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Pastimes : Let's Talk About Our Feelings!!!
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To: Grainne who wrote (74779)2/21/2000 4:45:00 PM
From: one_less  Read Replies (1) of 108807
 
<<Does the logger sell himself short or act in an irrational way when he seems to believe that he is not capable of supporting himself without killing trees?>>

When I lived in Southern Oregon some entire towns were dependant on the lumber industry. When the lumber economy sagged we all went on food stamps. Whether you worked for a lumber company or not that is where the money came from to fuel the local economy.

I lived in Oregon for a few years in my youth. I worked on several unskilled jobs in the forest. Mostly as a tree planter. But I did have an occasion once to handle a chain saw to work on a thinning contract. This is the process of cutting out some of the trees when the growth is young so that the remaining trees grow big for lumber production. The reports that I got from the other men on chain saw accidents were terrible. It takes only a single moment out of a thirty or forty year career to ruin a healthy body. Freak accidents were very common and more the rule of what could happen than the exception. However there were a few types of accidents that were common; one of those was when the saw would buck. That can happen when a saw hits a hard knot or rock lodged in the wood or something. It causes the saw to jump back toward the operator. Usually the operators keep their elbo locked so that when a saw bucks, it flys over thier head instead of up in their face or shoulder or something. This is more likely to happen to a novice operater than someone experienced. This could be the thing loggers are worried about.

The first day I used a saw to do a thinning contract the boss made me wear a chap (quilted nylon) across my left thigh. The small trees were so thick, it felt like trimming a hedge. The tendancy in this case was that while pulling a little cut tree out of my way with my right hand the saw would dip in my left hand and hit my knee. I cut that chap four times the first day and never after that.

Distractions or other things that could interfere with the smooth operation of the saw are probably the most likely cause of accidents. The problem here is that if the tree cutters have the distraction of watching for or worrying about these spikes; that in and of itself contributes to the possibility of accidents.
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