Selected
Article:
Anderson-Tully
of Vicksburg: Managing majority of timberland in the Mississippi
Delta
Company
has become a national leader
By Ken Wilbanks
Since
its 1889 founding in Benton Harbor, Mich., to produce wooden
shipping crates for fruits and vegetables, Anderson-Tully
has grown into one of the largest hardwood lumber and veneer
producers in the United States.
Based in Vicksburg and Memphis, Anderson-Tully is one of
three timber Real Estate Investment Trusts (REIT) in the
United States and the only REIT dedicated to the management
of hardwood timberlands. The company owns and manages approximately
300,000 acres of hardwood timberland along the Mississippi
River to produce much of the hardwood timber it uses to
produce high-quality lumber in addition to engineered wood
products.
“We’ve got a good amount of land along the Mississippi
River,” says company Wildlife Manager Mike Staten.
“Anderson-Tully has been acquiring land for over 100
years” in Tennessee, Mississippi, Arkansas and Louisiana.
“Our forests are managed by 18 professional foresters
and three biologists,” Staten says. “We grow
it and have it cut. Most of the logs are hauled by barge
on the Mississippi River to the mills in Vicksburg.”
One of Vicksburg’s largest employers with 500 employees,
Anderson-Tully is one of only a handful of companies able
to cut timber on a sustained-yield basis on company-owned
land. Staten says the company is able to sustain its rate
of production on a year-round basis through replanting and
careful stewardship of the land. All land is managed for
optimal utilization, he says.
In 2000, Anderson-Tully became the first Southeastern U.S.
timberland company to earn Forest Stewardship Council Certification
for all its lands. The Forest Stewardship Council is the
internationally recognized body that sets certification
principles and criteria.
Now in its fourth generation of operation, Anderson-Tully
shifted its emphasis over the years from the container business
to hardwood lumber. The Vicksburg facility consists of two
double band mill sawmills, 24 dry kilns, a large veneer
mill, a planer mill and a four-position inspection and sorting
area.
Because of its fertile alluvial soils in the Delta areas,
the rich Loess soils in the surrounding hills and its ideal
growing conditions, the Vicksburg site is uniquely situated
to supply the finest Ash, Hackberry, Cypress, Cottonwood,
Willow, Sycamore, Pecan and other lowland species along
with Oak, Poplar, Gum and the other highland species equal
to any in the world. Aside from producing “furniture
of all kinds,” Staten says Anderson-Tully products
include flooring, paneling and cabinet stock.
“A lot of it is sold here in the United States, and
there’s a pretty good international market as well,”
says Staten, referring to China, Europe and central Asia.
To serve this increasing number of international customers,
Anderson-Tully de Mexico opened in 2001 in the heart of
Mexico City.
After operating briefly in Benton Harbor, following its
formation by a group of six lumber entrepreneurs, Anderson-Tully
relocated to Vicksburg due to its long growing season, proximity
to huge tracts of undisturbed timber and the location at
an intersection of the Mississippi River and a major rail
and highway crossing. Memphis became home to the management
offices and the company headquarters.
Anderson-Tully began acquiring timberland along the Mississippi
River and lower Arkansas River bottomlands in 1898. The
first band mill was constructed and lumber production began
in the 1900s, and the company entered the plywood construction
business in the 1930s. Anderson-Tully entered the hardwood
flooring market after 1939 and plank flooring was being
produced by 1946. The residential flooring plant was converted
in 1961 to manufacture laminated flooring for trucks and
trailers.
Throughout its history, Staten says Anderson-Tully has constantly
demonstrated a commitment to the environment and its protection.
A deer management program is just one example of the company’s
wildlife management practices.
“Nearly all of our land is leased out to hunting clubs,”
Staten says.
The company developed one of the industry’s first
bottomland hardwood management plans for sustained yields,
relying on natural regeneration to reforest its lands. Strategies
have since evolved for maintaining renewable forests, water
and soil quality and preserving and monitoring critical
habitat for a full range of forest dwellers and “all
kinds of species listed as threatened,” says Staten,
including “endangered bald eagles and Louisiana Black
bear.” DBJ
