Middlebury graduate John Anderson '94, occupies a highly specialized niche in the world of logging: he uses workhorses to skid logs from the forest floor to developed logging roads. The seemingly backwards technique represents the finest in sustainable logging. With his workhorses, Anderson can extract timber from deep within a woodlot without bulldozing new roads. An Art History major while at Middlebury, Anderson is one of the only "traditional" loggers in Vermont. John uses a modern chain saw and may use a skidder on existing roads, but skidding with the workhorses is his specialty. While the workhorses substantially reduce the impact and general wear and tear that result from dragging logs across the forest floor. Working closely with his horses, Andersen can direct a log down a slope so as to avoid crushing saplings that may one day grow into valuable timber. His technique represents the opposite of a clear cut. 
Anderson Employee Rupert Johnston and the Workhorses.
John Anderson limbing a yellow birch.
When I caught up with John during the fall of 2001, it was a beautiful October afternoon. Vermont Family Forests had turned to him to log some yellow birch from a private wood lot in Starksboro. The timber would augment that taken from the Bread Loaf wood lot. John and his crew worked with fluid efficiency that afternoon, moving between horses and saw to bring the yellow birch down to the landing. Like logging everywhere, the work was grueling and dangerous, but it wasn't ugly. In fact, it was anything but ugly-- it was beautiful. Over the next half a year, I would watch as the logs that toppled to the forest floor that autumn afternoon were brought back to life. I would see them transformed and reinvented as rough boards, door frames, ceiling panels and decorative wall paneling. I like to think that October day set the standard for the whole journey, from the milling to the last panel in La Force, was beautiful and exciting
John Anderson felling a yellow birch.
Next: Logging with Bill Torrey