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for Ukiah Daily Journal

 The walkway into the Ukiah fairgrounds is teeming with groups of grade school kids, each led by a volunteer, checking out the logging machinery vehicles on either side of the path. Close to the entrance on the right is a harvester; it grabs a live vertical tree (up to 36 inches in diameter), cuts it at the base, picks it up and lays it down horizontally on the ground.

There's a main loader next to it with a 40-foot arm; it's used to pick up logs and create log piles. Next to it is a grapple cat; after the timber fallers fell the trees, limb the trees and buck them into lengths, the hook picks them up and skids them to a landing. It has a huge blade on the front end to push material out of the way. A skid steer is next, used to push, pick up and clean up. There are many excavators across the way and a large array of colorful logging trucks farther down and on either side of the walkway.

After Gia Carrozzi, a heavy equipment mechanic/welder with Operating Engineers Local No. 3, representing True Custom Milling from Humboldt County and one of the directors of the Redwood Regional Logging Conference, patiently explains each piece of heavy machinery she talks about their mission.

"Our biggest issue is to educate people about the logging industry and programs that are available. Today we have a lot of children here, over 1,500, and we run these tours with a lot of wonderful volunteers.


It takes a year to put this conference on, and we alternate every year between Ukiah and Eureka. We offer scholarships for college to create interest and help young people develop career paths into forestry, Cal Fire, biology."

She comes from a logging family and says logging practices have changed from the past, that there are more rules and regulations, the industry has been greatly reduced and there are far fewer mills than there were 20 years ago.

Up on the hill is the sound of multiple chainsaws all engaged in the artistry of chainsaw sculpture. In front of the flying sawdust are examples of the men's handiwork: a drinking-horse-heads bench, a fawn in a log, howling wolves, spread-winged eagles, turtles. Bob King takes a break from his fawn, coming to life from a large trunk of old-growth redwood, to explain he has been doing his art for 16 years. He remembers some time ago watching from the other side of the fence, being intrigued, thinking he would like to do exactly that. He had a chainsaw at home that he used to cut firewood and he gave it a try. He says he gets instant gratification, creating a thing of beauty and value that will last a long time.

He is competing with three other men each diligently working on their masterpieces. Next to him a whale bench is coming to life and farther on is a bear family and then a Big Foot. The winner will be determined by the highest bid auction price at the end of the conference.

Venus Kuintzle's fifth-grade class from Lucerne Elementary is lined up eager to hop on the cart behind the engine to go for a ride up and down the track.  They are enjoying their experience, feeling inspired by it. One student enjoys the array of tools; one says you don't get to see this kind of stuff everyday; another appreciates learning about all the things that can be done with wood.

Casey Comer from Left Coast Supplies demonstrates his portable (portability is certainly in the eye of the beholder!) sawmill originally designed in Australia and specifically for portability to be able to take out to job sites. There's a horizontally cut half a redwood tree on a base; it's 20 feet long and originally over 4 feet in diameter. He revs up the 2,900 horsepower engine with its 24-inch horizontal blade and makes the first cut down the length of the tree. Then he flips a switch and the blade becomes vertical and he draws it back down the length of the tree creating a cut board.

Next to him Jim Evans from Far West Forest Products; Wood-mizer California, is operating a portable band saw; it has a hydraulic self-loader and debarks as it goes. He holds up a 2-by-4 and says it's as smooth as you can buy downtown.

Finishing up the tour with Carrozzi, she explains they like to show the past as well as the present. There's a sectioned-off array of putting, gas piston pumps, one from the 1900's; a two-man machine, with an old saw blade by its side; a hand drill used to drill holes in rails; an assortment of washing machines from the early 1900s, three wooden, one copper; and a motorcycle engine from 1918. Owner Ron Crane laments the fact that the body itself is not attached.