We moved to Mexico and we miss you Rick Mercer - you are amazing. It surprises us the things that you do and seem to be fearless. Thanks for the informative programs and making us laugh while we learn.
That guy Dean was a best friend of mine for awhile back in high school and a few years after .I started heli-logging in the early 90's with the S-64 aircrane and did it for a few years but was crushed and almost killed at work in Jervis Inlet . I went back logging and heli-logging after but was eventually retrained as a commercial diver . I can tell you that hooking turns under the air crane for 10hrs or more a day, weeks in a row is a hard and dangerous thing to do . I was too green and paid!
It's static that gets built up from the air. I didn't know about it the first time I grabbed a hook......and man, did the choker men laugh......it was funny as hell. You always smack the hook with a choker before you grab it....lesson learned.
Near the end of my career in the Air Force I had the opportunity to visit one of these operations near Bella Coola. We flew there in one of our Search & Rescue CH113/113A Labrador helicopters. The Vertol 107 used to lift the logs is a civilian version of the Labrador. We were looking to install a new system they had for possible installation in our SAR fleet. The 107 is stripped down to skin & bone for maximum lift capacity. The skill of the crews is amazing, not only the pilots but the loggers who need to estimate the optimum size of each load. Too light & they lose money, too heavy & the pilot has to pickle it, again losing time & money. IIRC a full turn, that is time to lift the logs, drop them in the drink & return for next load had to be under 4 minutes or they were losing money.
What I find funny, is that you will never see the cull waste wood that is left behind from heli operations, because the wood couldn't make quality or size limits. There is massive blocks in Seymour full of nice yellow cedar.....but it stayed and rotted.....simply because it was 3cm under diameter tolerance, lol But this is a good video anyway, Rick.
Yeah so I'm a treeplanter and there is good reason for leaving that wood behind. If you take all of the matter out of the forrest then there is less bio availability for the new trees to grow. Those smaller trees that were not worth taking will decompose and provide nutrients for the new trees that I've planted. The new trees will have then have more nutrients than their predecessors and probably grow to be even larger.
I googled the lyrics to this theme song at it states: "Stupid, stupid theme song theme song, stupid stupid theme song theme song, stupid stupid theme song theme song stupid stupid, theme song theme song, stupid stupid theme song theme song, stupid stupid theme song theme song, stupid stupid theme song theme song....." (fade)
I'm expecting you will remove this comment rather quickly, as you have all the other ones that are critical of this unsustainable industry, but something must be said. For a guy famous for his progressive rants, what was sadly absent from this piece of industry propaganda is the question of WHY we are heli-logging the tops of mountains in the first place! It's because this industry, over the past 100 years, has logged upwards of 90% of the easily accessible, high-productivity old-growth temperate rainforest on the west coast, and now they're coming back for those last few patches on steep slopes, in community watersheds, and in previously protected wilderness habitats. Even the second growth that is being logged after just 50 years is mostly being shipped overseas as raw logs to fetch higher prices just to keep this industry afloat. 50% of forestry jobs in BC have been lost over the past 20 years due to raw log exports, over-harvesting, mechanization, the closing of mills, and the law of diminishing returns. It's high time we stop the liquidation of our forests and transition to a sustainable, selective, ecosystem-based, community-oriented, second-growth forest industry with lots more value-added, more jobs, an end to raw log exports, an end to large-scale clear-cuts, and a more holistic approach to forestry that allows our forests to heal. Let's grow BIG trees again!!!
You’re a typical city-dwelling, Sierra-club-informed putz who can’t place the science of simplicity ahead of your ideals for even a moment. The REASON we can log the more INACCESSIBLE (roads would be costly and/or environmentally-damaging) tracts of land is because of the PRICE related to the demand by simpleton cucks like you wanting new cedar siding and other “organic” materials in your concrete jungle homes. The plight for “sustainable second growth forests” requires CONVERSION of decadent, low-ecological-value first growth (not “old growth”) into secondary stands that can be adequately accessed and managed for the first 15-20 years of life, before becoming a successful second and upwards rotations. Over 14% of Bc is retained in parks which includes Over 780,000 hectares of “old growth” that is accessible by the MOTIVATED. And that doesn’t include the tens of thousands of hectares of retained riparian area setbacks that are built into every harvest plan. Know your roll; you’re a tool from the city while people with post secondary educations from every possible science and anthropogenic field are working together to manage the forests you’re too lazy to go visit unless they’re within reach of a fuckin Starbucks.
