Misery loves company

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BC's Men in Black are far from alone in dealing with burned wood. Much of what FERIC knows about logging and processing charred timber came from the horrible burns facing Alberta a few years back. Moreover, loggers and sawmillers in Canada's other major forestry province, Quebec, are no strangers to soot and ashes.

A case in point is Robert Paquet, a full-tree logging contractor from the Lac St. Jean area of northern Quebec. Robert's operation, Les Entreprises G.L.S. Lavoie Inc., has been stuck in barren, burned stands for most of the past year, and he would agree with BC's Jeff Kineshanko that logging burned wood is dirty, less productive and more expensive.

"At the end of November it will be a year, with just a short break in green wood. I can tell you for sure that it's not as profitable as working in green wood - production is down and costs are up."

Part of the reason production is down is wood size - the burn site Robert has been working is younger than most harvested in the region, and so trees are small even by Lac St. Jean standards - 11 or 12 trees/m[Symbol Not Transcribed] on average compared to 9.5 trees/m[Symbol Not Transcribed] in green stands. On top of that, the constant exposure to abrasive carbon dust is making a joke of maintenance budgets. "It's incredible the way it wears down the equipment," he explains, adding that the salvage work cuts into margins in a number of ways, including:

- Filters: Change these very often, Robert advises, or pay dearly in breakdowns and shorter engine life. The 42-yr-old contractor now buys them in bulk to cut costs.

- Hoses: The carbon swirling around the felling head makes short work of the hoses, causing downtime and increasing costs.

- Teeth: They dull quicker, adding time and cost.

- Mobility: With the trees no longer drawing water, Robert finds the ground a lot wetter, limiting mobility and causing machines to get stuck more often.

- Maintenance: Pity your mechanic, who will be busier than usual. Robert's mechanic, Gilbert Lavoie, notes that aside from making and changing more hoses, he has to clean the various compartments of both bunchers daily with compressed air. Otherwise, the conductive carbon dust will play havoc with electrical systems. "There's more work, and everything is dirty," sums up the veteran mechanic.

On the positive side, compensation is available in Quebec for both the company and its contractors for the added cost of burnt wood salvage operations, although Paquet cautions that it's not easy to get to.

- Report & photos by Scott Jamieson/CFI