Dr. Know: Are there any real lumberjacks left in Oregon?

I've been in Portland a long time, and the fake lumberjack style (beard, flannel, work boots, knit cap, etc.) has gotten a little overwhelming. And anyway, with advances in logging automation, are there even any real lumberjacks left in Oregon?

—Carlos C.

I've nothing in particular against the fake lumberjack look. I've even considered embracing it myself—especially the beard, which I can't help noticing would perfectly obscure my increasingly Hitchcockian chin-plex.

Furthermore, I don't see why this idea of dressing up for a job you don't actually do shouldn't spread to other occupations. It would hardly be a stretch to see Portlanders embracing the World War I aviator look, with jodhpurs and a leather helmet. From there, it's just a short step to $400 diving helmets at Urban Outfitters and articles in Details about "beekeeper chic."

In the meantime, if any flannel-clad millennials are interested in putting their money where their mustaches are, jobs for lumberjacks aren't as hard to come by as you might suppose.

While it's axiomatic that timber industry jobs in Oregon are scarcer than they were 50 years ago, the workers who really got creamed by automation were those in the mills and wood-products factories. If you want to be the guy actually cutting down trees, that job is often available—partly because, increasingly, no one wants to do it.

Logging is America's deadliest job, and physically demanding to boot. Perhaps it's no surprise that those of us whose idea of hardship is a fridge without a built-in icemaker aren't flocking to it. As current loggers age out of the workforce, the industry is openly wondering where the next generation of loggers is going to come from.

Outreach publications promise a rosy future to high-school grads who come aboard. Or, they could just send a press gang to the Stumptown on Southwest 3rd—by the time the conscripts realize it's not a Portland Timbers photo shoot, they'll be halfway to Idaho.

QUESTIONS? Send them to dr.know@wweek.com

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