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Arrow Lakes News ■ Wednesday, March 21, 2012 ■ 3
NEWS
Last day lacing logs at Halfway before spring break Con’t from page 1 timber models, stated Nielsen: “Foresters need to get back on the ground.” Profit has almost always been overestimated with the timber models that have been employed in the industry, one of the problems Nielsen noted with previous forestry management. “Management hasn’t been conservative enough,” he said, “We rarely leave our good stuff, which works until the best of what’s left isn’t good enough.” As we head down the twisting road, the March snow begins in earnest.
Frank Zobel keeps an eye on the timber as it slides off the truck and into the water.
Rick Orr and Darren Wethal share a joke as they get the logs securely in position with the tug at the log dump. CLAIRE PARADIS/ARROW LAKES NEWS
• • • The next morning, Tom Zeleznik, Nacfor director and independent contractor, headed to the log dump for the last day of the season before spring break. The last of the timber on the mountain is being hauled down and taken to the Halfway log dump where it will be bundled up in the water and taken by tug to Castlegar. The temperature, hovering around zero, has made the highway out to the log dump a slushy mess. Turning off the road, the dump was a white expanse leading out into the water and sky. “It’s really beautiful when the sun is shining,” Zeleznik said. With no trucks lined up for the scales, we headed into the shack where Frank Zobel and Doug Zeleznick were waiting for the last of the season’s trucks. The “Halfway House” was a warm spot with a comfy, worn-out chair in the corner. Zobel and the Zeleznicks traded jokes, until two trucks were spotted coming in to the scales.
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After getting the trucks’ cargo labelled and ready to go to the dump, the driver came in and got his paperwork, now done by computer, then drove down to the water. The timber, cinched together with cables, was released into the water, to become part of the large boom destined for Castlegar. Out on the water, Rick Orr and Darren Wethal moved the bundles around with the tug, fastening them together with steel cables. The logs are covered in a two-inch blanket of soggy snow, and it’s hard to tell pine from pulp. Tags and spray paint make it easier to identify the tree species as they bob in the water. Wethal, in corks, jumped from the tug to the log rafts, twelve logs tied together. Having hammered the “ears” of the dog into the wood, he’s created one link in a chain of logs that will be laced together to create the boom. Stock still on the raft, Wethal stood and waited while the tug pushed the raft close enough to another bundle for them to be connected. Once back inside, the talk is of hockey and spring. Both Wethal and Orr have worked on the big tug that ships the timber down to Castlegar. “It takes about seven to ten days, depending on the water level and weather,” Orr said. A four-person crew mans the boat, and the course is watched 24 hours a day. While one shift is in charge, the other sleeps to the sound of the tug’s engines. The trip to Castlegar can transport about 800 logging truck loads, Orr said. Even if the tug has to travel a bit to collect more loads, it transports about one to one and a half million dollars of wood every two weeks. Wethal used to work out in the blocks, but made the move to the tug after three close calls in the bush. After working the long haul, he really enjoys working at the long dump.
CLAIRE PARADIS/ARROW LAKES NEWS
“You’re in the water every month of the year,” Orr said, the one drawback to the job. Still, the tiny cabin has a small stove, and the guys always bring a change of clothes just in case. The pace is relaxed but steady on the last day before the spring break, and every one of the men that works out at Halfway mentioned how much they appreciate where they work and live: the great and beautiful Kootenay.
Darren Wethal laces the key logs together, in any and all weather. CLAIRE PARADIS/ARROW LAKES NEWS
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