EUGENE, Ore. — Mike Pihl, a logger in Vernonia, northwest of Portland, never thought he’d hear “celebrity” and “logger” in the same sentence. That is, until last year when he became one.
Mike Pihl Logging Co. was one of four companies filmed for the History Channel’s reality show “Ax Men.” The show became the History Channel’s most popular series when it aired from March to June, with more than 2 million viewers tuning in weekly.
On March 2, “Ax Men” returns to the woods for a second season, with more scenes of Pihl and company.
“The celebrity part, that doesn’t even really sink in with me,” said Pihl, a towering 48-year-old with intense blue eyes and cropped silver hair. “I just keep doing what I do every day.”
When “Ax Men” debuted last spring, it was lambasted by many in the industry as depicting a flouting of safety rules and as glorifying trash-talking yahoos. Scenes dramatized dangers, such as logs breaking loose and scattering down a hill.
“Loggers had concerns about how our industry was being portrayed,” said Jim Geisinger, executive director of Associated Oregon Loggers, a trade group in Salem. “And most loggers can complete a sentence without using a four-letter word.”
Pihl said he had reservations himself after watching the first few episodes. He wasn’t allowed to preview or edit the footage.
“At first I was thinking, ‘Oh, my God, what are these guys doing?”’ he said. “I thought ‘What have we gotten into?’ “
But by the end of the series, things had smoothed out enough that Pihl was willing to sign up for a second season.
“We attempt to run a respectful outfit,” Pihl said. “But then, on the other hand, it is what it is. It shows what really goes on out there.”
Over time, many in the industry came to see value in the show — accurate or not — for lifting logging’s profile around the world.
“Most people, including myself, have come around to recognize that it has exposed America to our industry in a way that has never occurred before and in an entertaining way,” Geisinger said.
“I think we’ve calmed down,” he said. “We accept it for what it is. It’s entertainment.”
Not everyone is as forgiving, however, of what they see as the show’s shortcomings.
“One of the things that’s particularly troubling about the ‘Ax Men’ is it highlights the risk in a way that seems glamorous and unavoidable,” said Michael Wood, administrator of the Oregon Occupational Safety and Health Division. “I’m candidly offended by both of those. I’m a logger’s kid and loggers can work in a way that ensures that they’re going to go home to their kids at the end of the day.”
Wood said he recorded the entire series and watched portions of it, but never more than 20 minutes at a time.
“I ended up not watching ‘Ax Men’ because it tended to raise my blood pressure,” he said.
He said the show has attracted the attention of Oregon’s health and safety regulators. In fact, it caught the attention of regulators across the country, who asked, “Is that how logging’s done in Oregon?” he said.
State regulators could have initiated inspections based on practices portrayed on the show, Wood said.
“We actually decided not to do that in this case,” he said, adding that three of the show’s four participating logging companies were inspected as part of the roughly 5,000 inspections the agency conducts a year.
Since 2006, the division has inspected Mike Pihl Logging five times and four resulted in citations, spokeswoman Melanie Mesaros said.
The most recent inspection, which took place on Nov. 19, while film crews were shooting, resulted in two violations — one serious with a proposed penalty of $375, and the other not serious with no proposed penalty, according to the safety division.
The serious violation was for two cutters who were closer than the minimum allowable distance while felling trees.
Pihl said he agreed to participate in “Ax Men” without any compensation last year, when it was an unknown quantity. But this season, he’ll be paid an amount that basically covers the company’s 20 percent loss in production because of the filming. Pihl said his contract forbids him to say how much he’ll receive.
Money isn’t the motivation, Pihl said.
“It’s an adventure for me, and trying to be a spokesman for the industry,” he said. “I love logging. I’d like to do that the rest of my life. I’d like to show everyone in the world our industry is still here.”
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