Teach me everything you know about logging and forestry!

[CaliforniaWalnut]

You might rent an old movie called sometimes a great notion, its dated a bit but was ok, poor ole Henry couldn't get in the woods without having an accident lol

I'll check it out--thanks

 

[CaliforniaWalnut]

it should be self explanatory, lots of jerks have moved here over the past 20-30 years, things is getting crowded and tense, used to be known as one of the politest places in the world... sadly not so much anymore...

so don't move here...

That's Western Washington?

 

[CaliforniaWalnut]

Skyline Yarding with a motorized carriage in the Cascade Mtns. of Warshington.
View attachment 515670

More but in a flat unit. Flatness is not a good thing for skyline systems.
View attachment 515671
A motorized carriage about to pass over an intermediate support (jack). The opening is called a skyline corridor.
View attachment 515672

A commercial thin unit nicely cut and bucked.
View attachment 515673

The hooktender and crew (over the edge) stringing out haywire for a skyline operation.

View attachment 515674

Awesome photos----okay, so I'm beginning to get the picture. A chaser attaches the downed logs to a cable or hook, correct? And then I'm just trying to figure out what a harder is exactly compared to a skidder

 

[ArthurB]

No offense, but I didn't ask you about screenwriting. I'm asking for information about logging. I don't care if you don't like my approach! When is the last time you wrote anything of significance?

Clearly you do care that I don't like your approach - and so you should, as it will be clear to most readers that what I've said makes sense

You're obviously looking for someone to hand you a solution on a plate, and without getting up from your keyboard

As noted, this is lazy and half-arsed and won't result in anything other than a facile understanding of the field

You need to talk to people in the region where your story is set, and see for yourself what the job is about - and you'll also need to ensure that people from the industry proof your script

And for what it's worth, I write for a living ...

 

[CaliforniaWalnut]

Thats a big question...

poke around on this forum for a few months and it will give you a start.

But to narrow things down a bit, do you have a location for this screen play, cause every area of the country has its own way of logging, its own terms and colloquialisms etc.

its break fast time... I'll get back to this in a minute.

Well, I had it set in Oregon, but I might change it to Washington. Ultimately, it's gonna be up to production and budget where they want to film it. But I at least get to dream up the location!

 

[CaliforniaWalnut]

Clearly you do care that I don't like your approach - and so you should, as it will be clear to most readers that what I've said makes sense

You're obviously looking for someone to hand you a solution on a plate, and without getting up from your keyboard

As noted, this is lazy and half-arsed and won't result in anything other than a facile understanding of the field

You need to talk to people in the region where your story is set, and see for yourself what the job is about - and you'll also need to ensure that people from the industry proof your script

And for what it's worth, I write for a living ...

Well, Arthur, never judge a book by its cover... it may be a cliche, but it's said for a reason. I find your advice completely negative and unhelpful. You think I don't know that traveling is a good idea? Of course it is! You know what else is a good idea? Asking questions to things you DON'T find in books. Let me ask you this: have you ever worked as a journalist before? Journalists ask questions: who, what, when, where, why, and how. Without asking questions, you will never know the answer. And I find you completely belligerent and disrespectful.

 

[CaliforniaWalnut]

Thats a big question...

poke around on this forum for a few months and it will give you a start.

But to narrow things down a bit, do you have a location for this screen play, cause every area of the country has its own way of logging, its own terms and colloquialisms etc.

its break fast time... I'll get back to this in a minute.

YES, Oregon/Washington... haven't decided on which yet.

 

[Trx250r180]

Need @RandyMac in here ,His stories could make up a whole book .

 

[CaliforniaWalnut]

Mills....

Mills are where logs go to get turned into boards, sawdust, pulp, and various other things... but I assume you knew that...

logs are shipped to the mill either by truck or by water though water shipments are getting rarer (between mills they will ship these often enough but river drives of yore are no more)
once logs are unloaded they are then scaled and graded, measured and judged for "quality" this is where the logger gets ripped off... but I digress...

the logs are usually then sorted and stacked by species and grade, waiting for their turn to be cut up (sometimes months)

when they finally start the mill process the first thing is always debarking, gets all the bark dirt and rocks off the wood, bark is then sent to compost or garden stores.

from there its all mill stuff, square the log up, and make the most boards out of em as they can, I'm not a mill guy so I only have a basic idea as to what happens inside the mill...

planed, treated, graded etc

then stacked up and shipped to your local hardware store to build tract houses in Nebraska?

As I said before this is just an overview there are so many processes and types of logging that the mind could boggle if I started rambling...

But a couple machines fer ya to look into...

Yarder

Log loader or Log Shovel (modified excavator)

Dozer, Cat, Bull Dozer

Skidder

Processor

Feller Buncher

Forwarder

Grapple Cat

Log trucks, self loaders... all sorts of fun stuff...

Great info--thanks!!

 

[CaliforniaWalnut]

Check out this videos:




and logging

Awesome videos!!!!!! I couldn't find anything like this on Youtube when I was searching. Fantastic--thank you!!!

 

[ArthurB]

Well, Arthur, never judge a book by its cover... it may be a cliche, but it's said for a reason. I find your advice completely negative and unhelpful. You think I don't know that traveling is a good idea? Of course it is! You know what else is a good idea? Asking questions to things you DON'T find in books. Let me ask you this: have you ever worked as a journalist before? Journalists ask questions: who, what, when, where, why, and how. Without asking questions, you will never know the answer. And I find you completely belligerent and disrespectful.

So you've got a script to write, and that includes scenes about logging (in some form or other)

And instead of doing some work, you fire up the internet and type "I'm writing a screenplay about logging & I need to know everything there is to know!"

And having done that, you then wonder why someone out there might consider this lazy and half-arsed ...

 

[slowp]

If you are serious, and I doubt that, I would suggest Morton, WA as a good, depressing town. It already had some kind of a zombie movie filmed there.
It has two MILLS, not lumber yards, one is a large cedar operation, the other a large mill that takes Doug-fir only. There are still a few loggers around the place. It has the true, depressed looking main street. I'm not sure if the bar with the pole dancing is open. I think they got shut down. Log trucks roll through town every few minutes, and the town has a big celebration coming up called the logger's jubilee.

Other locations would be the Longview/Kelso/Rainier area, or Vernonia or ??? Woods Logging and Cowlitz River Rigging would be good places to hang out in. Both are close to each other in Longview, WA.

The mills are scarcer now as are the loggers. Go find a tavern with some beat up looking crew cab pickups parked in front--those will also have a fuel tank in the bed and lots of stuff, go in, and start your research. I haven't been in our local eating establishment for a while, but they've had logging term glossaries on their menus for a long time.

 

[gary courtney]

I'm not in Kansas toto rotflmfao

he is a barrel of monkies at parties I bet

 

[northmanlogging]

Awesome photos----okay, so I'm beginning to get the picture. A chaser attaches the downed logs to a cable or hook, correct? And then I'm just trying to figure out what a harder is exactly compared to a skidder

Chaser unhooks the logs, he gets to hang out next to the yarder and do all the grunt work like winding straw line and what not.

Yarder, I assume yers was just a typo, anyway yarder is basically a converted crane, bunch of winches and a steel tower, anywhere from 2-12 winches each one having a specific function. but that gets complicated and weird to explain

The basic premise of a yarder is to get the logs off the ground and drag them up hill to where they can be further processed, this area is called a landing, cause the logs land there get it. the tower on a yarder is a mobile replacement for the old trees that where climbed and topped before the mobile yarder was invented same idea just a bit safer and easier to set up. in a nutshell you have 3-8 guy lines these stabalize the tower and keep it from tipping over, each one on it own winch, then you have a main line, haulback, and skyline each of these holding from 1000 to 3000' of cable or sometimes more, then there might even be a strawline winch...

So the yarder is rigged up to a bunch of stumps and lift trees to keep it planted firmly on the landing, then the strawline is ran out through the unit to create a new "road" (logger term for where the logs are going to get drug through), the strawline is then used to pull the skyline or mainline (each crew and yarder seems to have their own term for these) this line being 5/8 to 1-3/8 in diameter weighing roughly .7 to 1.25 pounds per foot, whereas the strawline is usually 5/16-3/8 and cut up into sections to make it easy to drag around by hand in the bush, once the sky/main line is drug out to its respected tail hold, be it a stump or a tail tree depending on how much lift they need to yard the logs, then the rest of the rigging can be sent down on the sky line etc... any way its all rather complex when you type it out like this....

Once all the rigging is set up, and there will be miles of it... and each type has its own name and sub name and slang name... books have been written on this topic... and fought over... anyway the rigging crew can then start yarding logs, the rigging crew is going to be in no particluar order:

rigging slinger, like a lead for the choker setters (choker is what we use to hook the logs, it a odd shaped piece of cast steel the holds a ferul on the end of a cable to create a snare)

Choker setter, usually 1-2 depending on the size of yarder and wood, these guys alone with the rigging slinger hook the chokers to the logs.

On any rigging crew these above kids have probably the most dangerous part of the yarding process, they spend all day down hill form logs they are sending up hill... remember **** breaks...

Chaser, as above unhooks the chokers and does other landing maintenance

Hook Tender, his job is to maintain the rigging and get the next road ready. involves climbing and sometimes topping lift trees and myrad of other difficult mind bending tasks...

Yarder Engineer, thid dude usually some old fart, runs the yarder, with consists of a forest of levers and pedals to control every winch.

All these fine folks are spread out over 80-160 acres

They have to comunicate somehow so they use either radios or more commonly a deal called a Talkie Tooter, which makes a bunch of cheery whistles that can be heard miles away and over noisy diesel engines, they use a completely made up form of morse code, each function on each winch is signaled with a series of long and short whistles. The important ones to remember are 1 long means all stop, 7 long someones hurt...

A skidder, either rubber tired or tracked is basically just a big ass tractor with a big ass winch or grapple that goes out and drags logs in.

The steepness of the terrain mostly decides on whether folks are going to be logging with skidders i.e. ground based or with yarders, Shovel logging or using excavators/log shovels is the inbetween they can work on steeper ground then skidders, as well as flat ground, but are limited buy how steep they can go where as a yarder isn't so good on flat ground, but can work on some scary steep dirt.

 

[Marshy]

So you've got a script to write, and that includes scenes about logging (in some form or other)

And instead of doing some work, you fire up the internet and type "I'm writing a screenplay about logging & I need to know everything there is to know!"

And having done that, you then wonder why someone out there might consider this lazy and half-arsed ...

Im sure she appreciates your opinion. Now that you've stated it you can move along if you don't want to participate in a constructive manner.

 

[northmanlogging]

One last thing, before I go for now...

Loggers in general are a cagey and paranoid lot, (when ma nature is tryin to kill you 6-12 hours a day, tweekers are stealing your saws and the bunny huggers are trying to take yer job 24-7 its makes one a little paranoid and careful)

So be straight forward and honest with them, unless yer making fun of someone then all bets are off... and be warned PNW loggers don't mince words if it needs said and someone needs set straight they don't waste time on "feelings" especially if lives are on the line.

 

[HuskStihl]

PNW loggers don't waste time on "feelings"

That's the last straw! I'd never want to be a logger if it meant I couldn't have feelings!

 

[HuskStihl]

So you've got a script to write, and that includes scenes about logging (in some form or other)

And instead of doing some work, you fire up the internet and type "I'm writing a screenplay about logging & I need to know everything there is to know!"

And having done that, you then wonder why someone out there might consider this lazy and half-arsed ...

Anybody who thinks you need to understand the subject material to make an awesome movie has never seen Youngblood

 

[slowp]

That's the last straw! I'd never want to be a logger if it meant I couldn't have feelings!

I dunno. On my invented Make A Logger Fat day, I took out chocolate bunnies that were left for office people who were trying not to be fat. One guy was in awe and almost in tears and said he had never had a chocolate bunny. I explained the protocol for eating the ears first. That's what we grumpy foresters do--try to explain things.

CW--If you follow through with this, you will be entering a realm of plain talk. Words are not minced. If somebody yells at you to get out of the way, you get out of the way and ask why at a better, calmer time. Don't move without asking if it is OK. I heard a hooktender leave his crew with this advice, "If you have any questions, don't do it." Chances are you're going to be teased. Either give it back or be quiet about it. A well developed Stink Eye is a good skill to have.

It's the land of high testosterone, but they do like freshly baked cookies and chocolate bunnies.

 

[madhatte]

Of course you eat the damn ears first. What are we, animals?