MELISSA FARLOW_MM7258_1075117.TIF
Cody, a timber faller, works alone in the woods at Winter Harbor on Prince of Wales Island. It’s dangerous work, and fallers listen for others’ saws between cuts to make sure a buddy isn't injured. Following his father’s example, Cody wanted to be a timber faller since he was a kid. He got his first chain saw when he was nine and has been working since he turned seventeen.
He leaves home at 5 a.m. driving an hour to the work site. Carrying a heavy chain saw, he walks with the grace of a ballet dancer on a maze of fallen trees. His shoes, called corks that cost as much as $750, have metal-spiked soles so he is stable on fallen trees.
Loggers and fishermen rank in the top two spots for most dangerous jobs. Both are common lines of work for people in the Alaskan outdoors. Since the Bureau of Labor Statistics began tracking fatal occupational injuries in 1980, there were 4,547 fatal work injuries in 2010, and fatality rates of some occupations remain alarmingly high.
- Copyright
- MELISSA FARLOW
- Image Size
- 6000x4000 / 137.4MB
- Keywords
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20-30 years, alaska, caucasian, chainsaws, chopping, color image, cutting, day, equipment, evergreen trees, evergreens, faller, forests, forests and forestry, getty, headgear, helmets, image type, industry, industry and production, lumber, lumber and paper industry and production, lumbermen, men only, model released photography, national forests (alaska), north america, one person, outdoors, photography, plants, production, sawing, saws, tongass national forest, trees, types of headgear, united states, winter harbor, young adult
- Contained in galleries
- Tongass_National Geographic magazine_7/2007
