eee ae,

some

lo make a descent to the-creek and
then hike up a steep slope about
1,000 feet, carrying saws, gas and
lunch, before they even started
work in the morning. Hull remarks
that his company chartered heli-
copters to bring the crews back on
one particularly tough setting.

The tower is still necessary, even

on a skyline job. The skyline can
yard everything within a half-mile
radius of where it’s set up, but
between locations there are wedge-
Shaped areas it can’t get to. The
tower is used to clean those up.

History often repeats itself,

sometimes in a beneficial way.
Hull sees many similarities
between the skyline operation and
the old-fashioned high-lead method
of logging from decades ago, in
ihe days of steam donkeys. One
difference is that the oldtime log-
gers didn’t bother with anything
but the biggest and best trees.
Regulations now require that
everything be cut. Not all of it is
yarded out, however — 30 percent
of the stands Hull is cutting are
"culls", he says, and are left on the
ground. The remainder is about 50
percent pulp logs and 50 percent
saw logs.

It’s a formidably risky business.
Hull recalls that his company tried
to set up a skyline by using a
skycar on a conventional tower. It
worked okay until they tried to
pull up an exceptionally heavy
load — the main tower buckled.

Aside from the safety concern, it,

cost $50,000 to repair. Parts for
machines that break down can take
weeks to reach Terrace from the
places where they are stocked.
ack at Shannon, Perry
Anderson is loaded and
ready to go. The truck
bumps and snarls its way down the

don’t

mountain. A few hundred metres
away from the landing he stops by
a white bucket with the handle of
a hammer projecting out of it. He
swings the hammer into the ends
of the logs, applying the Ministry
of Forests-issued timber mark to

indicate where the logs came from

and who cut them. Then the

"wraps" — steel cables — get
slung around the load and
tightened.

"It’s a tough business,” Anderson
says as we roll down the highway.
"More don’t make it than do." He
moved here three years ago from
the Okanagan and sometimes
thinks about going fishing, But the

working days are more than 12

hours, 10 months a year, and one
day out of the weekend goes to
maintenance work on the truck.

"Doesn’t leave much time for the /¥

family," he remarks.

In Thornhill the "Logging Trucks
Exempt" sign is on at the govern-
ment weigh scales. Anderson rolls
past and heads for the mill yard.

FAST
FOREST

FACTS
sponsored by

Canadian} Women
in timber

Terrace Branch

FACT: Province-wide, there
are 6.1 milllon hectacres of
federal and provincial parks,
wildlife conservancles and
ecological reserved — about
2.0 hectacres of parkland
for avery man, woman and
child living in British Colum-
bia, About 56% of B.C. is in
or available for parks,
recreation, or wilderness.
(source: federal and provin-
cial government)

«Public concerns

«Analysis

EVERY WEEK IS FOREST WEEK

in the

Terrace Review
*Logging and milling
«Government policy changes
eMarkets and products

*Endless commissions

‘Land use conflicts
eResearch and development —

and the adventures of

in Forestry Insights every week.

Terrace Review — Wednesday, May 8, 1991 Cll |

J

The flow is the main thing at Shannon Main as the hydraulic log loader transfers timber onto a
waiting truck, while in the background the skyline yards more logs from 1,400 feet across the river
valley.

KDM FOREST SERVICES LTD.
silviculture Consultants

Providing services to indusiry,
government and private land owners in
the areas of: |
Silviculture project planning and management
«Ecological classification and interpretation
-Forest surveys
‘Site preparation and rehabilitation
‘Reforestation
Tree improvement a 2
¢Extension services for private land owners

Serving Northwest B. c. since 1983
Doug Davies

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