AFR: I receive, read, and enjoy both your Rural Delivery and Atlantic Forestry Review magazines. After reading the March 2020 edition of Atlantic Forestry, I noticed and wondered why only the largest mills are ever mentioned. For example, page 8 lists the mills that have found a home for their wood chips since the closure of Northern Pulp.

As a former 22-year employee and sawyer at J.A. Turner & Sons mill in West Northfield, N.S., I still have great interest in forestry work, even though I am retired. There are at least four more active mills between West Northfield and the Windsor Road, Lunenburg County, never mentioned. Just wondering.

William Joudrey
Mahone Bay, N.S.

(Thanks for the note, William. That particular article was more of a broad overview, mentioning larger mills that would be familiar to industry players across the region – but you make a good point about the need to report on the challenges faced by smaller operations. In this issue of AFR you will find some perspectives from J.A. Turner & Sons in “Nova Scotia sawmills adapting,” on pg. 16. I can tell you that an effort was made to reach out to several smaller lumber producers, but since these tend to be family businesses that are stretched pretty tight, replying to media inquiries may not be their top priority right now. Hope you continue to enjoy the magazine, and to share your feedback. DL)

Boot trees and remembrances
AFR: Remember when cutting wood really meant boots on the ground? These are retired chainsaw boots on a tree at the entrance to my grandparents’ wood yard in Belleisle Creek, N.B.

Brandon Vail
Belleisle Creek, N.B.

AFR: Here are some entries from Fit to Print by B.J. Grant, published in 1987, which contains stories and clippings from 150 years of N.B. newspapers:

1921 – A spruce yarded at Two Brooks camp on the Upsalquitch scaled 1,507 feet.

1922 – $35 a month and found has been offered for work in the woods this winter.

1927 – A record load of 4,437 feet of hardwood weighing 23 1/2 tons hauled in to Napadogan.

1902 – Henry Knight of Penniac was killed last week while driving lumber in Maine. He was caught in a jam of logs.

From an article in the Victoria County Record of 1999 about a log drive on the Mamozekel River in 1937: “When a jam would form, someone would shout ‘Jam.’ Sure enough, around the next bend ... the logs had jammed.... Mr. ------ fixed two charges. I remember he put 16 sticks on each pole ... and after tying them securely to the pole, he lit the fuses.... I set mine where he showed me, and he set his.... All of a sudden, boom, boom, almost together.”

That was 16 sticks of dynamite with a fuse that burned at a foot a minute! If a driver was killed on the drive, it was common practice to hang his boots high on a tree on shore – in remembrance.

D.C. Butterfield
Kilburn, N.B.