References

Careers in the Logging Industry

Timber harvesting, the most basic forest management activity, is an important part of keeping both forests and the communities that depend on them healthy and sustainable. Skillful logging creates wildlife habitat and protects streams from erosion and landscapes from fire, while supporting our country’s seventh largest industry: forest product manufacturing. Building products, paper products, and packaging materials are derived from harvested timber, as are a wide variety of consumer products, such as tissue and medical dressings—and new products are constantly under development. Forest-based materials are also becoming an important part of the quest for renewable energy. The people who harvest, process, and transport timber—loggers—make it all possible. Nationwide, demand for forest products is growing, and the demand for logging services is also growing!

What Types of Jobs are on a Logging Operation?

Motor-Manual Logging Operation

A chain saw operator fells the trees, a skidder operator skids them to a staging area, or landing, where a slasher operator, or sometimes a manual chain saw operator, cuts them to length, and a loader operator sorts them and lifts them onto a truck. A truck driver trims the load and transports it to market. On a “high-lead” operation, a suspended cable (rather than a skidder) conveys the harvested log to the landing.

Mechanized Logging Operation

Most operators work within machine cabs, rather than with chain saws. Contractors may use any of several harvesting and skidding configurations, all of which require skilled operators for cutting trees and skidding them to the landing. Methods for delimbing vary, from stationary “gates” (through which the skidder operator backs his “twitch” or “bunch”) to sophisticated mechanical means. A “knuckleboom loader” loads the trimmed trees or logs onto a truck for transport.

Cut-To-Length Operation

An operator within a cab with computerized measurement capabilities severs the standing tree and, still gripping it with a processor-head, strips off the limbs, and cuts it to specified lengths. A wheeled or tracked forwarder then picks up the processed pieces and transports the load to the landing. A loader then transfers the fully processed logs to the truck for transport.

In-Woods Chipping Operation

Many pulpwood and forest biomass loggers today convert their harvest to chips in the woods and deliver chips, rather than U, to mills that use wood in that form. A grapple operator at the landing pushes harvested trees into the in-feed, where a mechanized process chips or grinds the stems and blows the resulting product into a van for transport to the mill.