The Sawdust Flies at the Conclave 

A far corner of Redwood Acres Fairground in Eureka turned into a logging-sports performance field for 175 talented student-athletes from 10 campuses across the western U.S. from Wednesday to Friday, March 13-15. For the first time in nearly a decade, the Cal Poly Humboldt Logging Sports Team hosted the Collegiate Logging Sports Competition as part of the 84th annual American Western Forestry Clubs Conclave.

Clear skies arrived just in time for the event, with strong breezes Wednesday leading to frigid conditions for the birling (log rolling) competitors after they were dunked in the chilly temporary pond. Record warm temperatures followed on Thursday and Friday, enhancing the spring break atmosphere for the college students.

Wednesday's event schedule included birling in a temporary pond on the performance field, single buck sawing, horizontal hard hit chopping, choker setting, ax throwing, caber tossing, pulp tossing and speed ax competitions.

Thursday's events were enlivened with the arrival of busloads of school children in the audience, enjoying the competitions in obstacle pole, horizontal speed, power saw, pole climb (women 30 feet, men to 50 feet), the ax throw final and more. The school children also explored the Redwood Region Logging Conference activities taking place on site.

Friday featured hot competition in double buck sawing, the vertical and speed hard chopping, and the steeple. An evening awards dinner wrapped up the conclave with the CPH Lumberjacks in first place in the team competition among the 10 schools (following their second-place finish in 2023 and first place in 2022), ahead of Flathead Valley Community College in second and Cal Poly San Luis Obispo in third. The other teams included UC Berkeley, Northern Arizona University, Oregon State University, Colorado State University, Montana State University, University of Montana and University of Idaho.

The conclave, which rotates among host campuses, only happens once a year, but CPH engineering student and outreach coordinator for the logging sports team Franziska "Frankie" Daumberger said, for the club members, it's a year-long commitment in the popular Forestry 170 class taught by Connor Goldstein. The 77 students enrolled in the class met for Saturday practices at a field in Freshwater and this year, as hosts of the conclave, also met weekly to plan for the event.

"On Monday, March 11, there was rain while we were setting up the event and it thwarted some of our efforts, but we powered through to make an incredible performance field," said Daumberger. "We also didn't expect as many people to show up as they did, which was very exciting and encouraging for us, because we love to engage with the public about what our team does."

Goldstein, instructor and coach of the Logging Sports Club, said, "I am thrilled that the team's hard work and perseverance at practice paid off with a first-place finish, cementing Cal Poly Humboldt as the top collegiate logging sports team in the western U.S. for the second time in three years."

Mark Larson (he/him) is a retired Cal Poly Humboldt journalism professor and active freelance photographer who likes to walk.