GRANTS PASS, Ore. (AP) - “Hup. Hup. Hup,” yelled Nick Rodgers, hanging on to ropes attached to his Belgian workhorse Maggie, who strained up a hill pulling a several-hundred pound log.
“That’s a lot of horsepower,” said Vince Randall, Bureau of Land Management forester, overseeing logging of bug-infested trees at Cathedral Hills Park south of Grants Pass.
Rodgers and his nephew, Bennett Rodgers, horse loggers from Butte Falls, hope to get three or more truckloads of saleable timber out of the project. They consider any job with at least a truckload worthy of their time, with the current high timber prices.
The 400-acre park with 10 miles of trails for horses, hikers and bicyclists is a perfect place for logging with horses, which use a lighter touch than bulldozers and cables and are quieter.
“We could have done it faster with mechanized equipment, but because of the situation here it’s kind of set up for horses,” Randall said.
In fact the BLM would like to revive horse logging to some degree, Randall said. The Rodgers already took out close to 700 hundred trees around campgrounds at Howard Prairie and Hyatt reservoirs east of Ashland earlier this year. The BLM hadn’t done a contract with horse loggers in more than three decades before that, Randall said.
He could see it happening on an annual basis at Cathedral.
“We’re really trying to make this work so we can get people comfortable with hazard and salvage tree logging out here,” Randall said. “I think the bugs are just getting started here. It could explode again this summer, is my fear.”
Most of the bug damage is from flatheaded fir borers, which have swept across Southwest Oregon in recent years, fed by drought-weakened trees.
While the Rodgers should get more than 5,000 board feet of timber, selling it to South Coast Lumber of Brookings, they’ll have to leave a lot of the most rotten stuff on the ground.
The onslaught of fir-borers leaves trees orange on top, visible driving out Williams Highway in the Applegate Valley.
Annual aerial surveys indicate 127,000 dead trees in southwest Oregon in 2016 from fir borers, by far the most in 40 years. Last year’s cold, wet winter slowed the bugs down, but Randall said they’re back in force this year in their typical range below 3,500 feet.
“We’re in a bit of a pickle as far as forest health in southwest Oregon,” Randall said. “We’re overstocked with vegetation.”
He noted in the distant past that fire swept through the area in 20-year intervals, but has been shut down in the last century by fire suppression.
“The bugs are just trying to do what fire has done historically,” Randall said. “We need to do more fuel treatments, that’s a given.”
Rook, Jody and Maggie seemed plenty happy to help, dragging 18-foot lengths several hundred yards to a landing at the Espey Road parking area.
At 2,000 pounds apiece, Percherons Rook and Jody can pull their own weight in logs, Bennett Rodgers said. In the right conditions, even more.
“When we were up in the snow, they were pulling some pretty big logs,” he said.
His uncle, Nick, a fourth-generation logger, decided to start horse logging a couple of years ago, and found the two Percherons in Washington for more than $3,000 apiece. Maggie, the Belgian draft horse, he found in the Albany area for only $500.
“I wanted to simplify my life,” he said. “Horse logging is slower and quieter. It’s a helluva lot more rewarding.”
The vast majority of work is for property owners with 10 acres or less.
“A lot of them just don’t want their property torn up. It’s low impact,” Rodgers said. “I’ll bet I’ve done 15 jobs this year. If I had more help I’d buy two more teams.”
The Rodgers have a few simple commands that their horses respond to immediately.
“It’s fun to watch the guys talk to them,” Randall, the BLM forester, said. “They listen so well. And they seem to truly enjoy the work.”
Rodgers said they’re so mild-mannered his 4- and 2-year-old daughters walk under them, scratching their bellies.
“The Amish community still has a lot of these,” he noted, adding “They eat a lot.”
They also use them for pulling people in wagons, for special events.
“These horses are my truck and trailer,” Rodgers said. “There’s nothing better than a good work horse. They love it.”
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Information from: Daily Courier, http://www.thedailycourier.com
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