Planking

Planking is a term used during the days of logging huge trees with rudimentary tools - generally a double bladed ax or a two-person hand saw. This stump in the middle of several younger redwoods has notches cut in it showing the history of its demise. The tree was cut as high up as 15 to 20' from the base. In order to do this, the logger would have to cut out notches in the tree and wedge a long wooden plank in them. Then the logger would climb up and stand on the plank and cut another notch. Continuing the process until the desired height was accomplished. Then the process of cutting the tree completely down would commence. For these large trees, I am told that loggers working in teams would work for days, sometimes weeks to cut down a single tree. These trees are protected now and there are hardly any lumber processing plants tooled to process trees larger than 5 feet in diameter.

This image was taken at Humboldt Redwoods State Park (check out location). This area provides an ecosystem where the tallest trees in the world exist. Hugging along the foggy Pacific Coast, the Coast Redwood (Sequoia semperviren), abound for miles of Northern California and Southern Oregon MORE HERE.