Logging with Integrity

To be a good logger, you’ve got to love the land. 

Such is the mantra of Mark Wilkerson when it comes to his work. He would know. In 2025—his 40th year in the timber industry—Wilkerson was named the 2025 Outstanding Logger of the Year by the Mississippi Forestry Association, or MFA. 

The Leake County native started P&M Timber Company in 2004 (the P stands for his wife and business co-partner, Penny). The company is a private, third-party contractor for Resource Management Service LLC, or RMS, a timber investment management organization that manages forests across the U.S., including Mississippi and Brazil. Wilkerson began logging for RMS in 2006.  

He is one of RMS’ top producing contractors in Mississippi and works at sites within a 90-mile radius of the business’ home base in Carthage. That includes 41 counties, or around half the state: Attala, Calhoun, Carroll, Chickasaw, Choctaw, Clarke, Clay, Copiah, Covington, Grenada, Hinds, Holmes, Humphreys, Issaquena, Jasper, Jefferson Davis, Jones, Kemper, Lauderdale, Lawrence, Leake, Leflore, Lowndes, Madison, Montgomery, Neshoba, Newton, Noxubee, Oktibbeha, Rankin, Scott, Sharkey, Simpson, Smith, Sunflower, Warren, Wayne, Webster, Winston, Yalobusha, and Yazoo Counties. 

Wilkerson is known among his peers for his focus on safe, responsible timber harvesting with an emphasis on environmental care. 

“I buy and sell land myself along with working for RMS, and I want their property to look just like it was mine. When people drive down this road, I want them to say, ‘Man, that’s a beautiful place,’” Wilkerson says. “When I get through clearcutting a site, I want it to look as good or better than it did when I got here. So when they come back and plant it, it’s just a natural forest again and you never knew it was even cut.  

“I take pride in that, and all my guys do, too,” he adds. “We want the land to look like it’s supposed to for the next generation.” 

While running a woodyard in Canton in the late 1990s, Wilkerson began taking courses to earn his Professional Logging Manager certification so he could go into business for himself. Those courses were—and still are—delivered by the Mississippi State University Extension Service. At the time, then-MSU Extension forestry specialist John Auel, now a certification programs coordinator for MFA, taught Wilkerson.  

“Before I started working for RMS, John was very helpful if I had a question about weight limits on trucks or if I was out on a site and working close to water,” Wilkerson remembers. “He could give recommendations on how many feet I needed to stay away to keep from rutting or getting stuck.”  

Wilkerson provides his crew with all appropriate safety equipment such as gloves, hard hats, ear plugs, safety glasses, and reflective safety vests. He keeps first aid kits and a safety oil spill kit on hand in case of an emergency, but he hasn’t needed to use them. His business has never experienced a lost-time accident.  

He also has a safety specialist conduct monthly meetings with his crew and makes sure all the business’ equipment is up to date and has safety features like four-point harness seat belts, fire extinguishers, water tanks, and vacuum pumps. Each truck, bulldozer, cutter, loader, skidder, and mulcher has a CB radio installed to ensure constant communication among the team members as they enter and exit the woods. 

His seven employees are seasoned workers in the logging industry, including loader operator Timmy Brooks, who Wilkerson worked with when he started logging in 1985. His eight-employee operation is a close-knit one and also includes stepsons Chad and James Terry. 

RMS harvest manager Reid Grant said Wilkerson’s willingness to innovate and his professionalism are two of several characteristics that make him successful and respected in the industry. 

“We love having Mark work for us, and we don’t want him to go anywhere,” Grant emphasizes. “He is ahead of his time on everything. If there are changes coming down the road, whether it’s weight changes on trucking, EPA standards or water quality, Mark is ahead of it. He manages his business very well. His ability to roll with the punches makes him invaluable as a logger.” 

Grant says RMS also has a good working relationship with MSU Extension and Extension Services in other states where his employer manages forestland.  

“I think the Extension Service is a great resource to bridge the gap between industrialized and private landowners,” he explains. “We have very in-depth certification policies we have to manage our forests by, so we’re used to this, but for a private landowner who may not be, Extension is a great resource for them to call on to be able to manage water quality and sustainably manage a forest.” 

Another hallmark of Wilkerson’s business practices is his willingness to give back to his community, making annual donations to community organizations, including Shriners Hospitals for Children, Make-A-Wish, and the Children’s Miracle Network, though he is quick to credit his wife for handling this component. His operation also participates in the Log a Load for Kids campaign to benefit the Batson Children’s Hospital.  

“We’ve been in binds ourselves, so we always want to help and do the right thing,” he said. “It’s important to give back to the people that have helped you somewhere down the way.”