It's been more than a month since tornadoes ripped through areas of central Wisconsin, destroying homes, parts of forests and even a resort.

But some loggers in Langlade County say they're only now starting to make headway on the cleanup of thousands of acres of damaged timber.

They say that's because the job is very dangerous.

"There's a lot of pressure on the trees, and that's the worst thing," says Marshall Logging President Kevin Marshall. "You don't want a tree flying back and hitting you in the cheek or something."

So Kevin and his co-workers work cautiously.

Instead of chainsaws, they use high-tech processors that allow them to stay above and away from the debris.

"I've heard from other places there have been quite a few injuries with just guys using chainsaws," said Kretz Logging forestry technician Dennis Fincher.

Not only is the cleanup of tornado devastation dangerous, but it's also very slow-going.

With five crews on five sets of processors, they can only clear between five and 10 acres a day.

Fincher says with every piece of timber removed, more flattened trees are uncovered.

And time is running out to remove everything.

"Time is over the essence," says Fincher. "The longer it sits, the more chance there is for spoilage of wood. The pines that are down already got stain. There's bugs that get into the pine - that affects it as well and that's already happening."

Kretz Lumber hopes they can at least get their 300 damaged acres out before the first snow fall.

Marshall says he's expecting to work on the clean-up at Kretz's property for the next two to three months or longer.

It's likely they'll be able to salvage about 90 percent of the fallen and broken trees.

Fincher says for every acre they can't salvage, Kretz loses between $1500-$2000.