Forest Club model projects and sites

Issue 12, Nov. 1999

L.E. Tselakova, forester in the Okhvatskoye forestry. Photo by A. Grigoryev

When I was at Tver regional division of Forest service, I had a conversation about nature-conserving technology of felling operations on strictly protected areas and in recreational zones. Chief forester of the division V. V. Barushnikov proudly told me that horses had been used at selective felling in the Penovsky forests district (leskhoz) for a long time.

Horse is not, of course, a tractor, so it can be used at certain operations on protected areas. Besides, most forest districts cannot afford to purchase new modern machinery, whereas villagers cope with horses quite well.

Interested in the unusual experience, we went to the Okhvatskoye forestry.

We found the horse crew at the coupe of accretion cutting. The technology was utterly simple: trees were cut with a gasoline saw, then tree length was marked out six meters long and then there was in-woods bucking. Then I. V. Lotogolets - the main "idea-monger" of horse skidding - brings Malushka - a horse, which is harnessed in special scrapers and two foresters put an end of the log on scrapers. The log is fixed and one horse power is always able to move it towards the loading site. Soil and underwood damage is much lower than when using a tractor, so even in forest plantations of high density you will never see signs of a "great battle" after the horse crew's work.

We asked the forester of the Okhvatskoye forestry Larisa Yevgen'evna Tselakova when the forestry started to use horse traction at skidding:

- Why did foresters begin to use horses at cleaning cutting?

- The fact is that many of our foresters are pensioners, whereas we employ only young people to work in skidding crews. However, our pensioners also wanted to earn additionally, so first they joked: "We will skid on horses". First it was a joke, then they came to decision that they had to start horse skidding.

We selected sites, which were close to the village so it was easier to get to them. The problem is that we still do not have a cart, we are only going to purchase it. So, the horse crew began working. First the foresters wanted to try, now we see that they work quite well.

Horse trailing technology. // I.V.Logotolets is content about the work. Photos by V. Zakharov, A. Grigoryev

- And where did you get the horse?

- It was our horse. A forester from the Komsomolskoye forestry spends al his spare time with horses. He has been using horses at firewood removal for two years already.

Moreover, there are horses in all forestries and truck farms, they are used for plowing vegetable gardens, in order to help foresters and local people (sometimes there is no money to pay for the tractor plowing). However, we are the only foresters, who use horses for skidding.

- Do you plan to buy more horses in future?

- No, we do not. One horse crew is enough. They work at sites close to the village.

- How long will this crew work?

- I do not know. These foresters are going to work in the horse crew; however, next year it will be 40 years since they have been working in the Forest service; moreover, they have been working all the time only in our forestry.

- Do you plan to train young foresters in horse skidding?

- One forester works with young people, also there is one young (23 years old) foreman. When old foresters retire, perhaps, young ones will agree to work in the horse crew. It is not so difficult to skid on a horse.

- How much timber can you harvest by such selective cutting?

- 2400 or up to 2500 thousand m³. Horse crew will harvest about 500 thousand m³. The horse crew has already logged 380, I expect that they will harvest 100 more. Honestly, I would like them to work at least at firewood harvesting.

Nowadays, the foresters want to find a cart-horse. You see, our horse is small. There was a lot of snow in winter, which made almost impossible to work on such a horse. As a matter of fact, villagers always worked on horses in winter as it was much easier to drag on snow.

For instance, I remember that when I came to work in the forestry in 1974, they conducted reconstructive cutting on two horses. There were many horses in forestries.

I used to hear from forest academicians: "Do not drive us back into the last century". Usage of horses is, in fact, an anachronism at the beginning of the twenty first century. Of course, we do not urge to put it into practice everywhere.

Intensive development of forests proved that existing problems of the Forest service cannot be solved only with the help of expensive and high-powered machinery. Our concept of forests and forest service also changed a lot. Besides, there are many ways of forest management (in forests round human settlements, on strictly protected areas etc.), which make low-scale actions such as horse skidding quite righteous. Moreover, horses still did not become alien to villagers even in our computerized century.