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Driveway and House site clearing

Started by JetMaxx, May 18, 2004, 04:18:05 PM

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JetMaxx

I'm about to begin work in the next few months on a heavily wooded, 12.8 acre piece of ground in central NH and I have some questions regarding the removal and sale of the timber from the driveway and house site.  
 
First of all, considering that the driveway will be approximately 700-800' long and the fact that this lot has not been logged in the last 15 years at least, there should be quite a bit of sellable timber.  While I have a limited knowledge of the value of timber, I am concerned that my lack of experience could hurt me when it comes to the sale of the logs.  

What is the best way for me to make this as profitable as possible while at the same time preserving the beauty of the land not being logged?
 


Ron Scott

I assume that you have developed a site plan for your proposed road and home site.

Have an experienced professional consulting forester or your local Conservation District forester look at your plan and proposed objectives. They can provide you with management information and local timber values along with advice on intigrating the nonmonitary resource values such as aesthetics, wildlife, recreation etc.
~Ron

JetMaxx

Ron,
Thanks for your reply.  Great forum you guys have here.  I've only been on for a few days but I can tell there is quite a bit of knowledge among the members.  

We purchased this land a year ago and we are going to slowly work at making it into a buildable lot over the next few years.  The land clearing is the first step.  We have staked the driveway and house site and have a topo map with some details but I want to make sure I have what he needs before I call him.

How detailed of a site plan would the forester need to make an educated assessment?

Ron Scott

Not too much detail needed if you are still in the planning stages. Primarily need to know your building and management objectives. Having the aerial photos, soil survey, and topo map for the area will help. The forester should be able to help you with your site planning to get more site specific with your objectives.
~Ron

Phorester


Keep in mind that "not having been logged in 15 years" won't have much to do with salable timber now.  If the last logging was done with the idea of making as much money for the logger and landowner as possible ( a goal of many timber sales - in other words - no thought to future timber growth), all the high value trees may have been taken out at that time, leaving you with a low value forest.

This is called highgrading, althought the logger may have called it selective harvesting.  Unforturnately, this occurs quite often unless the landowner hires his own professional forester (consulting forester) to work in his interest.


Rob

Phorester ,

         Yeah it's loggers that high grade and say " selective cutting " that give the rest of us loggers a bad reputation . I personally almost always us a forester on all my jobs that I harvest , that way they mark the lot and I just come in an harvest what timber they have marked , that way they can talk with the landowner and find out exactly what they want to do with their land. Makes it alot easier on me to do it that way , plus it helps out another forest industry worker and the landowner. I have been seriously thinking about hiring a full time forester for my company.

                             Sincerly , Rob

JetMaxx

When I recently walked the property, I found very few cut stumps, maybe 5-10 on 13 acres, all of which were in advanced stages of decay and rot.
Another indication would be the location of a stump.  As an example, there would be a sugar maple standing 10 feet away from a cut stump and its diameter would be bigger than the stump.  If the previous owner wanted to profit or the logger went in to highgrade, that tree would have been taken. Or more likely, at the time the cut tree was taken, the sugar maple was too small to cut.  One way or another, findings like that lead me to believe that its been a considerable time since this lot has been logged.

Rob

Jetmaxx ,

     Did you get my message I sent to you earlier ? Sounds like someone just went in to take a few trees by what your saying. Possibly some TSI work maybe. Well you can reach me at the email that I left in the message. Keep in touch

                                  Rob

Phorester

Rob,
Right you are regarding loggers and foresters.  it's difficult for foresters to talk about selective harvesting and highgrading without sounding like we're running down loggers, and I'm not.

I feel the landowner is mostly to blame if a timber sale turns into a highgrade operation. No one points a gun to his head and says; "sell me your timber or else"; it's the landowner's decision to sell his timber and how his forest is cut.  Quite often a landowner is unaware of how a forest should be thinned, and they understandably go for the highest price they can get, which often means highgrading to get that high price.  

(Now I got all the landowners mad at me!)

beenthere

Phorester
I would agree with you, and tend to think in this day and age, that more and more we want everyone else to look out for us, and almost expect that they will.
 A good book on this is by Bill O'Reilly, "Who's Looking Out for You?"

You put it quite well, and I can't see why a landowner could  disagree. The tendancy is to look at the stumpage prices, such as shown in a different thread, reported in MO and translate that all to pocket cash. Never mind the related expenses involved, such as planning, expert advice, logging, removing everything down to firewood size, and leaving the forest without a trace of activity.   ::)
south central Wisconsin
It may be that my sole purpose in life is simply to serve as a warning to others

rebocardo

FWIW: If I had a viable tree over 30 inches, I would rather move the road then take down the tree. Unless they are all giants. I would aim the road through all the small 18 inch and under trees where possible.

Do not place your house under trees because sooner or later every tree falls and branch and leaf damage can be a pain. Plus, construction generally is the downfall of an otherwise big healthy tree.

I would look at removing pine instead of hardwoods if I had a choice. I have not been able to do it yet, though what I think is neat and would add to the value of the house is to use the lumber removed (whatever it was) to make or to panel the house. Even if it costs more then getting the same thing at Home Depot and means using someone local that cuts and dries wood. imo.

Being NH, you should have a lot of rocks to use on site for making stonefield walls, driveways, and sidewalks. Just something else to consider.


Rob

Phorester ,

       I agree with what you said , I have yet to high grade any of my lots although I have had other people wanting me to but I wont do it. I want to keep a good reputation with the other loggers and foresters in my area for doing good work .

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