Project Summary
I started my business, Cedar River Horse Logging and Wood Products, 16 years ago and use draft horses for sustainable forest management. Horse logging is a low-impact tree harvesting method that promotes sustainability, decreases soil erosion and compaction, and promotes healthy growth of the remaining trees. It is a highly skilled career that is viable in rural and suburban areas with large and small forest acres, and where terrain does not permit mechanized harvesting. The practitioners with horse logging skills are aging and retiring, but the demand for this service is growing, so there is an immediate need to recruit and train new horse loggers. There is a significant lack of public awareness that inhibits the recruitment of potential loggers for training. We saw a need to educate the public about equine horse logging and to bring young people into the profession. I worked with Twin Cities Public Television to produce a 30 minute video that addressed the environmental benefi ts of equine forestry while allowing viewers a glimpse into sustainable forest management, as well as ideas for forest recreation and woodworking projects.
Project Description
In my 16-year-old horse logging business, I use Percheron draft horses in the woods. I work with landowners to determine their goals for managing their land and harvest their trees with my team. I currently manage 3,000 acres and have a vertically integrated operation including sawmill and kiln operations, plus furniture production. I also teach a horse logging course and do horse logging demonstrations.
In the last 5 years, I have seen a sharp increase in the demand for horse logging services from private landowners and forest landowner cooperatives who do not want heavy machinery on their land.
Horse logging is a low-impact tree harvesting method that promotes sustainability, decreases soil erosion and compaction, and promotes healthy growth of the remaining trees. Logging with heavy machinery can often compact and erode soil, leave ruts in roads, and damage the remaining trees. Horse logging is a sustainable method of forest management that minimizes soil compaction and erosion, supports biodiversity of large and small forest plots, and encourages the production of residual forest resources. Horses signifi cantly minimize soil compaction and trees are selectively cut by highly skilled loggers, resulting in little, if any, soil erosion. Trained horse loggers know how to fell trees accurately to prevent damage to unharvested trees. Required roads are narrow and the skidding of log-lengths rather than tree-lengths allows for tight turns without damaging remaining trees. Horse logging is particularly well suited to smaller parcels of forest and is tailor-made for rolling hills, steep slopes, and suburban/urban areas where the use of heavy machinery may not be feasible. Nationally, there are over 9.9 million forest owners and 93% of those individual holdings are smaller than 100 acres each. Horse logging also makes good, sustainable economic sense. When logging with horses, there is an increase in residual production because mature trees are selectively harvested while the younger trees that are not harvest are not damaged. This opens up the crown so that the younger trees can grow more quickly and the area can be relogged in 10 to 30 years compared with 60 to 120 years for a clear cut area. I have analyzed the cost of using horses, including depreciation, over an 8 year period and calculated a cost of $1.89/day for the work of pulling.
Horse logging is a highly skilled career that is viable in rural and suburban areas with large and small forest acres and where terrain does not permit mechanized harvesting. Unfortunately, this rural occupation is at a crossroads. The generation with horse logging skills is dying, but the demand for this service is growing, so there is an immediate need to recruit and train new horse loggers. A lack of public awareness inhibits the recruitment of potential loggers for training.
Results
I worked with Twin Cities Public Television to film "Equine Forestry," a 30 minute documentary about the setup and operation of our horse logging camp in Hayward, WI in 2007. We had a 20-man crew, four sawmills, and 11 horses, and produced 36,000' of lumber in 8 days. The documentary addressed the environmental conservation aspects of horse logging as well as its fi nancial viability.
The documentary premiered on Twin Cities Public Television (TPT-17) out of St. Paul, MN on January 12, 2008. Within 10 days of the fi rst broadcast, I received 32 requests to work with people and with draft horses, and I have three apprentices working with me now and two more that have enquired. The show has since aired again twice, in February and March, 2008.MN Dept. of Agriculture Greenbook 2008
