Early Logging Operation

Methods of pulpwood harvesting, extraction, and transportation have changed often since the beginning of operations on the Island.

	For many years trees were felled, limbed, cut into four-foot lengths and stacked
	in readiness for removal by horse-drawn sleigh.
	Horses were replaced for varying periods of time by tractor trains,
	arch hoisters,
	direct loading of trucks along bulldozed strip roads, and by various other methods, none of which are used today.
	Many of the operations were carried out far from centres of population with the woods workers living in camps that were usually constructed of pine logs.

Early pulpwood operations were controlled from logging camps, which usually housed 50 to 100 men and were located near streams and lakes. Often these camps were available only by water or by narrow crossing paths suitable for transporting supplies by horse-drawn sleds. Haul roads, consisting of widened trails from which stumps and debris had been removed, were constructed near the camps, leading from the forest harvesting areas to the lakeshore or riverbank. Cutting roads spaced about 100 feet apart would then be laid out approximately at right-angles to each main haul road. A cutting road was a strip about 10 feet wide, which had been cleared of major obstacles; it usually extended for about one-quarter of a mile from the main haul road. A wood cutter would be assigned to each of these roads and he would clear fell an area extending back about 50 feet on each side of his road and touching on the area of the next cutter. Wood would be stacked in neat piles along these roads.

The wood-hauling phase of the logging operation began with the winter freeze-up and after the first heavy snowfall. This phase was almost entirely completed by horses, which had very early replaced oxen in the woods. A single horse was used to pull a bobsled on which was mounted a rack with a tail- end drag. Up to three cords of wood were piled crossways on this rack and transported from the cutting road to the main haul road and then to a landing on the riverbank. Cutting, piling, loading and unloading was carried out manually, and every piece of wood passed through many hands before reaching a lake or stream and the final river drive to the mill. Horses were essentials part of this operation and for many years a man and his horse working together was the principal feature of the logging industry.

A revolution in logging methods came with the advent of the diesel-powered tractor in the early 1920’s. However, replacement of horses by tractors was slow, and it was not until a manpower shortage developed during the Second World War that mechanical equipment came into general use. Even as late as 1952 there were still 1300 horses employed on pulpwood operations in Newfoundland. At first, tractors were used primarily for road building; the old portage roads were developed into truck roads leading to, and linking up, the logging camps. This network probably marked the beginning of another breakthrough in wood transportation. As roads were built to higher standards they eventually reached a suitable condition for direct truck transport to the mill, thus providing an alternative to the river drive.

It was certain that once tractors were on the scene they would eventually be used in other phases of the industry, and they soon became a power for hauling wood on bobsleds. By 1935 the A.N.D. Company had developed a transportation method called the shuttle system which was unique to their operations. This consisted of small tractors, which moved wood on double bobsleds from the cutting roads to a staging area where the individual sled units were linked into a train and moved to the landing area by large tractors. During this abrupt change from horses to machines, another equally important revolution was taking place in wood cutting methods. In the early 1950’s the chainsaw was introduced and quickly came into general use. This portable, power-driven saw permitted a much greater volume of wood to be felled in a given length of time with less physical effort. It led to a considerable reduction in the manpower needs of the industry.

Tractors had begun to replace horses and power saws to replace the traditional cutting tools, yet wood was still being manhandled at the cutting and landing sites. Consequently, the next step in mechanization consisted of attempts to reduce the labor requirements of wood loading and unloading. This led to the concept of bundled wood, and to the arch hoister, a tracked vehicle towed by a heavy tractor, which was an important feature of Bowaters’ operations in the late 1940’s. Cutters piled wood off the ground so that a sling could be passed around the pile, which was then lifted by winch onto sloping face of the arch. A load consisted of four to six one-cord bundles, which were picked up at the cutting area and transported to the landing.

The arch hoister reduced manpower requirements by providing a means of handling wood in size, but, like many early developments, it eventually proved poor and uneconomic, and as a result disappeared after a few years. Although this phase of development was short lived it did mark a turning point in pulpwood logging since, for the first time, equipment was available with the capacity to roam freely over the terrain. About the mid 1950’s the idea was set up to combine all phases of transportation into one operation and to truck wood directly from the stump to the mill yard. This necessitated construction of roads, capable of supporting loaded trucks, right into the cutting areas. While this method was reduced capable, it resulted in a very high density of roads and in the damage or destruction of an unacceptable amount of productive forestland. Fortunately the practice was outdated in the early 1960’s by wheeled – skidder logging

The wheeled skidder marked another milestone in logging history and took the industry back to tree – length harvesting. The skidder is a rubber – tired, articulated (hinged) vehicle equipped with a winch and cable system. It transports wood in bulk by supporting the log weight at the front end while dragging the load behind it. This machine has great maneuver – ability, can traverse rough terrain, and has brought considerable diversity into wood handling. The felled tree can be skidded to a landing or processing area with branches and leaf intact, or the tree can be branches and topped prior to skidder represented a major innovation in logging in its own right, of equal importance still greater mechanization. Thus, it was soon followed by such items of equipment as delimbing and debarking machines, mobile slashers, and various lifting and loading devices.

The most recent trend in logging, which began in the mid 1960’s and has not yet reached its climax, was brought about by the development of hydraulically – operated wood processors and harvesters. These versatile machines are taking over the task of tree felling, frequently combining this operation with one or more of the later phases of logging – delimbing, debarking, slashing and transportation.