logging

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Field Notes

The Lifecycle of Timber

The lifecycle of logging is both simple and complex. It’s a carefully balanced relationship between man and nature that allows for the production of everything from homes to solvents and even LCD screens, while simultaneously preserving the resource that makes it all possible. It’s important to understand the ways in which logging has evolved into a sustainable practice — a circle of planting, harvesting, respect, and renewal that ensures we don’t miss the forest for the trees.

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3 Min
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Profiles

The Brothers Nielsen

For as long as either David or Robert Nielsen can remember, trees have surrounded them. In their youth, they romped among the towering white oaks, western hemlocks, and grand firs that surrounded their home on San Juan island just below the Canadian border. When their family moved to Bellingham, Washington during grade school, they spent their time hiking and riding dirt bikes through the forests bordering their town. So, when they both decided to go into logging after high school, no one was surprised. Chances were, a little of the sap they played in had soaked into their souls.

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5 Min
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Field Notes

Lost Language of American Loggers

Fill a forest with five-hundred-year-old trees, up to a few hundred feet tall. Season it with native Americans, native-born pioneers, and immigrants from every corner of the Atlantic and Pacific. Into this wilderness introduce sharp tools, ornery teams of oxen and several thousand-pound logs pulled by wire and chain under tension. Add steep hills and log-filled ponds, rivers, or bays, where even a nimble logger might slip. While you’re at it, drag through a testy steam engine throwing sparks into a forest dry enough to be a tinderbox. Then borrow some sailors who speak and weave in the local jargon. Sequester these workers from the rest of civilization for months at a time. Distilled from this mash came the language of the North American logger.

A few of these words tramped out of the woods and joined the larger culture. Perhaps you’ve flung a few around yourself, without noticing the sawdust that clung to them.

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5 Min
loggingsocial
Field Notes

Sustainable Logging For Healthy Forests

Over the last five decades, the logging industry in the united states has evolved considerably, and that is a good thing. Nowadays, when you hear a chainsaw roar to life or see a semi-truck rumble by loaded down with freshly felled trees, you’re witnessing the final stages of an incredibly complex process. A myriad of groups has weighed in, each one with a straightforward goal in mind, ensuring that the logging industry is sustainable and causes as little environmental damage as possible.

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5 Min
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How-To

How to Build a Backyard Sawmill

My family comes from a proud tradition of loggers and woodworkers. My great-grandfather left his home in Norway and emigrated to Washington to work as a logger. My grandfather followed in his footsteps to work in the lumber industry, and my father has worked with wood for as long as I can remember. When my wife asked me to make some raised garden beds with her, I saw this season of quarantine as an opportunity to tap into my roots, expand my DIY skillset, and explore milling my own lumber with my chainsaw. If you have your own saw and a few standard tools, you can get started for a few hundred bucks.

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10 Min
man working with horses to pull log
Field Notes

A Brief History of Horse Logging

A trained forester revs his chainsaw as he buzzes and directionally fells a tree, then limbs it up before attaching a steel chain to the top of it. He then subtly nudges the reins and commands in a terse voice “Gee!” (right) or “Haw!” (left), to maneuver his draft horses back so he can attach the other end of the chain to the wheeled cart. Soon, the only sounds in the woods are the clop of the horses’ hooves and the jangle of the chain as the log skids across the ground. These impacts are minimal compared to the roar of the diesel engine.

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5 Min