A Stayton logging firm was one of three named Oregon Operators of the Year for 2021 by the Oregon Board of Forestry.
All Around Logging LLC of Stayton was recognized with the Operator of the Year award for Northwest Oregon.
Owner Aaron Silbernagel was praised for helping numerous small landowners devasted by the Beachie Creek Fire in 2020.
Silbernagel helped landowners assess what timber could be salvaged after the fire, which in September 2020 burned a total of 193,000 acres in eastern Marion and Linn counties.
“Silbernagel worked not only to harvest burned trees but to find mills that would take scorched logs,” OBF officials said. “He then worked with the North Santiam Watershed Council and Marion County Soil and Water Conservation District to find native seedlings to help reforest burned areas up and down the Santiam Canyon.”
