becoming a logger

[redneck logger]

:greenchainsaw: i live in minnesota and im thinking about going into forestry and become a logger i was wondering about pay and the stuff i can expect from day to day and if its really worth doing.

 

[forestryworks]

it's worth doing if you absolute love that kind of work
and love your job (rigging, loader op., faller, etc.)

get a forestry tech or a 4yr. forestry degree
take a few courses and learn to operate a fellerbuncher
or loader or yarder or woods machines of the like

you don't need a degree to log but you do need something
to fall back on

 

[slowp]

It isn't hunting or fishing or hiking. You have work where the timber is--not at all like a park. I hear the company guys talking about a shortage of young guys taking up logging, well, it isn't the best of things to do wage wise and security wise. Take right now, if we don't get any rain, we'll go into a shut down. Think of it as an unpaid vacation. Then in the winter, we had so much snow here and the market tanked--more time off unpaid.
Wages are what they were in the 1980s. At the same time they're saying they can't find young guys to start out, they're cautious about hiring newbies because of potential accidents. Not easy to get started unless you know someone in the business.

 

[Nailsbeats]

Is it really worth doing? Depends how bad you want it. That's different for everybody.

Will you make great money and have all the benefits and security? No.

 

[mile9socounty]

If the job I'm hunting for. Thats the next job on my list. I've got to keep the family roots somewhere in the forest. Yes I have thought it over many times at night. I like working in the woods. One way or another, I'm going to stay out there until it puts me under. Ain't no building going to keep me trapped up.

Kenny

 

[Nailsbeats]

Yes, get a degree and log because you want to, not because you have to.

 

[redneck logger]

i want to do it because its what i love but just dont know how to get started in it. i know not many young guys go in it around here its a dieing job. have any tips?

 

[redlaker]

get a trade! I dont know about getting a job in logging these days, it seems there is barely enough jobs for the people that are in it already

 

[toddstreeservic]

i want to do it because its what i love but just dont know how to get started in it. i know not many young guys go in it around here its a dieing job. have any tips?

Go talk to loggers. Thats where I would start. Find a logger, buy him a beer, and talk to him. Repeat. Before long you will find one that will take you under their wing and teach you the trade.

-Pay sucks.
-dangerous.
-hard work.
+ work outside
+get to use cool tools (chainsaw, skidder etc)
+rewarding work

 

[forestryworks]

i want to do it because its what i love but just dont know how to get started in it. i know not many young guys go in it around here its a dieing job. have any tips?

and you gotta go where the timber is...

there's plenty of companies in the rocky mountains looking
for hard workers to help with the beetle kill salvage

 

[Gologit]

and you gotta go where the timber is...

there's plenty of companies in the rocky mountains looking
for hard workers to help with the beetle kill salvage

Yup...if you really want to go logging the Left Coast is where it's at. There's been some good advice given you so far. There isn't any real job security, the money isn't great, the work can be damn hard, and you're looked down on my the majority of society. You get dirty, you get sore, you get banged up, and that's just on the good days.

If these things don't bother you, then give it a try. Be ready to start at the bottom...literally at the bottom if you're on a rigging crew. If you start out on the landing chasing or bumping knots (or both) I hope you like to move at a trot all day. There's little logging outfits all over the Sierras and finding a job isn't hard. Keeping the job is a different story. And sometimes even having a job for very long is hard to do. Things slow down, the market changes, the logger gets in on different ground and doesn't need as many people...and there goes your job.

But, if you can tough it out for a couple of seasons, and if you're a good hard worker, if you're right there ready to go every morning and you pull your share of the load all day and don't whine....the word will get out about you. If you're good, the boss will keep you longer than he should. When he does have to let you go he'll probably have a good idea where you should look for another job. He might even loan you out to other loggers he knows just so maybe he can get you back when he needs you.

So...try it. If you don't try it you might spend the rest of your life wishing you had. And if you wind up deciding it's not for you...what the hell, you're young and you can go do something else.

 

[forestryworks]

Yup...if you really want to go logging the Left Coast is where it's at. There's been some good advice given you so far. There isn't any real job security, the money isn't great, the work can be damn hard, and you're looked down on my the majority of society. You get dirty, you get sore, you get banged up, and that's just on the good days.

If these things don't bother you, then give it a try. Be ready to start at the bottom...literally at the bottom if you're on a rigging crew. If you start out on the landing chasing or bumping knots (or both) I hope you like to move at a trot all day. There's little logging outfits all over the Sierras and finding a job isn't hard. Keeping the job is a different story. And sometimes even having a job for very long is hard to do. Things slow down, the market changes, the logger gets in on different ground and doesn't need as many people...and there goes your job.

But, if you can tough it out for a couple of seasons, and if you're a good hard worker, if you're right there ready to go every morning and you pull your share of the load all day and don't whine....the word will get out about you. If you're good, the boss will keep you longer than he should. When he does have to let you go he'll probably have a good idea where you should look for another job. He might even loan you out to other loggers he knows just so maybe he can get you back when he needs you.

So...try it. If you don't try it you might spend the rest of your life wishing you had. And if you wind up deciding it's not for you...what the hell, you're young and you can go do something else.

+ 1 on what bob said

it's more a way of life than an actual job
but then again there's no other job like it
and you owe it to yourself to try it

 

[Burvol]

I'm here to say that it's a lifestyle more than anything. It gets inside you, and becomes who you are after a while. I love it, never had a job that I could get up at 2:30 or 3:00 A.M. and enjoy doing...There's no better place to spend a summer than in the timber out here. The late fall rains and cold winters (until shutdown) are another story, but I still love it. I think Grit or being a able to grind it out are how I would describe it. You might screw up and become a logger!

 

[Philobite]

Here's an idea

Redneck Logger,

How about this idea: Get a degree or choose work so that you can work your way into a seasonal job. I know several teachers who worked and got good benefits for the school year, and got into contractor carpentry during their free months in the summers. They about doubled their income, yet they were cushioned from the ups and downs of being a full-time carpenter.

So if you became, say, a teacher, you could save up and purchase 100 acres of timberland, and get a used loader and used D6 or D7 CAT or a used skidder, and manage your timberlands during the summer. Maybe you have a relative who could limb and set chokers for you for some summer pay. That's what my older brother does for me. He's a biology and science teacher at a private school and works for two months with me in our redwoods during summer.

100 acres of good timberland should keep you going for several years before it needs a rest, and you can roll some of the profits into another timberland purchase and come back to the first one in 5 years. 200 acres of good land and you'll be set with enough logging for any personal appetite. The nice thing about this approach is you don't absolutely have to log every year, so if you need to take a break, or if prices dip, or you get sick or hurt, you're not out your main income or insurance. You can let the forest sit and accrue growth value around 7% a year. Just set up your purchase of the land so that you don't absolutely need the timber income to make the payments.

You may even luck out and marry a girl that loves the outdoors and would be happy to be in a cozy cabin or nice trailer in the forest with you during the logging season. Ideally, build your home there... the commute to work is a stroll out to the ATV.

 

[redneck logger]

the thing is i dont want to go to the west coast i want to stay in minnesota ya know lol

 

[redlaker]

so when you say "logger" what exactly do you mean?

are you talking about running buncher or skidder? because I can't imagine there is alot of hand felling in minnesota.. somebody correct me if I'm wrong

 

[hammerlogging]

In MN, unless you're serving the unconventional markets- small woodlot owners with multiple stewardship objectives, yes, likely you mean CTL or fellerbuncher/skidder outfits pulpwood. Which is ok, its logging too. As said before, meet some loggers. Good help is hard to find anywhere so if you are thoughtful, easy on equipment, and reliable, you'll survive on crews once ou get your foot in the door. Think about what your vision/goals is in regards to what type of logging you want to be doing. So, if you want to check it out, go walk up to some loggers, tell em you want a job. Someone will recognize talent and ambition and give you a try. Its a strange work to enjoy but we all seem to so, good luck.

 

[chevytaHOE5674]

Yeah MN logging will most likely not be hand felling so learn to run equiptment. Times are hard up in the area though, my girlfriends logging father of 35+ years just lost his job a few weeks because one of the most profitable logging outfits in Michigans UP and Northern Wisconsin cut from 4 crews down to 1. Luckly he is able to work nights running a feller buncher. Good luck it is touch times in the Northern Midwest right now.

 

[GASoline71]

A word of advice... stay in school... you don't just walk out in the woods one day and say, "Ya know... I think I'll be a logger."

Gary

 

[redlaker]

no disrespect to the people that run the bunchers, skidders, limbers, slashers, loaders, processors, forwarders.... I know alot of people that work in the bush, but not many of those people would call themselves a logger, more than likely they would say bushworker, or operator.... when I hear the word "logger" I don't picture an 18 year old kid in an air conditioned cab, moving joysticks and pushing buttons and rocking out to the latest tunes on the Ipod.

I picture someone on their own, with a chainsaw, a can of gas, an axe and some wedges, falling big timber. kinda like sturdy danny mcgee on the old raisin bran commercial...

I guess I must be old fashioned