Logging a big part of area history

BONNERS FERRY — The logging industry has been a part of Boundary County since the early 1900s. With the rise and fall of the economy over the decades, the industry has adapted and grown to new and more innovative techniques and the utilization of more advanced equipment developments over the past century.

As the population grew, and the wars came and went, the demand for wood increased dramatically. The eastern and midwestern portions of the United States were depleting their forests quickly, and the only option was to look to the Northwest.

“In 1899, Idaho produced 65 million board feet of lumber; in 1910, it produced 745 million,” stated Wikipedia. “By 1920, the Pacific Northwest was producing 30 percent of the nation’s lumber.”

As the nation’s best renewable source of building material, the demand was high, but after the Great Depression, production numbers dwindled. On top of that, the increased amount of cement and steel being used for building kept the lumber industry in a slump.

Over time, the methods of felling trees changed with the increasing technology, but there are many things that remain to this day.

The importance of the direction that the tree falls has always been imperative, so the processes in which they cut the trees are very intricate. Situational awareness is a key factor to not only the safety of oneself, but to the other crew members. Felling trees that weigh thousands of pounds while standing nearby, can be both exhilarating and dangerous.

“When I first started, it was the adrenaline rush,” said Scott Fairchild, who is an operator/engineer for Faust Inc., and who is not only capable of running all of the heavy machinery, but a 30-year logging veteran.

“You’re standing right next to these huge trees as they are going to the ground and you have to do it right, or you die. Sometimes you would get very close. You have to look at all of your surroundings. Guys have been hurt terribly just from the snow falling out of the trees.”

From axes to hand saws, loggers have worked tirelessly over the past century to provide timber products to residents both near and far.

In the early days of logging in the Pacific Northwest, the loggers would use axes to cut a pie-shaped slice from the tree with the bottom being straight, and the top angling down, called a face cut, which they did on the side of the tree in which direction they intended it to fall. They also needed to have a layout for where the tree was to fall so that they could easily extract it.

Axes and two-person hand saws were the main tools loggers used in order to cut down a tree. The men cutting the tree needed to be careful, not only as to which way the tree was falling, among many other factors, but also pitch seams that would dull the blades. Diesel or kerosene was used on the saws to remove the pitch that would clog the blades, making the process less time consuming.

Springboards were used as a sort of scaffolding, allowing the loggers that were felling the tree to get higher up the tree to avoid imperfections, or being higher on the downhill side of a tree, in turn, making it easier for them to fell the tree. Springboards were wooden boards that were inserted into slits in the tree, which the loggers then stood on, giving them the reach they needed.

In the earlier days of logging in North Idaho, the loggers cut trees near waterways, such as the Kootenai River, so that they could float the logs to their destinations. With logging moving inland more, they needed to establish alternate ways to move the heavy loads down the mountains and toward a way of further transport.

Chutes were useful in the transportation of logs during the time when horse travel was the most practical form of transportation and hauling. Chutes are grooves that were cut into the ice, snow, mud, or dirt, which allowed the logs to descend down an incline with minimal complications.

Another way that the loggers transported the logs to the nearest waterway was log flumes, which was a man made trough that was V-shaped and fed by a water supply on the uphill side, utilizing the waters natural flow downhill to power the movement of the heavy logs. The main hardship about this method was not only the shortage of an ample water supply, but the chance of a jam, which was very costly to the operation.

Consisting of three workstations, the beginning being where the logs were fed into the flume, the second being where the workers, called Runners, were stationed accordingly to watch for jams and keep the procession going, and the third being the workers that unloaded the logs from the flume.

Other earlier forms of moving the heavy timber consisted of horses, donkeys, and oxen, which eventually was brought to locomotive power. After World War I, military vehicles were in need of new occupations, which the growing timber industry jumped to utilize.

Between 1920 and 1930, the vehicles were improved to navigate the rough roads, steep inclines, and better manage their loads. By the middle of the 1930s the manufacturers made additional adaptations to the vehicles, which in turn, allowed the timber industry to move about as much timber as trains at the time. Since then, the quality of timber hauling vehicles continue to increase, which allows the local timber companies to keep their drivers more safe and create an increased revenue per trip.

The invention of the first chainsaws in the 1940’s brought a new light to the industry, making logging much quicker. The first one person saw tipped the scales at 60 pounds, which, though faster, took its toll on the wielder. Modern chainsaws today weigh about 25 pounds, making them much less taxing on the loggers.

“There were a lot of chainsaws. There was two chainsaw repair places in town that were busy all the time. There were no feller bunchers, no shears, processors, there was none of that, it was all done with chainsaws,” said Fairchild. “Today, they still hand fall the steep stuff, and difficult areas to get to. There are areas with no access roads, where helicopters may come and move the trees to a place where they can be loaded onto a truck. Some things like using a cable and chokers hasn’t changed much and have been used for a very long time.”

From hand saws and axes, to the currently used chainsaw, tools for harvesting trees have progressed alongside vehicles and other technology. In this current time in the industry, heavy machinery and technology have come together to make the demanding industry efficient.

“The hot saw, big wheel, has teeth on it that spin and by the time it gets to the tree, it’s already cut off,” said Fairchild. “They fell them into a nice, neat pile, where the skidders grab them, and go. The skidder sets it by the processor, which grabs it, delimbs it, cuts it, and on they go. There are arms that grab the logs, which are like sharp knives. The wheels pull it and as it goes, the sharp knives take off all the limbs, and then there are electronic eyes that do all the measuring.”

Sometimes in the areas where there is limited to no access, the trees are diseased or dead. The fire hazard in hard to reach areas, grows every year, but those in forest maintenance through logging and other forms of forest service management, do their best to negate the danger as best they can.

“When we go in there, anything that is dead or diseased, we take it out,” said Fairchild. “While we are in there, all the brush is taken out too. A lot of times they burn the debris, and then the area gets planted.”

With the timber industry being an overwhelmingly renewable source of energy and products, Boundary County counts on not only the economic income, but an increased safety from devastating forest fires.

To view a video about the Idaho Forest Group in Moyie Springs, Idaho with a fearture from Scott Fairchild, visit https://m.youtube.com/watch?feature=share&v=9GWZWXeoBQI

For more information and other Boundary County historical adventures, visit www.bonnersferrymuseum.org.