Heli-Loggers, Discovery Channel. 4-DVD set, approx 7 hours. Now in stock at Old Pond Publishing at £14.95 inc. VAT.
This series follows Gord Closson and team at the South Coast Standing Stem Logging Company. Working in the mountainous terrain of Canada’s Vancouver Island in British Columbia, these skilled specialists prepare timber for extraction by helicopter.
We see several different projects. The first is to extract mature red cedar some 30 to 40 metres tall and as much as 25 feet in circumference. If the risks are high, the potential rewards are high too, with one stem worth as much as 50,000 dollars.
The risks come in several forms. There are all the usual hazards of felling on uneven, steep-sided terrain. But the specialist skills are the amount of climbing and moving from tree to tree at height that are involved. There is spectacular footage of ‘clawing’, using a grapple to hook on to a neighbouring tree as an anchorage to swing across. We appreciate the skills of the experienced fellers when we see newcomers – even with experience elsewhere – not making the grade.
Gord Closson always seems to over-commit the team so that they are working against deadlines with bad weather and darkness on their way. The stems are taken out by Chinook helicopter, the most powerful logging helicopter available, at a cost of 15,000 dollars per hour. Pilot Karen Trimmer keeps the turn-rounds short.
The capital costs of the enterprise are high, so the team has to ensure that timber of sufficient weight is available for each load which is taken out from stems felled to the ground or by ‘jigging’. The technique of jigging is to saw into the stems sufficiently so that the helicopter can snap the stem as it lifts, but not so far that the stem breaks off in the wind.
Other projects we see include clearing ground for electric power lines and operating close to a salmon stream which has to be kept free of debris, part of the eco-friendly policy that the team follows.
So, this is one of the world’s most perilous jobs in which every day the team members have to make a lot of decisions and get them right. One false move can spell disaster.
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