Log Scaling

 Log scaling was not one of our primary jobs working on the timber sale preparation crew, but we could be called upon to fill-in if one of the 3 full-time scalers assigned to the District called in sick.   In 1971 when I went to work on the Orleans District of the Six Rivers National Forest we were required to go through both the timber cruising and log scaling certification program.   

Our instructor was the Forest Check Scaler, named Leonard Shamburger, nicknamed Sham.   He was a big man in his 50's and looked like he enjoyed his food and maybe a beer or two.   After Sham and a little help from Ron, the lead presale technician, and a few visits to the various test plots we became certified timber cruisers.   Ron was also a certified log scaler and was called upon to fill-in whenever one of the full-time scalers at Hoopa called in sick (usually hung over from the night before).   Ron eventually transferred to the Tahoe Forest two years later.   Log scalers made more money than the District Ranger based on all the overtime they put in, usually 10 to 12 hours/day.  

About a month later Sham took us to Hoopa to show us how to do production scaling on the two truck ramps at the Humboldt Fir mill.   First thing he told us was to forget all that stuff we saw on the training slide picture program.   He said you don't have that kind of time here with log trucks lined up waiting to be scaled.   In addition to the Forest Service scaler there was also a company scaler on the ramps.  Together we would measure log lengths, then separately measured small end diameters and deduct any defect.   For defect deductions Sham told us to take an inch or two off the diameters for any sap rot or a foot or two from the length for any conk rot, excessive checking or just cull the entire log in it looks bad from end to end.  The big thing he told us was not to make mistakes identifying species, especially with Incense cedar, Red cedar and Port Orford cedar, since there was a big difference in their value.    For example, Incense cedar might have a value of $50/thousand board feet (MBF) while Port Orford could be $500/MBF or more.  If you wanted to get the attention of the mill owner or Forest Service fast, misidentifying these species was the way to do it.   There was a trainee scaler by the name of Don, who had a hard time with determining cedar species and more than once had people from both parties checking on him when he became the scaler on the Orleans truck ramp.   He later transferred to a forest in Washington and we learned he had a hard time telling the difference between Douglas-fir and Larch.   

In 1977 I transferred to the Greenville District of the Plumas National Forest doing sale administration work and had to get recertified.   Most scaling on the Plumas was mill deck scaling and some ground scaling in the woods on small sales where portable saw mills were utilized.   We, along with others from adjacent Forests, including Ron from the Tahoe were sent to the Diamond International Mill in Red Bluff, where they had pulled logs from the mill pond for us to scale, many were as black as coal and hard to identify the species.   There was one log nobody seemed to be able to identify, not even the check scalers that were there.   Ron called it a Port Orford cedar and all the check scalers finally agreed.   How it ended up in that pond was a mystery since most Port Orford cedar was exported to Asia because there was not much of a domestic market for it at the time.  

After transferring to Gold Beach in 1979 most scaling was being done by third party scaling organizations, such as scaling bureaus.  There still remains Forest Service and company check scalers to check on the third party scalers.