Mandatory Cutting Orders

[1938farmall]

snowman,  i'm old enuf to appreciate your comments.  my problem with a small parcel, there is a very limited pool of loggers to choose from.  also, some of my relatives have worked for them in the past and, well, i don't dare tell the tales.  al

[BaldBob]

Snowman,
While I agree that the majority of loggers are honest, as farmall has indicated, a small landowner often has very limited choice in who will do the job.  Also I have been involved in enough investigations where the logger marked additional trees (cut tree mark) or where a cat or skidder was used to scuff the painted bark off marked stumps (leave tree marked) to always "trust but verify".

Ron & Chevy Tahoe,
If aesthetics are an issue in leave tree marked stands, the marks can be covered (after logging) with earth tone paint closely matching bark color.  Not an ideal solution, but will suffice for most situations.

[Ron Scott]

Yes, different tree marking schemes may be used , marked to cut, marked to leave, a combination of both, etc. Different paint colors may even be used in marking the stand. Some marking jobs can become quite complex depending upon the landowners specific management objectives.

I've done some State tree marking jobs where we had to carry 3 - 4 paint guns while marking the stands for harvest. Crop trees were marked with one color, tree species of a certain diameter were marked with another color, a specific species was marked with another color, wildlife trees with another color, etc. etc. Then the stand had to be cruised for the volume of only the unmarked trees to be cut.

When we mark to cut, we mark wildlife den, snag, cavity, and mast trees "to leave" with a "WL", but with the same color paint being used. 

[rebocardo]

If I was worried about someone cheating on the cutting, I would probably head down to the local automotive paint jobber and have a bright colored metallic made up that would not be available off the shelf anywhere.

Such as Corvette yellow with green metallic flakes (never offered from GM). Then put it into a can you pressurize with your own air compressor and head out to the forest with four cans.

[Cedarman]

Psychologists have run tests showing that when given the opportunity most people will cheat a little if they think they will not be caught and this is when money is directly involved.  Also, most people will cheat a good bit if they believe they won't be caught and the transaction does not directly involve money.    This comes from testing people.  I wouldn't think of not marking stumps. 

Another way is to take pictures of your woods from marked spots.  Compare before and after photos.   If the trees are all marked from the same side, they should show up in the picture.   Not foolproof, but  you will have some good before and after shots.

[snowman]

I guess I'm just speaking from my own experience with the stump marking thing. I cut mostley for one sawmill for 25 years and developed a good relationship with them. After 10 years or so they didn't even mark timber on units I was going to cut. Forester just told me what the cutting prescription was and thats what I did. I was working gypo, paid by the thousand and it was a temptation to cut the trees that would make me the most money but in the logging busines your rep is everything. It worked  good for me because I was more productive not dealing with some forester marking trees to cut that were locked in by leave trees, stuff like that. Worked good for them by saving time and money for a forester to mark my units. Since I semi reired I've done some little private jobs that I 1st walkd with landowner. Gave them advice on their stand of timber, listened to what they wanted, we developed a working relationship. They didn't mark trees much less stumps.It always worked out fine. I encouraged them to visit my work daily, ask questions give comments. Anyway thats where I'm coming from on this, works great for me.

[Cedarman]

It takes a good bit of time to develop the trust and reputation that you have Snowman and it is serving you well.  It's a shame that too many think short term gain and worry about long term later. 

We have loggers with both types reputation in our area.  Too often landowners only care about who offers the most for the timber not thinking of the cost of taking too many trees for the future.  For most in our area timber income only comes in every 15 to 20 years and they do not want to do the research necessary to find the best loggers.