The Rural Voice, 2019-08, Page 75material. Many other local forest-
dependant industries developed over
the centuries of forest utilization.
The nearby area is all forested
mountain ranges. Of particular
interest to the Budds were historical
methods developed to get wood
down the steep hillsides. The
infrastructure that was developed is
incredible, especially when you
consider it was done by hand without
access to modern machines. A
common means of winter transport
was horn sleds, where loggers would
load the sleighs with wood, then ride
them down the steep trails with only
a crude braking system (see the
adjacent image). Hand-laid stone
terraced trails were constructed in a
zigzag pattern across the hills for use
by the sleds (and are still in place).
Then of course the sleds would have
to be carried back up the slopes. Hard
and dangerous work!
In other areas they would dig
canals to collect water in ponds for
discharge into nearby rivers. The
ponds would be filled with water and
logs, then be emptied or “flushed”
like a huge toilet, carrying logs into
the rivers and downstream to nearby
settlements.
Strangely, even though area
inhabitants spent much time working
in the woods, the dense dark
coniferous forest (no doubt similar to
the nearby famous Black Forest)
generated fear in some folks and
resulted in folklore about mythical
forest creatures such as the
“Wolpertinger”. The Budds saw
many versions of Wolpertingers on
display for tourists at various places
during their travels.
Over hundreds of years,
forestry practices resulted in a
much less diverse species
composition than would have
occurred naturally. The forest had a
high component of mature Norway
spruce along with fir and beech. As
a result, the forest became
susceptible to attack by the European
spruce bark beetle, which has
recently caused significant areas of
mortality. Since it is a national forest,
harvest of the declining trees was not
allowed in most areas, in spite of
some public pressure to utilize the
wood. Most areas of mortality have
Woodlots
72 The Rural Voice
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