Learn a little bit about the logging industry in Powell River

Posted by Margy Lutz on Nov 18, 2016

This post was originally published on MargyLutz.blogspot.ca.

Powell River in Coastal British Columbia is a logging community. A large part of the economy is driven by this sustainable industry. All year long, logging goes on in accessible, and some relatively inaccessible, areas.

Skidding logs into the water at the Head of Powell Lake.

Once cut, the logs have to be limbed, sized, sorted, bundled and trucked for long-distance transport. Here on the coast, most logs make their way to mills and markets on the South Coast via a water route.

A tug tows a boom of logs through First Narrows on Powell Lake.

On Powell Lake, you see booms of logs heading south to Block Bay where they are extracted with an A-frame.

An A-frame at Block Bay lifts the log bundles from the water to waiting trucks.

The bundled logs are lifted onto trucks and transported a short distance to the ocean. We call it the salt chuck, or chuck for short.

Logging trucks transport logs in big bundles.

Once back in the water, logs are pulled in booms or motored on barges south to Vancouver on our busy BC ocean highway.

A log barge being towed to Vancouver. Most logs travel in large floating booms.

Each load is worth many thousands of dollars, and even more after its transformed into building materials and other value-added products. In bad weather, tug captains sometimes have to save their loads from high winds and crashing waves.

Look around your home. I bet you will find lots of wood in many forms. Just think what would happen if we didn’t have a healthy, sustainable logging industry.

Sawdust returning to the Catalyst paper mill in Powell River, BC.

Then, after milling is done, sawdust returns to Powell River towed in large barges, destined to become high quality paper products in the Catalyst mill. The light coloured sawdust is used in paper making. The dark is hog fuel that is burned to power the boilers.

Thanks for visiting part of my world this week.

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Margy Lutz

Margy Lutz and her husband Wayne discovered Powell River during an airplane camping trip in 2000. They purchased a float cabin on Powell Lake that has become their home since retiring from careers in education in Southern California. In 2008, they became Canadian permanent residents and now live here full time. Margy continues to work as a grant writer and Wayne is the author of the Coastal BC Stories series and science fiction.

Latest posts by Margy Lutz (see all)

• Learn a little bit about the logging industry in Powell River - November 18, 2016
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