With rugged claws on its snout like those of a gigantic beetle, a “skidder” rumbles loudly as it tows cut trees on an 80-acre tract of forest just off Riverway Road in southwestern Chesterfield County. The skidder totes the lumber to another machine with a long, mechanical arm called a loader, which bundles up logs so they can be placed on one of several tractor-trailer rigs. The destinations are pulp mills in Hopewell and West Point owned by WestRock, a paper and packaging company. … “We’re the third largest industry in the state,” says Paul R. Howe, executive director of the Virginia Forestry Association. “We’re the quiet giant. Unless you live in a rural area, you don’t notice us,” he says. According to Virginia Tech, the commonwealth’s 15 million acres of forests support a $23 billion industry.