St. Helens, OR, June 15--In the depths of the Columbia River, one company has found a scarce commodity -- old-growth logs.
A web of state and federal regulations have made it nearly impossible to harvest ancient trees from the Northwest's forests. But logs that have fallen into rivers are free for the taking.
Using a fishing boat equipped with a sonar screen, Ross Bennett and his partners at Underwater Timber Salvage Corp. in St. Helens have found a way to harness this underwater bounty, plucking the huge logs from the river floor.
Because of their age, these logs have the strong, tightly grained wood that can only be found today in antique furniture, or in the floors and beams of turn-of-the-century homes.
"We haven't seen wood like this available in the marketplace from any distributor in years and years," says Monty Moore, vice president of construction for Northwest design company Neil Kelly.
Only about 10 percent of the Northwest's original old-growth forests remain today. And those old-growth stands are at the center of a heated feud between environmentalists and the timber industry, with every move ensnared in lawsuits.
"You can't log the kind of wood they're pulling out of the river anymore," said Moore.
But despite its quality, the wood still costs between $2 and $3 a board foot -- roughly the same as other wood used in flooring, molding and furniture.
Yet it comes from trees that grew much more slowly than those on modern tree farms, yielding lumber of exceptionally tight grain. The tightness of the rings makes the wood extremely durable, so it rarely shrinks, swells or warps.
Bennett's company began scouring the river for logs about seven years ago. They began recovering them just two years ago.
While timber salvaging is well established in the Great Lakes, authorities say Bennett is pretty much alone on the West Coast's largest river.
One in every 50 or so logs pulled from the Columbia are embossed with the brand loggers hammered into it so sawmill workers would know whose logs floated down the river. Some even have the distinguishing bites of axes used to cut them down in the days before chain saws.
While branded logs generally belong to the brand's owner, Bennett has traced most brands to companies that no longer exist.
"This wood is like a history lesson," says Steve Strable, the company's director of operations. He points out one that took root about when Shakespeare was writing "Macbeth."
Salvaging the logs appears to suit the state, too.
Even though the debris at the bottom of the river technically belong to Oregon, the state is considering forgoing royalties because the logs represent a potential marine hazard.
While the wood is not fetching a higher price now, it may in the future as it finds its way into people's homes.
Richard and Nancy Freimark of Portland were among the company's first customers when they decided to redo their kitchen floor.
"Everybody walks in the house and says, 'Where can I get that?'" Freimark said.
