Photo Essay: Log booms on Fraser River (Includes interview and first-hand account)

It’s also a place where logs are collected at the mouth of a river, ready to be processed by local pulp and paper making industry.
When crossing the Queensborough Bridge on foot from Richmond towards Burnaby and New Westminster, the log booms are clearly visible from above the bridge, gathered along the banks of Fraser River.

Log booms on southern bank of Fraser River, New Westminster, BC, Canada.

Joseph Boltrukiewicz

Log booms are put together by small and powerful boom boats that work their way right on the surface of the river like sheep dogs collecting spread sheep into a group of one. It’s also necessary to direct appropriate logs to their original owners, like sheep that are not supposed to end up in the next door neighbour’s herd.

Log booms on southern bank of Fraser River, New Westminster, BC, Canada.

Joseph Boltrukiewicz

Although the view of the booms is quite spectacular, it’s a reminder to us all how precious the forests are when finally converted into paper wasted for Boxing Day sale deals, supermarket flyers or for still unexplainable impossibility of using the other side of a separate letter size sheet in many office prints.

Log booms on northern bank of Fraser River, New Westminster, BC, Canada.

Joseph Boltrukiewicz

Log booms on Fraser River, New Westminster, BC, Canada.

Joseph Boltrukiewicz

Log booms on Fraser River, New Westminster, BC, Canada.

Joseph Boltrukiewicz