Run, Loggers, Run!

This month, in honor of the holidays, we bring you a very special The Northern Logger podcast. We interviewed several Maine loggers and foresters who decided to do something a little crazy this winter: They ran a marathon with chainsaws. That’s right — a group of loggers in hardhats, wearing PPE, ran a marathon in Millinocket, Maine in December. What’s more, they did it for a good cause! Listen to our December episode to find out more about this wild story.

To read our print coverage of this same story in our December issue of The Northern Logger, click here.

Guest Podcast: Learning from Eastern Old Growth Forests

This is a special guest episode of The Northern Logger podcast. In October, we had the opportunity to attend Northern Woodlands magazine annual conference in Fairlee, VT, where we heard a wide range of speakers talk about their work in northern forests. This talk — on the latest research in old growth forests — was given by Bill Keeton, a Professor of Forest Ecology and Forestry at the University of Vermont who studies the ecology of old growth forests in the northeast. Thanks to Northern Woodlands for sharing the audio of Bill’s fascinating talk!

You can learn more about Bill’s work here, and more about Northern Woodlands here.

How the Trade War is Affecting Hardwood Markets

This month we spoke to Tom Eichler, who works in sales for Baillie here in New York. It’s no secret that the U.S. hardwood market is heavily reliant on China’s imports. Eichler talks about the impact the trade war has had on the mills he works for and how this trade dispute looks different than a recession.

Listen to the pod to get the rest of this great conversation. Thanks Tom!

Production by E.T. Townsend

Radio Diaries from the Great Lakes Logging & Heavy Equipment Expo 2019

In this episode, Northern Logger Editor Eileen Townsend takes a recorder around the annual Great Lake Logging & Heavy Equipment Expo in Escanaba, MI. She catches up with our northern correspondent Mike Monte, chats with a logging father and his son, a longtime logging yooper and Henry Schienebeck, the organizer behind the annual expo.

This episode is sponsored by John Deere.

Subscriptions, questions and comments can be addressed at eileen@northernlogger.com.

Production and music by E.T. Townsend

The Only Logger in the Woods: Logging Stories from New Jersey and Rhode Island

On this episode of The Northern Logger podcast, we spoke with loggers from the smallest northeastern states about how they make it work. These loggers work in areas where it is uncommon to see a log truck going down the road and where hardly anyone grows up working in the woods. We explore what it means to be a logger when there are no other loggers around.

We also spoke with the folks over at the Maine Logger Health and Safety Study — an important research project that looks into the health and safety of the forest products industry in Maine. This study has been going on for a few years now and they have results they were eager to tell us about.

You can read print versions of these stories by subscribing to our podcast at www.northernlogger.com.

Thanks for listening to The Northern Logger podcast!

(Reporting by Eileen Townsend. Production by Emily Townsend.)

A Day at Hubbard Brook Experimental Forest

We spent the day at the Hubbard Brook Experimental Forest in the White Mountains of New Hampshire, speaking with two researchers -- Elizabeth Studer and Laurel Symes -- about their work at the historic site for forest research. We spoke with Studer and Symes about the future of the ash tree and what will happen when ash goes extinct, bioacoustics and birdsong, what “biogeochemistry” is, and the history of research forests.

Spruce Budworm Returns


The last big spruce budworm outbreak took place in the late 1970s and early 1980s. Those who worked in the forest industry in Maine during that period are no stranger to the words “spruce budworm.” During that outbreak, the budworm defoliated 20% of Maine’s spruce and fir forests, causing the timber industry to salvage log extensively. In Canada, the picture was even more dramatic; some areas of Novia Scotia saw 90% tree mortality. Clearcuts became commonplace.

Today, a spruce budworm outbreak is back in Canada and we are seeing the very beginnings of another outbreak in northern Maine. How has management changed since the last outbreak and what tools are available to landowners who hope to protect their forests against spruce budworm damage? We spoke to Brian Roth, of the University of Maine’s Cooperative Forestry Research Unit and the Maine Spruce Budworm Taskforce, Dr. Rob Johns of the Canadian Forest Service, Alison Kanoti of the the Maine Forest Service, and Aaron Weiskittel, the Director for the Center for Research on Sustainable Forests. Thanks to this month’s guests.


Learn more in this episode of the Northern Logger.

Thanks again to our episode sponsor John Deere.