Expert: Ralph Salier - 10/23/2009

Question
PLEASE TELL ME SOME TOPICS ON LUMBERJACKS OF CANADA

Answer
Hi Avneet

Lumberjacks are a very strong and hearty group of men and some women that live, eat and work in the deep forest cutting down trees for lumber.  The process begins when a forest products company buys the trees that are on a plot of land that they either own or lease.  The company has permission to harvest the trees provided that they replant seedlings into the area to promote the reforestation of the area cut.  The first people to go in are the graders who mark the trees to be cut down by the lumberjacks.  The lumberjacks then go into the area and begin to cut those trees marked.  The trees may be cut down by specialized equipment or with chain saws.  Once cut, the trees, now called logs, are striped of branches and moved out of the forest to a loading zone.  From the loading zone they are moved by truck to a holding area or are moved to a river and floated to a holding area where the logs are kept for up to a year while they dry out.  Graders then mark the trees for the saw mill.  The lumberjacks then move the logs into the sawmill for cutting into lumber.  Lumber is  the wood that comes from a log.  This is generally dimensional when first cut so 50mm x 100mm and 3m long.  The lumber is stacked and placed into a kiln where it dried further.  After the kiln dries the lumber, it is then taken to a finishing operation where the rough sawn faces are smoothed out in a planer, then restacked and bundled for shipment to the end users.

Subjects about the lumberjacks:

Camp life, what they eat, the maintenance of equipment, the clothes they wear, safety gear, types of jobs.