Labor Day in Eugene area should celebrate the legacy of Oregon ax men and the local logging industry

NOTI, Oregon – In just about an hour, axe men here in this logging town of Noti can take a classic saw (*known in these parts as a misery whip) and take down a giant Douglas Fir tree.

Thus, one’s view of the great outdoors in Oregon would not be complete without an appreciation of the people who work in the logging industry.

In fact, timber in this logging community of Noti -- just west of Eugene in the Central Oregon Coast Range – is still the top local industry even though high-tech manufacturing and tourism in Oregon have surpassed forestry in recent years.

Still, there is more than 30 logging industry companies in the Eugene area who’s estimated annual sales tops $20 million. These forestry companies also employ more than 200 people, and that’s not bad given this economy where jobs are hard to find.

Jeff Borch, a third generation ax man who works in Noti, remembers his grandfather “cutting trees like there was no tomorrow. Logging was ‘the’ business in and around Eugene for decades. Now, with housing starts at an all time low, we don’t cut timber like we used to. No, not at all,” say Borch who’s been laid-off twice in the past 18 months.

At the same time, family and friends of loggers know this type of work can kill.

“Because trees are very heavy, it’s easy to get hurt,” explains Borch. “If you do this work you must be ready to cut quickly and efficiently or risk injury. We’ve lost a lot of good men over the years. Both my father and uncle died of injuries from the work,” Borch adds with a deep sense of sorrow.

In fact, the 1950’s were considered the most dangerous period for Oregon loggers with more than 620 axe men killed. Public records also state that another deadly period for Eugene area loggers was in 1986 when 25 loggers were killed. At the same time, Washington state records state that 6,097 loggers were killed between 1911 and 2009.

In his book “Deadfall,” James Lemonds notes that “a logger must simply refuse to believe that a bullet has his name on it.”

To be fair, the timber industry has drastically improved its safety record in recent years. Still, logging is still considered one of the most dangerous jobs in the world.

One of the most famous books about loggers is by Eugene legend Ken Kesey who wrote “Sometimes a Great Notion” in 1964.

This writer, who talked with Kesey about "Sometimes A Great Notion" before his death, believes that this second novel was probably his best.

"Sometimes A Great Notion" is based in the Mapleton and Florence area west of Eugene where Kesey lived and worked with axe men to research the book. It’s the story of a typical Oregon logging family who cut plenty of trees for a local mill along the Siuslaw River.

Kesey’s book about loggers focuses on the Stamper family who oppose union loggers in the mythical community of “Wakonda,” that Kesey said was based on Florence, Oregon.

Needless to say, there’s no one book that captures the spirit and adventure of the “labors” that local men have gone through to put both Eugene and Oregon on the map. Thus, it’s only fitting that this Labor Day should also be a local axe man day.

Moreover, logging will continue to be “the” industry in the Eugene area and Oregon simply because of the sheer numbers of trees that grow here. The World Bank states in a recent online report that forest products are a $300-billion-a-year industry and the world’s craving for such things as building materials to paper, to many other products made from forestry products will not cease.

If anything, U.S. and world consumption of wood products will increase by 30 percent by 2011 states the Resource Conservation Alliance. And, Eugene and other areas of Oregon, states the Alliance, will “surely grow.”

And, even with this bad economy, the Center for the Study of the Pacific Northwest at the University of Washington, states that Oregon will continue to harvest over 1 billion board feet of timber annually. That’s a lot of trees, even for around here.