Carl Russell has operated Russell Forestry Services in Bethel since 1986, specializing in low-impact timber harvesting with draft animals. Along with his wife, Lisa McCrory, he is the organizer of the Northeast Animal Power Field Days, held this weekend at the Tunbridge Fairgrounds. The following is an edited interview.

People are convinced that they can’t make it without machinery, but I never really bought into the tractor thing. From the beginning, it’s been about sustainability and energy independence for me.

When I moved my horses out here, there were several older men in the community who had significant disdain for me because they’d given up horses 40 years ago. What the heck did I think I was going to be doing? I was wasting my time. So much of the modern farming enterprise is working in a market system that’s so much bigger than you and largely out of your control. If you’re not spending 100 hours a week in the dairy barn, if you’re not striving to earn that extra $10,000 a year just so you can pay off your equipment, that’s seen as a certain kind of failure. There’s this pride factor that either you’re a big-time farmer, or you’re no farmer at all.

I think there are a lot of people who are interested in farming in a different way. They’re not interested in a hundred dairy cows, they’re interested in one or two. They want an acre and a half for market-garden vegetables, and maybe they have a freelance job doing something creative.

People are looking to balance professional and creative lifestyles with their farming. With animal power, you don’t have to cover the kind of capital outlay that you would have for farm machinery, so you can afford to do less.

You’re not plowing 35 acres a day, you’re plowing a couple acres a day. You’re not getting out two truckloads of logs a day, you’re getting out a quarter-truckload a day. It’s less production, of course, but you’re not compelled to keep up the pace like an assembly line because the cost of working with animals is so low. Looking at dollars in and dollars out for your whole operation, it can make a more economical equation.

I’m not trying to change the world here, but I can see it changing. I see an overdependence on petroleum fuel, an overdependence on a monetary economy and an overdependence on a tenuous food supply. They’re all interrelated problems, and animal power is definitely an answer to all of them.

For a schedule of today’s events at the Northeast Animal Power Field Days, visit www.animalpowerfielddays.org.