They’ve been under water for 150 years or more, logs lost generations ago. Forgotten. 

Until now.

Thom Labrie, a passionate environmentalist, had a background in the wood products industry and wood reclamation. Bruce Loring was a diver, a Maine game warden and a member of the Penobscot Nation, which has rights to part of the Penobscot River. Separately, the men learned about the wood that had been lost to the water when loggers transported their logs down the Penobscot River. Together they realized they could find those logs and sell the wood — reducing, reusing and recycling with a profit.  

Last year Labrie and Loring started Greene-based UnderWater Wood Specialists. This year marks their first real harvest.

“It still intrigues me when I see ax-cut logs that are 150 years old or
greater, that maybe nobody else on earth, alive on earth, has seen,” Loring said.

The wood — mostly pine — was cut by loggers and sent downriver for processing likely between the late 1700s and the 1970s. Logs that sank along the way were abandoned. Although the logs were extremely saturated, little else was wrong with them. The cold water kept them that way, preserved. 

Enter Loring, the diver, and Labrie, the environmentalist with a background in the wood industry.

“I don’t care if it’s sitting in a building that’s going to be
demolished. I don’t care if it’s in a pallet. I don’t care if it’s
under water. All the wood that’s usable should be used before we cut
down another tree,” Labrie said.

The Penobscot Nation connected the men and their partnership took off from there, with Loring harvesting the logs, Labrie drying and cutting them and both paying the tribe for whatever logs they took. Last summer, the pair began pulling logs from tribe-ruled areas of the river, testing how many logs they could get (one at a time, six to eight in a day), what kind of wood they would find (a lot of pine), what that wood could be used for (almost anything).

“The more experience you get, the more quality logs you’re looking
for,” Loring said. “You could pick up thousands of logs, but you try to pick out the
best ones for what you’re going to need.” 

In the murky depths of the river, Loring learned to judge which logs were bigger, straighter, most likely to be usable. Although it’s not always easy to gauge what’s salvageable and what’s not, he had plenty to choose from. 

“Lots of logs. There is no shortage of them,” Loring said.

The men have tribal permits to harvest the logs and must follow strict guidelines. Because dragging the logs over the shore could hurt the shoreline and the ecosystem, they must instead lift them with airbags or winches. Because extended river harvesting could interfere with spawning, they’re restricted to a three-month season: July, August and September. 

Much of their first real harvest was ruined by this summer’s early rain, which raised river levels, lowered visibility underwater and made diving dangerous.

“Unfortunately, the rain killed us this year,” Labrie said. “We’re really struggling to catch up.”

The men are permitted to pull 100 logs from the river every year. They expect to pull 50 to 60 this season.

Unlike newly cut wood, which is often only kiln dried, underwater wood is air dried and kiln dried before being cut for planks, boards, slabs and odds and ends. The wood can be used for almost anything, but Labrie is so far marketing it to craftspeople, woodworkers and artists and then advertising their work on the company’s Web site.

So far the site features a line of plaques, pens, paddles, carvings and other items made from the reclaimed wood. Except for the carvings, Labrie made most of the items. He’d like to add furniture and other products and hopes to entice more craftspeople — particularly Native American artists — to use the sunken wood. The artists supply the products. The company Web site helps supply the buyers.

The river supplies the logs.

“That’s treating a resource with some respect and some responsibility,” Labrie said. 

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In order to dry a log that has been under water for up to 250 years, Bruce Loring says he has to kiln dry it slowly or the rings will collapse.

Bruce Loring jumps into the Penobscot River to recover logs he finds on the bottom with a fish finder. He has to follow strict regulations in order to salvage the wood.

Bruce Loring secures an extra long log to the bottom of his pontoon boat, which can make navigating the Penobscot River tricky.

Bruce Loring dives for logs in the Penobscot River.