Page 189 - Peterson 85 Years and Going Strong

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FORESTRY
THE FOREST INDUSTRY
Tony Leonardo started logging right out of high school. “I fell in love with it the first day. And I’ve been doing it ever since.” He started out setting chokers in the redwoods of Humboldt County and worked his way up through the company. Then the 1990s hit, and the Northern Spotted Owl was listed as an Endangered Species, putting a serious dent in the forest industry. In April 1993, President Clinton held his timber summit in Portland, Eugene and Redding trying to find a compromise between the environ- mentalists and the logging industry.
Four months later, Leonardo decided to strike out on his own. “A lot of the old guard were pretty scared and just couldn’t work under the new regulations. I figured it was a good time to get started. So I found a company that was done with logging and took over the payments on a Thunderbird 255 swing yarder and an old D8H. Then I took out a mortgage on my house and bought his old Lorain loader and two pickups you had to push down a hill to get started.”
A year later, the old beat up Lorain loader was done. Leonardo called Paul Guyot, Peterson salesman in Eure- ka (retired 1998), someone he’d known for years. “I told him I needed a loader but no banks would touch me. Nobody would finance me even though I’d been making regular payments on that loader. Paul said he’d see what he could do. A few days later, he called me up and told me to meet him at the airport the next morning.”
Early the next day three men stepped off of a plane at the airfield in Fortuna: Paul Guyot, Duane Doyle Sr., and a guy who turned out to be from Cat Financial. “This is the kid I was telling you about,” Guyot said after making the introductions.” He’s just starting out and he needs a loader. And he needs financing. I’ll vouch for him.” Duane turned to the Cat finance guy: “If Paul will vouch for him, then we need to finance him.”
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