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Logging is the process of cutting, processing, and moving
tree In botany, a tree is a perennial plant with an elongated stem, or trunk, usually supporting branches and leaves. In some usages, the definition of a tree may be narrower, e.g., including only woody plants with secondary growth, only ...
s to a location for
transport Transport (in British English) or transportation (in American English) is the intentional Motion, movement of humans, animals, and cargo, goods from one location to another. Mode of transport, Modes of transport include aviation, air, land tr ...
. It may include skidding, on-site processing, and loading of trees or logs onto
trucks A truck or lorry is a motor vehicle designed to transport freight, carry specialized payloads, or perform other utilitarian work. Trucks vary greatly in size, power, and configuration, but the vast majority feature body-on-frame construction ...
Society of American Foresters, 1998. Dictionary of Forestry.
or skeleton cars. In
forestry Forestry is the science and craft of creating, managing, planting, using, conserving and repairing forests and woodlands for associated resources for human and Natural environment, environmental benefits. Forestry is practiced in plantations and ...
, the term logging is sometimes used narrowly to describe the logistics of moving wood from the stump to somewhere outside the
forest A forest is an ecosystem characterized by a dense ecological community, community of trees. Hundreds of definitions of forest are used throughout the world, incorporating factors such as tree density, tree height, land use, legal standing, ...
, usually a
sawmill A sawmill (saw mill, saw-mill) or lumber mill is a facility where logging, logs are cut into lumber. Modern sawmills use a motorized saw to cut logs lengthwise to make long pieces, and crosswise to length depending on standard or custom sizes ...
or a
lumber yard A lumber yard is a location where lumber and wood-related products used in construction and/or home improvement projects are processed or stored. Some lumber yards offer retail sales to consumers, and some of these may also provide services s ...
. In common usage, however, the term may cover a range of forestry or
silviculture Silviculture is the practice of controlling the growth, composition/structure, as well as quality of forests to meet values and needs, specifically timber production. The name comes from the Latin ('forest') and ('growing'). The study of forests ...
activities. Logging is the beginning of a supply chain that provides raw
material A material is a matter, substance or mixture of substances that constitutes an Physical object, object. Materials can be pure or impure, living or non-living matter. Materials can be classified on the basis of their physical property, physical ...
for many products societies worldwide use for
housing Housing refers to a property containing one or more Shelter (building), shelter as a living space. Housing spaces are inhabited either by individuals or a collective group of people. Housing is also referred to as a human need and right to ...
,
construction Construction are processes involved in delivering buildings, infrastructure, industrial facilities, and associated activities through to the end of their life. It typically starts with planning, financing, and design that continues until the a ...
,
energy Energy () is the physical quantity, quantitative physical property, property that is transferred to a physical body, body or to a physical system, recognizable in the performance of Work (thermodynamics), work and in the form of heat and l ...
, and consumer
paper Paper is a thin sheet material produced by mechanically or chemically processing cellulose fibres derived from wood, Textile, rags, poaceae, grasses, Feces#Other uses, herbivore dung, or other vegetable sources in water. Once the water is dra ...
products. Logging systems are also used to manage
forest A forest is an ecosystem characterized by a dense ecological community, community of trees. Hundreds of definitions of forest are used throughout the world, incorporating factors such as tree density, tree height, land use, legal standing, ...
s, reduce the risk of
wildfire A wildfire, forest fire, or a bushfire is an unplanned and uncontrolled fire in an area of Combustibility and flammability, combustible vegetation. Depending on the type of vegetation present, a wildfire may be more specifically identified as a ...
s, and restore
ecosystem An ecosystem (or ecological system) is a system formed by Organism, organisms in interaction with their Biophysical environment, environment. The Biotic material, biotic and abiotic components are linked together through nutrient cycles and en ...
functions, though their efficiency for these purposes has been challenged. Logging frequently has negative impacts. The harvesting procedure itself may be illegal, including the use of corrupt means to gain access to forests; extraction without permission or from a protected area; the cutting of protected species; or the extraction of timber in excess of agreed limits. It may involve the so-called "
timber mafia Timber mafia refers to organized crime in the field of illegal logging in timber. Bhutan Bhutan, Bhutan's forests have been exploited by the “timber mafia” from neighboring Assam. The phenomenon has increased in the last decade. Brazil ...
". Excess logging can lead to irreparable harm to ecosystems, such as
deforestation Deforestation or forest clearance is the removal and destruction of a forest or stand of trees from land that is then converted to non-forest use. Deforestation can involve conversion of forest land to farms, ranches, or urban use. Ab ...
and
biodiversity loss Biodiversity loss happens when plant or animal species disappear completely from Earth (extinction) or when there is a decrease or disappearance of species in a specific area. Biodiversity loss means that there is a reduction in Biodiversity, b ...
. Infrastructure for logging can also lead to other
environmental degradation Environment most often refers to: __NOTOC__ * Natural environment, referring respectively to all living and non-living things occurring naturally and the physical and biological factors along with their chemical interactions that affect an organism ...
. These negative environmental impacts can lead to
environmental conflict Environmental conflicts, socio-environmental conflict or ecological distribution conflicts (EDCs) are social conflicts caused by environmental degradation or by Environmental justice, unequal distribution of environmental resources. The Environm ...
. Additionally, there is significant occupational injury risk involved in logging. Logging can take many formats.
Clearcutting Clearcutting, clearfelling or clearcut logging is a forestry/logging practice in which most or all trees in an area are uniformly cut down. Along with Shelterwood cutting, shelterwood and Seed tree, seed tree harvests, it is used by foresters t ...
(or "block cutting") is not necessarily considered a type of logging but a harvesting or silviculture method. Cutting trees with the highest value and leaving those with lower value, often diseased or malformed trees, is referred to as
high grading In forestry, fishing and mining, high grading refers to the selective harvesting of goods to keep only the most valuable items. The term is frequently associated with fraud, especially in mining. Forestry In forestry, high grading, also sometimes ...
. It is sometimes called selective logging, and confused with
selection cutting Selection cutting, also known as selection system, is the silvicultural practice of harvesting trees in a way that moves a stand level modelling, forest stand towards an uneven-aged or all-aged condition, or 'structure'. Using stocking models der ...
, the practice of managing stands by harvesting a proportion of trees. Logging usually refers to above-ground forestry logging. Submerged forests exist on land that has been flooded by damming to create
reservoir A reservoir (; ) is an enlarged lake behind a dam, usually built to water storage, store fresh water, often doubling for hydroelectric power generation. Reservoirs are created by controlling a watercourse that drains an existing body of wa ...
s. Harvesting trees from forests submerged by flooding or dam creation is called underwater logging, a form of timber recovery.


Clearcutting

Clearcutting, or clearfelling, is a method of harvesting that removes essentially all the standing trees in a selected area. Depending on management objectives, a clearcut may or may not have reserve trees left to attain goals other than regeneration, including wildlife habitat management, mitigation of potential erosion or water quality concerns.
Silviculture Silviculture is the practice of controlling the growth, composition/structure, as well as quality of forests to meet values and needs, specifically timber production. The name comes from the Latin ('forest') and ('growing'). The study of forests ...
objectives for clearcutting, (for example, healthy regeneration of new trees on the site) and a focus on
forestry Forestry is the science and craft of creating, managing, planting, using, conserving and repairing forests and woodlands for associated resources for human and Natural environment, environmental benefits. Forestry is practiced in plantations and ...
distinguish it from
deforestation Deforestation or forest clearance is the removal and destruction of a forest or stand of trees from land that is then converted to non-forest use. Deforestation can involve conversion of forest land to farms, ranches, or urban use. Ab ...
. Other methods include shelterwood cutting, group selective, single selective, seed-tree cutting,
patch cut Patch cuts are logging cuts too small to be considered clearcutting, clearcuts, and are instead considered a form of selection cut. A typical patch cut might be 2-3 tree lengths. Below a certain size, seedling regeneration advantage shifts from the ...
, and retention cutting.


Other logging methods

The above operations can be carried out by different methods, of which the following three are considered industrial methods:


/ stem-only harvesting

Trees are felled and then delimbed and topped at the stump. The log is then transported to the landing, where it is bucked and loaded on a truck. This leaves the slash (and the nutrients it contains) in the cut area, where it must be further treated if wild land fires are of concern.


Whole-tree logging

Trees and plants are felled and transported to the roadside with top and limbs intact. There have been advancements to the process which now allows a logger or harvester to cut the tree down, top, and delimb a tree in the same process. This ability is due to the advancement in the style felling head that can be used. The trees are then delimbed, topped, and bucked at the landing. This method requires that slash be treated at the landing. In areas with access to cogeneration facilities, the slash can be chipped and used for the production of electricity or heat. Full-tree harvesting also refers to utilization of the entire tree including branches and tops. This technique removes both nutrients and soil cover from the site and so can be harmful to the long-term health of the area if no further action is taken, however, depending on the species, many of the limbs are often broken off in handling so the result may not be as different from tree-length logging as it might seem.


Cut-to-length logging

Cut-to-length logging is the process of felling, delimbing, bucking, and sorting (
pulpwood Pulpwood can be defined as timber that is ground and processed into a fibrous pulp. It is a versatile natural resource commonly used for Papermaking, paper-making but also made into low-grade wood and used for chips, energy, pellets, and engineered ...
, sawlog, etc.) at the stump area, leaving limbs and tops in the forest. Mechanical harvesters fell the tree, delimb, and buck it, and place the resulting logs in bunks to be brought to the landing by a
skidder A skidder is any type of heavy vehicle used in a logging operation for pulling cut timber, trees out of a forest in a process called "skidding", in which the logs are transported from the cutting site to a landing. There they are loaded onto t ...
or
forwarder A forwarder is a forestry vehicle that carries big felling, felled Timber, logs cut by a Harvester (forestry), harvester from the stump to a roadside landing for later acquisition. Forwarders can use rubber tires or tracks. Unlike a skidder, a ...
. This method is routinely available for trees up to in diameter.


Transporting logs

Logging methods have changed over time, driven by advancements in transporting timber from remote areas to markets. These shifts fall into three main eras: the manual logging era before the 1880s, the railroad logging era from the 1880s to
World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...
, and the modern mechanized era that began after the war.


Pre-1880s: Pre-Industrial Era

In the early days, felled logs were transported using simple methods such as rivers to float tree trunks downstream to sawmills or paper mills. This practice, known as log driving or
timber rafting Timber rafting is a method of transporting felled tree trunks by tying them together to make rafts, which are then drifted or pulled downriver, or across a lake or other body of water. It is arguably, after log driving, the second cheapest mea ...
, was the cheapest and most common. Some logs, due to high resin content, would sink and were known as deadheads. Logs were also moved with high-wheel loaders, a set of wheels over ten feet tall, initially pulled by oxen.


1880s to World War II: Railroad Logging Era

As the logging industry expanded, the 1880s saw the introduction of mechanized equipment like railroads and steam-powered machinery, marking the beginning of the railroad logging era. Logs were moved more efficiently by railroads built into remote forest areas, often supported by additional methods like high-wheel loaders, tractors and log flumes. The largest high-wheel loader, the "Bunyan Buggie," was built in 1960 for service in California, featuring wheels high.


Post-World War II: Modern Mechanized Logging

After World War II, mechanized logging equipment, including chainsaws, diesel trucks, and Caterpillar tractors, transformed the logging industry, making railroad-based logging obsolete. With the advent of these tools, transporting logs became more efficient as new roads were constructed to access remote forests. However, in protected areas like
United States National Forest In the United States, national forest is a classification of protected and managed federal lands that are largely forest and woodland areas. They are owned collectively by the American people through the federal government and managed by the ...
s and designated
wilderness Wilderness or wildlands (usually in the plurale tantum, plural) are Earth, Earth's natural environments that have not been significantly modified by human impact on the environment, human activity, or any urbanization, nonurbanized land not u ...
zones, road building has been restricted to minimize environmental impacts such as erosion in
riparian zone A riparian zone or riparian area is the interface between land and a river or stream. In some regions, the terms riparian woodland, riparian forest, riparian buffer zone, riparian corridor, and riparian strip are used to characterize a ripari ...
s. Today, heavy machinery such as
yarder A yarder is piece of logging equipment that uses a system of cables to pull or fly logs from the stump to a collection point. It generally consists of an engine, drums, and spar, but has a range of configurations and variations, such as the swing ...
s and
skyline A skyline is the wikt:outline, outline or shape viewed near the horizon. It can be created by a city's overall structure, or by human intervention in a rural area, rural setting, or in nature that is formed where the sky meets buildings or the ...
systems are used to gather logs from steep terrain, while helicopters are used for heli-logging to minimize environmental impact. Less common forms of logging, like horse logging and the use of oxen, still exist but are mostly superseded.


Safety considerations

Logging is a dangerous occupation. In the United States, it has consistently been one of the most hazardous industries and was recognized by the
National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health The National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH, ) is the List of United States federal agencies, United States federal agency responsible for conducting research and making recommendations for the prevention of work-related occ ...
(NIOSH) as a priority industry sector in the National Occupational Research Agenda (NORA) to identify and provide intervention strategies regarding occupational health and safety issues. In 2008, the logging industry employed 86,000 workers and accounted for 93 deaths. This resulted in a fatality rate of 108.1 deaths per 100,000 workers that year. This rate is over 30 times higher than the overall fatality rate. Forestry/logging-related injuries (fatal and non-fatal) are often difficult to track through formal reporting mechanisms. Thus, some programs have begun to monitor injuries through publicly available reports such as news media. The logging industry experiences the highest fatality rate of 23.2 per 100,000
full-time equivalent Full-time equivalent (FTE), or whole time equivalent (WTE), is a unit of measurement that indicates the workload of an employed person (or student) in a way that makes workloads or class loads comparable across various contexts. FTE is often use ...
(FTE) workers and a non-fatal incident rate of 8.5 per 100 FTE workers. The most common type of injuries or illnesses at work include
musculoskeletal The human musculoskeletal system (also known as the human locomotor system, and previously the activity system) is an organ system that gives humans the ability to move using their muscular and skeletal systems. The musculoskeletal system provid ...
disorders (MSDs), which include an extensive list of "inflammatory and degenerative conditions affecting the
muscle Muscle is a soft tissue, one of the four basic types of animal tissue. There are three types of muscle tissue in vertebrates: skeletal muscle, cardiac muscle, and smooth muscle. Muscle tissue gives skeletal muscles the ability to muscle contra ...
s,
tendon A tendon or sinew is a tough band of fibrous connective tissue, dense fibrous connective tissue that connects skeletal muscle, muscle to bone. It sends the mechanical forces of muscle contraction to the skeletal system, while withstanding tensi ...
s,
ligament A ligament is a type of fibrous connective tissue in the body that connects bones to other bones. It also connects flight feathers to bones, in dinosaurs and birds. All 30,000 species of amniotes (land animals with internal bones) have liga ...
s,
joint A joint or articulation (or articular surface) is the connection made between bones, ossicles, or other hard structures in the body which link an animal's skeletal system into a functional whole.Saladin, Ken. Anatomy & Physiology. 7th ed. McGraw- ...
s,
peripheral nerves The peripheral nervous system (PNS) is one of two components that make up the nervous system of bilateral animals, with the other part being the central nervous system (CNS). The PNS consists of nerves and ganglia, which lie outside the brain a ...
, and supporting
blood vessel Blood vessels are the tubular structures of a circulatory system that transport blood throughout many Animal, animals’ bodies. Blood vessels transport blood cells, nutrients, and oxygen to most of the Tissue (biology), tissues of a Body (bi ...
s." Loggers work with heavy, moving weights, and use tools such as
chainsaw A chainsaw (or chain saw) is a portable handheld power saw, power saw that cuts with a set of teeth attached to a rotating chain driven along a guide bar. Modern chainsaws are typically gasoline or electric and are used in activities such as t ...
s and heavy equipment on uneven and sometimes steep or unstable
terrain Terrain (), alternatively relief or topographical relief, is the dimension and shape of a given surface of land. In physical geography, terrain is the lay of the land. This is usually expressed in terms of the elevation, slope, and orientati ...
. Loggers also deal with severe environmental conditions, such as inclement weather and severe heat or cold. An injured logger is often far from professional emergency treatment. Traditionally, the cry of "Timber!" developed as a warning alerting fellow workers in an area that a tree is being felled, so they should be alert to avoid being struck. The term " widowmaker" for timber, typically a limb or branch that is no longer attached to a tree, but is still in the canopy either wedged in a crotch, tangled in other limbs, or miraculously balanced on another limb demonstrates another emphasis on
situational awareness Situational awareness or situation awareness, often abbreviated as SA is the understanding of an environment, its elements, and how it changes with respect to time or other factors. It is also defined as the perception of the elements in the envi ...
as a safety principle. In British Columbia, Canada, the BC Forest Safety Council was created in September 2004 as a not-for-profit society dedicated to promoting safety in the forest sector. It works with employers, workers, contractors, and government agencies to implement fundamental changes necessary to make it safer to earn a living in forestry. The risks experienced in logging operations can be somewhat reduced, where conditions permit, by the use of mechanical tree harvesters, skidders, and forwarders.


See also

* Ark (river boat) *
Cable logging image:Wiwtl6.jpg, High Lead logging in Western Oregon Cable logging, also referred to as skyline logging, is a logging method primarily used on the West Coast of North America with yarder, Loader (equipment), loaders, and grapple yarders, but a ...
,
Skyline logging Skyline logging (or skyline yarding) is a form of cable logging in which harvested logs are transported on a suspended steel cable (a cableway or "highline") from where the trees are felled to a central processing location. The skyline's c ...
*
Deforestation Deforestation or forest clearance is the removal and destruction of a forest or stand of trees from land that is then converted to non-forest use. Deforestation can involve conversion of forest land to farms, ranches, or urban use. Ab ...
**
Deforestation and climate change Deforestation is a primary Causes of global warming, contributor to climate change, and climate change affects the health of forests. Land use change, especially in the form of deforestation, is the second largest source of carbon dioxide emissions ...
*
Forest railway A forest railway, forest tram, timber line, logging railway or logging railroad is a mode of railway transport which is used for forestry tasks, primarily the transportation of felling, felled Trunk (botany), logs to sawmills or railway stations. ...
or logging railroad * Logging road * Heli-logging * Log driving * Log scaler *
Lumberjack Lumberjack is a mostly North American term for workers in the logging industry who perform the initial harvesting and transport of trees. The term usually refers to loggers in the era before 1945 in the United States, when trees were felled us ...
** Lumberjack World Championship ** World Logging Championship **
Logging camp A logging camp (or lumber camp) is a transitory work site used in the logging industry. Before the second half of the 20th century, these camps were the primary place where lumberjacks would live and work to fell trees in a particular area. Many ...
* Logging in the Sierra Nevada * Salvage logging * Shovel logging *
Silviculture Silviculture is the practice of controlling the growth, composition/structure, as well as quality of forests to meet values and needs, specifically timber production. The name comes from the Latin ('forest') and ('growing'). The study of forests ...
*
Timber rafting Timber rafting is a method of transporting felled tree trunks by tying them together to make rafts, which are then drifted or pulled downriver, or across a lake or other body of water. It is arguably, after log driving, the second cheapest mea ...
*
Wood industry The wood industry or timber industry (sometimes lumber industry – when referring mainly to sawed boards) is the industry (economics), industry concerned with forestry, logging, timber trade, and the production of primary forest products and woo ...
* Wood economy * World Forestry Congress


References


Further reading

* * * * * *


External links


National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health
– Logging safety
Publications on timber harvesting in Minnesota, US
Many are applicable elsewhere.
EIA forest reports
Investigations into illegal logging.
EIA in the USA
Reports and info. * Logging i
Reynoldston, NY
1870–1930, northern foothills of the Adirondack Mountains * Life in Logging Camps i
Reynoldston NY
1870–1930
BC Forest Safety Council

Pictorial history of logging from 1880–1920

Naturally:wood Sustainable Forest Management

Logging in North Vancouver in the 1910s
– A visual history from the UBC Library Digital Collections
Industries and Occupation Photographs in the Pacific Northwest
– Logging and Lumber Mining Photographs from the University of Washington Library

– University of Washington Library

– University of Washington Library
North American forest industry
online information portal {{Authority control Forestry occupations