Charlie Becker, area manager of the Lake States Timberlands for Weyerhaeuser, described winter as one of the busier times in the U.P. for logging.

“It’s probably the busiest and most productive time of year for logging and hauling operations,” he said.

Becker explained the U.P., especially the central and eastern half of the U.P., are mainly wetlands, so winter provides the cold temperatures needed to freeze the ground for access to acres of forests otherwise inaccessible in the warmer months.

Trevor St. John, director of forest resources for St. John Forest in Spalding, said although they are busy all year round with logging, winter definitely feels a lot busier, as it is the only time wetlands can be accessed.

Clarissa Kell | Daily Press Trevor St. John, director of forest resources for St. John Forest in Spalding, looks at the soil types of the land in Menominee County on his desktop computer in his office at the St. John Forest headquarters in Spalding recently. The software St. John is using shows him the soil types in any given area. The software is used to determine when they should harvest certain areas they have contracts for. Red, which Menominee County has a lot of, indicates poorly drained soils where there would need to be a good freeze for logging equipment to get into them.

According to St. John, there is dry ground that can be accessed year round. However, he said it’d be a waste to harvest wood from those forests in the winter, as it’s hard to come by and there’s so much more wetlands that can only be harvested in winter.

As many in the U.P. know, there is a lull in the logging industry right after winter, known as “spring break-up,” where there are weight restrictions on roads.

Becker said another reason why winter tends to be the busier season locally is because mills are trying to build inventory to get through the thaw season.

He explained with a majority of forests in the U.P. being limited to winter months for cutting, there’s a lot of wood to cut in a short amount of time.

“We always figure on winter, getting about 10 weeks — from January to middle of March. So we have a lot of wood we’re trying to cut and get delivered in that short time frame because we can’t just leave it sit there after March, right? If you froze a road to go cut some wood, you can’t just say ‘oh I’ll just get that in May,’ right? If it’s on a road that’s frozen, once it thaws out, it’s kinda stuck. You’ll have to leave it there ’til next winter,” Becker said.

Clarissa Kell | Daily Press Larry Bartel, the mechanic crew leader at St. John Forest in Spalding, and Tim Britton, a mechanic at St. John Forest, work on a harvester head in the shop at the St. John Forest headquarters recently.

During the fall season, and possibly even in the summer, foresters are busy planning for the winter season.

Becker explained one of the challenges of logging in the U.P. is how there is more winter ground available to cut than time to cut it, so a part of the planning process involves lining up logging contractors to cut during the winter well in advance.

“We’re trying to line people up six months in advance, if we can, or three months,” he said.

Becker commended the work done by Weyerhaeuser’s logging and hauling contractors during the busy winter months.

“Our logging and hauling contractors are very hard working people. … These folks step up to the challenge all the time of the year, but especially in the winter they’re working long hours to do what it takes to get the wood cut and the wood moved. What that often means is they’re working sun up to sun down or longer,” he said.

Prioritizing contracts are one of the many ways foresters prep for winter.

St. John said they’ve already begun looking at all of their contracts and prioritizing those that expire in spring and are limited to frozen ground work.

Foresters also look at what types of wood were in demand in previous winters.

“We’ll look at what the demands have been at the mills and what we project what the demand will be for the various species of wood — and make sure that the contracts we have lined up for this winter will meet the demand and the mix of wood that they prefer,” St. John said.

Becker agreed, saying there’s a lot of planning into what they are going to produce and what mills want.

He said when planning what they’re going to cut, they have to determine if there’s a demand for it in the market. If there isn’t, Becker said they then have to adjust their plans.

St. John explained there are different kinds of wetlands, too. He said there is a lot of thought put into when a job can be done according to the ground-type and just how wet the ground is — with wetter ground, the colder it has to be for the ground to freeze for access to be possible.

According to Becker, fall is the time to go out and determine the timber available, the quality and the type in different areas. He said it’s also the time to make sure the property lines are clearly marked.

While surveying the land for winter harvest, Becker said they have to determine where the access points in the winter will be.

He explained although the access points into the wetlands aren’t done until late fall, early winter, it’s smart to begin thinking on where they’ll be early on because road building occurs in a short period of time.

According to St. John, when planning what contracts are prioritized he also looks at the areas where the eastern larch beetle has gotten into the tamarack.

He explained tamaracks that have been attacked by eastern larch beetles will turn yellow earlier.

“Usually tamarack doesn’t turn colors until mid October, but if it’s turning colors early it’s probably stressed,” St. John said. “And so those are dying trees and they grow only in wetlands. So if we want to capture the value of those trees before they die, that’s something I’d be looking at right now for this coming winter.”

With winter approaching soon and the first snow fall inevitable, St. John said they’re making sure all the equipment, like their snow plows, are in working order. Once the snow falls, they also switch out tires on crew trucks for snow-tires and tracks for the four-wheelers.

Although there is a lot of planning for the winter months, it can all easily change.

“You can plan all you want but when your job depends on the weather, you just have to be flexible enough to change your plans at a moments notice and to have a plan B, a plan C and a plan D,” St. John said.