Coho Photography

Mt. Richmond OR

The diesel engine of the Caterpillar tractor roars to life, drowning out the throbbing purr of the truck we used to jump-start it. Mist is freezing from my breath, mingling with the smoke that jets out of the Cat’s smokestack. We back the truck out from it’s perch below the yellow behemoth of a machine, and my dad slowly pulls the controls and eases his foot off the clutch to send the massive contraption crawling out from under it’s cover on the side of our solar dry kiln for removing moisture from lumber.

It’s Thanksgiving vacation and somehow I’ve ended up spending one of the last days working on my family’s FSC certified forestry operation. Our challenge for the day will be cutting and removing a truckload of timber that blew down in one of last winter’s storms.

It is hard to believe that just a few days ago I was walking below some of the most beautiful forests along the Oregon coast. The cold wet sand seemed to mingle in the distance with the low hanging coastal mist. The silence was interrupted only by enormous waves crashing against Cascade Head as Claire and I walked through the ghost forest on the Neskowin beach.

The beach at Neskowin has it’s own old-growth forest, not a normal forest though. This forest hasn’t been alive for quite a while; instead blackened and broken stumps protrude from the sand that reflects the glare of the setting sun. This “ghost forest” was caused by a rising of sea level that drowned the trees, and then preserved them under a thin layer of sand. When the larger winter swells throw themselves against the Oregon Coast they pull back the blanket of sand, exposing these ancient trees.

Back at the forest our day is ending. My pants are coated in bar oil and dirt, sawdust has made its way deep down inside my socks causing me to pull and tug on my socks, trying to dig out the offending dust. We have cut about a dozen logs in to log-truck length sections and yarded them to a log deck, essentially a wide place in the road where they can be picked up. These logs will later be milled in to 1 by 10 and 1 by 4 for board and batten siding at Opal Creek Resort near the Santiam River.

Unfortunately it is time for me to head back to the rigors of school and away from the lush beauty of Oregon’s coast range. I know that I will be back, a week of work at winter break, probably more during the spring, and possibly entire years spent out in the woods cutting trees in to boards.