World's Most Dangerous Jobs: Lumberjacks | Free Documentary

foreign [Music] Canada's British Columbia what we notice here first is the trees an immense Forest it was written that here men would exploit this wood and that it would be at the heart of their economy and their life they had to chop the wood down transport it and then transformed it created a whole new type of job and the ocean is at the heart of this process to tell the story of the people who lived and sometimes died here one only needs to follow the path of the laws from the forest to the factory [Music] this Story begins in the quatsino sound to the north of Vancouver Island a journey that takes 45 minutes and one of Silence a story of the forest and of the sea and one which tells the history of British Columbia well it takes a lot of nerve and confidence and if you're gonna sign up for it you better be willing to eat it sleep it and drink it because if you don't take it serious it will take you [Music] a dozen men are aboard the boat they find themselves in such a place that they dare not tell their wives that they came [Music] you could say that Kirk grew up here [Music] you have to be there 100 all the time and you better have your game phase on because if you don't the game's over that simple Kirk is a lumberjack and supervisor at mahata River [Music] where the forests are known to be very dangerous for us this is a very foreign world so you got a bear I did let's put a three-year-old you know what Todd was saying this morning this last day he got home he's gonna pick grizzly in his lawn yeah seriously in high school yeah I know they said they've been moving over right we got those ones in a heart a supervisor at mahata River ensures that things run smoothly or at least as smoothly as things can possibly go Kirk is in charge of appointing men to the different cutting areas there's probably going to be some hazards in there probably just what I got written here let's see jackpots heavy leaners loaded limb limb tied loaded blow down slippery soils check footing possible overhead debris block prone to very high winds take costume with all the above uh contact supervisor if cannot be safely managed plan will be put in place to safely manage and sign that how far do we before we reach the block this is a new Cutting Zone [Music] but it will also serve The Lumberjacks [Music] the zone is at the top of the hill which is the worst possible place it could be see those trees up along that edge way up there now those won't be very what I call not user friendly what happens with those is they're they could be all rotten around the outside and as you're starting to fall them and you're starting to let them go they could they're very weak up top right and they could collapse so if mahata river is so dangerous it's because the river is on the west coast of Vancouver Island and is sometimes exposed to Winds of 200 kilometers an hour coming from the Pacific the trees split break intertwine it looks like a real Battlefield and this battlefield is also a magnificent primary Forest [Music] [Music] we cut guys like this on a fairly regular basis we've had them up to 20 feet across and they're probably around those ones there'll probably be closer to like 1200 years old possibly even older so that's pretty old tree but I find them really challenging and I like them because of that reason they're challenging they make me think they keep me on my toes okay so this tree is gonna go that way this tree is probably about 400 years old might be a little less a little more it's been around for a while it's older than me why I'm getting rid of these trees make an opening so we've got a place to lay this guy in there [Music] to chop down this Spruce Kirk clears the area every action has a consequence and there is no place for fallback unexpected happenings or misjudging a situation it's okay if you're far enough away but if you're too close top will break off as the trees catching it and it bends over the one that's not cut bends over and then it slips through the other tree goes and that one comes back top breaks off or limb comes out guess where you're standing bullseye I don't like being bullseye in 2005 43 of British Columbia's 5 000 Lumberjacks were killed doing their jobs and just last year there were two fatalities at mahada River you know I would say any follower in his career has probably had situations where it probably wasn't good and thought maybe uh he got lucky or maybe he just made that last little move at the last second and got out of the way of Harm's Way and managed to live yeah I can think of a few times in my career that I should have been squashed like a bug but I didn't [Music] Kirk then goes to work on a huge tree in a short space of time half an hour he will chop down a tree 45 meters high and weighing 40 tons [Music] The Lumberjacks at mahada River all say that they've had a day when the smallest of movements could have meant the difference between life and death at the moment when the tree comes down foreign [Music] [Music] the spruce is down Kirk's job is done in British Columbia the timber industry employs 120 000 people and generates 11 billion dollars in revenues everything begins in these forests here where we chop down the trees replant them and let them grow and we continue the Journey of the tree which has now become a trunk also called a log thank you a log which we have brought down the mountain we bring it carefully down to the Sea [Applause] I'll do that once they're in the water men like John take charge first they sort then they lay out and organize the logs they are the raft Builders you know different logging companies and then it goes to various Mills it's towed down Island to various Mills like Campbell River Nanaimo Vancouver cheaper to Boom it up and tow it here than it is truck all this wood here they can move larger amounts of wood at once more cheaply so I would boom it all up only in British Columbia do they transport wood in this fashion there are also huge boats but the rafts are still the norm this is where Andy comes into play Andy is the young captain of heck eight straight a tugboat which has for the past 40 years traveled the waters between Vancouver Island and the mainland with thousands of tons of wood attached okay here are five men on board Hecate straight Grayson is just starting out John is a seasoned Open Sea fisherman and Dennis has always lived this way [Applause] [Music] now [Music] the tugboat leaves Beaver Cove and heads to the Johnston streets losing itself in the Maze of islands it takes eight days to get to the destination sometimes 15 as it takes four hours by car each day to cover this distance which follows the coast [Music] the average speed of the Convoy is one and a half knots nearly three kilometers an hour it's slow very slow but they have to pull a raft the size of six football fields 25 could mean up to 30 000 tons of wood almost a kilometer in length [Music] pulling a raft is just like pulling an iceberg there is much more below the water than above known as a boom the concept is simple a frame holding logs in the middle the logs are tied to bundles which float so traveling forward without losing anything is no mean feat considering that just because things are moving slowly doesn't mean there are no problems see everything interesting [Music] five knots yeah there's a little bit coming but I will be in by then uh some wind coming up but I think we'll be inside by then we won't have to worry about it well you know if this gets pretty ugly you know 20 and over it's when it starts getting ugly and you know you can tow in it but uh you'll be taking a ride 35 knots that's a you don't really want to be towing a knot it's going to be pretty ugly [Music] when you're hauling 30 000 tons behind you nothing happens fast so you have the time to enjoy the countryside and to think about alternatives but there is only one and that is to get home but there is a place in Johnston straight where it's not so easy rough seas in this area all along here and if it gets too rough we don't want to be out in it but if we're down here there's nowhere we can really hide we just have to go with it and with the wind and the current pushing on us is going to want to push us past and down so we're gonna have to fight it across or it can push us onto Fanny Island which we don't want to do because we will break our log to if we hit that [Music] [Applause] it is a very big responsibility yep there's a lot of wood back there a lot of money it all comes down onto me if I get her there in one piece or not and yeah a lot of responsibility the next day Andy starts on the famous Passage conditions look better than expected everything looks good well almost everything Andy oh God is there the road outside there on the poor side or is the bundle Frozen [Music] [Music] Andy has to move fast it's 9 p.m and once night has fallen he won't be able to gather the log dogs first he has to fetch the trailer just gotta get some ropes ready and tie everything in and if I yeah Quinn pushing us down there so far right [Music] though and I'll give you an update on the traffic I don't know how that happens Andy lets the raft drift in the straight he chases down the log bundle separated from the raft the wind has come up again and time is of the essence when you're captain of a ship it's never good to lose some of your cargo John who is the most experienced of the crew jumps onto a lost bundle he ties them back together [Music] just chucking that off there and then grab a long rope and then just run it through what both funnels again Andy brings the Stray log bundles back towards the huge raft left floating in the middle of the straight [Music] some of the logs are damaged but that's something to worry about later [Music] for now the logs just need to be attached it's not the time nor the place to make it look good but rather just to make sure it holds so they can get out of here as quickly as possible [Music] it'll be fine hey gun gun go under that way did you guys lose some boomsticks no we just uh three or four bundles pop out there looks like you know kind on the side of toe there now all right okay yeah I'm just going past a three boot stick strung together here I thought they might be yours did Andy lose a bundle before he noticed what was happening do they have their entire cargo it's hard to say but if by a stroke of bad luck they are missing a few logs they may not be completely lost yeah it looks good it's probably going to be low float you can see the green on it it's a Hemlock uh we'll see how it floats when it gets in the water that one's a hunk of junk and this one a small Hemlock hopefully it floats okay we'll uh pull them off okay all right hang on [Music] Eric Hammond is a Beachcomber or to be more exact he's a log salvager he earns a living collecting the logs that have been washed up on the bank he then sells them off he's kind of a scrap dealer of the waters all was ready to replenish his stack of wood which he keeps safely tied up [Music] Eric lives in house sound with his wife and two children he's hoping that he'll be able to go looking for logs tonight earlier this afternoon might be swinging around the Westerly is good weather Southeast Springs rain but there it's kind of exposed to both sides so you know ideally five to ten would be good but it might be workable well we'll make the Judgment call as we get out there I guess but it's not as bad as it could be so let's promising sometimes I worried when it goes out oh well [Laughter] [Music] thing but um no I don't worry too much I'd be worried all the time I guess [Music] the conditions are just right and Eric doesn't waste any time when you're a Beachcomber you have to be ready to take off quickly [Music] foreign [Music] I go the more logs I can get if they're really good logs it's more incentive to work on a lower tide but uh yeah I'd like to have as much time as I could if I had a full tide all day I'd be working all day speed is efficiency very quickly he finds some logs he's good or maybe just lucky he's here this is good these are boomsticks these are the logs that go around the booms they're actually worth a little bit so probably okay that's good it's almost certainly damaged the wood has broken off its raft and ended up here ninety percent of the wood that litters the shores here are logs lost by the industry Eric only looks for the best logs and searches high and low along the coast including on people's doorsteps seems most the time they're unhappy about it that guy was quite friendly so that made it easy thanks they think it's their log or I don't know they just seem to get angry really easily they don't understand that I have to pay for a license and this is my job they don't they don't understand it's a demanding job firstly very physically demanding [Music] [Applause] and everything has to be done at high speed Eric only has a few hours to gather up as much wood as he can [Music] um the life of a Beachcomber is rather solitary he works completely alone which means he has to manage everything alone the boat and the logs which can weigh several times foreign it's a lot more complicated than it looks and he's constantly forced to improvise you never know what you're going to run into up there in some ways it becomes routine but some ways not like I say there's always different challenges come up we'll try it might be I don't want to leave it if it is don't stand there there's a ride a little breaks yeah when you're a log salvager it's all about the small victories that's getting to be a heavy load it's good [Music] tonight the hall has been a good one but that's not always the case even if beachcombers are becoming a rare species the competition isn't so Fierce anymore and people aren't I don't know it's maybe people have changed too I don't know it's not it's not the fierceness to it maybe because there isn't the money behind it money makes people do funny things so maybe that's it since we don't get paid as much so you still have the incentive to get out there sooner and faster [Music] after last night's difficulties the hector straight stops it's a good time to repair the damaged raft and here every time the tugboat passes through an eagle comes to say hello well I just fed them fed him some garlic sausage I don't think he sees it though about a half a mile back he'll come and land on the toe and then right here at the water hole he seems to be here every time and must be his home but he comes and hangs out and so what we're going to do is just push all the wood back tighten it up and we'll bring all that other stuff and put it back in what you have to do every time before to go to the Rapids um no just because these bundles popped out in the weather we had the other day so it doesn't really happen too often but every once in a while it'll happen they take advantage of the time to repair the raft and make it more secure they'll soon have to face the strong currents of the Narrows which is always a delicate place to maneuver through and they need to be ready can't [ __ ] pull this up man [Music] working on the raft is very physical you gotta go back around the stick they joke just came undone [Music] and he helps them he pushes hundreds of tons of wood with the tugboat while his men are balancing on top of the raft this requires a certain amount of finesse [Music] it's always gotta be paying attention where they are and make sure they're not the wrong spot he'll fall in be very aware yeah it happened to me a long time ago yeah I fell in between two logs log log booms coming together there and I got myself out in time but it ended up catching my leg my shin I cracked my shin bone yeah didn't feel too good three hours of very tough work then a quick break before setting off again with the tide here's an expert you have to be a good worker to work on Andy's boat even when he's fishing that's right he's the boss he does what he wants he's done it a long time so he can do what he wants [Music] okay despite his young age Andy is a demanding Captain but he's also a captain who has what he calls the tug life the life on board the tugboat a peaceful life full of enjoyable experiences [Music] The heckade Straits continues its Journey [Music] soon a small Tugboat joins them it's a boat that will stay with him in order to help the journey across the Seymour passage also known as The Narrows where only the most experienced Captain dares to go with this big a cargo yeah pretty smooth shot there everything went good egg yes it's it's not something anybody can just come do Andy's probably been doing this for probably a good 10 years now ever since ever since I started coming over again here actually started working with him going on there's a lot of stuff you need to know right now the snow and stuff's melting off of the top of the mountain so we got fresh water coming out of all the inlets and stuff so it it messes with the tides in certain spots that you got to know you know when that's how it's going to mess you up [Music] when I first started uh you know the first few times going through the Rapids about myself that was it was a little overwhelming I guess but you get over it I you know now that I've done it a lot you know it's not too much to worry about now there's some Tides you know that that'll get you and you know they'll give you that little rush you get but [Music] foreign [Music] in how sound Eric The Beachcomber has a visitor yeah just uh started that end there sure sometimes I am disappointed I think that a log was going to be bigger than it was but you know he has a final say so so yeah anyway I've got to kind of make sure that he gets them all so I'll kind of uh feed them to him as he needs to to see them so the visitor is a scaler he assesses the wood and it is his evaluation that turns the wood into money for Eric when he sells it the man is independent he does not directly work for buyers and thus he is impartial it's a it's a mix some of these high floating logs are a good quality wood some of the ones you see that are floating lowly not so good so you have to say what what kind of food it is the length and the size and that's right the the species the length the top the butt diameter and a grade that's uh afforded each log uh having to do with its value is this formula you change I mean all the time according to the price and uh of the market I don't know that's right two or three times a year they do an adjustment of the value of the wood according to the market for the next few hours the scalar records each log then he gives his verdict 370 pieces 215 meters the assessment isn't great and means less money than Eric expected uh I don't know for the price but there's 370 pieces 215 meters so there's definitely less than a meter average per log so so yeah but then I guess you could save average log uh it gets complicated but I mean price per meter says 30 bucks so nice to me it's the beachcombers are the ones that are out there doing the hard work trying to keep our Waters clear and very uh there's just not as much compensation as they should receive for that kind of work that definitely the system is stacked against the beachcombers in my in my estimation but I probably shouldn't be saying that yeah [Music] Eric will make about six thousand five hundred dollars for his lot [Music] which is not a lot considering the time he spent collecting the wood he goes home to tell his wife today is 370 pieces 215 meters it's better none it's out there at least good is it more about a lifestyle okay a good question what I think because there's no question like it is a lifestyle there's just no way around you can probably do different work and make more money doing something else um but he loves doing this he'll come home some nights and just be beaming because it was perfect the weather or um or the logs or something so he gets excited about it I can't really imagine him doing anything else [Music] we often hear about the call of the sea an irresistible urge to go to Sea for Eric it's clear that he feels the call of the Beachcomber a need to hunt for logs [Music] however lost wood is becoming more of a rarity poor Forest areas are being chopped down and technological innovation means that there are fewer logs lost at sea rafts are more solid and better designed things are also changing in how sound which was once known as the beachcoming mecca of British Columbia definitely higher expensive to be a lot of cottages along here but they've all been bought up and giant mansions put in their place it seems to me that an attitude comes with it I hate to say it that's what I've run into so far oh man easily million million dollars easy easy yeah I'm never gonna buy it so I don't need to know But Eric continues fighting literally and metaphorically he doesn't need to go to the gym as working with the wood is a constant workout bastard I mean there is a point of diminishing returns of the law isn't worth the time you might as well continue on to easier logs uh that's just something you have to make that judgment call at the time and just give up or if you are stubborn sometimes you just keep working on it and don't let the log win it depends how I'm feeling foreign breed of Beachcomber as he continues to earn his living the same way as father and grandfather did before him but the way things are going he's becoming more and more comparable to The Last of the Mohicans if it if the job goes away we'll see how if I stay sane I would say so yeah I I would have to find another job in the water preferably working by myself for myself I don't know uh what else is out there that does that foreign Strait arrives in the infamous Narrows a dreaded route in the Narrows currents can reach up to 17 knots today they're at nine knots that might not seem like a lot but imagine hauling 30 000 tons around moving along arduously at three kilometers an hour and your journey is disturbed by the turbulent Eddies which moves six times faster than you uh yeah usually calm some nerves a little bit I guess the Johnston straight begins to narrow huge masses of water are concentrated here due to the effects of the tides with this cargo Andy has to work with the currents to maneuver and avoid disaster the current is pushing him the raft is gathering speed Andy begins his maneuver being a [ __ ] guy the battle is on falling really hard this way is still pushing me really hard down that way right now so let me show you clear here you better [Music] yeah I can't hear it off before about here the smaller Tugboat which helps the boat get through the Narrows comes to help in order to balance things out or at least to try given the inertia of the thirty thousand tons of wood This Is The Moment of Truth on the radar they're getting dangerously close to the coastline [Music] Andy is worried the raft keeps on drifting [Music] finally it gets back on track [Music] key is to stay turn your toe at all times if your toe passes you and you're in trouble yeah hard part's over Andy and the heck eight straights only have to follow the rest of their route from here on out it's plain sailing to their destination The Sawmill [Music] John's next job is to supply a sawmill located on the edge of town he's done it all before but today he doesn't have time to joke around today we have a changeover that means one customer's cut is finished we start a new one we're a little bit behind good morning charlemen how's it going good good deal Pinda is his right-hand man and boss on the water the morning begins with a rude awakening all right otherwise you can't make it that many Lots of time [Music] we sorted out the tags was 10 and 15 10 and 5 15. oh yes yeah we'll be on time it's we're always on time but it's just uh one of these days it's a rush everybody has to go fast 6 30 a.m Pinda and John get back on board their funny little boats it's a type of boat that you'll only find in British Columbia a boom boat a funny name but they're not here to joke around danger sometimes you know make sure you know watch each other why would we do it that's all I wanted because I have to watch this guy work in front of me you know you don't want to hurt them [Music] the race against the clock begins they only have a few hours to collect sort select and calibrate all the wood which is gathering in the Frazier River at the foot of the sawmill just a few hours to supply the factory and free up the zone for the next load which is about to arrive [Music] over here everything is happening on board this boom boat a sort of Maritime bumper car [Music] this law is too big [Music] we also have to watch we don't get the lungs running into the splitter saw it so in order to drive these boats we normally train our people first you know cutting bundle wires pushing logs and then after about a month we'll get them in the boats for my Dave got pretty much fully qualified job actually is not too difficult but you certainly have to know what you're doing mid-morning they'll take a break and they'll take notes on the logs they've treated and those that are left to do oh there should be one with 14 bundles and one with 19 bundles will be on right now yeah no we just finished that one right we just started this one yeah okay we're on the 14 mothers yeah okay 66. yeah now is the best moment to find out a bit more about them because last week we're working midnight Friday Thursday night okay my family is like a third generation here well I'm born in India when I was a little kid my dad died and he used to be truck driver here and my brother worked in the Sawmill that's the only thing we know now now the incredible lawyer doctor drug dealers all kinds of other stuff the last there used to be quite a few Up and Down the River they gradually uh Gone Away you know they've been shipping on an awful lot of raw logs from Vancouver from Vancouver Island you know ship the logs by freighter overseas so I mean they're just taking jobs away from local people you know if they want to buy wood by the lumber after we process it and the economy here would start to grow because no there are less so many than a lot there's a lot less soils in our in Vancouver itself they used to be all up and down the river and uh no more we're the last one in Vancouver [Music] The Sawmill industry is not flourishing as it once was but the pace of work here is just as frantic just as the new load appears on the horizon John Pinda and the others finally make up for their lost time for seven hours they continuously Supply the factory with logs a factory which operates 24 7. 365 days a year the logs have survived their long voyage it's here that the journey will end for a 400 year old tree which was chopped down by a lumberjack A Long Way North on the west coast of Vancouver Island the tree has been transformed into smaller pieces of lumber and will almost certainly end up in another country ninety percent of the wood from British Columbia is exported and during this time era collects the logs which have washed up on the shore during our journey up the river who knows how much longer he can keep on making a living like this but it's sure that he'll continue as long as possible in a job that he loves as for Andy he's taken on a new role with every Voyage he gets more experienced the Johnston straight is his kingdom in the north of Vancouver Island Kirk chops down trees in the great Forest of mahata river the trees are felled and carried down the mountain to rejoin the river this is the Eternal cycle of British Columbia [Music]

Channel: Free Documentary

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Id: LhiWuDWX1AQ

Length: 49min 55sec (2995 seconds)

Published: Sun Jul 30 2023