Crossword Genius

Thus might timber reserve a journal (7)

Ross

I believe the answer is:

logbook

I'm a little stuck... Click here to teach me more about this clue!

'journal' is the definition.
(thesaurus)

'thus might timber reserve a' is the wordplay.
I cannot quite see how this works, but
'reserve' could be 'book' (to book something is to reserve it) and 'book' is present in the answer.
The remaining letters 'log' is a valid word which might be clued in a way I don't understand.
This explanation may well be incorrect...

Can you help me to learn more?

(Other definitions for logbook that I've seen before include "Former vehicle document" , "Registration paper" , "Ship's record" , "Where details of voyages are written" , "Incident-recording volume" .)

I've seen this clue in the Sydney Morning Herald.
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