In an intricate ballet, ‘chokers’ hook felled, sheared trees to a cable dangling from a helicopter so they can waft their way to a collection point where they’re loaded onto trucks for transport to mill

By Morgan Rothborne, Ashland.news

Driving toward the hilltop overlooking the processing area for the city of Ashland’s helicopter logging project Wednesday, Ashland Fire & Rescue Wildfire Division Chief Chris Chambers listened as the radio crackled periodically. The pilot of a Kaman helicopter was announcing the payload of each “turn” of trees the aircraft was carrying down the steep slopes of Siskiyou Mountain Park. 

Chambers noted the latest number — 3,500 pounds — was a smaller payload than he prefers, but the “chokers” on the ground do the best they can. Heavier loads of trees keep the project moving closer toward completion, he said. 

The “chokers” are the ground crew responsible for securing the felled trees to the helicopter’s hook via cables called chokes. When dead or dying trees were marked and subsequently felled by ground crews weeks ago, care was taken to fell trees of similar size together to make it easier for chokers to secure up to around 5,000-pound loads at a “turn” or the time it takes for the helicopter to collect the logs and drop them at the processing site, Chambers explained. 

From the top of the hill looking over Siskiyou Mountain Park, piles of felled trees visible between the standing trees resembled pick-up-sticks. 

The project is the latest response to the rapid die off of Douglas fir trees and resulting fire danger in the forests around Ashland. By felling a high number of dead trees and carrying the trees out via helicopter, the relative fire risk can be lowered with less impact on the surrounding forest and less cost, as previously reported by Ashland.news. 

Despite minor delays for mechanical fixes, Chambers said the project is expected to stay within its anticipated time frame and wrap up in mid-May. Logging trucks carrying the processed trees to the Timber Products mill in Yreka for sale will move through the city of Ashland for the next few weeks. During the Siskiyou Mountain Park phase of the project, trucks will move along Walker Avenue and down Siskiyou Boulevard to Interstate 5. 

Once the project moves to transporting the felled trees in the Ashland Creek watershed, trucks heavy with logs will move down Granite Street alongside Lithia Park to Main Street and Siskiyou Boulevard on its way to Interstate 5 and south over Siskiyou Pass to Yreka. 

The route is dictated in part by the truck’s final destination and by where it is easiest to maneuver the large vehicles, he said. To keep the pace of the project up, five trucks will move two runs each per day within the city’s noise ordinance allowed time of 7 a.m. to 7 p.m.

 A far cry from the logging work of decades past, this project is highly mechanized into a process Chambers said he likes to think of as “a ballet.”

 From the top of the hill, the helicopter came into view flying toward the project area with massive trees dangling from its hook below. It hovered in space bobbing like a dolphin at a zoo waiting to be fed. The aircraft was visibly skinnier and audibly quieter than most helicopters. 

The Kaman — or Kmax as it is also called — is specially designed to do this work, he said. It seats only one pilot and has less “rotor wash” or air turbulence from its blades resulting in fewer branches knocked loose — potentially on the heads of the ground crew below — and overall less forest disturbance. The Kaman also has a sensor that can weigh each payload, enabling the pilot to call out the weight of each “turn,” Chambers said. 

While the helicopter appeared to be bobbing over the project area, it was laying the trees down flat to the ground in front of an excavator cat fitted with a large red attachment at the end of its arm. 

Once the trees were flat on the ground, two men in the eight-tenths of an acre log-processing area hustled to the logs, detached the chokes and moved just as rapidly out of the way as the helicopter rose and circled, swinging its hook over to the other side of the project area. Chambers confirmed the hook is something “you don’t want to be under.” 

The two men ran to the hook, attached bundles of chokes, and again hurried out of the way as the helicopter flew back up the hill to collect more trees. Then the Cat operator picked up a log with the red attachment — the processor. 

About the size of a Prius car, the processor lopped off tidy flat ends and chewed the logs down to the right specs for the lumber mill the way an eager diner might move over an ear of corn. The finished logs were then sorted into piles according to their final destination. 

Logs too small in diameter to be saleable at the mill will be sent turned into wood chips for a significantly smaller profit, but some recoup of funds and utility. Logs unsuited to either will be processed into firewood and donated to the Jackson County Fuel Committee. The sale of timber from the project is expected to reach an estimated roughly $600,000 to help pay down the total $1.4 million project cost. An additional $500,000 in recent city investment income will also go toward the project cost, he said. 

The “slash” — or assorted limbs and woody debris from the trees — will become piles to be disposed of in controlled burns. With a little luck and a wet spring, Chambers was optimistic the debris left remaining after the trucks and the helicopters are finished will be mostly burned before fire season gets too hot. 

When asked if the work was dangerous for the ground crews, Chambers confirmed it was “super dangerous,” and referred to them as the “unsung heroes” of the project. 

Once the Cat and the helicopter are gone, Chambers said a new project will begin to assess how to best bring the forest into a better state of health. Working with specialists from the United States Department of Fish and Wildlife, maps will be created for species such as Humbolt martin and Pacific fisher to determine how best to restore the forest and possibly even fell additional trees to create habitat and refugia from the coming heat of climate change. 

For more information and project updates, visit the city of Ashland’s page for the project. 

Email Ashland.news reporter Morgan Rothborne at [email protected].

April 29: Reference to the Ashland Forest Resiliency Plan removed, as this work is not part of that partnership project. It is being conducted solely by the city.