Haines Contracting

Goal: Haines Contracting's goal is to provide quality work for his customers providing for all their forest-related needs. This includes cutting stumps low, making sure the clean-up is aesthetically pleasing and maintaining regeneration when felling larger timber. Owner Brett Haines' personal goal is to make a living so he and his family can live in Seeley Lake.

History: Haines started working in the logging industry during the summers that he attended college. After his freshman year in the summer of 1985, Larry Copenhaver hired Haines. "I was pretty green but he took a chance on me. Larry taught me how to log," said Haines. Haines worked under foreman Ken Pitman and Copenhaver throughout his college career.

Haines continued working in logging following his graduation from college. "I love the outdoors and fresh air, not being stuffed up in some room," said Haines. "It toughens a person up mentally and physically."

He purchased a dozer and sub-contracted his dozer to Blackfoot Forestry where he ran heavy equipment. In the fall of 2008 when Plum Creek shut logging down, Haines lost his job and sub contract with Blackfoot Forestry and decided to establish Haines Contracting with his one employee. Through the rough years of the timber industry, the fire mitigation and removing beetle killed timber helped keep him in business.

Haines Contracting started with a single dozer which he has since replaced. He also owns a rubber-tire skidder, grapple skidder, low boy trailer, 500-gallon fire engine for pile burning and a log truck to haul his own logs. Haines currently employs three employees in addition to himself but has hired up to four workers when his projects require it. He relies on word of mouth and letting his work speak for itself to attract new customers.

Products & Services: Haines Contracting specialized in hand felling for a variety of forest industry projects. Projects include: hazard tree removal; fire mitigation; selective thinning; brush piling and burning; hauling saw logs, firewood and pulp logs; selective cutting on private property; road building and snow plowing. He has been hired for several federal and state salvage and blowdown projects as well as for small logging projects for Pyramid Mountain Lumber, Inc. He also contracts with private individuals.

For More Information: Haines Contracting can be reached at 406-677-4169 or email hainescontracting@yahoo.com. References are available upon request.