The logging industry is an important commercial enterprise. From timber come many of the things used in daily activities. An average American household is made up of 80% wood products. The woods are often harvested in remote, uninhabited areas with few serviceable roads. It has always been the logging company’s task to create roads so the fallen trees and the forestry trucks could safely proceed from the work-site to the saw mill. At the same time, in order to profitably operate, these companies have to carefully balance the development of adequate roads with the cost inherent in constructing them.

Path to the Trees

Logging roads are carved routes that lead to the harvest site wherever it may be. Many times these passages are located on mountains or at least on hilly terrain. Typically, they are constructed with limited equipment, in particular a bulldozer and a grader. This equipment is merely laying the groundwork for a proper travel route and any future development once the job of harvesting trees has been completed. Although it would be nice to have a wide, fully paved surface, the cost to build this type of structure is not something usually undertaken by logging companies.

Primitive Routes

The roads as originally constructed are not for the average vehicle operator. Any driver of these routes can encounter steep grades, hairpin turns, and sudden dead ends. A basic reason for this poor quality is partially due to the forestry trucks that use these routes. These trucks can operate in many types of conditions and dirt roads are no problem since most of the trucks have high ground clearance and powerful engines. Although these vehicles can get stuck in the mud every now and then, many have all-wheel-drive and are able to maneuver out of most potential problem areas.

Cost Concerns

One reason why logging companies keep these roads primitive is due to the expensive cost of building a full-fledged highway. It is a time-consuming process that takes many hours of work and a variety of specialized heavy equipment vehicles, which an average business is unlikely to be able to afford. All these companies need is a path the quality of which can be tolerated by forestry trucks.

Expendable Resource Concerns

Another reason for not investing any more money in a quality roadway is due to the fact that, like most other natural resources, a forest can only produce a certain amount of trees and will then require re-planting and re-growth. Once it reaches a point that the resources of a certain area are no longer viable for harvesting, the company will eventually deactivate the work area and close the paths to and from the work site.

Environmental Concerns

The reason for this move is a consideration of the negative impact on the environment from these routes. During heavy rains, dirt and other debris from poorly constructed logging roads can get washed away and proceed on to streams and rivers causing pollution of these natural water ways. The deactivation of a work area can either be a temporary or permanent one depending upon the company’s goals. The basic purpose for deactivating a road is to minimize the disturbance to an area from external elements and allow nature to restore the forest.

Although logging roads are not very welcoming to typical commuters, there are cases where these pathways are further developed by the county or the state for public use, such as for campers and hikers in the area. Since the initial ground work has already been done, it would require less work to develop these routes rather than to completely build new ones.

Conclusion

In conclusion, creating a logging road is all about balancing the cost of construction versus the field requirements of the forestry trucks that will use this pathway to access the forest. Each company must look at its own goals and make an assessment that allows for a balance of these two elements. Hopefully, the final result will be beneficial to both the forest and the logging industry!