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Canada/Stamps : The Golden Spruce! Canada 272 and chain saw

 

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Bobstamp
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25 Oct 2011
12:33:08pm
I just noticed lot #147526 in the newest listing in the Stamporama Auction:

Image Not Found

It's Canada Scott 272, "Lumbering," from the King George VI Peace Issue of 1946. I believe that it's the first stamp ever to show a chain saw in use.

My wife and I recently read a fascinating book about the forestry industry in British Columbia, The Golden Spruce. It primarily concerns the cutting down of a unique spruce tree in Haida Gwai (Queen Charlotte Islands) by a deranged logger. The author takes many excursions into the craft and art of falling trees, forest ecology, dendrology, corporate greed and subsequent utter destruction of irreplaceable rain forests, meteorology, vulcanism, and oceanography.

In one chapter, the author, John Vaillant, discusses at length how huge trees were felled in the past, and how they are felled now, and makes it clear that fallers on Canada's West Coast (loggers in U.S. terminology) have one of the highest mortality rates of any occupation. The reason is that they work in dark, steep, slippery terrains, hoping that the cuts they make at the base of forest giants will cause the trees to fall where they want them to. The problem is that the trees don't always do that, and can fall in almost any direction due to wind, root structure, unknown tree anatomy. A friend of mine, at age 14, lost his father when he was hit by a tree he was cutting down; that was in BC's southern interior, and that deadly tree wouldn't have been anywhere near the size of trees that grow on the coast.

The "Lumbering" stamp shows a faller stepping away from a tree that he has just caused to fall, while only a few metres away another faller wielding a very heave (and very noisy) chain saw has his back to falling tree. He'll be OK, because clearly the tree is not going to hit him. But moments earlier, when the tree was still standing and its fall could not be predicted, he was in truly moral danger.

I'm thinking that one could develop an interesting thematic collection, "Stupid People on Stamps".

Bob

P.S. The Golden Spruce is a fascinating. It's available in hardback, paperback, and as an ebook.
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alyn
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webmaster for the ISWSC http://iswsc.org.

26 Oct 2011
08:38:07am
re: The Golden Spruce! Canada 272 and chain saw

Thanks for this Bob, I will look out the title on my next visit to the library.

Alyn

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"https://thebeardedphilatelist.ca - https://alynlunt.com"

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dani20
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26 Oct 2011
11:00:43pm
re: The Golden Spruce! Canada 272 and chain saw

The stupid people mention rings a bell. You're describing me. I do(did) a lot of tree cutting on my country place, until I dropped a tree on myself. After a few months of rehab my wife no longer allows me to cut down trees. I can cut them up now, but not down.
Dan C.

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Author/Postings
Members Picture
Bobstamp

25 Oct 2011
12:33:08pm

I just noticed lot #147526 in the newest listing in the Stamporama Auction:

Image Not Found

It's Canada Scott 272, "Lumbering," from the King George VI Peace Issue of 1946. I believe that it's the first stamp ever to show a chain saw in use.

My wife and I recently read a fascinating book about the forestry industry in British Columbia, The Golden Spruce. It primarily concerns the cutting down of a unique spruce tree in Haida Gwai (Queen Charlotte Islands) by a deranged logger. The author takes many excursions into the craft and art of falling trees, forest ecology, dendrology, corporate greed and subsequent utter destruction of irreplaceable rain forests, meteorology, vulcanism, and oceanography.

In one chapter, the author, John Vaillant, discusses at length how huge trees were felled in the past, and how they are felled now, and makes it clear that fallers on Canada's West Coast (loggers in U.S. terminology) have one of the highest mortality rates of any occupation. The reason is that they work in dark, steep, slippery terrains, hoping that the cuts they make at the base of forest giants will cause the trees to fall where they want them to. The problem is that the trees don't always do that, and can fall in almost any direction due to wind, root structure, unknown tree anatomy. A friend of mine, at age 14, lost his father when he was hit by a tree he was cutting down; that was in BC's southern interior, and that deadly tree wouldn't have been anywhere near the size of trees that grow on the coast.

The "Lumbering" stamp shows a faller stepping away from a tree that he has just caused to fall, while only a few metres away another faller wielding a very heave (and very noisy) chain saw has his back to falling tree. He'll be OK, because clearly the tree is not going to hit him. But moments earlier, when the tree was still standing and its fall could not be predicted, he was in truly moral danger.

I'm thinking that one could develop an interesting thematic collection, "Stupid People on Stamps".

Bob

P.S. The Golden Spruce is a fascinating. It's available in hardback, paperback, and as an ebook.

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www.ephemeraltreasur ...
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alyn

webmaster for the ISWSC http://iswsc.org.
26 Oct 2011
08:38:07am

re: The Golden Spruce! Canada 272 and chain saw

Thanks for this Bob, I will look out the title on my next visit to the library.

Alyn

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"https://thebeardedphilatelist.ca - https://alynlunt.com"

alynlunt.com/
Members Picture
dani20

26 Oct 2011
11:00:43pm

re: The Golden Spruce! Canada 272 and chain saw

The stupid people mention rings a bell. You're describing me. I do(did) a lot of tree cutting on my country place, until I dropped a tree on myself. After a few months of rehab my wife no longer allows me to cut down trees. I can cut them up now, but not down.
Dan C.

Like
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