INDIAN ISLAND — You won’t find heavy, yellow logging machinery in the 2,100 acres of coniferous forests at Naval Magazine Indian Island.
Those machines scar trees left standing and leave unsightly throughways.
Instead, you will find Tom and Jerry — two 1,800-pound Percheron horses — hauling logs one at a time and leaving little evidence that logging occurs on the island.
Walter Briggs, forester for Navy-owned lands in the nine Western states, is responsible for the Navy’s use of this logging technique, the same used by pioneer settlers of Indian Island in the 1800s.
Briggs led a tour of about 40 Navy League of the United States members through the woods of Indian Island last week, when the visitors saw firsthand that the plush forests on the island are no accident.
“We’re creating a different structure to the forest, vertically as well as horizontally,” said Briggs
And why horses?
“Horses are extremely low-impact,” Briggs said. “They are perfect for low-impact logging.”