LOGGING DAYS – LOGGING WAYS

By Marshall McClung
Graham Star Correspondent

Logging has never been an easy profession, but when done in the rugged, mountainous terrain of western North Carolina, it is made even more difficult.  Mechanized equipment including the use of helicopters in some cases has replaced much of the manual labor required in earlier days, but logging still remains an arduous task.

Much of the timber grown in western North Carolina is on National Forest Land managed by the U.S. Forest Service.   This is especially true of Graham County where the Forest Service owns close to two thirds of the land.  Along with this comes ever increasing environmental concerns which has greatly affected the timber industry, and loggers’ wallets.

Many small logging companies and some larger ones have closed down over the years including Bemis Lumber Company which operated in Milltown.  One small company still in existence is Robinson and Duckett Logging Company which has been in existence for over ten years.  Ronnie Robinson and Eddie Duckett have managed to survive strict logging regulations and the anti-logging sentiment which has resulted in expensive vandalism to other loggers’ equipment and the dangerous act of “tree spiking” where large metal spikes or nails are driven into trees to be harvested.  This poses a dangerous risk of injury or death to loggers cutting the trees in the forest or sawmill operators sawing the logs into planks.  There have been cases of sawmill operators being killed by flying metal when the saw blade struck an imbedded metal spike.

To be a logger as a profession, you really have to want to do it.  Many have moved on to other professions.  To the ones who stay with it, is more than just a job, it is what they want to do.  Robinson and Duckett Logging Company which was featured in Southern Logging Times in December, 2001, began contract logging for T&S Hardwoods located in Sylva in 1993. T&S considers them to be some of the more professional loggers they have dealt with and now have them harvesting close to 90% of their logging jobs.  The North Carolina Forestry Association is also very complimentary of the firm saying they have an excellent reputation for caring for the forest in their logging operations and are very active in opposing concerns to curtail logging such as the Indiana Bat issue of a few years ago.  Loggers look upon most of these environmental issues not so much as a valid concern for the forest, but a concerted effort to close them down, forcing them to have to move out of the area.  Loggers look upon such events not just as a threat to their livelihood, but also a threat to their homes and their way of life, feeling sure that the environmentalists don’t just want the logging stopped, but want everyone moved out, and the entire area turned into a wilderness, a belief held by many non-loggers as well.

Robinson and Duckett had known each other for many years before going into business together.   Duckett’s father J.C. (now deceased), and Robinson’s brother Earl worked together for several years prior to the company being formed.  Before becoming partners, all of the men had helped each other out on individual logging jobs.  In time, Earl Robinson left logging to go into trucking, and J.C. Duckett had to quit because of failing health.  This left the running of the operation up to the younger men.  Both men had been in the woods since young boys, and had experience in operating logging equipment such as log trucks and skidders.

The men consider working as loggers to be a tribute to those who have logged the land before them.  Their employees change from time to time, but at present their crew consists of Wess Williams, Robert Cape, David Eller, Andy Lewis, David Pressley, and Bigey Silvers.