Forestry and Logging

By Thembi Borras

Forestry and logging go hand in hand. Forestry ultimately comes down to cutting and growing trees, the forester usually has a vision of what a forest in the future will look like and outlines steps to reach it. Without the logger, the vision would not become a reality.

After the forester has finished marking the trees, infrastructure and sensitive areas, the logging starts with the timber faller. The timber faller is responsible for falling the tree and limbing and bucking it into preferred lengths. On a good day all the trees go exactly where they are aimed, there is minimal breakage, the leave stand is not damaged and no one gets hurt.

Once the trees are on the ground and made into logs, logs are picked up by grapples, large ice tong like devices, on the back of cats, skidders or on a helicopter line. Or more commonly, where the skill of a choker setter is employed, the bell end of a cable, called a choker, is wrapped around one end of the log. Then the eye end of the choker is attached to a hook on the skidder, cat, carriage or helicopter. The operators of these machines then navigate skid trails, cable corridors or the air to bring the turn of logs to the log landing. The type of skidding equipment used is, in part, a function of skidding distance, steepness of slope, density of logs, lay of the land, accessibility and location of sensitive resources, such as watercourses.

At the landing, landing men unhook the turn from the machine. Depending on the size of the operation the same person may also be the knot bumper who cuts any remaining limbs off the logs. A loader then loads enough logs onto the truck to make a load, determined by weight. The landing is connected to the truck road by which logging trucks travel to the highway and to the mills, where they are unloaded and the cycle begins again.

Because soil, sun and water enable the leave trees and new trees that are planted or naturally regenerate in the openings created by the disturbance to grow, it makes sense to protect the leave stand, leave nutrients on site, minimize the movement of soil and slow, disperse and collect water. All of which can be enhanced or diminished by the skill of both the forester and the logger.