It's the dead heat of summer and this season the stakes are higher than ever. From mountaintop to river's bottom, six crews will take on one of America's deadliest jobs in search of green gold. In this episode, Ax Men is logging coast to coast. Shelby the "Swamp Man" Stanga braves gator-infested waters in search of sunken treasure. Browning, Rygaard, and Pihl are locked in competition as the brutal summer weather heats up.

Greenhorns are tested by Rygaard; Jay Browning hires a new yarder operator; and an argument brews between two members of the Pihl crew.

Jimmy and James arrive in Florida and realize that the challenges are tougher than they expected; Rygaard runs into problems when a cable snaps; and Browning learns that rapid production has a high price.

Mistakes at Browning threaten the safety of the loggers; the Rygaard greenhorns receive an ultimatum; Melvin and Leland compete for the yarder seat; and Jimmy has a dangerous first dive.

Melvin endangers other crew members with his recklessness; Jimmy has an encounter with an alligator; Shelby battles debris caused by Hurricane Katrina; and Jay Browning collapses while working.

Tempers erupt, especially among the Pihl loggers; Jay Browning suffers shock from an allergy; and a Rygaard greenhorn is let go.

Loggers are fired, and one disappears; Shelby takes a risky job searching for a sunken raft of logs; and Jay Browning gets some bad news.

The loggers struggle to get back on track after losing a man. At Browning, a weak cable threatens tohug half the crew, while the only remaining greenhorn at Rygaard is in the line of fire during a log-alanche. Shelby's camera crew gets lost in the swamp overnight. In Florida, Jimmy and James set out alone and score the season's first big catch. And, Conner Aviation returns to face the most dangerous heli-logging job of their career.

Shelby's desperate dash for cash is halted when he crashes in the swamp. A monster gator stalks the S&S boys, pushing Jimmy to his breaking point. At Rygaard, Gabe competes against his own team and at Browning, Jay recruits DJ and Cody for a dangerous environmental mission. At Conner, a giant load breaks the belly hook off the chopper, grounding the heli-loggers.

Jimmy and James come face-to-face with the 12-foot gator that has stalked them for weeks. In the swamps of Louisiana, Shelby goes solo on a challenging mission. At Rygaard, greenhorn Dave disappears and at Browning, a string of setbacks makes Jay question if the Kalina job is cursed. The rookie pilots at Conner get the ride of their lives.

Dave persuades Gabe to give him one last chance at Rygaard, but a careless error puts Craig on the verge of firing him; Jimmy's desperate decision to snatch a log already marked by the other Collins crew has Joe questioning his ethics; Swamp Man tries to pull a massive log from Lake Pontchartrain and stay ahead of both a fierce storm and a buyer's deadline; Josh and Kevin get their first practice at dropping cargo to the Conner ground crew; as Browning pulls in the last loads from its current job, Jay tells the crew that he has no new work lined up and must send them home.

Craig storms off the Rygaard site and Dave fails to show up, leaving Gabe to manage a shorthanded crew alone; after Jimmy's log-poaching last week, James goes out on the Suwannee by himself to hunt timber with Collins' other crew; when Jesse secures a new job for Browning, Jay brings in every available crew member to put wood on the ground; as Swamp Man makes a second try for the huge log stuck in Lake Pontchartrain, Shelby's old hernia flares up and sends him to the hospital; Josh and Kevin each make an actual heli-logging run, after which Bart evaluates their performance and hires Josh to fly for Conner.

It's an all-out fight to the finish for Browning and Rygaard, as Gabe mounts a last minute surprise comeback. Shelby vows revenge on the lake log, and at Conner, it's up to the junior pilot to save the season. In Florida, it's the end of the road for Jimmy, but Joe Collins makes James an offer he may not be able to refuse.