Springboard

Evidence of our resource history is all around us.  Anywhere you go on the west coast of Canada or the USA where they logged in Coastal Temperate Rainforests there is evidence of how it was done in the old days.   These notches cut in the stump of a long ago logged Western Red Cedar (Thuja plicata) tree were cut to enable the faller to put a "Springboard" into the notch.  A springboard was a very strong plank with a hardened steel tip that would hold in the notch.  The whole purpose was to allow the logger to get above the wider flare of the butt of the tree.  After all if you are felling a tree by hand, every inch of wood mattered that you had to chop or saw and the fact that you wasted 6' or 8' on the bottom was less important than the ability to cut it down efficiently.

I like them for what they tell us about the people who worked in the forest.  A lot of thought would have had to go into the best strategy for tackling one of these considering the factors of effort and safety.  This fellow, had a double problem with the two trees on one but solved it by putting a springboard down low that allowed him to get up even higher to cut it off  - about 8' off the ground.  Clever loggers.  Grizzly