THE FAMILY THAT LOGS TOGETHER… DISCOVERY CHANNEL PRESENTS THE GRIT OF ‘AMERICAN LOGGERS’

– Original Series Premieres Friday, February 27, 2009, 10 PM (ET/PT) –

(Silver Spring, Md.) One family, thousands of acres and endless challenges to keeping their business afloat. Meet the Pelletiers — nine brothers balancing family feuds with nature’s harsh realities as they timber harvest in Maine‘s rural northwest backcountry in Discovery Channel’s new original series, AMERICAN LOGGERS, premiering Friday, February 27 at 10 PM (ET/PT).

Pelletier Inc. is a classic American story, a logging business started half a century ago with one hundred dollars, one truck and one man: Gerald Pelletier. Now, his sons run the company, a vast timber harvesting enterprise, dozens of men, hundreds of machines working thousands of acres in what is literally a deadly business. Horrific weather, soaring fuel prices and a slumping economy have created a perfect storm that could wipe out a family.

Throughout the year, the Pelletier brothers and their sons Rudy , Eldon, Danny, Larry, Gary, Wayne, Jeff, Jason and Matt – lead their men into the woods of northern Maine to claw out a living, running monster trucks along the legendary logging route known as the ‘Golden Road,’ a desolate throughway serving as sole passage between the furthest outskirts of rural civilization and a breathtaking unconquered wilderness that constitutes the single largest swath of unprotected forest north of the Mississippi.

“AMERICAN LOGGERS is a gripping, honest account of hard work and family bonds. It is a truly American story of taking on the elements and weathering both natural and financial storms,” said John Ford, president and general manager, Discovery Channel.

AMERICAN LOGGERS opens with Rudy and his crews racing to make up for lost time. Earlier in the week, one of the Pelletier drivers crashed his rig, rolling over and shutting down operations for an entire day and adding to an already miserable summer of rain and mud. Raising stakes further, Rudy assigns his son Jason the dangerous but critical job to replace a crippled bridge washed out in the floods.

Eventually the rains subside allowing enough time to get the wood to the mill. Pelletier Inc. is behind on its weekly quota so Eldon takes a big risk, hitching a second trailer to his truck and heading out onto the Golden Road – an experiment the other drivers think is nuts but Eldon is determined and looks to prove it can be done.

AMERICAN LOGGERS is produced for Discovery Channel by Half Yard Productions. Sean Gallagher and Abby Greensfelder are executive producers for Half Yard. Tim Pastore is executive producer for Discovery Channel.

Source: Discovery Channel Press Release