West Virginia logger characteristics

West Virginia licensed loggers were surveyed in 2001 and 2002 regarding their business, operational, and personal characteristics. They were also asked to rate their educational preferences from a supplied list of topics. An initial survey was mailed out in 2001 and a more intensive follow-up survey was mailed out to 1,055 licensed loggers in 2002. The survey was directed toward owners since West Virginia logging businesses must be licensed by law. In 2002, the total response rate was 10.2 percent with 6.2 percent submitting completed usable surveys. Results indicated that independent loggers of West Virginia averaged 47.8 years old with an average of 17.8 years in the logging business. The firm size was between 1 and 80 employees with an average of 8 employees. A firm of average size harvested 10 tracts with a weekly production of 51.8 thousand board feet (MBF) and a unit cost of ?116.6/MBF.