Team Up with Horses

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The small disturbances on the forest floor caused by horse logging even can be beneficial by helping seeds and nuts germinate. In addition, horses produce natural “fertilizer,” rather than the noxious gas or diesel exhaust that their mechanical counterparts belch into the atmosphere.

Some machines, such as chain saws, are part of the horse logging process. A cart-type device called a log arch also is frequently used to connect a team of horses to the logs. The log arch consists of a cantilever frame on two wheels that elevates the front of the log during skidding, and provides a place for the logger to ride. Mechanized loaders, or booms, also can help load logs at the access road, and nearly any horse logging operation uses trucks to haul logs to the sawmill or bring a portable mill to the site.

Restorative Forestry

The logging methods used in restorative forestry actually increase the health of a forest and make trees grow faster. Research on hardwood forests conducted by the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) in West Virginia concluded that crop trees that are thinned responsibly can increase in diameter as much as three times faster than natural stands. Rutledge describes this process as “worst-first.” In the worst-first method of restorative forestry, unhealthy trees are removed first so they don’t compete with healthy trees for essential resources. Selective harvesting also increases wildlife in the forest and encourages a diversity of animals to move into the woods. For instance, opening a forest to more sunlight enables plants that don’t grow well in the shade to flourish, thus attracting a wider variety of wildlife.

In contrast, high grading, a common practice among industrial forestry operations, takes the best trees and leaves only the poorest specimens intact for the future. Most tree stands have been cut this way for generations, which creates a weaker tree population. Mechanized logging also requires skidding roads to be bulldozed through the forest, permanently scarring the landscape. Additionally, mechanical skidders weighing tens of thousands of pounds compact the forest floor, making ruts and eroding soil in the process.

Even when selective harvesting is attempted with industrial methods, the remaining trees dotting the landscape often are no more than feeble sticks with torn bark and bleeding sap — victims of skidded logs haphazardly slamming against them. Horse loggers tend to fell trees more carefully to avoid damaging higher-value trees. Removing trees in this way eliminates those damaged by weather, previous skidding, fire and other natural blight, while thinning overcrowded areas.

A renewably maintained forest can produce harvestable trees every 10 to 30 years. This ongoing management system is a far cry from the clear-cut ethic. Clear-cutting not only causes severe erosion problems and greatly diminishes the number of large trees, but it also slows harvest rotations to as long as 75 years to allow for regrowth.

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