They recited speeches. The audience applauded. And Parton and his partners went to work. There was no majesty and danger of mortal men facing giants of the forest. Rather, logging machines cut through trees with all the efficiency of a combine wading through Franklin County wheat.
Harvesting is quick - machine against tree.
A feller-buncher grabs a tree with a mechanical arm, cuts it off and lays it down. A front-end loader gathers downed trees and deposits them in front of a portable chipper that pulls in the trees, much like a kid sucking spaghetti. It strips off the limbs and bark that could foul papermaking and spews chips the size of your thumbnail into a semi-trailer. That logging has descended from the hills to irrigated potato fields is appropriate. The first step was made at Washington State University's agriculture college in 1967.