There are still those out there who believe Climate Change applies to other people living in far-off lands. They need to talk to log harvesting contractors working in the forests of central British Columbia. These loggers would soon set them straight.

They could begin by explaining to the doubters what happened in the Mountain Pine Beetle epidemic in B.C. There were several factors contributing to its depth and severity, but the implications of a consistently warming climate influenced most of them. The warming atmosphere through the seasons turned endemic forest wood-boring insects like the beetles into epidemic ones. It’s making the seasons more unpredictable, wildfire and drought conditions more frequent and weather patterns generally more intense.

For example, a metre of snow or more can fall these days before the ground freezes. It can force equipment to sit idle during parts of the normal working season of the loggers, who are already facing tight margins. The weather-induced changes in the bush force logging contractors to take a hard and critical look at some of the forest machines they’re using.

Randy Brook made that assessment recently and concluded a new skidder could help revitalize the efficiency of his logging operation. The skidder is the most mobile component of most logging operations and impacts all the downstream functions at roadside, which is dependent on a consistent flow of wood. Brook discussed his skidder requirements with Matt Bruintjes and his staff at his local John Deere dealership, the Brandt Group, at Smithers in west central B.C.

“I wanted a machine which would handle deep snow and steep terrain,” summarized Brook.

The search for available wood fibre was forcing his operation to look for work further away from his home base in Telkwa, near Smithers. The John Deere 768L-II six-wheel skidder appeared to tick all the boxes.

But another vital decision first had to be made. Brook’s logging company, Copper Moon Contracting Ltd., is a small operation and buying a new piece of logging equipment these days represents a big investment.

“It was a big decision to take,” he recalled. “But it’s worked out pretty well.” He is in a position to know. Brook’s Deere 768 skidder now has more than 3500 hours on the clock.

Making decisions as you see them is part of the interwoven pattern of a farming and logging life. It comes naturally with working on the land.

“We grew up around logging, it was part of life at the farm” said Brook.

After completing high school, young Randy gradually started assuming more of the day-to-day logging operation from his dad, Doug. Around 10 years ago he was pretty much running the operation. But the rest of the family was still very much part of the logging tradition.

Copper Moon Contracting runs a pretty tight operation machine-wise. The 768 Deere skidder joins two Tigercat 870 C feller bunchers; a Hitachi 290 Forester hoe chucker; a second 290 doubles as a road builder for the usually on-block roads required, and the line-up also includes a Hitachi 240 processor and a Hitachi 210 log loader.

Doug operates the trucking side of the business. His fleet of Western Star logging trucks in B-train and long logger configurations all sporting the Woodmere Cattle Co Ltd., livery transport Copper Moon’s logs to wherever they’re bound. Randy’s brother, Rob, is his right hand man in the bush operation. The farm (and the logging) has been in the Brook family since 1950, a four-generation history. Today, the farm operates a beef cattle ranch of 250 head and puts up 650 acres of hay on around 2,100 acres of deeded land.

Copper Moon’s John Deere 768L six-wheel bogie skidder was the first to operate in the Bulkley Valley region. Other logging contractors have subsequently picked up on the machine’s versatile capabilities. Copper Moon runs a pretty tight operation machine-wise. The 768 skidder joins two Tigercat 870 C feller bunchers; a Hitachi 290 Forester hoe chucker; a second 290 doubles as a road builder for the usually on-block roads required; the line-up also includes a Hitachi 240 processor and a Hitachi 210 log loader. The ancillary equipment includes a lowbed for moving equipment to where and when it’s needed, to maintain harvesting continuity. These days a lowbed earns its keep.

The search for affordable timber volumes is a constant challenge for B.C. loggers. And it accumulates the paperwork. Like most loggers, Brook said he’s most at home out in the bush running a logging machine. Through the years, Copper Moon has worked for licencees like West Fraser’s Pacific Inland Resources Division in Smithers. “We also look regularly to woodlots, timber sales and the community forest for fibre.”

BC Timber Sales are a sore point in the region, with few of them being put out for bid. The Wezink’wa Community Forest was formed in 2007 with a tenure jointly held by the Town of Smithers, the Village of Telkwa with the Office of the Wet’suwet’en holding a permanent position on the community forest’s board of directors.

“We look to private land for our volumes quite a bit. We have a few woodlot guys we work for and regularly bid on community forest work,” Brook explained.

The variety of the company’s wood sources needed to maintain productivity in varying conditions is right in the Deere 768’s wheelhouse. The machine can generate 281 horsepower and its grapple opening is in excess of two square metres. It moves high volumes per turn depending on ground conditions and type and green-ness of the wood.

“Most of our blocks involve clearcutting with reserves/retentions. We mainly work in spruce, pine and balsam stands,” generalized Brook. “We have found the 768 to be comparable to a four-wheel skidder in maneuverability in small areas and we were pleased with how tight an area it can work in.”

The skidder has lived up to its billing on other levels. “The 768 has been great for side-hilling and working on steeper terrain in comparison to a four-wheel skidder. It has let us access areas we previously would have had to hoe chuck down to the skidder.”

Sometimes a new machine in the log production sequence can highlight wood flow and bottleneck issues. “The 768 has boosted skidder production and kept it more consistent,” reported Brook. “There has been less hoe chucking for the skidder so it has made for a better flow.” Fuel consumption is a major operating concern these days. “But it’s pretty decent on fuel. It definitely burns less than we expected.”

And as for the all-important back-up service component, the 768 had not experienced any serious mechanical issues. Brook said when help was sought, the Brandt Group’s crews were right there. The warming weather and its implications, however, continue to interfere with harvesting operations.

It’s more evidence for the warming climate doubters to better understand what is affecting the landscape now is not a “new normal”. That is a chapter in the story that has yet to be written.