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Staff Photo by Steve Kinderman
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Ted Kuehl, an employee of B&M Logging, cleared pieces of wood stuck in a firewood processor Friday at the logging business near Chippewa Falls. According to federal statistics, last year logging was the second-most dangerous job in the country. Owner Ben Marquardt said new automated equipment is safer than older logging methods.
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Ben Marquardt learned firsthand about the dangers of logging early in his career.
There was the time when a limb — the kind loggers call a “widow maker” — detached from a falling tree and struck his hard hat. Marquardt cut himself in the leg with a chain saw once too.
On another occasion, a toppling limb broke his ankle, keeping him from working for a month.
Marquardt, the 25-year-old owner of B&M Logging near Chippewa Falls, said his job has been much safer since he invested in mechanized logging equipment three years ago. He uses a recently purchased half-million-dollar machine that allows a logger to fell a tree and cut it into lengths from the safety of a cab. Experts say more than half of Wisconsin’s loggers use similar equipment.
Based on his worker’s compensation premiums, however, Marquardt knows his business remains costly — and potentially deadly.
“There’s still a lot of guys out there running chain saws and getting hurt, and everybody’s got to pay for it,” he said, noting he pays more than $31 for worker’s compensation for each $100 he pays his four employees.
Despite the trend toward mechanization, logging was the second-most dangerous job in the U.S. last year, according to figures the federal Bureau of Labor Statistics released a few weeks before Labor Day.
According to the bureau, 80 U.S. loggers died on the job last year, a fatality rate of 92.9 per 100,000 workers. The only higher rate was among fishers and fishing workers, who had 118.4 deaths per 100,000.
Logging is typically near the top of the national list. In 2004, loggers tied with airplane pilots for the top spot. Logging was the most deadly profession in 2003 and 2002 as well.
In 2003 — the latest year for which specific state figures were available — four of the 103 on-the-job fatalities in Wisconsin were logging-related.
The toll continues to grow. For example, two men died in separate logging-related accidents in February in the Jackson County town of Manchester. One victim was struck by a tree, while the other was hit in the head by a counterweight on a chipping machine at a sawmill.
Unpredictable trees
The size, weight and unpredictability of falling trees are the most basic explanations for logging’s dangers, those in the industry say.
“When you get in an accident with a tree, it generally can be fairly serious,” said Jeff Koxlien, who oversees loggers for Koxlien Brothers Wood Products in Strum and once was a logger himself.
Accidents may happen when trees get tangled as they fall or burst open because of hidden defects while being cut, Koxlien said.
“They sometimes behave unexpectedly,” he said. “It’s not an exact science cutting these trees.”
Safer mechanized logging methods can’t be used everywhere, Koxlien said. In the steep, forested terrain along the Mississippi River where Koxlien’s logging crews work, chain saws are the only option, he said.
Western Wisconsin loggers work in difficult terrain, agreed sawmill owner Pamela Bee. Forests are generally confined to hilly areas that aren’t suitable for farming, she said. Snow, ice, rain and underbrush complicate the work, which may be made even more dangerous by fatigue and lack of training, Bee added.
While her family business once employed loggers and log truck drivers, the high cost of insurance drove the company to switch to independent subcontractors about 15 years ago, Bee said.
Bee and her husband, Robert — who own Bee Forest Products in Mondovi and Bee Forest LLC in Nelson — screen potential subcontractors based on safety records, training and environmental compliance.
“If a logger does not comply with any of our standards, which include safety, they will not be used on future jobs,” she said.
Shift to safety
Logging experts say safer equipment is transforming an industry that has defined Wisconsin’s north woods since Paul Bunyan swung his ax in the 19th century.
“The whole logging industry has changed in the last 10 years here in Wisconsin,” said Gene Francisco, executive director of the Wisconsin Professional Loggers Association. “We’re moving much more to mechanized logging, which is a lot safer than traditional logging.”
In fact, Francisco estimates that 60 to 70 percent of Wisconsin’s 1,200 loggers use mechanized equipment. National fatality statistics are skewed by loggers in the West who are more likely to use only chain saws, he said.
“Every time the logger is exposed to cutting or moving that wood by hand, there’s a higher risk,” he said.
Francisco said the high cost of worker’s compensation insurance has caused some loggers to leave the business and others to downsize their operations. In addition, many loggers do business as sole proprietors or in partnerships and don’t pay worker’s compensation premiums. This also keeps insurance rates high because the pool of insured businesses is small, he said.
Francisco said his group is working to convince the Wisconsin Compensation Rating Bureau to separately classify loggers who use mechanized equipment, thus lowering their insurance rates. The organization also is lobbying the state Legislature to create a self-insurance fund for loggers.
Many professional loggers take steps to improve safety. The Rhinelander-based Forest Industry Safety and Training Alliance conducts training that often is required by insurers or firms that buy wood from loggers.
For example, Marquardt, the Chippewa Falls logger, said he is required to take periodic courses in safety, first aid, CPR and forest management by the paper mills who buy his wood.
Loggers know there are no safety guarantees.
“I don’t care what kind of hardhat you have, if it’s a big enough branch, it’s going to kill you or cause a significant injury,” Francisco said.
Giffey can be reached at 833-9205, (800) 236-7077 or tom. giffey@ecpc.com.
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