Anyone know whats happening in Alaska this season?

[clintthetreeman]

I'm looking for a falling job on the coast, thinking hard about trying out the Alaska thing. Would really like to get involved on a helicopter show, it's the one thing I've always wanted to do, but not had the oppertunity. Anyone with contact in Alaska, or even British Columbia, I would be much greatful for. Just kinda wonder how all this mess in Japan is going to play into things, good or bad. I think that could be a whole new thread in itself.

 

[Gologit]

Do you have any experience cutting Left Coast or Alaska wood? If you have any contacts in the woods, anybody who already knows you, you might have a chance. Otherwise it's pretty tough to get started. Good fallers, with good reputations that are known in the business, can make a fairly good living but even at that it's always a struggle. There are always more fallers than falling jobs. Always.

I'll let the BC boys tell you about their area. Canada requires licensing and from what I hear it's expensive and tough.

I don't mean to discourage you but it's hard to get started out here and sometimes it's hard to keep going, too.

 

[slowp]

Do you have any experience cutting Left Coast or Alaska wood? If you have any contacts in the woods, anybody who already knows you, you might have a chance. Otherwise it's pretty tough to get started. Good fallers, with good reputations that are known in the business, can make a fairly good living but even at that it's always a struggle. There are always more fallers than falling jobs. Always.

I'll let the BC boys tell you about their area. Canada requires licensing and from what I hear it's expensive and tough.

I don't mean to discourage you but it's hard to get started out here and sometimes it's hard to keep going, too.

Definitely true. Unless you are related to a faller, about the only way you can get started is to start out setting chokers. Then, maybe somebody will take you under their wing...but there are some very competent fallers who are looking for work right now. The very best seem to keep working and that's because they have good contacts and good reputations.

It might be hard to get on a rigging crew even, without contacts in our state. The Workman's Comp got raised to a sky high rate so employers do not want anybody to have an accident. It is so bad that at least one guy is thinking about only working in Oregon.

I would expect there is less opportunity in Alaska right now. But I do not know. I saw an ad in the paper for a shop guy in a logging camp up there. Sometimes the Chehalis paper runs adds for such things.

 

[John Ellison]

Slowp and Gologit are right. The best way to get a job falling timber in S.E. Alaska has always been to be in Ketchikan or one of the SE towns and have all your tools and be ready to go. I have'nt been there for fifteen years, but I am sure it is harder to get the work now. If you don't have West coast experience I believe it would be very hard to get a falling job now.

But, the secret up there is to be able to stick it out and be ready to go when they need someone. Because it is mostly all camp work there is a high turnover. Used to be you could walk into the Foc'sle' Bar and the blackboard would have a list of all the logging jobs that were available at the different camps, now its mostly thru the Unemployment Office. A rigging job might be a possibility if you are in town and ready to go with your gear( corks and hardhat) Same applies to falling, you would need to be ready to go with all your tools. Float planes cant fly during the bad weather(which is common) and that is the only way you can get something that you dont have a spare for. Meaning you can't work.

If you are single and have plenty of money to spend on what might just turn out to be an expensive vacation I would say go for it and you should have a heck of a good time. Some people even become real sourdough's. Sour on Alaska and not enough dough to get out.

 

[clintthetreeman]

Thanks for the feedback

I'll probably end up stuck here in Indiana, just ready for some change is all. I worked the big wood on the coast twenty plus years ago, worked a lot of big expensive hardwood timber to. Surely all that counts for something to someone, not to mention a perfect safety record. For me, its not about the money anymore, really never was. As long as the timber, the people are good, that's the main thing these days. Awesome scenery and flying to work is just an added bonus!

 

[Gologit]

LOL...It's a good thing that "it's not about the money". That part hasn't changed since you were out here...it's either chicken or feathers. Work like hell for a couple of weeks, then on to the next job...if there is one.

John Ellison has a good take on what logging in Alaska is like. I don't know much about it but the last couple of years we started to see guys drifting back down here that had worked in SE quite awhile. Good hands, too. It's not polite to ask why, so we didn't, but there must be something about it they didn't care for anymore.

An old guy told me years ago..."This is a crazy business...we work ourselves right out of a job, and we do it just as fast as we can".

Good luck to you.

 

[Humptulips]

Talked to a guy down from AK the other day. Not much work and a lot of guys chasing it.

Note to John Ellison. Foc'sle Bar has been closed for years now. Things have definetly changed and not for the better.

 

[John Ellison]

I have heard that it is now a tourist trinket shop that sells Chinese made totem poles.