Willie O'Brien Horse Logging

Horse logging is I guess you can say, "the ecologically gentle approach" to logging. Willie owns five teams of Belgians, and rotates three teams every day that he uses to skid the logs out of the forest. Using horses allows a much cleaner and less damaging way to remove the dead or runt trees. Horse logging may become the system of the future, alongside skilled woodcutters such as Willie O’Brien who have been working in the industry his whole life are able to carefully and skillfully select certain trees for harvest. The two, the horse and skilled cutter, would make a most ecologically gentle team. It's a necessary team because, in Canada, we are discovering the limits of the 'infinite' forests. When the horses skid out the trees, the small, new growth will go undisturbed, eventually can't even tell they were there. Unlike, when people use skidders and other heavy machinery destroying the new undergrowth, creating large roads and damaging the healthy trees, often causing permanent damage. Although Willie and his team do not use the large modern machinery, they do the job just as efficient. Every forest or plantation needs to be cleaned out of the dead or runt trees, so the rest of the tress can grow to their full potential, creating a healthier forest all together. Watching them at work is really something to see, It's so "old fashioned". Watching the Belgians at work is amazing! People will often stop at the roadside to watch them. They are so huge and powerful and when they move so calmly it's almost majestic. Willie O’Brien is known quite well around the Ottawa Valley, as he is a much respected and highly skilled logger and teamster (a man who treats his horses with respect). If you have a property lot or plantation that you would like cleaned up a little please feel free to message us for details.