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Buckwild with Bubbarudy

BTB travels to southern Mississippi to meet with social media personality, Levi Spring. He talks about his goals, promoting logging to young people, and his passion for Tigercat equipment.

— Jorge Victoria

Picture of Levi Spring
Levi Spring is a curious kid from Bogue Chitto, Mississippi. His good manners, unbreakable smile and infectious positivity make him a pleasure to be around. A normal day in Levi’s life starts at 5:00 am. He does his home schoolwork and feeds his animals. Then along with his mom, Jessica Spring, he goes to the family’s logging operation, bringing lunch to his father, Josh and older brothers, Jackson and Dillon. After lunch Levi runs equipment and films videos with his GoPro. He says that logging doesn’t really run in the family, but after his dad started doing it, the family stuck with it.

Since he was nine years old, Levi has been making and posting social media videos on his channel, Buckwild with Bubbarudy. Levi decided to start making forest industry related videos after growing disappointed with a logging TV show he was watching at the time, in which everything seemed staged. “I wanted to make something that was real and just show people how real logging works. My mama bought me a GoPro camera, and I figured out how to film. Mama figured out how to edit. And I went out, and I just filmed my family running equipment,” Levi recalls.

Fast forwarding to today, Levi has amassed 57,000 followers on Facebook and 12,000 on Instagram. However, he is not your typical social media influencer. With a solid upbringing and an undeniable passion for logging and heavy equipment, he wants to promote the industry by showing the real side of logging, with a humorous spin only he can bring.

“THAT’S THE BIGGEST PERK OF ALL OF IT. WE MIGHT GET FRUSTRATED WITH EACH OTHER EVERY NOW AND THEN, BUT WE GET TO SPEND TIME AND TALK TO EACH OTHER. WE GET TO HAVE THAT FAMILY RELATIONSHIP ALL THE TIME.”


— Josh Spring

You might wonder why his channel is named Buckwild with Bubbarudy. Levi explains, “Well, my daddy called me Bubbarudy since I was old enough to listen to him. So we just said, ‘Let’s use Buckwild with Bubbarudy.’ Because we’re getting buckwild in the woods all the time.”

Levi’s process for making videos is simple. He goes out to the woods, plans on what he wants to film, sets up his camera, and then he talks while filming. After he’s done, he hands over the footage to Jessica for editing. Most of his content is related to logging, but he also makes videos about fishing and hunting.

Jessica has been instrumental to Bubbarudy’s social media growth. As the creative mind behind the Bubbarudy brand, she had to learn and navigate the everchanging digital landscape, picking up skills such as video editing, social media algorithms, graphic design, advertising and digital marketing.

Jessica recalls how everything started. “Levi came up to me and Josh when he was nine years old and he said, ‘Mom and daddy, I want to have a YouTube channel.’ And we said, ‘Okay. What do you want to film?’ And he said, ‘Well, I’m just going to go out and feed the cows, and when we go to the woods, I’ll film some stuff. I just want to make videos.’ And so I got him a GoPro, and he went from there.” Today, Buckwild with Bubbarudy videos average over 100,000 views a day on social media, and the channel is steadily gaining followers.

Twin brothers, Jackson and Dillon, are proud of what their younger brother has accomplished, and have been very supportive and helpful when he’s filming in the woods. “If I see something that I think would be good, I’ll get him to bring his camera and mess with it,” says Jackson.
620H skidder at a logging operation near Greensburg, Louisiana.
Levi operates the 620H skidder at a logging operation near Greensburg, Louisiana.
As he gets older, Levi has been making more technical focused videos, explaining how machinery works, sometimes with an unexpected level of detail and knowledge for a fourteen-year old. Levi’s ability to understand and excel with technology and equipment at an early age perhaps can be attributed to his upbringing – a method that has been passed down from generation to generation in the Spring family. Levi recognizes this and is thankful for it.

“Some of the stuff we do seems a little harsh, but it helps to learn stuff,” Josh explains. “You get pretty much thrown in the deep end and figure it out yourself. And that lesson stays with you a lot longer than watching somebody else doing something. Once you live it and figure it out, it sticks with you.”

Family business

Josh Spring, owner of Spring Timber Corporation, has been logging since 2000. Starting out, he spent the first six months hand falling and extracting the timber with an old Clark skidder. As he slowly added and upgraded equipment, the company took off. Today, including spares, Spring Timber has eight forestry machines, eight logging trucks and produces fifteen loads a day.

Among the fleet are five Tigercat machines: 234 and 234B loaders, a T234 loader, 620D and 620H skidders, plus a new TCi 920 dozer. The company has a long-standing relationship with B & G Equipment and relies on the dealership for its Tigercat equipment requirements. “The best benefit with Tigercat over all the others is the service. The support from B & G has been great. I’ve known them since I was born. If you brought them a frame, they could build an entire skidder with the stock that they have there,” jokes Levi.
Picture of the Spring family.
The Spring family. (L-R) Josh, Jessica, Levi, Dillon, Jackson.
The Springs are a united family with strong values. They work well together, operating a true family business. Josh runs the cutter. Jackson operates the 234B loader and Dillon drives the 620H skidder. Jessica is the bookkeeper. “What I love about it is I spend time with my family,” say Josh. “At the end of the day, if I’m on my deathbed, I won’t have to say I wish I’d have spent more time. That’s the biggest perk of all of it. We might get frustrated with each other every now and then, but we get to spend time and talk to each other. We get to have that family relationship all the time.”

Going viral

Levi tells me he was two years into making videos when he realized he was on to something. “I didn’t think that when I was walking around at a logging show that I would have so many people come up to me and say, ‘You inspire my children,’ or ‘I love watching your stuff.’” Being recognized at logging shows was a bit of a shock for him. “I went to a logging show, and somebody asked for my autograph. I have never had that happen before, but I loved it,” Levi recalls.

When asked what people like about Levi’s videos, Jessica replies that viewers love Levi’s work ethic and the family focus. She says that older folks like the videos because they relate Levi’s upbringing to how they were raised. It seems like there is almost a nostalgic element to it even though Levi is a young teenager. She says parents love it because they don’t have to worry about what their kids are watching. It’s wholesome content.

Jackson tells me it was strange to witness Levi’s growing popularity. “I guess I realized it was starting to take off when we went to a logging show in Starkville. He was walking with me, and people were stopping him and saying he’s so interesting. He’s so cool. It blew my mind,” says Jackson. “Probably the weirdest thing for him to get used to is people walking up and talking to him like they know him.”
A picture of Levi flying a drone in one of his early videos.
Levi flying a drone in one of his early videos.
Josh is the proud dad. “It’s just amazing to see 50-year-old men looking at him like he’s Elvis or something because they’ve watched his videos. He’s a really likable young man. I’m proud of him.” Josh feels that the exposure to social media has made Levi more confident and focused on his work. “It’s taught him to have tough skin because no matter what you do, somebody’s going to have something ill to say about it. And I told him just do what you know is right and keep on trucking. If they don’t like it, that’ll be fine, too.”

Levi’s recognition has travelled far beyond the borders of his native Mississippi and his videos are now viewed worldwide. Fans from many countries send messages of support, letting him know how much they like his videos. “Yeah, it’s just amazing the people that approach us and really appreciate his videos and the impact he has on people from young to old. They all love Levi. He’s got such a charming personality. He’s funny, he’s smart and he does work really hard,” says Jessica.

“I WANTED TO MAKE SOMETHING THAT WAS REAL AND JUST SHOW PEOPLE HOW REAL LOGGING WORKS.”


— Levi Spring

Promoting logging

Levi has been passionate about Tigercat from a very young age, and frequently features the machines in his videos. He adds that of all the equipment Spring Timber owns, Tigercat is the toughest and the most well-built. His favourite is the skidder. “They’re really strong. They’re tough. They’re easy to work on. Just a good skidder overall.” Levi tells me he learned to operate a skidder when he was eight. Today, he can run any forestry machine except for a harvester.

Levi argues there are two reasons why young people should consider a career in logging. First, it pays well, without the need for a college degree. Second, operating equipment is fun. “The machines, they’re so nice now that it’s basically not work. They’re so comfortable. They’ve got good air conditioning and good seats. They’re quiet. As long as you can handle bouncing around all day, you got it,” says Levi. He has a simple, concrete message for the younger segment of his audience, “For any young people out there watching, y’all need to look into logging. You just got to put in effort. That’s all you got to do.”

Levi wants to keep improving on both the quantity and quality of his videos. He doesn’t contemplate a future that doesn’t involve his entire family. “I want to be able to work with my family. Because that’s the best thing you can do.”

He isn’t shy to voice his concerns about general misunderstanding of the timber industry. “Something about logging that not many people understand is that you can’t have paper without logging. You can’t have a house frame built without logging. People don’t understand that, and they need to learn that. Logging is very sustainable. Every year, when we cut a tract of timber like this, we plant back more wood than what was out here. We’re just like farmers, just got a longer crop rotation.”

Levi’s foray into social media is one way to change the narrative so that the next generation grows up understanding the value and importance of logging, as well as the viability of the sector to provide good careers in the future.

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Buckwild with Bubbarudy


Levi Spring is a young and driven social media personality hailing from southern Mississippi. With his channel, Buckwild with Bubbarudy, he aims to highlight - in a candid way- the importance of forestry and logging. We visited him to learn more about his work, goals and fervent passion for Tigercat equipment.