In the past year loggers have been in the news from ex-loggers in California fighting wildfires with their trusty dozers to Maine loggers facing-off with an exploding paper digester. From the West Coast to the Northeast, Midwest to Southeast, there are loggers. But no matter which part of the country you log in, there isn’t a question – loggers are tough a$$ mother f#*<&ers.
Stories from the articles: In California, former logger Jerry Hill dug his own survival ditch with fires burning all around him…TWICE. When talking about the loggers fighting the fires, the County Fire Department Safety Inspector says, “You have to be a little crazy and really good.”
In Maine, logger Matt Lloyd got smacked in the back by a white birch tree in a choker and crushed three vertebrae 20 years ago…then fractured his ankle last fall. But he still says “there is nothing more pleasurable than cutting wood.”
Thankfully mechanized logging has made it safer and less taxing. We spend most of our time in quarter-million-dollar machines with AC, heat and radio. And sometimes we do new and “corporate” stuff. We use iPads. We sign a lot of forms. We have meetings and quota calls.
But don’t get me wrong: I do not want to lose the edge of what it means to be a logger. Working in all conditions. Taking care of and fixing your own stuff. Looking out for each other when no one is around. Never being phased and being resilient.
Logging isn’t for everybody, and we are pretty damn proud of that.
