Logging sure has come a long way from the days when my father and his bothers chopped with double bladed axes and team horses.
Today’s wood harvesting equipment is quite impressive and yields impressive results, but comes with a very hefty price tag.
A lot of the bigger logging operations have snipers, chippers, de-limbers and skidders that are equipped with air-conditioning comfortable seats and AM/FM stereo. For every task that needs to be done in the woods, there’s a piece of equipment made for that particular task.
That’s a good thing, as it makes it quicker and easier, most of all a little safer for the logger. Don’t get me wrong; this is still on of the most dangerous jobs in the world and still very, very hard work.
We still have a lot of very good loggers and tree climbers in our part of the state. Many of them still choose to work alone, usually with a nice skidder and an impressive stable of chainsaws. The chainsaw of choice these days is a Husqvarna for the most part, but you still see a few Stihls kicking around.
These hard working men get my respect as danger lurks in most aspects of their day in the woods. They never know when a tree might be hollow hearted (rotten in the middle) or perhaps the wind might suddenly change or perhaps their saw can kick back if it hits a foreign object such a barbed wire, or a bullet lodged in the middle of a tree.
While deer hunting I walked through a piece of woods that local logger Larry Farrington of Sebago had chopped. I was thoroughly impressed with how clean he left his lot and how neat looking everything was where he had worked. That just goes to show how good some of these guys are and the pride they take in their work.
Local tree climber Christopher Parker once fell some 70 feet out of a tree while doing a tree job after something went terribly wrong, it wasn’t his fault, just a freak accident. Luckily he survived his fall, but as a result, laid in a body cast for months with many broken bones and internal injuries. He recovered and still logs to this day. He’s just like a Timex watch; he took the licking and keeps on ticking. Now that’s tough.
The next time you look at a nice view that perhaps a tree service like Ray Martell’s, or Whitney’s of Gray, or an individual like Parker has cleared for you, be thankful, it didn’t come easy, and when you go to grab a paper towel or toilet paper or that wood your going to make a birdhouse out of, thank that logger, they are good men.
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