First Nations people logged the area very selectively, taking only what they needed in a very sustainable way. Evidence of Culturally Modified Trees abound in Powell River, mainly strips taken for baskets etc, but also art. 

Klahoose article here

After european contact, when the boom created by the completion of the Pacific Railway was over in 1887, the logs from convenient locations near Vancouver were taken, and a huge demand from back east emerged. In the 1880's and 90's, independent loggers migrated up the coast and cut the old growth that was typically a few hundred feet up to half a mile from shore. Distance depended on the quality of trees and ease of skidding or rolling them to the water. Steep slopes were easiest, but most dangerous, and led to erosion later. Nick Hudema got the last hand logger licence (PRMuseum story)

 Teams of oxen pulled timber to the waters edge or rail lines up until the first world war. 

Seven pairs of oxen, called the Bull team, pulling two logs. The peevee on the log in the background is for rolling the log if it gets hung up on one of the cross logs.

You can see the Bull puncher carrying his 'goad', or sharp rod, to prod the bulls.

In the 1890's, Hastings Mill had an oxen logging show at Lang Bay, near Powell River.

By then, Steam Donkeys connected with spar poles had usually replaced the teams of oxen.

Steam power was introduced to logging operations in the early 1900's in the form of a small steam donkey that replaced bull teams and horses.

Steam donkey engines created the steam that powered winches. They were used to yard and load large logs from the woods to the railway landing. Some were very big, with several steam engines and single large boilers on one set of timber skids.  

Steam also powered other logging equipment such as steam shovels for road construction and steam locomotives to haul the logs by rail.

In the 1930's, steam donkeys were replaced by gas/diesel-powered machines. By the 1950's, steam had disappeared from the forests.

Logs were moved in the bush on greased-log skid roads.

Most skid roads had logs laid across the direction of travel.  This one has the logs parallel to the travel.

"The toothpick" - 237 feet (72.2 meters)

Cut out of the Stillwater area on June 22, 1918.

It was four feet (1.2 m) at the butt and 14 inches (35 cm) at the top.>

It was sent to Kew Gardens, England, and erected in 1919 to replace a similar "toothpick" sent to Kew gardens in the mid 1800s from a Bloedel site. A third pole was sent in the 1970's.

Logging crews were employees of Brooks, Scanlon & O'Brien Co.

The Shingle Mill on Powell Lake was operating in 1910.

The 1923 map "Powell Lake"   shows very effectively where the timber claims were in the Powell River area.

The "local" forest described in this website is the area bounded by Jervis inlet, Georgia Strait and Toba Inlet, plus the north-eastern islands of Georgia Strait. 

This area is almost identical to that of the Tla'amin Nation traditional territory, with small sections next to Jervis Inlet the Shíshálh (Sechelt) Nation, and on the west and north the Klahoose Nation.

The PRFHS web team acknowledges and respects the ancestral, traditional territory of the First Nations on whose territory we work, live and play.

This Forestry Heritage website attempts to record and celebrate the history of forest land stewardship shared by industry, government and First Nations.

Click for more information about our landscapes and watersheds; some Forestry management processes and forest recreation opportunities.

 Forest Ecology  Most of the local forest is in two ecology zones described nicely in brochures:

• Coastal Western Hemlock zone 1999 Brochure with a narrow strip along the coast of 
• Coastal Douglas-Fir Zone^{1999 Bochure}
  

Forest Stewardship within the Powell River Forest is shared by

BC Government for Parks and protected areas (several shown in light green)

City of Powell River and PR Regional District - BC Land held by them

Crown Land - Forest Tenures, with stewardship by the tenure holder, monitoring by MoF staffs and the Forest Practices Board

• the dominant TFL 39 (Stillwater Timberlands), managed by WFP and predecessors since 1961
•  our two Community Forests (Sliammon CF and Powell River CF) since 2008
• Forest Woodlots, (Westlake Woodlands and Tla'amin)
•  Pacific Timber Supply Area, shown blue with brown border to the right; with stewardship by BC Timber Sales, since 2012
• Sunshine Coast Timber Supply Area  (crown land not in area-based  tenures), managed by the Duncan street office. SC TSA website contains timber supply analysis and AAC rationale):
  • other areas charted to BC Timber Sales
  • forest licences, firewood licences etc.

Privately owned land

• Tla'amin First Nations, about 8000 hectares, including 6000 hectares Treaty Settlement Lands effective April 2016,
• Managed Forests
• • Island Timberlands

 Forest Access

Sunshine Coast Natural Resource District ^{Access maps} 

WFP access map   

to be written

Some local trucks on a Doug Lucas site

Video from 2007

As time permits, summaries of local logging companes will be written.

For companies of the Railroad Logging era, information of the company can appear in the
Railroad description.