Horsepower Logging

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Two Belgian draft horses in full harness step into position as their handler-a bear of a man in grimy jeans, a sleeveless T-shirt, and suspenders-calls out commands: "Whoa, Ed. Back!" As the animals step back in tandem, the man loops a choker around a felled Douglas fir. Another command and the horses are dragging the tree through the forest at a swift trot as the man jogs behind, shouting directions.

What Montana logger Gordon Paske and his horses are doing is not some kind of living-history demonstration of old-time logging methods. What they are doing is an old technique all right, but they're applying it to some cutting-edge problems in forest management.

While some forest managers …