New approach could keep industry, environmentalists from being at loggerheads
Jesse Miller unhooks chokers while logging at an operation in the Applegate Valley Thursday. Mail Tribune Photo / Jamie Lusch
Never let it be said of Ed Hanscom that you can't teach an old dog new tricks.
Hanscom is a young 66, kept fit by having worked in the Oregon woods for more than 40 years. Starting out as a small-scale salvage operator with little more than a self-loading log truck, his work has evolved into large-scale contracts and computerized machines that gobble up logs with ease.
"I like to take on challenges, much to the chagrin of some of my employees," said Hanscom, a 1971 graduate of Oregon State University who majored in forestry.
"They think I should go find high volume per acre on flatter ground — no brush and on and on," he added, describing a choker setter's idea of heaven on Earth. "They'll snivel about this, then bail out over the bank and get 'er done."
While he may joke about his hard-working crew, the second-generation logger from Eagle Point is deadly serious about successfully taking on the new forest-restoration approach to logging that's now under way in a pilot project on U.S. Bureau of Land Management timberland in the Applegate Valley.
"My goal out here is to figure out how to do a good job with this so we can continue to pick up the timber program in this area," he said as he stood on a log landing on the northwest flank of Tallowbox Mountain. "You've got huge amounts of land out here that is in pretty bad shape."
He was referring to regional forests that many in the forest debate agree are unnaturally overgrown because of wildfire suppression over the past century.
"I am optimistic there is a future for this type of logging — I do think it could be a breakthrough," Hanscom said.
Spearheaded by forest scientists Norm Johnson and Jerry Franklin, the logging method being applied on the 1.5-million-board-foot Pilot Joe sale calls for leaving the large legacy trees, heretofore prized by loggers because bigger trees produce more board feet of lumber and, thus, bigger bucks.
The pilot project is in the 80,000-acre, middle Applegate River watershed, of which 50,000 acres is on the BLM's Medford District. Pilot Joe is the first sale for the project since it was proposed in 2010.
In addition to preserving the largest trees and improving forest health, the project aims to reduce the chance of a catastrophic wildfire while producing jobs for loggers and wood for local mills.
It is one of three such projects in Oregon that could change the way timber is managed on federal forestland in the West. The others are on BLM land in Douglas and Coos counties. Franklin and Johnson are heading up those demonstration projects also.
The Pilot Joe sale, one of several timber sales envisioned for the Applegate project in the coming years, is the first to produce timber. Covering about 260 acres, it was sold last fall for $230,606 to Boise Cascade Wood Products.
Eagle Point-based HM Inc., a logging firm owned by Hanscom and his wife of 46 years, Susan, has been contracted by Boise to do the logging, which requires cable systems.
"We are getting some pretty nice wood out here," said Hanscom, as three chokers attached to the hook on a skyline cable dragged logs to the landing. "This area was really thick with those 16- to 18-inch poles that we've removed."
The large standing trees below him are marked with yellow paint, indicating they are to be left. The logging corridor that stretches some 1,600 feet down the mountainside skirts what are called "skips" — patches of trees, including hardwoods and large conifers, that are being left untouched.
"With those skips, it takes a lot more time when we are laying out our logging corridors," Hanscom said. "What makes it difficult is that some of the corridors have irregular-shaped boundaries because of the stay-out areas. But we have managed to stay out of them."
One of the main differences from past logging practices is what they are leaving behind, he said. All of the trees slated for cutting are younger than 50 years old, and most are 16 inches or smaller in diameter at chest height, according to the BLM.
"They want to save the big, old-growth pine, the big, old-growth fir and the big, old-growth hardwoods," Hanscom said. "But, other than changing the types of trees we are cutting, it isn't that much different."
As for his eight employees working the sale, they are equally interested in making it work, he said.
"They can do most anything if given the chance," he said. "And they are happy to be working."
He stopped for a moment to ponder the profession he chose as a young man.
"We just hired two young people who want to do this work," he said. "They aren't here because they didn't have another choice. They are here because they want to be.
"That's the kind of people we need. There is a lot of personal freedom, but it can be miserable, hard damn work. You have to really love being outside to do this."
Milton "Punky" Miller, who was chasing on the landing, racing in to unhook the chokers when a turn of logs was brought to the landing, likely would agree with his assessment.
Miller, 56, of Prospect, has been a logger for 37 years.
Like Hanscom, who isn't shy about taking federal land management agencies and environmental activists to task, Miller defends the logging industry.
"What we planted when I first started in the woods we are now harvesting," Miller said. "I'm proud of that. It's a good feeling."
Miller described himself as a "floater," meaning he does whatever job is required of him. His main job is a mechanic, he noted.
Nearby, his son, Jesse Miller, 30, operates the computerized processor that makes short work of bucking and "limbing" the logs when they are hauled to the landing by yarder operator Jack Higgins.
"Jesse's grandpa was a logger," Milton Miller said. "His old man is a logger. Now he is a logger."
Despite the dangerous nature of the work, there have been no major injuries in the family, he said.
"Just bumps and bruises and broken bones but nothing serious," he said.
They aren't the only father-and-son on the crew. Veteran hook tender Jeff Jacobs and his adult son, Gage Jacobs, who is pulling rigging, are working "down in the hole" far below.
"He is as tough as a rat sandwich," Miller said of Jeff Jacobs, pointing him out as he scrambled among the downed logs.
The senior Miller figures the new approach is a method that could provide a solution to the forest gridlock between the industry and the environmental community.
"I think this is a good way — there is a lot less waste," Miller said. "It's definitely worth trying."
Hanscom, noting that "Jeff is in charge here when I'm not around causing chaos," said the daily operating cost for the crew and equipment is about $4,100.
"With this system, we're putting a little more work into it, but it is going to work out financially for us," Hanscom said. "You can make it work economically. It'll work out."
His firm has three pieces of heavy equipment on the landing, including a Madil yarder, the computerized processer and a log loader. He estimated it would cost $770,000 to replace the yarder and more than a half-million dollars to get another processer.
"The loader would be a bargain, about $350,000 new," he said.
The point, he stressed, is that he and others are committed to making the forest-restoration approach work.
"Everybody has to be willing to make changes," he said. "As an individual, I can do that."
But he believes both the government and the environmental community needs to be more flexible and forthright.
"They need to be willing to make some changes, too," he said. "The BLM has to start managing its land. They need to figure out how to put up timber sales that are economically feasible to work and pacify the environmental community."
But he was quick to observe there were some conflicts that needed to be resolved.
"The agency and society is going to have to get back to accepting risks like I do every day," he said. "The management out here — like with the roads — is zero tolerant. They will not take any risks at all. And that doesn't work out here.
"Our employees take risks every time they crawl over the bank. You need the environmental community and the BLM to assume some risks. Collaboration is a good thing, but we're getting a little carried away with it. Somebody has to stop at some point and do something."
Reach reporter Paul Fattig at 541-776-4496 or email him at pfattig@mailtribune.com.
Nice blog. Thanks for sharing that looks awesome.
ReplyDeleteComputerized cutting services in Malaysia