2025 recipients were announced in December, honored by the Oregon Board of Forestry in January, and will be recognized at the Oregon Logging Conference during the Friday Morning Forestry Talks, on February 20, 2026.
Two logging companies and a forest roadbuilder were named 2025 Operators of the Year by the Oregon Department of Forestry (ODF), and four companies and one individual have received Merit Awards from ODF.
2025 Operators of the Year
- Eastern Oregon – Boulder Ridge, LLC, Bend, OR
- Northwest Oregon – Quality Excavation, Inc., Seaside, OR
- Southwest Oregon – Weber Logging and Construction, Inc., Roseburg, OR
2025 Merit Wards
- Eastern Oregon – Jeff Maben. Mt. Vernon, OR
- Eastern Oregon – Staton Forestry, Eugene, OR
- Northwest Oregon – Emerald Valley Thinning, Inc., Philomath, OR
- Northwest Oregon – RDL Northwest, Lebanon, OR
- Southwest Oregon – Dave Wilkerson Logging, LLC, Eagle Point, OR
All were recognized for having an excellent track record of protecting natural resources and improving forest health at a level that consistently meets or exceeds requirements of the Oregon Forest Practices Act during timber harvest and other forestry work such as building roads.
The 2025 Operators of the Year and Merit award winners will be recognized at the Oregon Logging Conference, during the Friday Morning Forestry Talks seminar in the Wheeler Pavilion. The presentation will be made by Tim Moss, Forest Practices Act Coordinator, Forest Resources, ODF Salem, OR office.
All the award recipients were also recognized at the January meeting of the Oregon Board of Forestry.
Boulder Ridge, LLC Eastern Oregon 2025 Operator of the Year
A 2,000-acre thinning project on land owned by Shanda Asset Management was the project that earned Boulder Ridge Inc. the Eastern Oregon Operator of the Year award. The landowner nominated Boulder Ridge Inc. for the award and the ODF selection committee agreed the work on the thing project was “exemplary.”
The thinning site of overcrowded ponderosa pine and white fir was on the eastern slopes of the Cascades. According to the landowner’s Director of Timber Operations Aidan Myers, “The harvest was a challenge because there wasn’t capacity at the one local mill to take all the harvested logs, so Boulder had to schedule 14 different trucks heading to Gilchrist, Sisters, Culver, Christmas Valley, and as far away as Roseburg.”
Multiple benefits were realized by the thinning operations including reducing the risk of catastrophic wildfire and improving the health of the stand, by carefully removing trees infested with dwarf mistletoe, which can kill or weaken trees, and spreads more easily in crowded stands.
Quality Excavation, Inc. Northwest Oregon 2025 Operator of the Year
Replacing an undersized culvert and rebuilding the logging road over the newly installed pipe to allow private timber harvest activities beyond that point was the project that led to Quality Excavation, Inc receiving the Northwest Oregon Operator of the Year award.
The failing culvert was on the North Fork of the Necanicum River in the Coast Range. Landowner Lewis and Clark Timberlands knew the culvert would need replacing and the road upgraded to access a timber harvest planned in the Coast Range, so its timber management company, Nuveen, called on the highly experienced firm of Quality Excavating, Inc.
Quality Excavation Inc. had to divert the stream during the project through hundreds of yards of pipes and dig out the old culvert, including old growth logs that had been placed on top of the culvert. It was the company owner’s son Cole Bergeson and crew who then dug a new stream bed at the crossing, and placed a larger, extra long new culvert at an angle and level that would allow stream flow and fish passage through it. Thew the crew anchored the new culvert in place with stone that was quarried on site, building the haul road back up to grade.
“Quality Excavation did an excellent job, even hiring a bobcat to lay a natural bed of rock in the pipe to make fish passage easier,” ODF Stewardship Forester Craig Sorter said. “No sediment got in the stream during the work and now fish are able to get to habitat upstream that was previously blocked.”
Weber Logging and Construction, Inc. Southwest Oregon Operator of the Year
Successfully working under new Forest Practices Act rules requiring the protection of half a dozen stands of trees in especially steep areas at risk of landslides was the project that earned Weber Logging and Construction, Inc., the Southwest Oregon Operator of the Year award.
Leaving the trees in those stands served a variety of purposes, including protecting soils from erosion and downstream water from sediment. The trees left standing would also be available when they eventually fall over, to deliver woody debris for future fish habitat.
To leave the trees standing, Weber Logging and Construction Inc. had to setup multiple yarding sites and haul logs up to landings on the side of the road above the unit.
Noting that Weber Logging and Construction Inc. has almost 20 years of consistently excelling at protecting natural resources while harvesting in some of the most challenging situations in the region, landowner Roseburg Forest Products Logging Contract Supervisor Michael Williams said they also protected a fish-bearing stream in the unit, avoiding damage to trees in the stream buffer.
Eastern Oregon 2025 Merit Awards
Forestry consultant Jeff Maben earned the Merit Award for his work with private landowners in and around Grant County, helping them improve forest health through removal of encroaching juniper, and thinning of overcrowded ponderosa pine stands. His work increased water flow in local creeks, rejuvenated aspen groves, and reduced shade on mountain mahogany, an important source of winter browse for elk. It also reduced the risk of catastrophic wildfire.
Staton Forestry received the Merit Award for a thinning operation on the Gilchrist State Forest that included removing overcrowded lodgepole and ponderosa pine trees and brush to improve forest health by reducing drought stress among remaining trees while improving habitat for deer and elk. The thinning also protected neighboring communities from the risk of catastrophic wildfire.
Northwest Oregon 2025 Merit Awards
Emerald Valley Thinning, Inc. earned the Merit Award for harvesting on extremely steep slopes in the Coast Range using tethered logging and hand cutting to protect buffer trees along the Siuslaw River. They also succeeded in following new Forest Practice Act rules protecting trees in the harvest unit located in steep slope areas at risk of sliding.
Rick Dennis of RDL Northwest received the Merit Award for his careful planning of units to be harvested. Nominators cited how he employs multiple logging methods and different types of machinery on steep units and consistently protects stream buffers and soils from disturbance.
Southwest Oregon 2025 Merit Award
Dave Wilkerson Logging, LLC was given the Merit Award for stopping work a number of times during an especially wet spring to avoid rutting and soil damage. He was also commended for doing an excellent job of protecting young trees in the mixed-aged stand on the western slopes of the Cascades and fully protected a fish-bearing stream bordering the harvest unit.
To view videos of the 2025 Operators of the Year and Merit Award winners, visit the Oregon Department of Forestry YouTube channel.