through Partnerships
The American Loggers Council was established in 1994 to give independent logging contractors and state logging associations a unified voice on issues affecting the industry.
For the Carolina Loggers Association, our partnership with the ALC connects North Carolina loggers to national conversations on transportation, workforce development, safety, public policy, timber markets and forest management.
That same spirit of partnership extends across the wood products industry.
Landowners, foresters, loggers, truck drivers, mills, equipment dealers, insurers, universities, researchers, manufacturers and trade associations all depend on one another.
Those partnerships help us improve safety, strengthen the workforce, support education and research, address transportation challenges and protect the markets that keep forestry viable.
Why Working Forests Matter
National Loggers Day also gives us an opportunity to talk about something larger: the importance of healthy working forests.
A working forest is not a forest being used up. It is a forest being managed.
Trees grow. Forests are managed. Timber is harvested. New forests are established through natural regeneration or replanting, and the cycle begins again.
Active forest management can improve forest health, encourage regeneration, create wildlife habitat, protect watersheds and help forests remain resilient to insects, disease, storms and wildfire.
But healthy forests also need healthy markets.
Timber markets give landowners an economic reason to invest in their forests and keep that land forested. Mills need reliable supplies of wood. Loggers need viable markets for the timber they harvest. Rural communities depend on the businesses and jobs created throughout that supply chain.
A strong wood products industry helps make sustainable forest management possible.
More Than a Day of Recognition
National Loggers Day recognizes one of America’s most demanding professions, but it also highlights the larger system that keeps our forests productive and our wood products industry strong.
That system depends on healthy forests, viable markets, professional loggers and strong partnerships throughout the industry.
At the Carolina Loggers Association, we are proud to stand with the American Loggers Council and our partners across the wood products community in supporting the people who keep America’s forests working.
Jonzi Guill
Executive Director
Carolina Loggers Association