'Death in the Forest', an excellent documentary on B.C.'s forest industry!

[Sprig]

I caught the last 3/4 of this disturbing, enlightening, and very well done documentary on Global tv's new show 'Global Currents' on the plight of loggers in British Columbia's woods and what they have had to deal with over the last few decades. Many things were covered, from forestry companies greed-fueled drive to skirt safety issues in the woods, the literal abandonment by the forestry union (International Woodworkers of America, commonly known here as 'I Walk Alone', or the I.W.A.) and its destruction and pillaging of retirement funds of fallers/loggers, the laughable (not) attempts of the Worker's Compensation Board to use bureaucrat's and pencil pushers to 'train' and keep fallers in check with outrageously stupid and naive protocols and regulations, and the greed, complacency, and general azzkissing of our government(s) that have ignored the real needs of forestry workers and continues to this day to mandate clear-cuts in sensitive areas, allow big companies to erode the union(s), and carry on with the insanity of exporting raw logs while small communities and workers struggle for survival.

I found this show fascinating and very informative and if anyone gets a chance to view this documentary don't hesitate to check it out. There is some incredible logging footage and a very good run-down on logging history in BC too.
As someone who has worked in the industry and comes from a logging family the whole thing really hit home and I could not help but come away feeling both angry and dismayed by the way we have allowed our forests to be run and the treatment of the highly skilled men of the woods who are struggling for dignity and recognition in this most dangerous business.
My small take on it fer now, check out the synopsis of the show here>
http://www.canada.com/globaltv/glob....html?id=fa3a104b-7694-489f-9c08-a558e790ae78

All!!

Serge

 

[forestryworks]

i'd really like to see this

hope it comes out on DVD or comes up somewhere for download

 

[forestryworks]

here's a link to some pics of the production

Death in the Forest Photo Stills

 

[bigbadbob]

A co-worker watched it and said it was very well done. And very informative.

 

[forestryworks]

Death in the Forest now available on DVD

You can go to http://www.dilemmaproductions.ca/projects/dif.shtml

scroll to the bottom where it has the address, phone numbers, etc.
send an email to [email protected] and ask for an order form for the DVD.

i paid $30 bucks, plus $5 for shipping and got it in about two weeks (the first one they sent was lost)

it's very good
i've shown it to several people and they all said it was very enlightening

i highly recommend this DVD to anyone interested in timber falling and logging

 

[bigbadbob]

It was on the tube here last week and worth watching.
It's all about corporate greed and responsability. IMO

 

[1I'dJak]

was a good show...recognized some of the guys in there....there was a quick cameo of a climber...a guy i've worked with...they also showed some stems getting plucked but didn't show any climbing or topping which was too bad... but the one tree where buddy needed to cut the spring board was pretty good

 

[forestryworks]

was a good show...recognized some of the guys in there....there was a quick cameo of a climber...a guy i've worked with...they also showed some stems getting plucked but didn't show any climbing or topping which was too bad... but the one tree where buddy needed to cut the spring board was pretty good

i was hoping to see some climbing and topping, too

all in all it was pretty damn good

bill certainly had a "voice" for what he wanted to say

 

[clearance]

was a good show...recognized some of the guys in there....there was a quick cameo of a climber...a guy i've worked with...they also showed some stems getting plucked but didn't show any climbing or topping which was too bad... but the one tree where buddy needed to cut the spring board was pretty good

Yeah, I wanted to see the single stem stuff too. But it was a great show, made lots of good points, those guys nailed it. See how they were running lots of Huskies? I hear all this about the 066 from logging guys I know, but it was cool to see those guys with the big Huskies.

The point made about young falllers being trained by experienced men on the job being replaced by the new course is accurate. Whats better, school learning or being shown, at work, by a long time west coast faller? Its all about, as Sprig said, big companies shifting the costs and responsiblities onto the shoulders of the little guy, who already has enough to deal with just laying down that big wood.

 

[DRB]

I watched this program on TV to. I also thought that it was quit accurate of what is going on the forests of BC. I am glad you guys picked up on it. I have lived in towns supported by logging all my life most of it on the coast. I have spent lots of time in the forests of the coast and have always had an interest in how logging was conducted. I am not a logger or an anti logging critic but it has been hard to watch towns (that I live in) get ripped apart by large timber companies that act as though they are community leaders until they fall on hard times when they close a saw mill or pulp mill and lay off hundreds of workers. The funny thing is that these same companies still hold onto the TFL's just to dump the logs into the water to be taken some wherelse.

Two things stick in my mind about the program.
1 QUOTE - Between 1993 and 2002, two hundred and fifty forestry workers were killed in BC and more than nine hundred severely injured.- This is just in BC not in entire Canada. This sure seems like a lot of people to be killed or severely injured in 15 years! What a waste of life. But when I use to live at the coast it sure seemed as though it was at least 2 or 3 deaths every year in a town of 15000. Does any body know of a single industry in a civilized nation that kills that may people in a province with a population of 3.5 million.

2 If you saw the show the faller they were interviewing was talking about some of the companies that he had worked for and one of them was boasting that they had no employees. They contracted everything out. They did not have to pay any benefits. Interesting?

I could go on about this forever but I will leave it at that for now.

Very interesting program. The video footage of falling huge trees is cool.

 

[Ekka]

Hey, I'd like to see this. Did anyone tape it or got a copy?

Also, found this lip service document on the net ... dated 2003.

http://www2.news.gov.bc.ca/nrm_news_releases/2003OTP0058-000700.htm

 

[forestryworks]

Hey, I'd like to see this. Did anyone tape it or got a copy?

Also, found this lip service document on the net ... dated 2003.

http://www2.news.gov.bc.ca/nrm_news_releases/2003OTP0058-000700.htm

from post #5 above


You can go to http://www.dilemmaproductions.ca/projects/dif.shtml

scroll to the bottom where it has the address, phone numbers, etc.
send an email to [email protected] and ask for an order form for the DVD.

i paid $30 bucks, plus $5 for shipping and got it in about two weeks (the first one they sent was lost)

it's very good
i've shown it to several people and they all said it was very enlightening

i highly recommend this DVD to anyone interested in timber falling and logging

 

[Ekka]

Yeah, I was looking for a faster way that's all, I'd stick that on the net for nicks especially if it was on free to air TV. :censored:

 

[Buzz 880]

They showed it on global here last night good show nice footage.It's to bad that the guy's in the bush always get the short end of the stick thow and the way they want to train guy's now adays is f..king retarded.How do they think that some jacka.. with a book and a video is going to teach some young guy how to fall those monster tree's.They should leave it to the men that have been doing it for years.I have been cutting timber for a long time now and i wouldn't tackle those tree's and i sure wouldn't let some pencil pushing geek teach me i would want some one with real life experience.But it's the same here with our cut and skid tickets i have yet to meat a guy that teaches the course that has work in the bush for a living.