Automation was never a bad word in the logging industry. It represented a more efficient, safer way to harvest timber. But it has changed the face of the industry. Now, the demand for workers highly skilled in electronics is on the rise. At the same time, those technical advances mean that fewer workers are needed in the field.
Retired forester Len Lindstrand said the shift in technology was gradual, but persistent. High-tech equipment has increased not only the efficiency of timber harvesting, but also the skill level required to work in the forest industry. “At the logging end, it requires a bit of training,” Lindstrand said. “There is the computer assisted equipment in addition to being able to show up at the crack of dawn with your gloves and lunch to go to work.”
Today’s logger is expected to do more than ever before. “Everyone in the forest now has been trained to be very productive per hour,” said forestry specialist William Stewart from U.C. Berkley. “People who work in planting trees, to thinning the forest, they’re all using big machines and they’re doing it three times as fast.”
At the Anderson Sawmill, where Sierra Pacific Industries processes 3,000 to 5,000 logs a day, automation is on full display. The automated saws and sorters have cut down the number of traditional laborers who might have filled the mills in the past. The process is loud, precise and guided by few workers wearing goggles and ear plugs. Before the first laser-guided saw cuts through a log, computer readouts show exactly what type and size of lumber will be processed.
Much in the same way trees that grow on hillsides adapt to their peculiar environment, so too has the timber industry. A display on the line shows how many logs are processed for the day and by 9:30 a.m. the readout shows 1,500 logs.
From the Record Searchlight: https://www.redding.com/story/news/local/2017/06/09/timber-forest-jobs-go-high-tech/101548122/