Master Dead Head Logger

Not many people can claim title to Master Dead Head Logger. LD Henderson, founder of Southern River Loggers is one such person. Deadheads are submerged logs, usually cypress or heart pine or other heavy timber that sank to the bottom years ago and was never recovered. Reclaiming such timber requires a sensitivity to the environment and a careful approach to removal so water and habitat are not overly disturbed. Light weight timber like Juniper is what is normally seen afloat and in the large Southern River log jams. These trees can be valuable because of their resistance to rot, having closed cell structure similar to balsa wood. But, in a river, they clog the stream and force the river to seek new passages. Over the eons of time, such log jams come and go as enormous river blockages.

This is one of the MAIN reasons oxbow lakes and sharp meandering curves in slow moving rivers become so prevalent. An overhead view of some rivers will show this phenomenon in stark detail. Mr. Henderson is himself a natural resource for those learning about the hydrology of rivers, the seasonal water-flows, the watershed capacity, the botany and the zoology of the habitat. A number of young environmental department workers have learned from his observations. Rivers and forests are complicated systems that cannot fully be appreciated from just reading about it.