"These boys know their
job" says Jason Rutledge. "You absolutely need a solid
team to do work like this".
The work he's talking
about is horse logging and the boys are Tong and Wedge,
two deep red Suffolk geldings who at this moment are standing
quietly, each with one hind leg cocked, in the morning
sunshine. They look relaxed but their four ears are tipped
backwards to catch Jason's voice. When Jason climbs onto
the seat of the logging arch, they stand up square and
tuck in their chins a little, ready to go, but they wait
for his quiet command before moving forward.
Healing Harvest
On this spring day
I am visiting at the Rutledge family Ridgewind Farm near
Roanoke, Virginia. It's the "campaign headquarters" for
Healing Harvest Forest Foundation, a non-profit public
charity organization dedicated to restorative forestry.
Restorative forestry means harvesting useful timber, while
simultaneously creating a healthier and more valuable woodlot.
It's easy to say, but behind the words there's an intricate
mix of art, science, business and philosophy. Jason Rutledge
calls it "culture".
As the founder and
president of HHFF, Jason believes horses are central to
restorative logging. "They are the ultimate low impact
overland source of power" he says. Jason learned about
work horses the old-fashioned way - from his grandfather
- but he isn't nostalgic for the "good old days". Instead,
his focus is to take the best of the past and use it to
make a better future for the land and the people involved
in the timber industry.
Towards this goal,
he has spent over 20 years working as a horse logger. While
earning his living as a logger, he has also found time
and energy to work with hundreds of apprentices, travel
to numerous trade shows and meetings, design logging equipment,
develop harness ideas and earn the title of Forester in
Virginia. Last on my list-- but certainly not in Jason's
priorities-- are his Suffolk draft horses.
The horses
Although many different
breeds and crosses have been used successfully for logging,
Jason's favorite has always been the Suffolk. The breed
is sometimes called the Suffolk Punch, because of their
round bodied and short legged build. ("Punch" is an old
fashioned English nickname for a short, fat fellow). Developed
as a work horse in the south-eastern part of England in
the 1600s, Suffolks were never numerous, possibly in part,
because the breed has been strictly agricultural breed
and was not used in the military or the show ring. Today
there are less than 200 Suffolks in England and less than
750 in the USA. Suffolk draft horses are on the American
Livestock Breeds Conservancy critical near extinct list.
Suffolk's are always
chestnut in color (traditionally spelled "chesnut" by Suffolk
purists). Unlike Shires and Clydesdales, they do not have
heavy "feathers", perhaps because the extra hair would
have quickly become a burden in the marshy fens of their
native East Anglia. The Suffolk's relatively short legged
build may make them look droll, but it also means they
are very efficient draft animals. They have long forearms
and short cannon bones, front and rear. The breed is known
for longevity and good temperament, important traits in
a working animal.
Tong and Wedge certainly
seem to exemplify these virtues of efficiency, hardiness
and trainability. As they maneuver the logging arch backwards
between stumps and other obstacles towards their next log,
their expressions have same inward look of obedient concentration
that you see on the face of a grand prix horse performing
a piaffer or passage.
The work
With the heavy harnesses
and massive logging equipment, the scene certainly looks
different than at Walnut Hill or The Laurels, but there
are underlying similarities in what's going on here. These
are highly trained, physically fit horses, obediently performing
complicated maneuvers in response to cues that to me are
almost invisible. I feel like I am watching dressage. The
stumps, gullies and piles of brush wood make precision
driving an imperative, and the length of the work day and
size of the logs makes endurance and conditioning important,
too. There are no ribbons being offered for this performance,
just the satisfaction of a job well done…and hopefully
a pay check so that the work can continue next season.
Economics
"You won't make a
killing in horse logging" reflects Jason. "But you can
make a living". In the timber
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industry, income is based
on the board-feet of timber harvested, and it's much quicker
to harvest timber with petroleum power. With a two horse
team, a horse logger can average about 2000 board feet
per day, which is about one fifth the amount an average
machine-powered logging operation could bring in. So, for
large tracts of land, and in the short term, machines make
for larger pay checks for the land owner and the logger.
On the other hand,
horse-logging has lower start-up costs and requires less
financial investment. If you have the land and the know-how,
the "fuel" for horses can be home grown, plus: horses can
heal and reproduce themselves. "You're not going to find
a baby tractor in the barn one morning" quips Jason.
Increasing awareness
of environmental issues is another factor that helps make
horse logging viable today. . The speed of machine powered
logging tends to be directly proportional to damage when
it comes to harvesting trees, but with horse-power, there
is reduced damage to the remaining trees and the soil.
This is especially important for people who live on or
near their woodlands and like to enjoy the view while still
making a little money from the trees, from the first entry,
while restoring their forest. Resident woodland owners
also appreciate the relative quiet in which horse loggers
work. The chainsaws snarl when the trees are being felled
but when the logs are actually being moved, the roar of
diesel engines is replaced with the jingle of harness. "Science
is working to quantify the value of the ecological services
the forest provides for the public good. The quality of
the skilled labor to protect those ecological services
justifies the increased cost of the labor intensive work,
Jason added ". Because of all these factors, the number
of people interested in "green" logging is growing.
In fact, the Turman
Log Home Company and Healing Harvest Forest Foundation
recently announced their new line of "Draftwood" log homes. "The
brand name stands for homes built from horse-logged lumber,
harvested under restorative forestry practices" says Jason.
Demand may well exceed the supply for these homes that
represent a mutually beneficial relationship between human
communities, the forest, and horses.
Beyond economics,
working with horses simply has a strong allure for some
of us. But none of us is born knowing how to do it. At
one time, youngsters grew up learning from family members
how to work with horses; (or how not to work with them,
in some cases). For most people today, that opportunity
doesn't exist, but if you want to learn how to use horse-power,
you can still apprentice with an experienced and successful
horse logger (mentor) or take a private instructional course.
Information about the HHFF apprenticeship program and Draftwood
is available on the website.
Apprentices at Healing
Harvest learn mostly by on-the-job experience. On a typical
job, the first step is to walk the wood lot and identify
the diseased, damaged or crowded trees. Taking the "worst
first" means that the overall health of the woodlot is
improved with each crop of trees that is harvested. The
next step is to carefully, safely fell the trees, using
chain saws, so that each tree will be accessible to the
team. This step is also important in minimizing damage
to the wood lot and in avoiding extra work for the horses.
After felling, the tree limbs are cut off and the tree
trunks cut into sections that yield the greatest value
and are easier for the team(s) to extract from the forest
with minimum environmental impact.
Many of us who live
near Amish or Mennonite communities are used to seeing
draft horses doing agricultural work, but this work is
a little different. Jason explains that for farm work,
you need horses with endurance and steady, quiet temperament.
The horses need to tolerate noise from the implements they
are pulling and they need to pace themselves for the long
hours. Plowing and hauling manure are hard work, but farm
horses rarely have to exert their whole strength to move
a load.
In contrast, logging
horses DO have to pull with their whole strength, to really "dig
in" to start a log or to get the load over a root or stump
and they may have to do it repeatedly. "Logging horses
need to have a little more forwardness" as Jason puts it.
They have to be ready to give that little extra effort
at the right time. For safety, the horses also need to
be obedient and they need to learn to relax between maximum
efforts.
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"If they don't have a 'park' none
of the other gears count, says Jason". It takes a special kind of horse
to be a good "woods horse".
Back at the farmhouse, I watch
a video clip showing a unicorn hitch of Tong, Wedge and Rudy, a fourteen
year old stallion. (Jason also uses four in hand on large logs, steep
adverse uphill and long skids.) They are hitched to a log that seems
roughly the size of a Greyhound bus. While the log is chained in place
and the hitch is adjusted, the horses stand quietly, waiting for the
command. Instead of his usual "come up boys" Jason uses a "kiss" sound
to tell them that the load is especially heavy. The sound is their
cue, along with bit contact and the command and release simultaneously
sequenced signals from the driver, to put all their strength into the
collar. With perfect timing, they dig in simultaneously, and the log--
incredibly-- slides forward. Like the horses, the teamster is concentrating
on the work. His job is to choreograph the pulling and help the horses
synchronize their efforts.
Of course even before the horses
are hitched a good teamster will have assessed the weights of the logs
and the path the log will have to take. "Never ask them to pull something
unless you know they can do it" is a good rule for horse loggers. "Saying
whoa two steps to soon is better than one step to late, explains Jason,
Whoa should be a reward and an ingredient in making it a matter of
positive reinforcement for their efforts. This is one of the hardest
things to teach students - to stop when everything is going perfect,
therefore rewarding the beast of burden with cessation of demand. It
is important to give the horses confidence and for them to be brave
and honest. It is their nature to be afraid. The challenge for the
horseman is to refine their prey attitude to be a serviceable, functional
partner in a biologically harmonious activity. It takes a while to
get a horse to be respectful instead of reactionary. This work involves
tremendous stimulus for the horses - like loud noises, trees falling,
chainsaws running, log loading machinery, trucks, very heavy loads
over rough terrain and the inevitable surprise that is just around
the next curve in the skid trail. It definitely takes a special horse
to work in the woods. It also takes a very special person to become
a "biological woodsman" that may orchestra this symphony of life."
It was beautiful watching the
horses work in the woods on such a nice spring day. I found it easy
to see why someone would want to do this every day. But if you tell
Jason you think his work is nostalgic, quaint or old fashioned he might
answer with something like this:
Horse power has always been a
good idea, but not simply because it's how they did it in the Good
Old Days. Once during a panel review after an article on the cover
of a national magazine a comment was made that what I did was fine,
but that I was an anachronism (someone stuck in the past or out of
sync with time). I brooded over this comment for years and have matured
to accept it. I accept this comment because I now recognize that we
are in the future. As we learn more about the environment, particularly
the value of the ecological services the forest is providing for the
public good, I know that the quality of services to protect these values
will be all the more important. Modern horse logging will become a
method of choice because it is a superior method in many ways. Actually,
using horses in a humane way to make forestry restorative and therefore
sustainable is a new idea, not an old one. It's modern, taking place
in the present, using modern horsemanship techniques, harnessing materials,
and improved silvicultural science. If you find yourself thinking it's
unpractical, consider this: The eastern half of America was completely
forested when white settlers and their horses came here in the 1600s.
By the turn of the twentieth century more than 95% of those forested
acres had been logged, in many cases more than once and it was all
done with animal power. It is not a matter of if we can harvest timber
with horses; it is a matter of if we will. Most of the forestland owned
today in the eastern U.S. is privately owned in tracts of forty acres
or less. Our low impact niche is supported by the private landowner
wanting to protect the aesthetic/natural beauty of their woods. Their
small holdings of forests are not available to other methods. Modern
draft horse use has found a special place in the present and a growing
share of the work to be done in the future, because the method is simply
the best way to do it when all things are considered. It is like the
lines in a song we wrote and sing around here:
'These horses make great partners
when you want to be tree gardeners. It makes sense that it is the hard
way, because it is hard to be sensitive".
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