The steep, boulder-strewn terrain of Vancouver Island makes special demands on the logging operation run by Hayes Forest Services. The fallers use chainsaws on timber that can have a trunk diameter of 7ft or more in work that is dangerous but exhilarating. For yarding, the company uses equipment that ranges from 19th-century technology derived from shipping to the most modern machines. The timber is extracted by truck, train and helicopter.
During a six-week stay in British Columbia, Dylan Winter filmed all these facets of the enterprise as well as a dry land sort and the Somas mill. He looked, too, at some of the support operations including road maintenance, bridge-building and blasting.