The familiar rumble that hovered above Rock Creek Road's residences before Christmas is back in thunderous form. Helicopter logging is swinging again.
Columbia Helicopters of Portland has resumed its logging operation on a 90-acre parcel of land owned by Rosboro Lumber Co. of Eugene after a break for the holidays and recent delays due to fog.
The land sits on slopes that are too steep for more conventional means of logging. As a result, the land was not heavily harvested in the past and is now producing some giant timber.
"There's been a number of three-load limits coming off this unit," said Frank Mitchem, area land manager for Rosboro, as a logging truck weighed down with three Douglas fir logs rolled past.
The trucker hauling the cargo could be heard on the project's citizens band radios announcing that before he came to the site, he averaged about three three-log payloads per year.
The loading site is currently averaging about 24 truckloads per day.
Mitchem said that before the logging operation began, he discovered signs of a previous logging operation that appeared to be about 60 years old on the unit's south side at lower elevations.
"I was a little bit surprised to see stumps down there," he said.
Selective logging is taking place at higher elevations so enough trees are left behind to eliminate the need for replanting in the rocky soil, as is allowed by Oregon logging codes.
Mitchem said the practice also prevents soil erosion and any possible damage to privately owned land at the bottom of the slope.
Last week Columbia finished hauling bigger, heavier logs with a Chinook helicopter up a 1,000-foot vertical climb from a harvest area below to a loading area on a Bureau of Land Management road.
It's now using a slightly smaller helicopter, known as a Vertol, which can haul loads that weigh up to 10,000 pounds. The Chinook can carry loads that weigh up to 28,500 pounds.
Standing on a ridge near 4-foot diameter stumps and watching the Vertol rise from a canyon, Rodger Buyes, project manager for Columbia Helicopters, remarked on the grade of the slope before him.
"This is prime example of helicopter ground," he said. "Steep and you can't see the bottom of it."
Mitchem said the production rate triples when using a Vertol compared to the more common hauling practice of tower logging.
Columbia pilot John Harris said the Vertol hauls three times less timber weight than the Chinook, but the hourly rate of round trips has stayed pretty much the same.
"We're averaging about 26 loads per hour" with the helicopter, from harvest site to landing site, Harris said.
Some of those helicopter loads can be a single log or as many as three or four logs.
On a day of heavy log lifting with the Chinook, Buyes said more than 4 million board feet of lumber was hauled up the ridge.
Before Columbia started hauling timber up the ridge, it was felled by a subcontractor.
Though helicopter logging is much more expensive than conventional logging, Mitchem says the practice is profitable with the current prices of lumber.
"Unless logging prices plummet, we'll continue helicopter logging," Mitchem said.
Mitchem and Buyes said they expect to be helicopter logging at the site for about two more weeks.
When the Vertol helicopter is not in operation, it sits on a makeshift pad off Rock Creek Road where Columbia has temporarily made a base for the project.
Jim Hall, who has lived on Rock Creek Road for 22 years, said the project marks the first time he's seen helicopter logging performed so close to Idleyld Park and Glide.
Though he's glad to see people working, he's anxious for the helicopter logging project to end.
"When he gets a heavy load it shakes the windows," Hall said.The News Review
