Harvesting in the Cemetery?

[Jeff]

I was watching the news a couple minutes ago, and they mentioned a town down state was going to cut the trees out of their cemetery in order to raise some money.  The news caster made a remark and put a spin on it about thinking that was not right to do, and at first blush I kind of agreed, so I went looking for more information, as it turns out, the station I listened to had it wrong. They are not going in and cutting trees within the cemetery  Sounds like a good plan to me now that I've heard the actual story.

[Tom]

Our old cemeteries have large pines and red cedar cut from them.  It always makes them so bare that people don't like it even if they know it is for the safety of the living.  Old Long leaf pine gets red heart and the tree falls.  cedar just takes over everything.

Many of the old cemeteries have big live oaks. These aren't so dangerous, nor consuming.  They do disrupt graves at their base and sometimes these sites are lost.

While trees are pretty, it's probably best that cemeteries be clear.

[SwampDonkey]

We usually have big old white pines or sugar maple in many of ours, tree that live a very long time. There is one that has an old English white oak on the edge of it in one town. We also have a very large Japanese lilac in ours. It's huge and been there since the beginning as no one living knew when it was planted.

[metalspinner]

It sounds like they have a good plan in place.  Watching the newscaster's face while introducing the story had me bracing for something very controversial, though.

We all know what this will do to the mind set of the locals. In their mind, their messy yard tree will suddenly take the place of their diminished 401K and they will look to cash in.

[Ron Scott]

Sounds like some good forest management before the cemetery expands onto the area. Cemetery trees need management, but it is often difficult to do properly in an active cemetery. They should have a cemetery landscaping plan made for the future area.

Awareness also needs to be given to the potential for Thousand Cankers Disease (TCD) hitting the walnut.

[Daren]

Sounds like some good forest management before the cemetery expands onto the area.

I agree. Too bad the money is going into the "general fund"...we all know that means generally that money will be wasted. 

I work with all the local cemetery caretakers and get thier logs when they do expand/one dies on the property. Keller cemetery on the edge of town is pretty much ate up with walnuts on it's south border, the only way to expand. They have to remove the rootballs too, I get those also.

Something that has puzzled me for years is one from the middle of a cemetery I milled...well started to mill  . They were doing drainage/grade work. It had a small creek running through the middle of the cemetery they were working on. I knew the excavation contractor doing the work, had gotten many logs from him in the past. They had to remove one tree, a big old hackberry. He brought it here and wanted me to mill it for him into cribbing...THE most nail infested log I had ever had on the mill. (it was not there for long) For the life of me I could not figure out why someone(s) would go to the trouble of dragging a hammer and nails into the middle of the cemetery.     But the fact is they did.

[metalspinner]

How much money would a load of walnut logs make for the city?  Of course there are many variables, but generally speaking, what does a load (whatever that is) of No. 1 walnut sawlogs bring?  Aside from the good management plan for the urban forest, just how much can the city expect to gain?  It seems to me that they are really scraping the bottom of the barrel if they have to harvest urban trees for $$.

[StephenRice]

For the life of me I could not figure out why someone(s) would go to the trouble of dragging a hammer and nails into the middle of the cemetery.     But the fact is they did.

Let me ask you a simple question... Are there any deer that frequent that cemetery?  Birds love the berries, maybe deer do too?  I am thinking either a poor man's tree stand with nailed on 2x4 steps or a neighborhood kids tree fort with the same nailed on steps, long ago rotted off and the nails assimilated into the trunk every 18" or so.  Sound about right?

[Daren]

If it was a country cemetery that would make sense, a deer stand. This particular cemetery is smack in the middle of a small town (Bethany Illinois). And the tree was not anywhere near the road like it would have "yard sale" signs or anything nailed to it over the years.

Not to get off subject, but most everyone whines about tramp metal in "yard trees". I do see my fair share. But I get surprised by "timber trees" just as often, well maybe more often because I don't expect it. I had a beauty walnut dropped here from the woods, virgin timber. Another drainage clearing job. I was alllowed to go to the site first and mark anything I wanted. There was nothing there (bottom land) but cottonwoods and that one nice walnut, I marked the walnut. They delivered it here. I threw it on the mill...first face, 2 nails and 4 deer slugs. Someone had nailed targets to the tree...and I might add they were a bad shot, the slugs were not very close to the nails so it messed up quite abit of lumber.

[StephenRice]

When I lived in (actually near) the little village of Lakeview, Michigan, there was a cemetery there on the side of town next to Tamarack Lake that had deer in it.  I knew of one or two guys that  knew about the deer and hunted there.  That is why I thought about the tree stand scenario.

[Ron Scott]

Cemetary Trees, Bliss, Mi Cemetary, 9/10

[SwampDonkey]

There was a red maple that blew over on the cemetery this week. Doesn't look like any damages. My cousin went in and cleaned it up and used the wood for firewood.

[iffy]

I got about 50 ponderosa pine logs a couple years ago from the local cemetery. They were dying from pine bark beetle. My Linn mill is still laying on a pallet in a semi completed state, as I have had more pressing things to do. Hauled 11 of the logs down to a local mill and had him mill them, kiln dry them, and make 2 x 6 t & g out of them for my loft floor. Beautiful floor, but you better own a sandpaper company if you want to get it slick smooth. I settled for kinda smooth. Wanted a rustic look anyway. Still have the remainder of the logs stacked up off the ground, don't know if I there will be anything left to saw by the time I get back to finishing my mill or not.
 

[Magicman]

Very nice.  That closest butt log in the small picture looked limby all of the way down.  Is that normal?

[iffy]

Seems to be on these. Makes pretty wood, but even after going thru a heated kiln, ya gotta use a lot of table lube while planing and shaping. Will plug a floor drum sander in just a couple of passes. The picture was taken last year, so most of the bark has slipped now and I really need to get out there and restack them. I had the cemetery crew cut it into the longest lengths they could get before it decreased appreciably in diameter. Figured I could always cut them into saw logs I can actually use. Otherwise, the crew just cut them into 8' lengths with no regard to taper. Don't know if there will be anything there to cut by the time I get to it, and not sure what I'll do with it after I cut it. It does make some beautiful paneling if you can put up with the pitch clogging everything up.

[Meadows Miller]

Gday

Thanks Jeff You just reminded Me that i have to ring back a couple of cemetery,s that had some good logs that they wanted removed   
Ones got 4 Redwoods with about a 100' of sawlogs in ea tree and another 10 Ponderosa's all 3' to 5' dia and the other jobs about 30 Radiata and Ponderosa pines from 2' to 4' butts that would go to sleeper logs  Im not in a rush and they know that and it dont worry them as im the only one that would drop them for free if they supply an excavator      theres no trouble with these ones either as they ar both surrounded by farm land 

Regards Chris

[Ron Scott]

Cemetery Trees, Niehart Montana Cemetary, 9/09

[qbilder]

Here's some slabs I milled from a large cedar that had been standing dead in a cemetery for ages. The caretakers never would cut it because of fear of damaging a monument. The township trustee & I downed it correctly to dodge any stones. Was dry as popcorn & nice milling except one log had old spike style nails in it that were clearly made by a blacksmith. I thought that was really neat to see hand pounded nails, but my saw didn't like it.

 



 

   

[SwampDonkey]

There are a few old pioneer cemeteries with trees grown up in them around here as well. The ones I know of wouldn't be real old, early 1800's. I don't recall any stones up my way back to the 1700's. Those would be down in St John and some 1500's stuff long gone on the coast. But the wooden dikes from the Acadians are still down there from the 1600's on the beeches of the Bay.

[cjfrank]

About 10 years ago, I had the opportunity to do some tree work in a cemetary and the parish elders had to give approval before work started. We had a wind storm go through and up root several large spruce and therefore they wanted to remove all the trees and replant with schrubbs that didn't grow so high. The elders were concerned with the fact that the up rooted trees exposed some of the graves and wanted to eliminate that problem.