The Siuslaw news., August 10, 2019, SATURDAY EDITION, Page 9, Image 9

SIUSLAW NEWS | SATURDAY, AUGUST 10, 2019 | 9A
Logging
from 1A
We do the tough stuff,” Dan
said. R&R likes to log near
the coast during the summer
since the fire danger is rela-
tively low compared to the
Willamette Valley, but the
steep terrain along the coast
and the cascades means R&R
can’t be fully automated like
other logging companies.
Before Dan and the team
go in with the machines, a
team of tree cutters went in on
foot with power saws and cut
the 45 acres of allotted trees
by hand over the course of
two months. Currently at the
site, loggers are towards the
bottom of the canyon feeding
the cut logs into cables to be
pulled up to the landing.
The setup on the landing
consists of a dark yellow ma-
chine called a yarder, and
it has a large pole sticking
straight up with multiple ca-
bles connected to it. These
cables are called “guy lines”
and they are attached to tree
stumps around the site. These
stumps anchor the yarder,
which connects to the “sky-
line” cable that runs from the
top of the yarder down into
the canyon, disappearing into
the forest where it’s connected
to a CAT.
On this wire, an unmanned
red skycar — much like an en-
closed sky lift — is powered
by an engine that moves back
and forth across the cable.
The skycar hoists logs from
down in the canyon up to the
landing for the next machine,
the processor, to be trimmed
of branches, cut and sorted
into varying lengths.
The logs, after being loaded
onto a logging truck, are tak-
en to the mills and made into
lumber or other wood prod-
ucts.
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day supply of food, water, medications,
and change of clothing along with
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Jennifer’s parents, Bob and
Kay King, own and are still ac-
tively involved in the business.
But as partners, Dan and Jen-
nifer have now taken on the
business full-time.
R&R operates on N. Fork
Road in Florence and has 65-
70 employees. Oregon is the
largest wood products pro-
ducer in the U.S. according to
Oregon Business, with much
of the harvested wood bought
in Oregon being made into
products that are then export-
ed around the world.
“When I was a kid, I used to
elk hunt in this canyon,” Dan
said. “I found old railroad
tracks in the bottom. There’s
old pilings in the tracks. So all
this wood, the first time they
logged it, went out by train
and went into Winchester Bay.
This timber was all logged in
the early 1900s.”
In many ways, logging Ore-
gon land connects Dan to past
generations of family loggers
— even though many things
have changed in the logging
industry over the last century.
For example, R&R King re-
cently bought a drone to help
them string up cables.
“What would’ve taken three
hours or four hours for four
guys to string cable, we’ll do
it in 10 minutes,” Dan said
of their new circular drone
that’s about five feet in diam-
eter. The drone helps string
haywire, which is a thin cable
fitted with special hooks that
helps to connect the heavier
cables for the yarder and sky-
line.
While the logging indus-
try is continuing to innovate,
there are still prevalent chal-
lenges, such as the bidding
process. The logging industry
works on a process of bidding
for jobs that private landown-
ers or the state of Oregon
present to logging companies.
Ideally, the landowners or
state will send logging compa-
nies a prospectus that consists
of detailed information on the
land.
This helps the logging com-
panies determine how much
money and time it will cost
them to log the land. The log-
ging companies are also able
to see and walk the land be-
fore they determine their cost
estimate.
“It’s really tricky because
you come out and look at a
job, and there’s trees. It’s not
like you can see. You have
the timber crews and you
have their map, but that’s still
somebody’s opinion,” Jennifer
said. “Dan does a lot of walk-
ing the sites, but you really
can’t see all the time what’s un-
der there or if there’s some rot
in a certain section that you
didn’t plan on. So there’s a lot
of experience involved — and
a lot of risk.”
The logging companies
then present their cost esti-
mate to the landowner/state
and bid for the job. “The
other thing that is very chal-
lenging for our industry is,
because you bid every job,
you can’t plan very far ahead.
The equipment you’re buying
is a multi-year investment be-
cause it’s a huge outlay of cap-
ital. But with the jobs, we have
about four or five months
planned until we have to find
more work,” Jennifer said.
R&R has set itself apart by
earning a reputation for being
able to log the difficult terrain
here on the coast. “They love
for us to do the tough terrain,
the long distances. That’s kind
of our expertise,” Jennifer said.
When bidding on a job,
R&R look at the distance of
the site to the mills, the vol-
ume per acre of timber they
can log, and how close the site
is to their shop. They also look
at whether the site is on rock
or dirt. If the site is on dirt,
then they have to be finished
logging the site once it starts
raining for the winter or their
trucks won’t be able to get in
and out of the site because of
mud. “There’s just a lot you re-
ally have to plan for,” Jennifer
said.
USA Today has named log-
ging as the most dangerous
job in America as of 2018.
“Our workers comp rates are
exorbitant,” Jennifer said. R&R
focuses heavily on safety with
monthly safety meetings and
annual companywide safety
meetings where they do CPR
training, hearing testing, and
recently they were approved
for a stokes first aid basket.
“If someone gets injured
down in the canyon, you usu-
ally don’t have much time to
handle it. So you’ve got several
factors. One: how do you get
them to the landing? Do you
wait for an ambulance? Do
you call in a helicopter? Do
you drive them and hope you
get them somewhere quick?”
Jennifer said. With the stokes
basket, an injured worker in
the canyon can be transported
up the landing quickly, where
a helicopter or ambulance can
reach then safely.
“If somebody gets hurt
down there, we can get them
out of there in 15 to 20 min-
utes by attaching the stokes
basket to the cables.” Dan said.
Now that R&R is certified for
the basket, they created a pro-
tocol for using it and train all
the loggers on how to use it in
the field.
Despite all the challeng-
es and risks that accompany
logging, for the Wagoner’s, it’s
their way of life. “It’s all I’ve
ever done. It’s a lifestyle,” Dan
said. In 2015, R&R earned the
Oregon Department of For-
estry’s Southern Oregon Area
Operator of the Year award for
protecting a buffer along Little
Paradise Creek where salmon,
steelhead and trout swim.
Landowners work closely
with the Oregon Department
of Forestry to ensure they are
following regulations for re-
planting after timber harvest,
and that they are also desig-
nating tree buffers to be left
to protect fragile ecosystems.
“Usually when we come in, we
primarily log for people that
own the land, so they have all
that written out,” Dan said.
The logging companies are
responsible for leaving two
standing trees per acre as per
regulations from ODF.
“I belive loggers are some of
the strongest environmental-
ists,” said Jennifer.
With the replanting regu-
lation, landowners must have
150 trees per acre growing
four years after logging takes
place.
“If you were here in 1920
standing here looking down
that canyon, that thing would
have been completely neu-
tered with train tracks,” Dan
said. “There wouldn’t have
been a stick left. But time
heals. They didn’t know.”
With present concerns over
climate change, industries are
being scrutinized more than
ever. The past reputation of
the logging industry as large-
ly hazardous to the environ-
ment hasn’t completely been
diminished, but Jennifer said
she feels the more people
know and understand about
the logging industry, the more
they can work with the public
and governments to continue
innovating and protecting the
land they love.
“There’s a love for what we
do. We’re always striving for
that new things to do better.
So back in the day, it was the
best technology we had at the
time,” Jennifer said. “It wasn’t
like we were choosing to do
things poorly or that would be
harmful.”
R&R says the logging in-
dustry is struggling to find
steady loggers. “There is a
need for young workers. We
start at $15 an hour. They only
need a high school diploma. If
they are driving the log trucks
they have to come to us with
their CDL license but for the
machines, they don’t need any
prior training,” Jennifer said.
“We teach them everything
and we hire at 18 years-old. It’s
really a great career.”
But the primary crew mem-
bers that R&R employs have
been with them for decades.
“A lot of people that work with
us, they have been with us for
over 20 years,” Dan said. “The
guy that runs the yarder, we
bought that yarder 15 years
ago and he came with it.”
Dan said the connection
between the land and his
family is why logging contin-
ues to be the root of his life.
“My great grandpa logged
the Gardner Hill area over 12
years between WWII and the
‘50s. I went back and got to log
that as well,”
In many ways, the land
holds their family memories
and, every time he returns, he
sees the history the land holds
for his family — now and in
the future.
Siuslaw
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