About Us

Before R & R Conner

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Ryan Conner, owner of R&R Conner is a 5th generation Montanan. The 1st generation of the Conner family arrived to the Bitterroot Valley of Western Montana in the 1880's and did various things including ranching, logging and operating a local sawmill.  The next 4 generations of the Conner family followed in suit each being touched by the logging industry.

When Ryan was 16 years old he purchased his first timber sale.  Ryan wasn’t old enough to execute the Federal contract, so he had a third party listed as the purchaser on the contract; it was a post and pole sale.  Ryan’s dad graciously let him lease the family’s ranch tractor and use the 1963 ton Chevy pickup and bumper pull trailer as the log truck.   They logged the majority of the sale by pulling the small trees to the landing by hand. 

At the age of 19, he went to work for a local logger bumping knots, unhooking chokers and working in the brush as a hooker under a small yarder. 

Ryan started traveling between various logging companies and began falling timber for some of the larger helicopter logging companies by the age of 21.

In 1994, when Ryan was 23, he quit sawing for the helicopters and decided to give it a try as a businessman.  Ryan formed Seldom Logging and negotiated a contract with a private land owner to helicopter log their land.

Ryan fell the timber himself for that sale, hired his brother Lance to load trucks and run the landing, and also hired a few more friends to hook and chase.  Local trucks were plenty around Darby in those days, so getting the wood to the mill wasn’t a problem. 

In 2000 it was time to make a change.  At this time Ryan was working along side his wife Robin, she in the office and he in the field.  Together they formed R&R Conner, Inc. R&R Conner, Inc. purchased timber sales and now contracted out the logging to subcontractors.  The wood would come into a sort yard where Ryan would sort logs for various markets.

For the next 5 years R&R Conner, Inc. targeted mostly helicopter salvage sales because the salvaged (burned) wood best fit the markets they had established.  By 2005 it was becoming more difficult to hire helicopters because so many companies were phasing out of logging and going into fire fighting instead.  R&R Conner, Inc. had a pile of wood under contract at that time and couldn’t find a helicopter who could commit to fly it.  Once again, Robin and Ryan were reconsidering the direction they wanted to take their business.  Due to the rapid deterioration of the salvage timber they were faced with the challenge of removing the logs in a timely manner.  This is when R&R Conner, Inc. jumped head first into the aviation world!