History

Question 1

What year saw the first mill in port alberni?

Answer 1

1861
Edward Stamps mill
- Sold to China, Australia, South America, Britain
Ran out of logs (by their standards) in 1864.

Question 2

When was the first timber regulation in BC?

Answer 2

1854
- Forbade non residents of Vancouver Island from cutting timber on public lands

• mostly due to worries about american interests in logs?

Question 3

What was the Softwood Lumber Dispute all about? When did it take place?

Answer 3

• Americans had good sawlogs and mills and were worried about outside competition
• Enforced a tariff on log imports, putting foreign producers at a disadvantage.

Question 4

Where did most of the early harvesting in BC take place?

Answer 4

Early harvesting focused on easily accessible timber that was connected to the ocean since it was the easiest to transport.

• Trees felled directly into water.
• When the trees near the water were depleted, oxen were used to skid logs to the beaches.

Question 5

What year was the BC confederation signed. What was its significance in forestry?

Answer 5

1871- BC joins Canada

• Construction of CP Railway
• Created big demand for sawn timbers and railway ties and boards.
• E and N Land Grant

Question 6

What was the E and N Land Grant?

Answer 6

It was a grant designed to pay for the construction of the CP railway on Vancouver Island. Awarded to Dunsmuir. Resulted in a large portion of private land that we have on VI today.

Question 7

What lead to the evolution of harvesting systems?

Answer 7

-Shortages of easily accessible timber lead to the creation of crude cable systems called steam donkeys.

Question 8

What big event resulted in the first sawmills in BC?

Answer 8

• California Gold Rush: 1848, Hudson bay company at esquimalt sending milled timber to San Francisco
• Fraser River Gold rush: 1858, Fort Yale, Hope, Harrison

Question 9

When did crude high lead “cable logging” start?

Answer 9

1909 in comox.

• The bull block was hung in a tree and the mainline from the yarder was run through it to provide some lift to the end of the log.
• soon followed by running a second yarder as a haulback line to pull the choker rigging back into the harvest area. This replaced the “line horse” that used to pull the rigging back into the forest.

Question 10

what does a carved X imply in early logging?

Answer 10

That a tree was to be used as a “spar” tree in highlead yarding.

Question 11

What is the purpose of the strawline?

Answer 11

A skinny line that was used to rig up heavier cables and move them to where they needed to be.

Question 12

What is meant by deck and swing?

Answer 12

When two lengths of cable yarding systems were set up in tandem in order to access timber that was beyond the reach of railroads. Timber was piled on a log deck for the first run and then transported down to the railroad on the second pull.

Question 13

What are “corduroy roads”?

Answer 13

• Wood plank roads that started being used in the 1930’s

- Began the era of truck logging

Question 14

What was a factor that pressured the use of trucks over railroads?

Answer 14

• By the 1930s timber accessible by rail and cable systems was becoming scarce.
• Hills too steep for rail
• Truck technology available

Question 15

What inspired the development of the mobile steel yarder?

Answer 15

• Tree height and volume per hectare decline
• Legal limits on setting sizes getting smaller
• Tower had to move more often.

Question 16

The 1970’s saw the increase of labour costs, How did companies counter these rising costs?

Answer 16

By taking advantage of grapple technology, which allowed for smaller crew sizes (3-4 men)

Question 17

What kind of harvesting systems were being used by the 1990’s? why?

Answer 17

• Increase in heli and long skyline yarding to decrease the amount of road construction in stability sensitive areas.
• road accessible timber was limited to steep slopes and slope stability issues.

Question 18

What is are the advantages of yarding full length trees to a landing and processing them at roadside?

Answer 18

Allows for increased utilization of timber.

Question 19

What event presented the need for increased harvesting in the interior?

Answer 19

Railroad construction from the prairies and the USA in the late 19th century. Railroad ties were the main driver.

Question 20

What limited a mill’s usefulness in interior logging?

Answer 20

Lack of cheap water transportation.

Question 21

What event happened in the 1960s that increased BC’s AAC?

Answer 21

Implementation of close utilization

• Logs had to be sent to larger expensive immobile sawmills with debarking and chipping equipment.
• new regulations required less waste.

Question 22

When did mechanical machine mounted falling technology start?

Answer 22

1970’s

Question 23

What was an advantage of feller buncher levelling systems?

Answer 23

• cut trees can be assembled in piles.

- bunched wood increases skidding production.

Question 24

What were some environmental concerns of increased harvesting production in the 1990’s?

Answer 24

• Roadside slash and site disturbance. (processing logs in the woods and forwarding to roadside was one industry solution)
• Site impacts of skidding on steep ( +50%) sites. (industry responded by using more cable logging and heli logging systems).