Initially, corridors are cleared of trees and prepared for grading. That's a tractor-trailer rig in the background, heading north on New Hope Road.

 

 

 

Most of the trees have no commercial value but a few are worth harvesting. This is a feller machine - basically a mechanical tree hugger that grabs the trunk and cuts it off at the base.

 

 

 

 

The business end of the feller machine.

 

 

 

This is a skidder. It grabs the logs laying on the ground and drags them to the loading point where they are loaded onto the truck.

 

 

 

 

Logs to be trucked out.

 

 

 

What has no commercial value is burned or ground up (as you'll see later).

 

 

In the skidder picture you probably noticed all the electrical transmission lines. In this shot, the construction work is behind me and I am facing north across Crabtree Creek. You can see a large transmission substation that is the destination of all the lines.

 

 

 

This was a particularly  attractive view of Crabtree Creek. The scene is about 100 yards upstream (west) of the previous picture.