I remember watching one show where they used horses to pull the logs out of the woods, it may have been on RFDTV, I can't remember. I thought it was interesting though.

Hi Spruce. I watch Ax Men now and then. I like the scenery and logging is of interest to me as well.

I'm pretty sure they're upping the drama content on this show for entertainment value. Otherwise, it's hard to believe there would be crews anywhere doing some of the stuff they show happening.

Note too the imperative of getting the wood out that is an exaggeration of reality. Of course loggers need to work hard to harvest the timber, but by upping the tension, it makes for more drama once again. Kinda cool to watch, but kinda stupid too.

+oM

A timely post, I was just watching some Ax-men I recorded.

Really I figured if you took any week at my current job, or at past jobs with a railroad or tow-truck company and edited it to an hour with music the employees and bosses could be made to look like idiots.

You're right on about the safety hazards though. I frequently found myself wondering if any OSHA employees ever watched the show.

Scripted? you bet! need to draw in the viewers you know. It's really a shame they feel the need to make them look so careless about such a dangerous job.

This one was canceled because of complaints of safety violations.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FjBB5nRbERg

Then theres heli-loggers, axe-men, and one more that I cant recall. I like heli-loggers the best.

I guess the appeal is the combination of the outdoors and an extreme sport (climbing).

I have seen the show Ax men also,I agree there is not a lot of education from watching someone swing from a cable.

I don't know the name of the show but I think it was on Modern marvels.They showed the history of logging in North America,What was really neat was the technology of logging equipment.Like one man operated machines that hold the tree ,delimb it and cut it to lenght faster than I can wright about it.
And I believe it was a Weyerhauser sawmill showing machines that are capable of debarking ,sawing,sorting all at light speed.
That's my kind of show.

lp

David:

I also saw the heli-loggers. I never worked on anything like that, and learned a lot. I saw nothing on that show that was in any way unprofessional.

--Spruce

I lived in a logging community in W WA and have felled trees myself, and yes the men all had the telltale walk, but the incidences that occur weekly were more like monthly-quarterly in the field. Else no one would do the work.

Dan

I watch the History Channel a lot, and see those ads, but refuse to watch those shows. Being a girl I guess,,, but also I can't stand the thought of killing a tree! (There's plenty of perfectly good plastic trash around to make trex and such. rant rant)

Just one more example from the Axe Men show this week of stupid, dangerous behavior. The new man's first job was to limb a tree with a chainsaw. Maybe one can assume that he had some experience with a chainsaw before, and it looked like it, but he was sent to limb the tree with the idea that he was going to "prove himself" doing this job, especially with how fast he could do it. Well, those of us who were watching closely and have some experience, know exactly what happened. Because he was hurrying so much and/or was inexperienced, he cut/released a "spring pole," a sapling bent down under the fallen tree, in the wrong way. It sprung up and hit him, causing him to loose control of his saw and nearly severely injure himself.

Anyone who has done any logging knows of the danger of spring poles. Sometimes they are hidden in the brush/tree top foliage. No "greenhorn" should be given the job of limbing a tree before he is thoroughly instructed in the dangers of spring poles and taught how they should be cut to release them and/or be carefully avoided. These things are capable of breaking a man's leg, splitting a man's head open, or castrating him. But they need not be dangerous if one takes reasonable care.

OK, that is example #2 from just this one show.

Paula:

Those who know my contributions in this forum know that there is no one who loves trees more than I. But I am also a sometimes logger who owns some timberland that is harvested in the most environmentally friendly way possible. When I do my logging, I do everything I can to protect the trees I am not harvesting, and do everything I can to preserve/enhance the diversity of life in the forest. When possible I log in the winter when there is a good covering of snow on the ground. Anyone coming into my timberland in the summer would find no evidence that anyone did any logging, unless they found a stump, and then a treetop some distance away. Not even a scuff on the ground.

I also worked, for a few weeks, with a man who had horses for logging. And more than that, he has a specially designed arch, rather than a singletree, that he used to keep the logs from tearing up the ground and/or scraping other trees as they were skidded out.

But, even Weyerhauser, which was clear cutting on the sites where I worked, carefully re-forested, and I saw the results of that re-forestation in all stages of re-growth, and honestly, these re-growing forests are beautiful.

But, for special timber stands, I am an ardent preservationist. I have been a member of the Save-the Redwoods League for something like 35 years, and did some serious lobbying under the direction of the Sierra Club for the bill to expand the Redwood National Park during the Reagan (the "if you have seen one redwood, you have seen them all" guy) Administration.

So, please believe that not all cutting of timber for their wonderful wood, is evil. The main product of my timberland is very high quality hardwood for furniture. I love fine furniture made from the very best quality wild black cherry trees, among other kinds of woods. Wood is a beautiful material, and it a renewable resource, and any really fine wood made into fine furniture is carbon that will be sequestered for many generations, reducing global warming. And then the trees re-grow, providing more opportunities for more carbon removal/sequestration."

OK, I am off my soapbox for at least a day or two!

--Spruce

I agree Spruce, I didn't mean to intimate all logging is bad. I know maintenance of the forest is necessary for many reasons.

The way the show is previewed, it feels like the "Tropic Thunder" (movie-Jack Black,Robt.Downey Jr.,Ben Stiller) of the forest ranger world. Or something like that. Male testosterone-type stuff. lol

;-)

Paula:

I believe "testosterone worship," which can take many different forms, is a very, very silly thing. I, and my wife, both value my feminine side. The real key to life is LOVE--not only sexual love, but love of life in general, love of the environment, and love of all our fellow beings (dogs "are people too"). And, to get back to the topic here, I love logging when done properly in the right places--it can be a lot of fun, and gives me great satisfaction when I can handle some difficult situation without damaging anything in the woods.

--Spruce

Cheers!

spruceman,

I think you did all loggers and lumberjacks a great favor by posting this. In this day and age, 'reality TV' is anything but. The fact that so many of these so-called loggers on 'Ax Men' were willing to have a camera stuck in their faces while trying to do such a dangerous job should have been a red flag to anyone watching. A lot of people see 'documentary' or 'reality show' in the title, and they accept it as gospel that what they're seeing is an accurate reflection of real life. Then again, that's no surprise, considering this is the good ol' US of A, where movies like 'Dumb and Dumber' and "Dude, Where's My Car?' actually make money at the box office. I love The History Channel, but many of their shows, like Ax Men, more often than not, fall short of 'real life'. Two more examples...'Monster Quest', but they never find a monster. And 'UFO Files', lots of teasers, but no little green men : )

Hopefully all the members of this forum are smart enough to realize that anything they see on TV needs to be taken with a large grain of salt.

My Dad is a logger (WA) and I have been on the job sites ever since I can remember, and I just wanted to say Thanks Spruce for posting the truth about Ax Men. I do enjoy watching the show.... But its good to know not everyone believes all the bogus and crazy things they do.