These days, it’s area loggers who are keeping a close eye on Mother Nature.
As first reported in last Thursday’s Daily Bulletin, they’re hoping for a return of colder weather–fast–or else thousands of logs will have to be left in the bush.
“God I hope spring isn’t here yet,” said Bears Pass logger Fred Brown. “I’ve been watching the forecast, that’s all I’ve been doing.”
“It’s very detrimental to our operations,” he noted. “Everybody is stuck with their March deliveries in the bush.
“March is the time of year you catch up and make your money,” stressed Brown, who still has 3,000 cords to haul out to local mills.
“We’re totally shut down. We’d ruin the road if we were to run now. Cold weather–that’s the stuff we need,” said Emo logger Fred Klug, who is hoping to get his 2,000 cords of cut wood out before spring.
If the wood is left behind, it will dry out–and contractors and cutters alike will lose money.
“We get paid for the weight factor and the wood will be a lot lighter,” said Brown. “If it doesn’t shape up, a lot of people will be in trouble.”
Leon DeGagne of Leon DeGagne Ltd. still has 4,000 cords to bring in.
“We’re sure hoping for the cold weather. We still have three more weeks in this month after this and I’m thinking very positively,” he said.
Mills also hope the unseasonably mild weather turns around so loggers will be able keep up their supplies by either returning to the winter lots, or beginning to move into the summer ones.
Right now they’re in limbo.
“We’re trying to analyze that. If it stays warm and then dries up, then it’s all right,” said Ray Gladu, procurement co-ordinator for Woodlands at Abitibi-Consolidated here.
“But if it turns cold again, it could be tough. We need summer to come or winter to stay, one or the other,” Gladu stressed.