February 26, 2008

Horse-logging project underway in provincial forests
Use of animals to move trees harkens back to earlier time
The Guardian

DUNDAS — Way down along a snow-covered logging road near Dundas, two horses and a sleigh pull three generations of Taylor men through narrow pathways in the woods.
The men pick through a four-acre area of Crown land, choosing dead or crooked trees in the stand for firewood. Their chainsaws mark the only sound of machinery for miles as they slice through the trunks of their handpicked trees.
After amassing a pile of logs, the three men work together to pile them onto the sleigh pulled by two young Heflinger ponies, Morgan and Minnie.
Their hooves sink into the deep snow that a recent rainfall has made soft as they pull their load to another larger log pile. It would have been easier going on this day had the snow been a little more firm.
But the ponies have become accustomed to their work in the forest, and only fidgeted slightly as they waited for the wood to be piled onto the larger mass of logs a few feet away. All the freshly cut trees will eventually make their way out of the thicket in small trips on the sleigh to the main logging road about 10 minutes away.

The rest of the article is available here:
http://www.theguardian.pe.ca/index.cfm?sid=111564&sc=98