(upbeat music) (projector clicking) - Have you ever wondered where the television signal you're watching is coming from?

♪ I love to go a wanderin' (projector clicking) ♪ along the mountain track - Welcome to True North.

(upbeat music) (mysterious music) - Good evening and welcome to Mainewatch (upbeat music) (projector clicking) Welcome to From The Vault, a celebration of 60 years of Maine Public Television.

On this episode, we dive into the archive for two programs on Maine's wood harvesting and papermaking legacy.

Log drives down Maine rivers were once a common sight, but the last such drive in America occurred here in 1976, which is the year Maine Public produced this program, "The Last Log Drive Down The Kennebec".

It features some incredible film of the log drive, the steamer Katahdin on Moosehead Lake, as well as interviews with people about what the end of this era means for the people and the community Then we go to 1983's "Harvesting the Forest" for a look at the timber industry and papermaking.

This includes a trip inside the now abandoned Great Northern Mill in Millinocket to see how logs are turned into paper.

Let's begin our look at Maine's lumber legacy, as we go back to 1976 for "The Last Log Drive Down The Kennebec".

- Next spring, the Kennebec River will flow free of logs for the first time in more than a century and a half.

For Maine, with 90% of its land still covered by forests, wood is still big business and when the industry was young, rivers provided the only route from virgin forests to the mills.

Visitors to scenic Western Maine this summer have been able to observe history in the making as they've watched these last river driven logs being moved down Wyman Lake to the Wyman Dam sluiceway.

(boat motor running) There have actually been two separate cleanup operations, which bring to an end the last log drive down the Kennebec.

The first is the picking operation on Moosehead Lake, which was headquartered this summer in the Katahdin, a converted lake steamer which has been in service on the lake since 1914.

- Last fall, last summer, we completed the towing on Moosehead Lake and last year we towed about 180,000 cords across Moosehead Lake that was sluiced down the east outlet.

And this summer we're just involved in cleaning up the pulp around the shores of Moosehead Lake and we've built ourselves two rafts out of boom logs and we're gonna tow these around the shores with our steel boats and bring the pulp out from the shores and load it onto these rafts and then it will be towed to a landing where it'll be unloaded by crane, piled up on the landing where later on it'll be trucked to the mill.

It's just a rough estimate, but probably we should salvage around a thousand to 1500 cords of wood.

- [Joan] In the early days of the log drive, the wood would be floated down Moosehead Lake and on down the mighty Kennebec in one continuous operation.

This progress downstream was pretty much determined by the spring thaw and subsequent early season freshets.

In later years, a system of dams made it possible to drive logs downstream longer and longer each year.

But with the coming of the dams also came the necessity of slashing tree length poles into four foot logs, which are more easily moved over the dams.

- [Phil] They cut the tree length logs in the woods and they bring them into this yard right here and they pile it down and then the slasher takes over.

The slasher is a machine that's around 60 feet long, it cuts tree length wood up into four foot wood and it'll cut about 500 cords in 20 hours.

So you start in the spring, as soon as they can truck, 1st of June was when we generally start trucking down here to Chase Stream and then we start the slashin' and as it has been the past, we've trucked right through, and cut right through, 'till about March and then they have to shut it down on account of the roads, they can't truck anymore wood in and we can generally have about 10,000 cords stockpiled down here.

The box trucks, they're hauling about three cords and a half to a load, dumping them down the sluice.

You'd have trucks with hydraulic dumps on 'em and you back up to the sluice and you dump your wood into the sluice, which is three and a half cords of wood at a dump and it runs down the sluice, which is 160 feet, and then it was into the air and it's another, it's 400 feet to the water so, then they go back and get another load.

This continues 20 hours a day right now.

(tipper lifting) (tipper lifting) (tipper lifting) (logs offloading) (logs offloading) (logs ejecting) (logs ejecting) (logs splashing into the river) - [Joan] Once set on course by the highly mechanized process upstream, the logs find their way into Wyman Lake, where they're moved along in much the same fashion as in 1835 when the Kennebec Log Driving Company was first organized.

The last master driver in the continent of the United States is Bob Viles.

- My job as master driver of the Kennebec log driving company was to hire the personnel, provide and make sure that they have a place to stay, for those that need it, manage the company's business and as the charge for the state is to keep a record of your daily doings, which I have kept for 23 years, and answer to your board of directors at their request.

Eventually the sawmills began to use the river less and less and less and began to use trucks.

Since 1954, the largest drive that I can remember was about 303,000 cords and this year we're down to about 80, 90,000 cords because of the cleanup operation.

- [Joan] At the top of Wyman Lake, 4,000 or more cord of wood at a time is tied off and towed the final eight miles to the Wyman Dam sluiceway.

Although the log booms are towed down the lake by powerful tugboats, adverse weather conditions may make it impossible to go the eight miles in less than eight or nine hours.

Once the tugboat arrives near the sluiceway with its 4,000 cord of wood in tow, the boom is opened and the logs are forced into the sluiceway, thereby crossing their last major hurdle before arrival at the mill for processing.

That's the way it's been for decades, but no more.

- In 1971, people, a limited number I think, got somewhat excited about the fact that the river was blocked in certain areas by the river drive.

Up to that point I think there had been some objection to the drive, but not really, it didn't receive a great deal of attention.

At the same time, perhaps to help justify the other points, there were allegations that it created pollution in the river.

Allegations, which may or may not be true, they've certainly never been proven.

This went then before the legislature, a lawsuit was instituted, and on a state level, to terminate the drive.

That was followed, not too long afterward, by a federal lawsuit.

The legislature, I testified at the legislative hearings indicating that we would, in a normal course of action, in 1976, be willing to give up the river drive.

But that in the meantime, we did not, simply didn't have the facilities at our Winslow Mill to handle wood, any significant amounts of wood, in any other manner than the river drive.

That we felt that since it had started, actually before 1835, but had been chartered by the state in 1835, that another five years probably wouldn't be that big a problem.

So we, with the lawsuits and the law which terminates the drive in October of 1976, we have planned our way along the line to, we're building the new mill at Somerset, which will replace the Winslow Mill.

That mill is being constructed so that it isn't dependent on the river drive.

Had we done this any other way it would've meant, really, millions of dollars of capital investment in a temporary change in the mill facilities here to handle wood in another manner and this just didn't seem very logical to us.

- [Joan] State Senator Howard Trotsky, then a graduate student at the University of Maine at Orono, was a prime mover behind legislation that would bring a permanent end to the log drive.

- Well, it was necessary because the people of the state had passed laws stating that they wanted their rivers cleaned up and you can't put sewage treatment plans into every town and spend public money and then have one company monopolizing a river.

And again, for those who saw the river closely, it was a suspension of bark fibers from top to bottom, impoundments were bubbling with methane gas, the river was clogged with logs.

So, if you're going to clean up a river, you clean everything up in it, and that's why I feel that you must clean up the log drives.

- Well, I don't, a lot of peoples think that they should keep it going, they don't think it bothered anybody and I don't either.

I think it was, it's kind of too bad, and now they're gone, it's really putting all the trucks on the road and everything.

I don't know if it's gonna help or hurt us, it's hard to tell, but it's gon' be something that's gone now, the drive, and I don't think it'll ever come back.

It just kind of phased out and it's something that's gone by, you know, and do the people want, they think it's polluting the lake and stuff like that, I guess, but some a lot smarter to me say it's pollutin' it, and there's a lot of 'em smarter than them, I guess, say it's not.

So that's just whoever wins out, I guess.

(laughs) - The environmentalist won and the river drive down the Kennebec is no more.

The end of an era must necessarily bring with it many changes.

What about men and jobs?

Supervisors at all levels of wood harvesting and transporting express concern for the men they work with.

- [Supervisor] Most of the crew that's workin' on the boat right now, after they get through this summer, most of 'em been here long enough so they'll go back in the woods, working in the woods, you know, on pieces of equipment or the company will have jobs for the permanent men anyway.

But a lot of their younger fellas, they're just seasonal workers at a summer jobs outta college and they just, most of 'em not looking forward to working for Scott anyway.

- [Supervisor] It's doubtful that any of our personnel will lose jobs because of the drive.

Our jobs will increase some and almost all of these people, unless because of age are too old to learn something new, all of our people will be programmed into jobs that will be available.

- [Supervisor] Well, this, some of the people that work here, the younger ones, they'd be glad to see it get done, 'cause there's a lot of 'em would like to go on.

But the older people, the older fellas, and a lot of men, they hate to see it go 'cause it's a cheap way to get wood to the mill and they don't really bother anyone.

Being on the road, once you put the trucks on the road, there's gonna be quite a lot more hassle I think.

- [Supervisor] Our jobs today are year round jobs and instead of the men going into the camps and staying, they are a commuter workforce.

They work during the day and go home and then come back the next day.

And their income will, instead of being seasonal, it'll be year round.

- [Supervisor] As far as the crew goes, a lot of these people are gonna be retrainable for other jobs.

Of course, some will be difficult because this has been their life's work, is working on the river.

And I have a great concern for many of the employees, the young men, they have families, the quality of work is real good, it's not exceeded anywhere, in other professions, that I know about.

But I do have a concern for 'em, because I know these people, a lot of 'em I've been with more than 20 years now and you can't help but have a concern for people that you know have been good to you, and been good to the company, so you have to be concerned with, and I am.

- [Supervisor] You know, working year around, they have the fringe benefits, same as any mill or any civil employee.

They have vacations, holidays and insurance and all the things that are going in today's economy.

- Well, I've worked for Scott Paper for 19 years this summer anyway, so, and I've always had work in the woods in the wintertime for the company, you know, lead man or foreman and they'll put me back in that I spose, at the end of the summer anyway.

So, it'll be nothing new for me to go back in the woods.

- [Joan] Howard Hames spent several weeks in the woods retraining Scott's truck drivers to facilitate another important change brought about by the ending of the log drive.

- I think Scott Paper is to be commended in the training transition that we are attempting to do here and prepare these log road drivers for highway driving and extend the courtesy that they do here, to the general public, out to the people on the highway.

But here the drivers are used to meeting their own equipment, they look out for each other and when they get out on the highway, the truck driver has got this tremendous problem that he is there as a professional, everyone else is there incidental to their other things, Mrs. Jones going to the store after groceries, the fisherman coming up to catch his fish, but the truck driver's still out there to meet production.

I'm not an ecologist, but I do believe that the change is something the public is not quite prepared for because this tremendous overload of equipment that will be put on the road to keep the mill moving will put a lot more equipment out there on the road that they have not been used to.

The extreme amount of fuel that they'll be using, the amount of miles that they'll put on, on the highway.

Legal loads, that's true, but this congestion of a highway that is barely adequate as it is, what little I've seen of it, I've only been here less than two weeks, but that highway is loaded now with vacationers, fishers, campers, hunters and the regular business.

And to put this many trucks on there will be an impact that all the public will be aware of.

I think it's very important to comment at this point, when we talk about leaving the river drive and moving to transportation by truck, or other means, to recognize that not all the wood used in the Winslow plant was delivered there, over these years, by the river.

All the hardwood used at the plant, and we used about 30%, is of course brought by truck because hardwood does not float very well and therefore it can't be handled in the river.

And that leaves then the balance of softwood and still a good percentage of this was brought to us by small truckers and by small contractors and the big balance, of course, did come by the river.

But it's important to know that we're not making a complete 100% shift.

I think another key point to be made here is that we are not doing something unusual in the preparation to transport our wood to the plant by truck.

This is what practically, in fact all the rest of the industry in the state does and has done for a number of years.

We just happen to be the last ones that used the river for the transporting of our softwood.

Now the point of concern is, just how is this wood going to get to the mill?

What highways are gonna receive the largest concentration?

I think it's safe to say that a large percentage of the wood will come via Route 201, will come from the south, but the bulk of it will come from the north.

- Well, of course, almost everyone that you talk to around here, regrets the end of the log drive, that from a nostalgic point of view, everyone thinks of it as part of the local color and a tradition that's been going for 141 years.

When you get specific, there are a good number of people who have expressed concern about the traffic and about what the logging trucks are going to do, not so much right here in the center of town, but on the roads that the logging trucks are taking, pavement's already been torn up and in terms of the possibility of some sort of an accident up in the Moscow area, where there are S-curves and several merchants have told me that they're worried about the effect that this is gonna have on the tourist trade, slow traffic down on Route 201, which is the main tourist route to Quebec, and this concerns people too.

- I think everyone who lives in or uses the Skowhegan Route 201 recognizes that there's a very difficult traffic situation at this time.

It's been in existence for years, really, and the good people of Skowhegan recognized this some time ago and through their government and the Department of Transportation here in Maine engaged a consultant firm, who were specialists in traffic studies, to study its current status, to develop a route that could bypass and relieve the traffic load and to suggest different areas in which a new crossing of the Kennebec River, with a new bridge, could be made.

- Well, primarily it'll be the tremendous increase in traffic flow, of truck traffic in particular, to compound the already high rate of volume on the existing bridges, which thankfully have been replaced, creating an extra lane southbound, so which will ease the traffic flow somewhat.

But the Department of Transportation studies, in conjunction with Scott Paper Company, have projected that we're gonna reach saturation very shortly, in this decade, on the existing bridges.

So it's gonna force a bypass bridge in Skowhegan somewhere.

The worst it could possibly be, according to Scott Paper officials, in conjunction with the Department of Transportation, would be, if they were evenly spaced, one truck would pass a given point every five seconds.

I don't think it'll come to that but that is the ultimate, with the existing bridge system.

- I think it's important to recognize that while our trucks will certainly increase the load, it's not anything of a significant magnitude there.

The traffic count in Skowhegan right now is very high.

- This summer, as a result of construction on the bridges and with Scott trucks starting to use the town, I'd say that, well before, fair week was the most that we would get called out on having to do extra men for traffic.

This summer, I personally work about, I average at least three hours a day on traffic duty and last summer I didn't at all.

- [Joan] The people of Maine will not only pay the price of ending the log drive on their congested roadways, but also in the marketplace, because in the end it's costing Scott Paper Company money to transport all their logs by truck.

Speculation on how much the price of transporting logs will rise varied considerably.

Truck driving instructor Howard Hames said he had learned that through the river drive, the cost per cord from sluice to mill had been kept at approximately 15 cents per cord.

- [Howard] And I know that under the best conditions that they can utilize, that it will bring that cost per cord up to somewhere around $6 a cord.

The public is gonna have to pay for this in the end product.

So it has many problems that the people will have to pay for.

Of course, we have to pay for all natural resources that we have and in the long run, that's to say I'm not an ecologist, I have no idea which is the best way to go.

- [Joan] Scott Paper Company factors transportation into the overall production cost according to Robert La Bonta, president of the Kennebec Log Driving Company and woodlands manager for Scott Paper Company.

- We expect the total cost of wood to be approximately the same.

The transportation phase, taken alone of course, is much less costly by river drive.

But combining the fact that the river drive is limited to short wood and the change in techniques and so forth in the logging phase of our operations by utilizing long wood tree length, in effect we can actually come out on total costs possibly the same with much more efficient use of labor, equipment and so forth.

- [Joan] Then if the cost effective future looks so bright for Scott Paper Company, does this mean the environmentalist came onto the scene just in time to take the credit, or the blame, for ending the log drive?

- The cost of log driving has continually increased, the labor costs are higher, there's more things that the company has to do to keep up the drive.

Transporting and booming out across to all the dams is just getting more expensive and costs in general are just up.

Now this is a factor in building any new mill, or anything coming in, because of increasing costs and mechanization, which we have just got to get into in order to attract the manpower into the woods.

Certainly we would consider ending the drive within a few years anyway.

I think the possibility of the new mill and the advantages that this will give to us, that trucking has become more attractive as we go along.

- [Joan] But is trucking the only answer?

Howard Trotsky doesn't think so.

His concern with the now undeniable energy crisis figures in his thinking.

- Well, probably in the last few years, the one reservation I have is the energy crisis.

Scott has decided to go to trucks to haul the wood to their mill.

Many of the other mills in the state are using the railroads.

St. Regis uses the railroads, International Paper use the railroads.

So I was hoping that it would be a combination of both rail and trucks, but the majority has been done by railroads.

They have built a major new mill in Hinckley and I assume, therefore, that is going to be a sustained yield of wood for the next hundred years, let's say, doing that.

So I kind of feel that it might be worthwhile putting in the capital investment into equipment to allow a quick transfer, let's say of wood, from truck to rail.

- [Joan] Both the older mill at Winslow and the Hinckley complex are served by rail and, within limits, rail transport will be used.

But Scott's transportation studies, which were officially accepted by the Maine Department of Transportation, point back to the financial advantage of using the roadways.

- We investigated alternatives to the river drive very carefully, we studied the very intensive, long length studies with all the railroads involved.

The fact that the railroads don't fit the wood growing pattern in Maine and the rail systems are somewhat limited just precluded that as a practical and economical means of moving the wood from our ownership to the new mill site.

There is the Canadian Pacific Railway that really goes right through the heart of our ownership, through Jackson and Greenville, but it goes across the state and the distance to haul wood is more than double the distance to truck the wood and it just, the economics of it were not practical at all.

- [Joan] Despite the projected increase in traffic flow along Route 201 and despite the speculated increase in the price of wood products, the Kennebec River must, by law, flow free of logs after October 1st.

If not logs, what might we expect to see in the Kennebec?

Already a regularly scheduled boat tour business has been organized and advertised.

Those with homes in the area of the Kennebec River and Wyman Lake have recreational access to the water year round.

One such camp owner is Mr. Trotsky.

- It doesn't make sense to take the river and clean it up and then not use it.

If you're going to clean up the river, it should benefit the people.

It would be my suggestion that the Fish and Game Department should have a priority of stocking that river with rainbow trout, with salmon.

The Parks and Recreation Department should make campgrounds around the river so people can paddle the river and then camp out, sleep overnight.

It's one of the most beautiful stretches of river in the whole state of Maine.

And I've been on many of them so I know.

- Legislation ending a log drive has in some measure then benefited both the environmentalist and the paper company.

The environmentalist has his river back, the paper company, although somewhat earlier than they'd planned, has made the shift to overland transportation of their hardwood, thereby setting the stage for continued economic growth.

And in Maine, where nine tenths of the land is still covered by forest, the economic wellbeing of the wood harvesting industry is critical.

The fact remains the Scott Paper Company planned to end the log drive anyway, since in the words of one of Scott's officials, hardwood really doesn't float very well.

The volume of wood needed for operation of the two mill complexes at Hinckley and Winslow, which is up to 560,000 cord of wood per year, means more cutting than ever before on Scott's woodland properties.

- We can go on forever cutting the amounts of wood that we will cut from our own lands.

We don't exceed the cut of the growth that we accomplish on our lands and the state of Maine as a whole, which, as you probably know, is about 90% forested, is growing approximately almost twice as much wood as is now being harvested.

This gives, I think, a great opportunity for the state to make real economic progress in the forest products industry, whether it's in pulp or lumber or any other type of forest product, because it's a renewable, perpetual resource that is a great basis for the state.

And this is already happening, we have plans for a sawmill at our new Somerset plant that has been postponed temporarily, but several of the other major paper companies have now built modern sawmills which permit them to utilize the relatively small timber that we grow in Maine and make lumber out of that, which is best suited for lumber and chips, which then go into pulp and paper, out of the rest of the log.

It's really good utilization.

(timber harvester operating) (timber harvester operating) (truck driving) (truck driving) - This is WCBB Channel 10, where your favorites are made possible by your support.

(upbeat music) (engine running) - [Host] What do you see when you observe a wood harvesting operation?

Do you see a monster devouring our state's woodlands and denuding the earth of its important tree cover?

Or do you see responsible use of our state's resources?

When you see or smell a paper mill, do you fear for your state's welfare as a natural resource?

Or are you impressed with the economic value of the paper making industry to Maine?

What you're about to see is a description of the wood harvesting and paper making processes.

Regardless of your position on this question, you might find what follows interesting and you'll be better informed.

Now, there are what one might call catch-phrases used during this program.

Phrases like responsible companies, significant natural regeneration.

These phrases mean just what they say, no more, no less.

We'll start right here, where the process begins, in the forest.

(helicopter blades whirring) Over 90% of Maine is forest land.

And almost all of this land is called commercial forest acreage.

This doesn't mean that the land is presently growing trees which are for sale.

It simply means that this amount of acreage has the right kinds of soil and tree growth to grow the wood utilized in today's markets.

And there aren't any laws, prohibiting wood harvesting.

(helicopter blades whirring) These forests supply the raw material for one of our state's most important industries.

The wood products industry, our state's wood products range from lumber and paper products to furniture, toys, toothpicks, and tongue depressors.

To understand the wood harvesting process.

You must understand that when we talk about trees standing in a commercial forest.

We are talking about a harvestable crop, much like potatoes or corn.

Like these other crops, the methods used to grow and harvest a forest have had to change, to meet the demands being placed upon the industry by consumers of forest products, by outdoors people who use the land and by the citizens of the state.

(chainsaw buzzing) There are three basic systems for harvesting trees today.

In the conventional harvesting system, the tree is felled and the branches are cut off by a person using a chainsaw.

(chainsaw buzzing) (engine running) It is then hauled to the loading site by a cable skidder.

Short cables called chokers, are hooked around the individual trees.

The chokers are attached to a cable called the main line, which is connected to a winch on the back of the skidder.

As the main line is winched in the logs are drawn to the skidder, so that they can be pulled out of the woods.

(engine revving) (wood cracking) The conventional system can be used to selectively cut only those trees, which are ready to be harvested or when necessary to clear cut a stand.

This harvesting method can be used in areas where the trees are not growing too close together.

Allowing the cutting crew to easily reach the harvestable trees and get them out without causing unnecessary damage to the younger trees and the land.

(chainsaw buzzing) A system very close to the conventional logging operation is the semi-mechanical harvesting system.

Here the chainsaw operator fells the tree, but then the whole tree is hauled out by the skidder to an area where a mechanical delimber, delimbs and tops the trees.

The delimbing machine is not suitable for hardwood trees because it cannot remove the limbs of those trees.

(motor running) Because some of the harvesting crew must work on the ground, weather and the amount of daylight are important factors in the methods we have just described.

Deep snow, rain, or darkness can slow down or completely stop the conventional and semi-mechanical operations.

(engine running) (chains clanking) In the mechanical system of tree harvesting.

The entire operation is handled by large machines.

The workers control their machines from cabs which allow them to work in almost any weather, as well as at night.

The tree is felled, bunched, and moved to the roadside mechanically.

(engine running) These machines can prepare and carry, eight to 10 cords of wood at a time, from the woods to the loading areas.

This process is most often used in an area of the forest where all of the trees are to be harvested.

The condition of the forest is a very important factor in deciding what harvesting method to use.

The conventional and semi-mechanical systems facilitate the harvest of selected trees within the forest.

As the harvestable trees are removed, room is made to allow the younger trees to continue to grow.

In a successful selective harvesting system, a forest with trees of many different ages and sizes is desired.

The harvesters may then return over a period of years to cut again.

Always leaving the trees which are not yet ready to be harvested.

But if all the trees in an area to be cut are mature, diseased or being killed by insects, then clear cutting is often used.

This type of cutting is often carried out by using the mechanical harvesting system.

Forest conditions which would call for clear cutting would include areas of very thick forest growth.

Which would make selective cutting impossible.

A situation where growth in the area is all approximately the same age or size.

And almost all the trees are ready for harvest or where part or all of the forest is dead.

These conditions could be brought on by the occurrence of a natural disaster, fire, or heavy wind.

Or by insect infestation resulting in a forest that is all the same age.

Clear cutting can be carried out in two different ways.

Strip clear cutting is generally applied in stands where the trees have grown very close together and which are about the same age and size.

This practice is carried out by cutting narrow strips in the stand to be harvested.

The size of these strips depends on the location, the type of land and the type of trees, which are growing on the land.

The strips of uncut trees provide a good supply of seeds which naturally reseed the area in which the timber was cut.

This process is called natural regeneration.

The seeds are scattered over the cut area by the wind.

These leave strips may also reduce natural damage caused by heavy winds, rain, and snow.

(helicopter blades whirring) Block clear cutting by its nature, may result in a relatively large opening in the forest cover.

This harvesting system is used to salvage trees which have been attacked by insects.

Or where the forest has, because of its age, stopped growing.

Other harvesting methods would leave trees that could not withstand nature's effect on them.

This process is also used where geographical conditions don't allow other types of cutting.

Conditions where the earth is very rocky, very hilly, very soft, or where a block clear cutting is the only method which a company can economically afford to use.

It will also yield a greater volume per acre than partial cutting because all mature and saleable trees are harvested at once.

Responsible companies who find clear cutting the best alternative for an area of their forest land.

Watch these areas very closely.

If the land does not show significant natural regeneration, that is if new trees do not start to grow soon after the clear cut.

The companies replant the areas to assure the return of a productive and harvestable forest.

Natural regeneration, however is usually abundant and often excessive.

Because of its effect on the land and the cost of replanting these areas, block clear cutting as a forest management practice is used very carefully.

The decision to clear cut should be based on the advice of a professional Forester and should fit in with the goals and objectives of the landowner or manager.

Remember, that we are speaking of harvesting our state's forests as a crop.

The timber companies and the landowners, manage their forests for harvest.

The forest in turn provides us with the wood, for our homes, paper for our newspapers and books and packaging of all kinds.

The people who cut and haul the timber, earn wages, provide for their families and pay taxes.

This is important because the forest industry is the largest industry in Maine.

It employs more than 30,000 persons.

If we include all the jobs, which rely on the forest, for their existence, the forest industry provides more than one third of the jobs in our state.

That's why it's so important to farm or manage our forest properly, so that we benefit from it today and in the future.

As the technology and mechanical methods of wood harvesting have changed, the management of the forest has changed.

Though the supply of wood for the different industries is a primary importance.

The desire to achieve the greatest tree growth from the land must be balanced with the concern for the environment and the long range cost of different cutting practices.

- Seems to be a fairly large infestation building in the Northwestern part of the state here.

- [Host] This is where forest management comes in.

The Office of the Woodlands Manager, determines the amount of wood to be harvested.

The manager and his staff work to guarantee the land's capacity to grow a healthier crop of trees in the future.

This decision also determines where and how the wood will be harvested.

This work, along with the timber surveys, inspection, and mapping of various damage by fire and insects is carried out by trained Foresters and technicians.

The Woodlands Managers staff also schedules the flow of wood to other mill operations.

They must evaluate all the harvesting work done including forest research, land management, forest protection from fire or insects and equipment use.

The staff is responsible for the scheduling and maintenance of all machinery involved in the wood harvesting operation.

They layout, design, and construct the roads which are used to move the timber harvested from the woods operation to the manufacturer.

In doing this they must comply with the strict state and federal regulations designed to protect the future of not only the forest, but other natural resources.

- By and large this town has been pretty much taken, - [Host] If there are changes needed in any of these activities including the design of new equipment, the Woodlands Manager staff recommends the best way to accomplish the task.

- It wasn't counted on before.

- [Host] An important concern of the Forest Managers is the regrowth of trees on land, which has been cut.

In some cases, forest owners or managers may decide to plant trees.

Planting allows trees of a particular species to be selected for future growth.

Planting also allows them to grow trees at a regular spacing, just as we grow tomato plants in a garden.

In this way the owners and managers have the kind of trees they want, in the places they want them.

Natural regeneration, often results in a wide variety of trees.

Many of which will die as they grow older because the growth will be too dense.

And there won't be enough moisture and nutrients available for all to survive to maturity.

The seedlings to be planted may come from the company's greenhouse, a state forest nursery, or from commercial nurseries, which are in the business of growing tree seedlings.

In these greenhouses, a small forest grows under ideal conditions.

The technicians regulate the seedlings environment, including the temperature, the amount of light, the quality of the soil, and the nutrients added to the soil.

Improved seed may be selected for superior trees.

So that future crops may be less susceptible to disease or insects and produce more healthy forests.

These four greenhouses are capable of growing nearly 2 million seedlings, enough to replant 2000 acres.

The facilities also allow researchers to conduct long range studies to improve tree growth by studying the effect of different insects and chemicals on the types of trees to be planted.

Remember that though trees grown for harvest are like other crops in many ways.

A major difference is the time it takes to grow them.

The potatoes and corn we talked of earlier are harvested every year.

Trees take from 50 to 80 years to reach their maturity for harvest.

So it's important to provide seedlings strong enough to survive the forests long growing season.

The wood harvesting companies realize that if they abuse the forest through mismanagement they will not have enough product to harvest half a century from now.

So they are applying all of their knowledge to ensure against this happening.

(helicopter blades whirring) There is much said about wood harvesting.

Some people would like to see the forests left to stand forever wild and never be cut.

Some feel that this resource is better used as a commercial crop.

Either way, it is the right of the forest to be healthy and grow.

To ensure that this will happen, we must all follow the advice of professionals in forestry and conserve our forests, so that they will be healthy and ready for use.

Whether we want to harvest the trees or merely take a hike in the woods.

The largest user of wood harvested off of Maine's Woodlands is the paper making industry.

This is Great Northern Papers Mill at Millinocket.

It is one of two paper mills in this area, owned by the same company.

The two mills have a capacity to produce over 850,000 tons of paper each year.

To produce this much paper, the two mills must run 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

And use huge amounts of wood, water, and energy.

It takes a lot of people to make paper.

Over 4,000 are employed by Great Northern alone.

The basic ingredient in paper is wood.

Pulp wood in tree lengths and in four foot lengths is transported to the mill by rail and truck from company Woodlands, as well as from lands owned by individual tree farmers.

It is put into production as soon as possible, because fresh wood makes the highest quality paper.

(machinery squealing) The long logs are cut into four foot bolts on the slasher.

(machinery squealing) And stored outside the mill.

(wood thinking) This huge pile of 3000 cords of wood, would disappear in about three days, if it were not replenished.

(engine running) The wood is transported by sluiceway to the mill.

(engine running) And then by conveyor to the wood room.

(wood thunking) In the wood room the logs are placed in revolving drums to remove the bark.

As the drum rotates, most of the bark is rubbed off the logs.

(wood thinking) If the logs are not completely rid of their bark.

They are sent back to be processed again in the debarking drums.

After the debarking process, the logs go to the grinder room to be made into ground wood pulp or travel by conveyor to the chipper where they are reduced to three quarter inch chips.

(chipper grinding) The grinding process turns nearly all the wood into paper making fibers.

This helps to make the manufacture of paper less expensive.

A disadvantage of this process is that the pulp is weak and tears easily and the color is not bright white.

In the grinder room the four foot bolts of pulp wood go into machines that hydraulically press them against large grindstones.

(machinery running) The tremendous pressure reduces the wood to a fiber state.

These fibers now called ground wood or mechanical pulp are screened to take out impurities.

Toothpick and sawdust size pieces of wood are too big for paper making and are removed here and reground.

The mechanical pulp is now thickened, then stored for future use.

Mechanical pulp is used in making newspaper, catalogs, computer paper, paperback books and some colored papers as well as many kinds of school papers that are not bright white.

(machinery running) Another way wood arrives at the mill is in chip form supplied by chip mills, saw mills, and other commercial concerns.

(machinery running) The chips are stored in large silos until they are needed.

(machinery running) Another process for making wood pulp takes place in the sulfite mill.

First chemical sulfur is burned.

The gases from the burned sulfur are mixed with other chemicals to make a liquid solution called bisulfite cooking liquor.

This acid solution is used to cook wood chips, under pressure, in large four story high containers called digesters.

(machinery running) (metal clanking) The digester is much like a pressure cooker.

It uses heat and pressure to cook the wood chips in the same way a pressure cooker in the kitchen cooks food.

Sulfite pulp results and is washed to remove impurities, including any remaining acid solution.

Small particles of wood that do not make good paper are removed by screens.

And the pulp is thickened.

In this form it will use less energy when it is pumped to the paper machines.

The sulfite pulp now looks like this and is stored in large tanks.

(high pitch machine running) The paper machine department, where the paper is actually made, occupies three huge rooms, which contain 10 paper making machines.

Each machine is approximately 260 feet long, runs at a speed of 18 miles an hour and can make a continuous sheet of paper.

The width of a one lane highway.

The sulfite pulp is mixed in these machines with the ground wood pulp to increase the strength of the final product.

Other materials such as coloring dyes are added at this time.

The two pulp mixtures are blended together in exact proportions.

The mixture is cleaned one final time and then pumped to the head box of the paper machine.

Each 100 pounds of this pulp and water mixture, now called stock is made up of one half pound of wood fibers, in 99 and a half pounds of water.

The stock mixture is forced out of the head box, onto an endless mesh belt, much like finally woven window screen, called the wire.

As soon as the stock flows onto the moving wire, water begins to drain through the mesh.

The wire moves over suction boxes that draw more water out of the pulp, as the paper is formed.

The paper is 20% dry at this point.

The sheet of paper is then transferred to endless belts, that carry it through a series of presses where more water is squeezed out and the paper made 40% dry.

Next, the paper goes to the dryers where the remaining water is removed.

It costs 10 times as much to remove a pound of water in the dryers, as it does to remove a pound of water in the presses.

The dried paper next goes to the calendar stacks, where rollers press down hard on thick places in the paper to make the sheet smooth.

The finished paper is wound into a large roll.

(machinery running) The roll now weighing several tons is transferred to the winder where the paper is trimmed, slit and rewound into smaller rolls, that can be used on a printing press.

(machinery running) It takes about 25 minutes to complete each roll of paper.

(machinery running) This mill makes a lightweight high gloss paper used in many of the magazines you buy at the drug store or the supermarket.

The paper used for the high quality color printing of magazines is coated on both sides, with a thin layer of clay and starch, which will allow the paper to print better.

The clay and starch coating gives a dull finish to the paper.

So it now goes through a machine called the super calendar, which buffs the surface to make it glossy or shiny.

Engineers and paper makers are always trying to improve the performance of paper machines to reduce the cost of paper.

One way to do this is to make new paper machines larger, wider, and faster.

This machine is approximately 320 feet long and makes a continuous sheet of paper, the width of a two-lane highway.

It runs at a speed of about 30 miles an hour.

Sometimes computers are used to more accurately control the operation of the paper machine.

Special adjustments or corrections are made in the control room where the production of the paper is watched very carefully.

(machinery running) The rolls of paper are carefully inspected as they are made, to be sure that the finished product meets the high standards set by the mill and that it will meet the customer's expectations.

These inspections are not the only ones made on the paper though.

(metal clanking) The company operates this quality control laboratory.

Here, technicians examine the paper for quality at all stages of manufacture.

They check the paper for strength, (metal clanking) how bright it is, and its texture.

Tests are made to see how different types of printing will work on the paper.

(machinery running) If there is a problem at one of the steps in the manufacturing process, it can be made right to keep the quality of the paper high.

Back in the two finishing rooms, the rolls of paper are weighed and wrapped for shipment.

(machinery running) Wrapping is controlled by computers, that process the wrapped rolls all the way to the printing of the shipping label.

(machinery running) This mill even manufactures its own wrapping paper.

(machinery running) The rolls are then taken by special lift trucks to the train sheds or truck loading docks for shipment to customers.

Maine's 18 pulp mills and 21 paper mills make our state one of the largest paper producing states in the nation.

(forklift running) The paper making industry is the largest employer in our state, providing over 20,000 jobs, and an annual payroll of over $400 million.

Making paper workers on the average, the best paid people in industry.

Because of its economic importance and its requirements for large amounts of natural resources, wood, and water, and energy.

You might think that the paper industry could do just about what it wanted to when it comes to our environment.

But it doesn't, under federal and state guidelines, and with their own money and expertise, the paper making industry has been a leader in the campaign to clean up the state's waterways.

At the mill we've been visiting, the waste from the plant is removed through a water treatment system, before it is returned to the large river nearby.

The quality of the treated water is well within the State of Maine waste water quality standards, which are among the highest standards in the nation.

The mill also reclaims much of the chemicals it uses in making the sulfite pulp and uses them again.

Scrap paper is another byproduct.

The scrap is reintroduced into the paper making process, during the pulp phase to make more paper.

Even the discarded bark from the debarking process is burned to make steam, which runs some of the paper making machinery.

Waste treatment programs are very expensive and some take many years to complete.

The people of the paper industry are producing a product Maine can be proud of.

The companies they work for, are at the same time, working to protect the environment and conserve energy.

By the year 2030 our demand for forest products will double.

That means that the pressure on our forest to provide ample amounts of wood to fill our needs, will increase drastically.

From these projections, paper mills like the one we visited, will have to refine their processes to keep up with our needs.

As the realities of increased manufacturing operations make themselves evident.

It will be the obligation of all parties to help regulate these industries.

Reliance on professionals in the different fields is a step in the right direction.

But we as users of these resources, whether in their natural or manufactured state, are no less responsible.

We must participate in this regulation process by asking relevant questions and requiring answers.

For we have as much to gain or lose, as any business which uses Maine's natural resources.

But it is important to understand a process before you criticize it or support it.

That is what this program was about.

(helicopter blades whirring)