Glenn speaking to students about active forest management
Glenn Poxleitner has been involved in the industry for many years. His first day working in the industry was when he was around 6 or 7 years old. His dad, Norm Poxleitner, ran a sawmill in Keuterville, Idaho and Norm needed a Pond Monkey one day when someone did not show up for work. So, he recruited his son who was playing with tonka trucks on the dirt pile. A pond monkey is someone who uses a pike pole to push logs from the pond onto the bull chain that brings them into the mill. When he was around 12, he started working at the mill pulling green chain, which meant stacking the lumber on stickers as it came out of the mill. Most of his high school years he ran the 4-saw edger which had to be manually adjusted. In general, they cut a lot of 2×4 and 2×6 boards, but he was responsible for deciding what lumber to cut to get the most out of each piece.
His first job in the industry after college was doing timber appraisals for the Idaho County Assessor’s Office. After a few years, a forester from Shearer Lumber (owned by the Bennett family) approached Glenn to tell him that he was retiring. Glenn took his resume into the office in Elk City before work and sat down with the mill manager and he immediately told him no. The office phone rang, this gave him the option of either leaving or generate a sales pitch. When the mill manager came back into the office and asked him why he was still there, he asked for a minute of his time and that night the mill manager called to offer him the job as forester log buyer.
“The reason I got started here was because I wanted to live in the area. IFG gave me the opportunity to support my family, a small community for my kids to grow up in, and the ability to farm, ranch, and manage my own timber land.” He added, “IFG provided me with an opportunity to do all of those things.”
As a forester, Glenn deals with private landowners, specifically, and helps them by either writing purchase agreements or helping set up their property for timber harvest by putting in property boundaries, communicating with logging contractors, etc. He also facilitates logging operations on state and forest service timber sales and serves as an educational industry leader for kids, schools, and anywhere else that will have him. Glenn’s favorite part of his job is public relations, working with coworkers, and that moment when you are educating students and the light bulb comes on.
When asked what he loves about the timber industry he said, “I have been involved in it my whole life so it kind of gets into your blood.” He added, “Generally hard working, good, industrious people. There are no easy jobs in the timber industry, people are working smarter now but still working long hours.”
An interesting fact about Glenn is he enjoys running and coaches running sports at Prairie High School, where he runs every day with his team. He started the Cross-Country team at Prairie and this is their 7th year running. He also used to be deathly allergic to bees when he started at IFG but would still go out into the forest every day. Now he can take a couple bee stings without much effect because of allergy shots.
“Over 20 years, this company has become more corporate, but they still maintain a respect and appreciation for individuals and taking care of their employees.”
