Oregon Wave Logger

At logging's peak in the mid-1980s, an Oregon State University estimate said Oregon forest workers earned 25 to 30 percent above the state average, but neither the wage nor the big operations have survived. Most companies now are small and independent, surviving from job to job. According to the Oregon Forestry Department, in 1990 there were 12,700 working loggers in Oregon harvesting 8.6 billion board feet of timber, by 2009 there were 5,700 workers producing 3 billion board feet. But logging isn't dead in Oregon," says Jim Geisinger of the Association of Oregon Loggers. There are still guys out there like Bill Sword, who lives on property that has been in his family since 1887 and started logging six decades ago. When he was 74, he logged 141 truckloads of timber from his land by himself. Of course, the nationwide following of the History channel's "Ax Men" show has helped drive interest in the spiritual heart of industry in Oregon. So go ahead and put this shirt on, find a log, and plunge down hills like unguided missiles through the underbrush. O.W.L.