Yukon Mike
Well-known member
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3MDgxNLDR64
Man those guys must have been tough. No gloves, no corks, nothing.
Mike
Man those guys must have been tough. No gloves, no corks, nothing.
Mike
Old time logging video
- Thread starter Yukon Mike
- Start date
Jon Zuccolo
Active member
One bad swing by the topper and its a long way down!
Capt. Jack Passie
Well-known member
That's when Men were Men. My father logged out there in the 20's. Heluva man!
DWilliams
Member
Cool video. Thanks, Mike.
If you are interested, here's a great novel by David Adams Richards - a Canadian author from NB and one of my current favourites.
http://www.amazon.ca/Friends-Meager-Fortune-David-Richards/dp/0385660944
Some great descriptions of logging and logging camps on the Miramichi between the Wars. Some tough, tough dudes...
All the best,
Dan
If you are interested, here's a great novel by David Adams Richards - a Canadian author from NB and one of my current favourites.
http://www.amazon.ca/Friends-Meager-Fortune-David-Richards/dp/0385660944
Some great descriptions of logging and logging camps on the Miramichi between the Wars. Some tough, tough dudes...
All the best,
Dan
Man, are those trees big!
Here's a video on Maine's last log drive in the mid 70's.
Very different. By that point out here they were taking 2nd, 3rd and even 4th growth spruce and fir, mostly smaller trees cut into 4 foot logs for pulp.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EMixnGRrMjE
Here's a video on Maine's last log drive in the mid 70's.
Very different. By that point out here they were taking 2nd, 3rd and even 4th growth spruce and fir, mostly smaller trees cut into 4 foot logs for pulp.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EMixnGRrMjE
Yukon Mike
Well-known member
Cool Dave, there's a book about west coast logging called "The Golden Spruce" (I think that was the name) that was pretty interesting too.
It compared logging those giant trees to whaling. Finding them wasn't as hard as getting them down to manageable sized pieces. I read "The Heart of the Sea" last winter and then ended up in Lahaina in Maui looking through the whaling museum there. Definate parallels between the two professions in that with bigger, better machines the guys put themselves out of business by harvesting so efficiently.
I was in a sawmill on Vancouver Island where I get my carving wood from that specializes in sawing old growth red cedar. Those trees are massive. They have a huge chainsaw rigged on an overhead rail to split logs in half so they'll fit in the ginormous band saw mill. Big machines for big jobs.
Cool beans,
Mike
It compared logging those giant trees to whaling. Finding them wasn't as hard as getting them down to manageable sized pieces. I read "The Heart of the Sea" last winter and then ended up in Lahaina in Maui looking through the whaling museum there. Definate parallels between the two professions in that with bigger, better machines the guys put themselves out of business by harvesting so efficiently.
I was in a sawmill on Vancouver Island where I get my carving wood from that specializes in sawing old growth red cedar. Those trees are massive. They have a huge chainsaw rigged on an overhead rail to split logs in half so they'll fit in the ginormous band saw mill. Big machines for big jobs.
Cool beans,
Mike
Yukon Mike
Well-known member
That was really informative Jeff. Interesting what they said about after the rivers were shut down the roads came in with a big impact. I never thought of that, but of course it makes sense. Ultimately it is the river that will suffer from reduced water quality from the roads and clearing that were meant to protect it.
Not many people log up here - our timber is small diameter and we're really far from any market, still we are only allowed on the land during freeze up. Even personal use firewood permits are subject to short notice closures due to wildlife. I can't cut wood near my cabin right now because there are caribou wintering in there and we don't want to disturb them in late winter when they are already pretty stressed. How things change eh?
A garbage can diameter tree up here may be 300 years old. I aged one at 385 once. From coastal Alaska about 150 years old. The same sized tree in Oregon would be less than 50, and I counted rings on logs in NZ from the managed forest there and they were about 15 - 20 years old.
I don't understand why we're cutting forests down to make paper, when there is TONS of cellulose going to waste from grain farming in temperate areas and sugar cane in warmer places. There's a strawboard factory set up outside of Winnipeg to make basically OSB out of straw, but it never seems to be running.
Mike
Not many people log up here - our timber is small diameter and we're really far from any market, still we are only allowed on the land during freeze up. Even personal use firewood permits are subject to short notice closures due to wildlife. I can't cut wood near my cabin right now because there are caribou wintering in there and we don't want to disturb them in late winter when they are already pretty stressed. How things change eh?
A garbage can diameter tree up here may be 300 years old. I aged one at 385 once. From coastal Alaska about 150 years old. The same sized tree in Oregon would be less than 50, and I counted rings on logs in NZ from the managed forest there and they were about 15 - 20 years old.
I don't understand why we're cutting forests down to make paper, when there is TONS of cellulose going to waste from grain farming in temperate areas and sugar cane in warmer places. There's a strawboard factory set up outside of Winnipeg to make basically OSB out of straw, but it never seems to be running.
Mike
Mike Scott
Member
Around here (Vermont), we make paper from wood because there is a glut of poor quality timber in the woods which is cut to free up space for growing higher quality sawtimber. On my average job, the ratio of harvested pulpwood to sawtimber is typically around 2:1 and sometimes as high as 8:1. The low grade wood sent for pulp has uses, though it is virtually worthless to the landowner as the cost of extraction and trucking is so high that there is little money left to pay the landowner. The ultimate goal in the eastern forest is to cull the pulpwood at cost, then eventually harvest high grade wood at a profit. Pulpwood was once king of the eastern forest, but competition from industrial clear cutting in Canada, Siberia, and temperate regions of the southern hemisphere have driven the price of pulp to rock bottom.
While cellulose from agricultural waste should be a part of the supply for paper and other products, wood will hopefully always be a part of the equation ( or I'll be out of a job!).
While cellulose from agricultural waste should be a part of the supply for paper and other products, wood will hopefully always be a part of the equation ( or I'll be out of a job!).
Yukon Mike
Well-known member
A lot of the dimensional lumber we use in the Yukon comes from Alberta now, not BC anymore, and the thing I've noticed is the tightness of the rings and the size of tree they are using to make 2x4"s out of nowadays. They are tiny. Its like they are logging oldgrowth fenceposts for lumber. I wonder if they are trying to make dimensional lumber out of SPF that would traditionally be used for pulp?
My wife grew up a pulp mill town in Northern Ontario and it is really sad what's happened to it since the mill shut down for good. All primary resource extraction towns face that risk, but its still tough to see people have to pack up a leave a place they love. The town my son Mac was born in is dead (mine) and where Meg was born is dead too (3 mines and logging as well). Where I grew up in Manitoba is dead too. The elevator closed down and then the tracks got ripped up. You can buy a town lot there for $5.
Everyone complains about the decisions Forestry Management guys make, but flying over parts of Indonesia last year I near puked when I saw how they "manage" their logging industry. I read China did the same. Nuke it all, screw the mess. Here in NA we could do better, but we could definately do a lot worse too.
Mike
My wife grew up a pulp mill town in Northern Ontario and it is really sad what's happened to it since the mill shut down for good. All primary resource extraction towns face that risk, but its still tough to see people have to pack up a leave a place they love. The town my son Mac was born in is dead (mine) and where Meg was born is dead too (3 mines and logging as well). Where I grew up in Manitoba is dead too. The elevator closed down and then the tracks got ripped up. You can buy a town lot there for $5.
Everyone complains about the decisions Forestry Management guys make, but flying over parts of Indonesia last year I near puked when I saw how they "manage" their logging industry. I read China did the same. Nuke it all, screw the mess. Here in NA we could do better, but we could definately do a lot worse too.
Mike