Monday, November 14, 2016

Log Hauling in British Columbia


Skidding logs into the water at the Head of Powell Lake.
Powell River in Coastal British Columbia is a logging community. A large part of the economy is driven by this sustainable industry. All year long, logging goes on in accessible, and some relatively inaccessible, areas.

Once cut, the logs have to be limbed, sized, sorted, bundled and trucked for long-distance transport. Here on the coast, most logs make their way to mills and markets on the South Coast via a water route.


A tug tows a boom of logs through First Narrows on Powell Lake.

On Powell Lake, you see booms of logs heading south to Block Bay where they are extracted with an A-frame.

An A-frame at Block Bay lifts the log bundles from the water to waiting trucks.

The bundled logs are lifted onto trucks and transported a short distance to the ocean. We call it the salt chuck, or chuck for short.

Logging trucks transport logs in big bundles.

Once back in the water, logs are pulled in booms or motored on barges south to Vancouver on our busy BC ocean highway.

A log barge being towed to Vancouver. Most logs travel in large floating booms.

Each load is worth many thousands of dollars, and even more after its transformed into building materials and other value-added products. In bad weather, tug captains sometimes have to save their loads from high winds and crashing waves.



Look around your home. I bet you will find lots of wood in many forms. Just think what would happen if we didn’t have a healthy, sustainable logging industry.

Sawdust returning to the Catalyst paper mill in Powell River, BC.

Then, after milling is done, sawdust returns to Powell River towed in large barges, destined to become high quality paper products in the Catalyst mill. The light coloured sawdust is used in paper making. The dark is hog fuel that is burned to power the boilers. -- Margy

12 comments :

  1. While travelling on the train to Vancouver we loved seeing all the log booms floating down the river. Such great memories you post has brought back today, time to look back through my photos and see the ones I took from the train.

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    1. Every day and night we are in town we see something moving either up or down the Strait. On Sunday night the wind was so strong the tug couldn't get much forward motion with his large boom of logs. We say him pull up south of town and tie up to wait out the worst of the storm. - Margy

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  2. Great photos - what a joy it must be to watch the comings and goings of all that. I had never seen the sawdust transported like that - it is quite amazing.

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    1. That is one of the fun things about coming to town, and of course we get to see work boats, barges loaded with logging equipment, and log booms passing by our cabin on Powell Lake. - Margy

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  3. You live in the most wonderful place!

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    1. It's a lot of fun for me since I grew up a city girl. - Margy

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  4. Those huge log booms floating behind small tugboats are a sight to behold. It is a wonderful thing when trees are cut down and more are planted. Greenery can’t resist growing if given half a chance. I liked your sharing about the garden you created where there once was a dumpster. :)

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    1. That garden was lots of fun for me as well as the kids. - Margy

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  5. I have a small collection of postcards of log booms. It would be neat to see them moving down the river.

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    1. Hardly a day passes when a log boom, barge of equipment, or sawdust doesn't go by. The ocean and lake are an inexpensive highway. - Margy

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  6. Fascinating post and great photos, Margy!
    Thank you for taking part in the Travel Tuesday meme, hope to see another of your entries there this week!

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    1. Thanks. I'm glad you enjoyed reading about logging practices around my home. - Margy

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Thanks for stopping by. Comments, questions, and suggestions are always welcome. - Margy