Logging the Northern Woods

Well, the lumberjacks are still out there. But the world has changed around them. They’re not forty feet tall anymore. It’s a chain saw, not an axe. Kevlar over the blue jeans. And forests that are certainly not without end.

They’re not even the same forests, as climate change moves in. And still, Americans want the wood.

Jack McEnany has gone deep in one corner of the American woods to bring out the story of today’s loggers. He calls them “brush cats."

This hour, On Point: Brush cat, in the woods.

You can join the conversation. Have you worked the woods? Have you done it lately? What do you see out there?

Tell us what you think — here on this page, on Twitter, and on Facebook.Guests:

Joining us in our studio is Jack McEnany, author of "Brush Cat: On Trees, The Wood Economy, and the Most Dangerous Job In America." He’s lived in northern New Hampshire for over twenty years and is co-author of world champion skier Bode Miller’s autobiography, "Bode: Go Fast, Be Good, Have Fun."

From Sugar Hill, New Hampshire, we're joined by Bob Benson, an independent logger in New Hampshire since 1988.

From Augusta, Maine, we're joined by Lloyd Irland, president of the forestry consulting firm The Irland Group, where much of his work concentrates on forests in the northern states from Minnesota to Maine. He is a lecturer at the Yale School of Forestry and Environmental Studies and author of "The Northeast’s Changing Forests." Formerly he worked as associate economist for the USDA Forest Service and as a Maine State Economist. He just completed work on a Maine logging report for the state attorney general's office.