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Timber Harvest Methods & Equipment

Started by Ron Scott, March 24, 2002, 02:14:52 PM

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David_c

Tom i think in this area it is more common than elsewhere. especially if there isn't a forester involved. like i said though chances are thats not even a wetland just wet land. personally i hate seeing the woods all rutted up like that (pet peeve of mine). but in some cases it really is unavoidable (didn't look so in this case though) unless you work the area when the ground is frozen. but i'm not there so i honestly cant pass judgement. i'm sure Rob is only doing what he's told to do.

Ron Scott

Best Management Practices (BMP's) would not allow us to "run through mud" areas. We would need to wait for the "dry season"; properly road and drain it, cable the wood across to high and dry ground, or not harvest the area.

We are working one such area of included hydric soil right now as its the first time we've been able to get in to it in three years since it is finally dry enough due the current dry season. We are cabling selected trees out over temporary "slashed over" routes to high ground then cutting into short wood lengths on site to be forwarded out to the landing. Skidding is kept to a minimum to prevent rutting.



~Ron

tnlogger

first rob welcome to the forum and good looking equipment too
As i read you operate the skidder so i have a couple of questions  being a logger in Maine and tenn for over 30yrs.i wonder are you the contractor or just run the skidder for wages.(2) is this a clearcut on company land or a private landowner. The reason i ask and i am in no way placing blame here is the impact of logging practice like this on the forest that is the reason i quit the big companys and started on my own. i value land management more the profit.
now this is just my 2cents worth and in am i judging you. i just feel that land management and soil conservation is more important.  :P again welcome gene

gene

David_c

hey TNlogger Rob has been a member here for quit some time. also he is just a hired hand. side note he posted some pics awhile back and mentioned that they where logging a patch that no else could becuase of the mud. so i tend to think this is common practice for this company. just an fyi i didn't post this to pass judgement on Rob i've meet him and he seems a decent enough guy.

OneWithWood

Rob,
Thanks for the pics. 

How will the damage to the soils be mitigated?  I would really like to see pics of the repair work.  Many years ago a skidder harvesting my woods left ruts like that on the side of a ravine.  They put water bars in at the top but those were soon washed out.  I ended up grading the shoulders down, using the dirt to fill the ruts and then I rocked it all over using spoils from one to the local quarries.  I now use this as my main woods acces road.
One With Wood
LT40HDG25, Woodmizer DH4000 Kiln

tnlogger

dave  sorry bout that and i wasn't trying to get on to anyone it's just when i see something like that i sorta let my heart take over instead of my brain.  :)
gene

SwampDonkey

The worst rutting I see occurs at heads of gullies with steeper sloped gully walls. So the guy runs his skidder up the gully which 99 % of the time have springs seeping out that feed streams below. The gully walls are too steep to keep out of the wetter gully trough. But, sometimes the gully is not even deep and the skidder runs up the trough of the gully because it's a wide gradual path, making an easier trek to the yard. This practice is shunned by the best intended folks, but often gets forgotten when their chasing wood for machine payments. On the family farm we were always fortunate that we never had gullies or steep side hills to work. Nice and flat with gentle running streams and wet runs. I've seen some pretty dramatic erosion on farm fields though untill folks changed their farming practices in the 1980's. It was amazing the erosion on gentle slopes, you could burry a tractor in the erosion ditch. There is still some serious erosion in the New Denmark area from farming practices, even though steps have been made to reduce it by terracing and green belts, but some fields are just too steep.
"No amount of belief makes something a fact." James Randi

1 Thessalonians 5:21

2020 Polaris Ranger 570 to forward firewood, Husqvarna 555 XT Pro, Stihl FS560 clearing saw and continuously thinning my ground, on the side. Grow them trees. (((o)))

David_c

tnlogger there is no reason to appoligize. like you i also hate to see things like that. i was just letting you know Rob has been a member here and that he is just a hired hand.

Ron Scott

Load of Quality Sawlogs. This load of quality sawlogs is moving across "Big Mac" from Lower Michigan into Upper Michigan.


~Ron

Tom

I did that one time.  ;D    Go across the Mac from lower Michigan into Upper Michigan, I mean.  Jeff took me.   Man!  What a bridge.

OLD_ JD

we can hardly see the shore on they other side.... :o
canadien forest ranger

Furby

I'm looking forward to walking across the "Big Mac" come Labor Day.........if I can find a way.

Ron, why are the logs going North?
Are there no mills closer?

Robert R

That above mud job looks a perfect place for horses to show their worth, snaking through the timber around the edge of the mud to the other side but I am biased.  Got to do some of that this summer for a real logger.  Had a ball.  Took the logs across a golf course--he set them on my wagon running gears with his piece of equipment and we hauled them across the course and then he off-loaded directly onto his trailer with a hydraulic arm.  We took several semi loads out and you couldn't even tell we had been there--except for the occassional "horse hazard"!
chaplain robert
little farm/BIG GOD

SwampDonkey

Tom, there must be some fairly long bridges down on the Keys aren't there? We have Confederation Bridge here between New Brunswick and PEI, which is 8 miles long.

Link to Live Bridge Cam
"No amount of belief makes something a fact." James Randi

1 Thessalonians 5:21

2020 Polaris Ranger 570 to forward firewood, Husqvarna 555 XT Pro, Stihl FS560 clearing saw and continuously thinning my ground, on the side. Grow them trees. (((o)))

Ron Scott

"Big Mac" is 5 miles long, but the largest suspension bridge in the world.

There are a number of saw and veneer mills here in northern Lower Michigan, but these logs must have found a better market in the UP. There are also UP and Wisconsin buyers buying here so the laod may be going to one of these clients.

Loads also come from the UP into northern Lower Michigan, so it depends wherever the quality and price is best I guess.
~Ron

Tom

We have the overseas highway from the mainland to Key West that has one link that is 7 miles long.  There are two bridges there now, the old and new.  It's quite a trip,but, nothing like the bridge over Lake Ponchartrain in louisianna.  It's 24 miles long.

A breathtaking a bridge is The New River Bridge on US-19 in W.V.   You happen up on that bridge, unsuspectingly, and all of a sudden your vehicle is suspended half-way to the moon.  "How'd I get here?" is how I feel everytime I cross it. :D

Ron Scott

That's Arden Cogar, jr country, a new FF member.  I know its high enough to sky dive off of. ;)
~Ron

SwampDonkey

Yikes, I don't like them high bridges. Just get me as fast as possible to the other end.  :D  I've never even crossed the Confederation Bridge, which spans the icy cold Northumberland Straight. They sometimes shut it down because of high cross winds. I've been over to the Island many times by ferry. For me personally, it's kind of like the phrase 'been there done that' as far as going over there. I've been to the New River on the Virginia side, near Radford where I stayed with friends. Wow  :o 24 miles is a long trek on a bridge, hope no one is forced to walk it. ;D If I'm ever on a bridge, it won't be to skydive, unless someone with a vengence is trying to do me in.  ::)
"No amount of belief makes something a fact." James Randi

1 Thessalonians 5:21

2020 Polaris Ranger 570 to forward firewood, Husqvarna 555 XT Pro, Stihl FS560 clearing saw and continuously thinning my ground, on the side. Grow them trees. (((o)))

Rob

Well first and foremost I have been a member here for close to 3 years now , have not posted nearly as much as i use too because I have been too busy working to get on here , but thanks for welcoming me anyway.

As for the job in question Iam just the skidder operator for the company , they tell me to pull the wood and well that what I do , I myself know how to avoid rutting but on this job in was inevitable to avoid plus the old operator pretty much destroyed that part of the job before they removed him from the skidder permanetly. Yes the job is a clear cut it is a 165 home development & golf course , the pictures where you see the mud is the big cultasac and there was a foot of standing water there apparently before I got to the job  and the old op just twisted and turned through the whole area causing it a too turn to mud. So when i got there I had no choice or chance to avoid the area as the was roughly 60 hitches of bunched wood on the other side of it so i was forced to go through the area.
  We are a landclearing company not select cut loggers , we come in cut , skid , chip , stump and grind with tub grinders , we can not leave slash anywhere on the jobs must all be picked up. As for any repair work the area will be filled in as the road will be going there and that is up to the site workers not us. Like I said we are not a timber harvesting operation. If I was to start that job before the old operator I probably could have avoided the rutting , but its hard to avoid when the damage is done before.

    Well I hope this answered any conflicts and questions and if you would like me to stop posting pictures then I will do so , but please dont make me out to be the bad guy or bad operator as there was no way to avoid what happened...We do alot of muddy jobs that other companies can not do , this part just got rained on and it stayed there , we usually use swamp mats but the contractor told us there was no need as they would be digging and filling that area. Now I have been running skidders for the past 11 or so years and consider myself a decent operator who does not bounce and scar up "save trees" , avoid  rutting and going through muddy areas if possible,this cut was just impossible to avoid rutting it was mud treeline to treeline  so there was no choice.

                                                              Rob

beenthere

Rob
Thanks for the good explanation of what you were doing. It makes sense that way. I don't think anyone meant to be pointing a finger at you specifically, but more pointing to what it looked like was happening. Who of us wouldn't enjoy a trip or two through the mud hole if we had a chance.  :D  I would!  But I wouldn't want to run my own equipment through it and get 'mud' on it.  :)

I suspect that often posts are answered, such as yours, just because of stirring up the mud and leaving the ruts, in what appeared to be a logging job, and really was mentioned for what others could learn from it (as well as to let others know that 'we' know better than to do that).  So it, to me, was just a 'good' example of what not to do, and others were using it to point out that they knew better than to do that.

So, thanks for posting the picture that so many used to stomp on the 'muddy' skidder practice, as without it, that subject of mudding up a logging trail would probably not have come up. I hope you consider it in the light that it was a good example, and that others didn't know all the facts as to why it was being done that way.   Sure hope you don't back away, as you can offer a lot to the 'logging' discussions, IMO.

Thanks for posting and bringing this up to date. It would have been easy to just have your feelings hurt and disappeared.
(and DanG, running that rig looks like fun, but expect it could get like work some days too  :)  )
south central Wisconsin
It may be that my sole purpose in life is simply to serve as a warning to others

Buzz-sawyer

Rob I see your points and think on the internet.....a feeding frenzie developes on a topic.and people just chim in as if what they are discussing is the gospel.....when in fact it is comment on a comment about an idea someone posted about an assumption about a picture a guy posted for others to enjoy.
I dont think you have any reason to explain yourself or any such thing. Neither does the owner of the company.
You are doing a tough job the best and most practical way possible.
What diffeece are 1000 ruts gonna make when the D-9 cat gets done re shaping that entire parcel into something nice for people to enjoy ;)
    HEAR THAT BLADE SING!

SwampDonkey

HI Rob,

I agree with beenthere in the fact that we weren't pouncing on your job. In fact my post about rutting was just an example I've seen going on. We were on the subject of rutting so..... ;) I don't attack people's work without knowing the before and after conditions. I'll often here these sunday driver types drive by a piece and say what a mess. It's mostly because of the brush that's left, and there is nothing economical we can do to remove it. Or someone will look at a select cut and call it high grading without being there before hand to see that the lot was mostly pulpwood and the guy was trying to leave at least something for seed. Just because a tree has a fork 20 feet up and a bunch of rot on the trunk doesn't mean the seed produced from that tree will produce trash trees.  ::) If that were the case than we'de never get a smooth beech resistant to beech scale growing in a stand of severely diseased beech.  I've seen some nice second growth sugar maple stands previously harvested for firewood. In fact they look better than alot of stands not worked at all.

cheers
"No amount of belief makes something a fact." James Randi

1 Thessalonians 5:21

2020 Polaris Ranger 570 to forward firewood, Husqvarna 555 XT Pro, Stihl FS560 clearing saw and continuously thinning my ground, on the side. Grow them trees. (((o)))

tnlogger

 rob glad to see you show up  :) after reading your explanation it all makes sence. and i am one that gets over excited when i see stuff like that and nope i wasn't getting on to you just was trying to find out some facts  ;D
And shoot stick around more as the sawyers out number us poor loggers way to much. :D
gene

OneWithWood

Rob,
Thanks for the follow-up.  I understand about coming up on a job after someone else has butchered the place.  I am working on cleaning up a site right now where the loggers did not use any BMPs or even pretend to.  A lot of what I am doing is pulling tops out of the washes for the landowner so limbs do not end up down stream when it rains.  I am reducing the tops for firewood and when I am done I will put in water bars on all the skid trails.  Any pics of the site in its current state would raise a lot of questions too.
Keep up the good work and post when you can.
One With Wood
LT40HDG25, Woodmizer DH4000 Kiln

Rob

Hi Guys ,

           Well first off thanks for understanding were I was coming from with my post I made recently , when I posted the pics I had a feeling it would stir up some controversy but I did it anyway . Sometimes there are just no ways around the mud and usually we will use swamp mats for that issue but like I said contractor so do it so thats what went on , I will be going back to that job in the next couple months to when we have to make the second cut for the golf course after the shaper comes in and I will get some more pics of that area for everyone. Well again thank you for hearing my explanation on this topic .

           Oh a lil off topic news guys my Fiancee' is pregnant so Im gonna be a daddy !! Just found out last night..

                                                 Rob

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