Yarding Pictures

[redwood logger]

I love a good wagon wheel setting, they look so good from the road. I was blown away when I was up in the grays harbor area on vacation a few years ago. all the huge clear cuts in oregon and washington. We are so restricted down here in CA. the units are much smaller and anything that might run water in the middle of winter is considered a creek, with trees left to shade the frogs and such. My wife and I loved the area up there. We stayed at a B&B in Hoquim when we were up there, i think it was called the Hoquim castle. A big red and white place, an old lumber barons house back in the day. I love all the logging history up there and people are really into it. Around here logging is a bad word, thanks to Maxxam coming in and stirring things up in the late 80's

Would it be hard to find year round work up in the grays harbor area if a person has some experience? What kind of hourly rate could be expected for a rigging slinger for example? Are there any companies with good benefits.

 

[slowp]

I love a good wagon wheel setting, they look so good from the road. I was blown away when I was up in the grays harbor area on vacation a few years ago. all the huge clear cuts in oregon and washington. We are so restricted down here in CA. the units are much smaller and anything that might run water in the middle of winter is considered a creek, with trees left to shade the frogs and such. My wife and I loved the area up there. We stayed at a B&B in Hoquim when we were up there, i think it was called the Hoquim castle. A big red and white place, an old lumber barons house back in the day. I love all the logging history up there and people are really into it. Around here logging is a bad word, thanks to Maxxam coming in and stirring things up in the late 80's

Would it be hard to find year round work up in the grays harbor area if a person has some experience? What kind of hourly rate could be expected for a rigging slinger for example? Are there any companies with good benefits.

Logging is not considered very nicely by the folks who are moving into our areas to retire or have second homes, or by the folks who live in the cities. After last year's front page picture of slides on a clearcut, and blaming it for the flooding, I expect things will be regulated even more here.

Notice that my pictures are all in thinning units. I have no idea if those units will ever be entered again. All that is said is that we need to thin to speed up the growth of the stand so it will have old growth characteristics. And Old Growth sized timber is off limits to logging at this time on FS land. You figure it out?

 

[redwood logger]

Logging is not considered very nicely by the folks who are moving into our areas to retire or have second homes, or by the folks who live in the cities. After last year's front page picture of slides on a clearcut, and blaming it for the flooding, I expect things will be regulated even more here.

Notice that my pictures are all in thinning units. I have no idea if those units will ever be entered again. All that is said is that we need to thin to speed up the growth of the stand so it will have old growth characteristics. And Old Growth sized timber is off limits to logging at this time on FS land. You figure it out?

The last big thinning I worked in we were days from being done when we had a big storm and half the trees that were left blew over. So after 5 months of logging we started over and logged it all again! I have also thinned units only to drive by a couple years later and see that they came back and clear cut it already! I dont try to make sense of it all anymore.

 

[slowp]

It doesn't tend to blow over as much here. But I don't get a straight answer from the people who should know more when I ask about the future plans for the stands we are thinning. I got a bit blunt with the environmental group woman, who wouldn't answer. I don't think they want me to go out with their group anymore. :greenchainsaw:

 

[1I'dJak]

you guys down south don't seem to use much grapple yarders eh? mostly chokers from what i see...those trees and that land look like it could be hoe chucked...less and less grapple yarding here...hoe chuckers and snorkels where they can get away with them...crews are alot smaller than they used to be...in sayward bc there's an awesome pic of a guy being towed across a lake on waterskiis by the yarder....

 

[slowp]

Any units over 30% slope go cable or helicopter. That's just here on National Forest. Then there's two sales with some pretty flat ground but a judge ruled no ground based equipment. Then, there's some really flat ground but we aren't allowed to fix the road so they are helicopter. It's a mad world here.

 

[redwood logger]

you guys down south don't seem to use much grapple yarders eh? mostly chokers from what i see...those trees and that land look like it could be hoe chucked...less and less grapple yarding here...hoe chuckers and snorkels where they can get away with them...crews are alot smaller than they used to be...in sayward bc there's an awesome pic of a guy being towed across a lake on waterskiis by the yarder....

The company I work for did lots or grapple yarding in years past, but don't anymore because it got harder with tighter restrictions, more creek buffers and extremly limited use of mobile tail hold equipment. I think we need to give it another try, with it becoming impossible to find enough good help to put together a full yarder crew that might be a good option. I have only done it on one occasion, but it was way cool!

 

[Gologit]

Any units over 30% slope go cable or helicopter. That's just here on National Forest. Then there's two sales with some pretty flat ground but a judge ruled no ground based equipment. Then, there's some really flat ground but we aren't allowed to fix the road so they are helicopter. It's a mad world here.

LOL. I like these posts because they really point out the difference between logging government ground and logging private ground.

Slowp, your 'ologists would probably go into cardiac arrest if they saw some of the steep ground we Cat log. The only time we use a yarder or a helicopter is if there just isn't any other choice and the value of the timber makes it worth it.

And roads? If there's an existing road, or even one from long ago, chances are real good that we'll fix it and use it.

Every time you post some of this stuff I can really understand your level of frustration. I don't envy you trying to exist in a world that replaces common sense with environmental fads.

 

[clearance]

Every time you post some of this stuff I can really understand your level of frustration. I don't envy you trying to exist in a world that replaces common sense with environmental fads.

Yep, and political correctness, and giult, and lies, and so on. It annoys the hell out of me that loggers are considered bad by so many. They did the most to build this province, most roads the treehuggers drive down to go on a protest was made by a D-8. With a logger running it.

 

[slowp]

The head of our forest environmental group is rather angry right now. Due to all the fires, we have to drastically cut projects and there won't be any funding for contracts to do lovely things like decommission roads. The Oregonian paper had an article about it. It was briefly mentioned that in the past, the Forest Service could dip into the vast pool of money generated by timber sales. Now that doesn't exist.

 

[Bushler]

That vast pool is also what funded our schools.

I absolutely hate GreenPeople.

Part of the reason the Fed timber sales in the sixties were almost lost leaders was because of the expense of the extensive road net work we built to engineered standards.

Now they de-commision the roads so the fires can burn the timber better and contribute to the 'global warming' issue.

Now I'm upset again. I think I'll go kill something with a gun. That usually makes me feel better.

 

[Humptulips]

I worked on a BU99A. They are a big machine but smaller drums then the BU199. Dahlgren has a or had a much bigger machine, never worked on it but I think a Burger. When I saw it they had 1 3/4 skyline and were yarding about 4000 feet.

Busheler is right about the North Bend system. Gets pretty dicey if you break something. I've had a lot of close ones with North bend, South Bend and sucker block set ups especially the sucker block set ups. It is just impossible to get out of the bight.

Worked on a big Madill 046 slackline. That had a oddball brake system on the skyline drum. Most dangerous machine I ever worked on. Two guys killed when the skyline broke while Northbending just before I went to work there. We had so many close calls. Damn thing should have been re tagged.

 

[Gologit]

It was briefly mentioned that in the past, the Forest Service could dip into the vast pool of money generated by timber sales. Now that doesn't exist.

Well, imagine that!! Talk about not missing your water 'til your well runs dry.

Tell you what, when you get ready to pull the pin with the Green Machine I'll send you an employment app. The way we're buying ground up there you might not even have to relocate.

If nothing else, most of what we do would make sense to you...it's all about production.

 

[myrtle]

LOL. I like these posts because they really point out the difference between logging government ground and logging private ground.

Slowp, your 'ologists would probably go into cardiac arrest if they saw some of the steep ground we Cat log. The only time we use a yarder or a helicopter is if there just isn't any other choice and the value of the timber makes it worth it.

And roads? If there's an existing road, or even one from long ago, chances are real good that we'll fix it and use it.

Every time you post some of this stuff I can really understand your level of frustration. I don't envy you trying to exist in a world that replaces common sense with environmental fads.

I can agree to this as a Humboldt County transplant in Oregon. When I started working here I got looks of horror when I asked why we couldn't just send in the Cat instead of all the short downhill cable yarding we inevitably rope into our timber sales. CAT is a four letter word to most 'ologists that I have had to deal with.

Here is my addition to the ancient iron collection.... An old converted Lima line shovel. The logger spent the winter swapin' in bigger drums, splicing in additional 5' to the boom, and giving her a fresh coat of paint. He's 78 and likes to tell me about how he used to use this shovel to load trucks with all the 6 footers from the same ground we are now thinning. He was running a Washington TL-6 Trakloader until spring when he scrapped it for more than he bought it for a few years back.

 

[slowp]

Yes, the old grapple shovels. They were still commonly used here in the eighties, when I was starting to learn about logging and contracts. They handled the big wood for the 3-8 log loads. I had a guy swing a log over my head once. He knew where I was too. I would chew him out big time now but I was a 20 something and was a bit intimidated. Later, he killed a guy.

 

[E&A QCI]

Sj-4

SJ-3s only had about a 220 degree swing. No air either as I recall. probably like a 4 but limited swing.

The SJ-4 had only 180 degree swing. The SJ-4 R and SJ-4R-T were 360 degree swing.

 

[slowp]

The Last Easy Setup

This is the last of the easy logging for the Madill. Tomorrow, they will be rigging up for downhilling. I must return in the morning and hike up the hill to paint some anchor trees so they can cut them.

Here's the landing, they'll use it again for the last downhill setting. They're moving the yarder down the road where it is a shorter distance to carry haywire UP the hill for the first setting.

The crew in the brush. The slant cut on that log is so the crew will leave it out in the unit....lizard log, bug log, etc.

Starting to put on new line.

Note the casual dress code for hot weather.

 

[Adkpk]

Axemen. Looks like fun, not! Looks like fun but looks hard and tiring. Thanks for the pics.

 

[2dogs]

What are the specs for a bug log and how many do you leave per acre? Around here we would need to leave hippy logs. The dirtier the better.

 

[slowp]

I have to look it up. I'll also have to walk through with somebody while they dump the trees after yarding. It is in the contract as cubic feet and has a minimum size. One unit had so much blowdown on it from before logging that if we dumped new trees, it would be a clearcut. That brings up another point, often, the wind supplies enough bug trees after the logging.