THE LUMBERMAN

[Applause] this is timber country part of the nearly 500 million acres of commercial forests in the United States the Pacific West with less than a quarter of these forests produces nearly half the nation's forest products what makes this region so rich in timber principally moderate temperatures and abundant rainfall there are a few extremes of heat and cold and trees can be cut all year round heavy rains occur when clouds from the Pacific Ocean release their moisture on the mountain ranges drenching their western slopes with as much as 120 inches of rain a year more than half the population of the Pacific Northwest depends on the forest for at least part of their livelihood this is the story of these people and the changing timber industry [Applause] [Music] [Music] [Applause] there's a small group of skilled specialists on every logging crew men who do one particular job and do it well each job has a special name like high rigger whistle pump donkey puncher names passed down from the time when all of lumberjack needed were iron muscles strong back and a well-honed act in the old days logging was a rugged business for rough-and-tumble men today machines have taken over much of the fact breaking work tech falling for instance [Applause] power saws two men can bring down a tree like this and cut it into logs in half an hour took three hours to do the same job with an old-fashioned crosscut saw you don't need oxen to skid logs out of the woods today I lead cables tractors and booms handle a four-ton saw log like a piece of kin there goes 40 tons of first grade logs on the way to the mill payload large enough to build three five room ranch homes these diesel trucks have changed the industry as much as anything else there's nearly 40,000 dollars invested in each one of them they pay the cost back in speed and efficiency a holding pond stores cut logs keeps them from checking or drying out until the mills ready for them old timers would call this contraption a toy nevertheless a water bug with an outboard motor helps move logs around easily we still need some manpower here but cranes do the heavy work that keeps a steady flow of logs moving on to the mill there's enough commercial timber in the forests of Oregon alone to rebuild every house in the United States the industry was young there was even more timber so much more the nation wasted it we cut only the best trees and did nothing to replace them we threw away more than half of every law but in time we learned the supply would not last forever at this wasteful rate today we use up to 80% of every tree even the bark has stripped off the law machines have changed the sawmills to [Applause] I speed equipment assembly line methods have made each man many times more productive [Music] today the big move is for efficiency in the woods in the mills and in our offices competition from other companies and from new building materials keeps our young management constantly improving and expanding but only a seasoned veteran can look back over the years and realize how much change has taken place since the days when the Pioneer woodsmen worked their way westward cutting the forests bare from Maine to Oregon following the paths of the early settlers and providing the material that built the cities and farmsteads and railroads of the new nation but parts of the industry have paid a price for this progress 40 years ago this was a prosperous sawmill in Oregon the only industry in a small community called Wendling when the forests nearby were depleted loggers moved farther away for new timber eventually it costs too much to haul logs back to Wensley and the mills declined what happened to this town and the people who were in there living at the mill listened to a man who lived here I was born here in Wendling in 1929 and today the town is gone timber was cut the mill shut down a town died today Wendling Oregon is a ghost town this is all that's left other mill towns in this region are dead or dying only a few people stay out mostly old folks who live in the past of the days when they like the mills were active [Music] logging trucks don't stop here anymore but the same Diesel's that wore through the main streets of old mill towns around their way to new modern cities but they themselves have helped create since trucks can haul logs long distances at reasonable costs mills can be built in the best locations for shipping plywood paper lumber and other wood products to the rest of the country many mills are grouped together at these transportation centers cities have grown up around today's mils are concentrated in a belt that extends roughly from Eureka in Northern California to Vancouver British Columbia the population of many middle sized cities in this belt has increased sharply as a result this shift from isolated mill towns to city operations has made a big difference in the way loggers live for one thing a home and family are part of the lives of many forest workers who couldn't have them 50 years ago Paul Gordon is one of these men he works on a logging crew for a company near Eugene Oregon 50 years ago a man like Paul would have lived off in the woods much of the year in a bachelor camp with other lumber men modern logging methods made it possible for Paul to marry have children make a comfortable home for his family his life is so stable he can run a small dairy farm for extra income Paul used to work in a small shingle mill when new materials began to replace wooden shingles the mill lay idle most of the time by the time Paul's children were born the mill closed down and to provide for his family Paul went to work in the woods balls just one of over half a million Americans in the forest products industry at least 45% of the working population of the Pacific Northwest is involved directly or indirectly in the timber industry and many of today's forest workers commute from the city to the forest to keep all these people working we've developed new methods and new products and a new kind of lumber man Mike Walton is a City mill worker yet he's as much a logger as any high climber or tree faller his family enjoys all the advantages of metropolitan living good schools stores and setting entertainment Mike is the third generation of Oregon timber men in the Walton family his grandfather was a pioneer lumberjack who came here from Minnesota when the big Midwestern stands ran out his father was head Sawyer at a mill about 90 miles north of régime Woodsman think millworkers have an easy life for while mike is on his way to work Paul and his crew have been on the job for an hour Paul and Mike work for the same company and this same tree that Paul's crew is bringing down will probably end up on Mike's machine at the mill [Music] [Applause] myk's plant makes plywood one of the forest products that helps keep his company growing and able to hire more people each year his machine peels a thin layer of wood from the law later a number of sheets of the veneer are glued together under pressure to form a wooden sandwich called plywood that pound-for-pound is many times stronger than steel from would research men have developed beams with a strength of steel plastics fertilised even the raw materials for motion picture film although new product development means growth for the industry it is costly and small companies cannot afford the investment a logging manager of one of the major companies sums up the situation this way foresters engineers research all take their place now alongside of the logger planning the long term investment returns our necessity the small operator we cannot wait for this return is not able to keep up in today's economic fight federal and state governments help the small operators by modern equipment but competition with larger companies is still difficult the government owns two-thirds of the forest land in the Pacific Northwest and federal and state foresters have joined with private enterprise in one of the most significant changes in the forest products industry forest conservation after years of exploitation we now manage the forests regulating cutting and replanting to preserve timber for ourselves and generations to come timber is one of the few resources that can renew itself a major aim of the forestry program is to grow trees on a recurring 80 year cycle to produce timber as a crop to farm it like weed and vegetables and make sure we replant the trees we cut the future of the forest products industry depends largely on the success of the conservation program since all Americans use wood or wood products extensively this industry is essential to every one of us as citizens we share in the responsibility for maintaining a perpetual harvest of trees for preserving one of the most valuable resources we [Music]