The evil that loggers do

[gink595]

I'd like to clear cut an area and burn a huge brush pile just to piss people off, it doesn't matter that the next year I could plant thousands of seedlings, all they see is the bad.

For every tree people bitch about....I will cut down three.

This clear cut is for you AOD and Burvol clear cut America!

 

[Gologit]

So, how about renaming yourself from "logger", to, say, "Timber harvest professional" or maybe "Forest product relocation specialist", then list off some "certifications" like "understory fuels reduction" or "specialized condition engineer" or maybe a real mouthful like "technical specialties engineering" (meaning you figure out how to get the job done).

QUOTE]

Good post. I know you were just kidding but I think I'll keep my job title the way it's listed on my IRS forms...logger. I refuse to change or dumb-down or in any way hide what I've spent my whole life doing.

I don't care if people like us or not...just as long as they leave us alone and stay the hell out of our lives and our profession. Every time we do something to try and placate some well meaning but ill informed member of the general public we wind up spitting on our whole life.

So...no apology for how I make my living. And no other logger should have to apologize, either.

 

[clearance]

I work in a park, and I get complaints about trees being cut, usually some old busy-body with too much time on their hands and a big mouth, theyre like, why is this tree being cut down, and I am like, do you see the huge rotten spot in the middle and all the ants and black crap coming out of it, do you see where lightning split it in half, and theyre like, umm, can't you fix those problems instead of cutting it down? NO THE HAZARD TREE HAS TO GO BEFORE IT FALLS ON SOMEONE! Good god already, freaking humans......

I have met some of these types at work, and here on Arboristsite. It is sickening, trees come before people to them. This is a big province, the closer you get to Vancouver or Victoria, the worse it gets. You need a letter from the Pope almost to cut down any tree, even a p.o.s. hazard tree.

And the people at city hall, and many at the utility company are right in line with the tree huggers, it makes me puke. Saw it the f$%$ down already, it grows back.

 

[joesawer]

So, how about renaming yourself from "logger", to, say, "Timber harvest professional" or maybe "Forest product relocation specialist", then list off some "certifications" like "understory fuels reduction" or "specialized condition engineer" or maybe a real mouthful like "technical specialties engineering" (meaning you figure out how to get the job done).

QUOTE]

Good post. I know you were just kidding but I think I'll keep my job title the way it's listed on my IRS forms...logger. I refuse to change or dumb-down or in any way hide what I've spent my whole life doing.

I don't care if people like us or not...just as long as they leave us alone and stay the hell out of our lives and our profession. Every time we do something to try and placate some well meaning but ill informed member of the general public we wind up spitting on our whole life.

So...no apology for how I make my living. And no other logger should have to apologize, either.

Well said. I also refuse to camouflage who I am in order to cater to some ones ignorant biased discrimination.

 

[Bruce Hopf]

In my life time loggers have gone from being heroes to criminals.
Who saved Little Red Riding Hood? Ask any kid today who Paul Bunyan was. Then ask them if they have ever seen Fern Gully. They are shown that pitiful excuse of a fantasy cartoon in elementary school and taught from kindergarten that cutting any tree is bad.
Just a few days ago we where doing a fuel reduction beside a private beach on a Private lake. A couple of small children, 7 or 8 I am guessing had to stop and demand to know what we where doing to the trees and then seemed to think we should stop. Half the state is on fire and millions of trees are burning up and they still have been so conditioned that they can't understand why we would thin trees and remove fuel ladders.
Several years ago our family had a small logging and saw mill business. This was my only source of income. I had my niece and nephew, they had just started elementary school and came home from school pretty disturbed. After about a week of their strange behavior, it finally came out one night at the dinner table, that I had to stop cutting trees. That it was evil and they could not understand how I could be doing such a bad thing.
I went to their school and had a talk with their principle and there is one small elementary school that for the time being moderated their propaganda.
I work with a 23 year old that is single and has the challenge of trying to have a social life in SoCal. His dad was a logger all his life in OR until he came down here for the bark beetle epidemic. His whole life he wanted to be a logger and a timber faller is the pinnacle he has aspired to reach. Fortunately for him, he is smart, hard working, has good hygiene, not bad looking and he can find a few girls who can overlook his occupation.
We have had the same conversation. He meets a girl, she asks what he does, he answers that he is a logger and she reacts in a negative way in varying degrees, from blowing him off to cussing him out. He is learning to climb, so I suggested that he should answer with arborist instead of logger.
It is a shame, but we are looked at as roughly the same as murdering rapist by a large part of the society. That is of course until there is an emergency such as a fire or beetle epidemic that makes a fire imminent. Then for a short time we are heroes again.
The problem lies in education. People have been taught that trees have as much or more of soul than humans. They some how believe that the tree has more right to life than a human does.
There is a huge disconnection between the consumer product and the source.
There is no education of the public as to trees being a renewable resource. To the point where large retail stores claim to be environmentally friendly by using petroleum bags to save thousands of trees from being made into paper bags.

I know what the young fella is going through. When I used to go out to bars, to socialize, when a girl asked me what I did for a living, I said that I was a truck driver, and I was proud of it. 9 times out of ten, they would blow me off, or I was told that truck drivers have a bad reputation of screwing around while on the road.
When I was on the road for 13 years, Sure I had lots of opportunity, to fool around, But I was raised to respect people, and treat them the way they should be, as I would want to be treated. And boy was it hard sometimes not to lose it on some people.
Up here in Ontario, we are having a problem with the Emerald Ash Bore, and the government is hiring a bunch of door knobs to go in to bushes, and clear out the ash trees, and hope to divert the Ash Bore.
These Dummies, don't even know the difference between tree types. The Government up here will not hire any body with any type of experience, because they won't cheaper labour.
All they do is train them how to start a chain saw, run it, and cut down trees. Don't train them how to tell the difference between trees or nothing. Man I hope they don't come into this bush, because I know that there will be a Homicide. Justifiably that is. Take care you guys, and keep up the good work that you are doing. Be proud of your selves, and take pride in what you are doing. Bruce.

 

[superfire]

Logger

i just tell them i am a Ecology Logger and they generally shut their :censored: mouths.i live in one these wild and scenic river areas and the place is over flowing with this eniro poisin talk. hellz bellz if loging was still being done calafricta would not be a smokeing ruble pile what frys me is we as timber workers can not cut trees but during fire season the firefighters are allowed to rape and pillage the forest as they want i think that we all should stop working as a protest of this insanity that is tearing apart this once fine country.
just my irish nasty side showin mean no one disrespect just like to say my piece.

 

[joesawer]

i just tell them i am a Ecology Logger and they generally shut their :censored: mouths.i live in one these wild and scenic river areas and the place is over flowing with this eniro poisin talk. hellz bellz if loging was still being done calafricta would not be a smokeing ruble pile what frys me is we as timber workers can not cut trees but during fire season the firefighters are allowed to rape and pillage the forest as they want i think that we all should stop working as a protest of this insanity that is tearing apart this once fine country.
just my irish nasty side showin mean no one disrespect just like to say my piece.

What are you talking about? Geesh, don't you know fire fighting is a mega buck business now.

 

[superfire]

i know

What are you talking about? Geesh, don't you know fire fighting is a mega buck business now.

the reason fire fightin is big bucks is loggers aint out in the woods . also another reason fire fightin is now a big buisness is there aint any loggers out in the woods putin out the fires before the turn in a money maker for the the contractors.

:greenchainsaw:

 

[secureland]

Mention these tree uses to your health-care providers...


Pacific Yew for Cancer
Red Cinchona for Malaria
Willow replicated for Aspirin
Cat's Claw for anti-Lukemic properties

(a small list among many)


Tell them that the medical world hasn't ignored our interdependence with trees. Try to open their eyes. If that doesn't work, demand good care for your girl!



http://www.plantpharma.org/ials/index.php?id=423

Bill

 

[deerlakejens]

My point is not to limit speech but to try to point out that the content of your speech can either reinforce an existing stereotype or possibly open someone else's mind to another point of view. I've spent nearly twenty years in sales and marketing and it became real obvious to me early on that if you wanted to have an opportunity to present an idea your approach is the key. You should be proud of the occupation you choose as long as you feel it is honest and productive, no matter what it is. My family ran a tavern in Wisconsin for over forty years, it provided my parents a good standard of living and helped put all three kids through college. Some people, many with what they feel is a good reason, don't hold high opinions of bars. Maybe they've experienced alcoholism in the family, dealt with a drunk driver, or even lived close to an establishment that over served their customers or was a public nuisance. I can understand their feelings. When I compared our place more to a "Cheers" atmosphere and what a tight ship my dad ran because he wanted to attract and retain a clientele that didn't cause problems, I usually get a much more receptive response than if I just said tavern keeper. So this is a long winded way of saying, "If you are getting a negative reaction to your occupation, change your delivery a bit". This is where your social skills come in. Ranting is fine if you are just blowing off steam but too many threads just end up in unproductive name calling and simply polarize participants. I see that as one of the largest problems our country is facing. Issues that are nearly impossible to settle but affect less than 1% of our population dominate discussions while issues that will affect nearly all of us at some time in our lives get pushed aside.

 

[ropensaddle]

Loggers don't upset me but sometimes logging management
does, meaning here they cut and poison hardwood and its
getting harder to find a good hardwood forest which cuts
pollution provides air and sustenance for one of my favorite
pastimes bow hunting! While you may say forest will grow
back etc. purely pine is not a diverse forest that resembles
healthy wilderness. Even if not sprayed with chemical mast
producing hardwood takes many many decades to reproduce.
It needs better managed in my opinion but I don't even harbor
one bad thought toward a logger making his living.

 

[woodfarmer]

so what does this have to do with chainsaws?:greenchainsaw:

 

[Burvol]

so what does this have to do with chainsaws?:greenchainsaw:

Don't be such a tight ass. Cmon' now!

 

[djmercer1]

ive gone through similar crappy atitudes dealing with the stupid. i do municipal developments and weve encountered people who live is the general area who dont want the subdivision/development is their area. however when i run the pipe and eliminate future spetic/water supply issues while riasing the value of theeir property they dont call to thank. another issue ive encountered while traveling is the seal hunt, jeesh doesnt that one drive a bug up people.

bottom line is that you cant teach the willfully ignorant, best thing is to remember that the reasonable portion of society (its about 95%, the 5% lunatic fringe gets all the airtime) is thankful of the loggers, farmers and all those other professions that are 'destroying our planet'.

 

[slowp]

Well, here's what I do to fight it, and by the way, the "agency" I work for keeps us timber people in a separate building. We aren't even Timber anymore, we are Forest Products. I offer, even though I don't like to, to take part in every little school kid show and tell day I can. Unfortunately, the school is now doing the requesting of what they want and timber was left out of the day for little kids. I have a nice slideshow and three poster boards with pictures on them. Little kids love to measure stuff and talk about logging, because they like equipment.

This area also used to be "logging and mills". The demographics have and are changing. A friend tells people that she is doing "timber enhancement" on her land. Last year the Morton newspaper put an article in the paper about how nice the play was that was on during the Logger's Jubilee because it was a good escape from the logging. I quit feeling the urge to support the theater after that was written. The paper writes cheery articles about artists moving here and doesn't run the humorous editorial that was called, "Back of the Crew Bus" anymore. Maybe the writer died? I lost touch while in exile.

I take part in another website that is 90% tree huggers. I think they would love to kick me off, but I hang in there and remind them, when they whine about the conditions of the roads in the forest, that 90% of those roads were built and maintained for logging. If they want good roads again, better start logging or else pay a fee. Lordy, they hate that logic. The scary part is, they want to turn our area, and most all the woodsy rural areas into their playground. They'll come right out and tell us we can always move and find jobs in another field. The wood can come from other countries. So, I fire back with making the Seattle area a National Park....etc.

If it makes you feel better, and it is an evil thought, I can see the day when there will be too many "professionals" and the people who will be in demand will be the ones who can do the dirty work--like fixing the septic system, running the excavator, logging. I think we are almost there.

I remind the airheads that I don't tell doctors how to run their business as they are the experts in medical matters. Why are people who are ignorant of the woods telling me how to do my job? Apparently, any idiot can do forestry work.

So, just tough it out. Remind them that you pay with the same type of money. They sure don't want to refuse it, I bet. Be nice, and then drive off with the Earth First, We'll Log The Other Planets Later bumper sticker on your truck.

Oh. The doctor that used to have a clinic here, used to wear a hickory shirt around his office, was known to be the best chainsaw cut stitcher upper (less scarring), and specialized in crushing injuries. One guy here who went to him the first time said he didn't know if it was a real doctor or not. The doctor had on rigging clothes. He was afraid it was a logger about to stitch him up.

 

[thomas72]

I know what you are talking about. SRS is a government run site that deals with radioactive material and when completion of the plant combined with cut backs with Clinton, the engineers were laid off and most of them stayed broke because they felt they were too high above manual labor. A good many of them lost their houses at their own unwillingness to work. It is good to have a college education (working on mine), but it is great to learn a skill or several skills. If another depression ever comes around a college education won't matter, it will be ones' wits that keeps the survivors afloat.

 

[GASoline71]

Good post. I know you were just kidding but I think I'll keep my job title the way it's listed on my IRS forms...logger. I refuse to change or dumb-down or in any way hide what I've spent my whole life doing.

I don't care if people like us or not...just as long as they leave us alone and stay the hell out of our lives and our profession. Every time we do something to try and placate some well meaning but ill informed member of the general public we wind up spitting on our whole life.

So...no apology for how I make my living. And no other logger should have to apologize, either.

I will continue to drag my knuckles until the day i die...

Gary

 

[mattgatten]

SlowP, I was just about to put the very same thing up there. You beat me to it! hahaha

I'm the son of a 3rd generation coal miner. I was the first member of 'my generation' to not be a coal miner. Not for environmental reasons, rather, I think I'm just a wussbag! People complain about coal mine, (all kinds and not just strip mining), then complain when their power is out in their homes. Ever heard of 'Coal Fired Electricity'? Arrgh!!!!

 

[Bruce Hopf]

Slowly, I was just about to put the very same thing up there. You beat me to it! hahaha

I'm the son of a 3rd generation coal miner. I was the first member of 'my generation' to not be a coal miner. Not for environmental reasons, rather, I think I'm just a wusb! People complain about coal mine, (all kinds and not just strip mining), then complain when their power is out in their homes. Ever heard of 'Coal Fired Electricity'? Arrgh!!!!

Guys. How many of you recall the 70's early 80's? I've been reading all your posts, and I just remembered, in the 70's, there was a lot of strip cutting, and the Logging Companies then, agreed to planting seedlings next to the stumps of the previous trees, and a lot of Logging Companies reneged on their word, and that caused a lot of bad press press, and angered a lot of people.
Now that impression, and image of Loggers, and Logging Companies, that was given at that time, has never been forgotten, and will likely be forgotten. Now since then, You Guys are labeled the same category as to those at that time, and I know that isn't Fair to be Judged to what happened then!
You Guys do a very important job. You go into the bush, and do a lot of Justifieable work to and preserve the forest. It is important to go in a bush, and thin out the bigger trees, so that the smaller trees have a chance to grow properly, and mature, the way they were intended. I hope this sheds some light onto why you People receive such flack to the way you are treated today. Take care Guys, Be safe out there, at your work, and be proud of what you do. I sure am proud of you.
Bruce.

 

[spacemule]

Is this like a gay pride rally, only for loggers? opcorn: