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Return to Area Profiles Table of Contents
Forests and Logging
The character of New England's landscape is defined in part by its ever changing diversity of trees. In her book, New England Natives: A Celebration of People and Trees, Sheila Connor discusses how New England forests contributed to the culture and economy. The Archaic Indians made canoes from white birch and snowshoes from ash. The early colonists built ships of oak and pine and laid railroad tracks on chestnut timbers. Because of years of unchecked thinning, the English where able to harvest massive trees which they used to make giant ship masts. The masts made from New England's trees helped the Royal Navy rule the seas during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. The bark from New England hemlock was used to treat the leather used to make shoes for the Union Army. In the 1850's, when there was an increased demand for paper and a shortage of rags which had been used to produce paper, it was discovered that paper could be produced from wood, and Popular was found to be the best wood for paper. In 1868, the first New England wood pulp mill was opened in Topsham, Maine. Soon New England had hundreds of wood pulp mills and the industry employed thousands of people.
Logging requires knowledge, skill, equipment and brute force. Although the chainsaw was developed for orthopedic applications in 1830, chainsaws did not become available for logging until the 1920s. Prior to the introduction of the chainsaw, trees were harvested using axes and/or crosscut saws. Today chain saws are still used, but there is also large equipment such as the Feller Buncher, which can move on either treads or tires. The Feller Buncher can grab and cut trees that are standing, as well as trees that have been blown down.
Cut trees are pulled, or skidded, from the woods to a landing. From the landing they are moved to a facility where they are used or processed. Until gasoline engines became reliable and available, oxen, and sometimes horses, were used to skid logs. In the 1920s, Clyde Ironworks in Minnesota made a gasoline-powered skidder with cables that could pull logs from four locations out of the forest at 1000 feet per minute. Eventually winches were added to draw in the cable. Today most skidders have diesel engines, and like the Feller Buncher, can move on treads or tires. Although some skidders still use cables, many have a hydraulic grapple claw.
Beginning in 1730, the Connecticut River was a transportation artery for logs cut in northern New England. Because there were few impediments to the flow of logs, long mast logs and saw logs were often moved down the Connecticut from the Connecticut lakes through Massachusetts to the State of Connecticut. Over time, the log drives became shorter. During World War II, there were short pulp log drives on the Connecticut. Today logs are moved by large logging trucks. A logging truck with trailer can move 7 and 9 thousand board feet of logs.
Most logging is a selective cutting of standing forests; however, after natural disasters, such as the blow down that in April of 2007 affected thousands of acres of forest, the loggers cut and remove blown down and leaning trees. If these trees are not removed there is an increased danger of forest fire and a loss of healthy habitat for wildlife.
This April, thousands of trees were blown down on Acorn Hill Farm. Within two weeks after the Big Storm, we began removing the blown down trees. Now two months after the storm, the operation continues.
Grafton County Forester, Nory Parr, said that when the forests recover from the storm Acorn Hill Farm will have more area of hardwood forests. He said evergreens tend to seed and grow in abandoned agricultural land, while hardwoods tend to grow in those areas where the trees have been destroyed by fire, clear cutting, or where large acreage has been completely flattened by violent winds.
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