# Big Timber



## Brmorgan (Mar 31, 2009)

I've been digging through all the photo folders on my computer the last few days, and came across this one from last summer:












I guess it's a little off-topic since I definitely won't be milling that tree, but I thought you guys might enjoy the pic. The pictures don't do justice to the size of the tree though. I took that with my wide-angle lens at 21mm, which makes the foreground look bigger than it is, and I'm only standing about 2/3 the distance between the camera and tree in the first shot, which was maybe 10 feet. I'd say it was about 10' diameter. Beautiful big Western Red Cedar, though not very healthy - it's the biggun on the far left in the second pic (note the size of the tree in relation to the outhouse about 1/3-1/2 the distance away). This tree is right next to an old logging landing on nearby Quesnel Lake in the inland mountain rainforest, and I remember seeing a big Ford Super Duty truck parked under it a few years ago - it looked like a Hot Wheel on shore.


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## arbadacarba (Mar 31, 2009)

I`ve got one of those about 50' from my house. If it comes down in a westerly then the house goes. Doesn't bother me one bit - I'm hoping its still there when I'm gone and the house is gone, and still there many generations into the future. We're getting into the habit of putting in redwoods around the property as commemoration trees. It feels good to see the spirit live on in a different form!


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## Brmorgan (Apr 1, 2009)

A couple years ago we had a hail storm which spawned a freak windstorm about a half mile up the road from my house - witnesses claimed it was a brief twister touchdown, and the evidence would support it. About 10 acres of 30" Douglas Firs completely uprooted, some around 2' snapped right off a few feet off the ground. It demolished some small outbuildings, and toppled a ~2' tree right on top of a house. Luckily it was a log house with a huge ridge pole of similar size to the tree, and the tree only destroyed the roof itself, not the structure of the house. My neighbor's best friends live there and the wife was home alone at the time. Scared the :censored: out of her.

Yeah, there's a part of me that would like to live down there on the coast or the Island - I love Tofino - but the _rain_... But it's nice to know I can still drive a couple hours east into the mountains and get the same experience. The lake and mountains are so big it's just like being on a fjord on the coast anyway. And an hour west of here there is desert complete with sand dunes and cacti.


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## Backwood (Apr 1, 2009)

Thats a mosnter for sure.

This was the biggest thing I tackled last year. 1/4 white oak


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## chainsawboy1996 (Apr 1, 2009)

i think i can top that. and all i have to do is walk 100 yards of the front porch.


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## BobL (Apr 1, 2009)

Here's a nice one for you'all.






It's a Red Tingle tree (Eucalypts Jacksonii) with the world's biggest diameter (up to 15 ft) for any eucalypt. The vast majority of these remaining biguns (this one is about 10 ft in diameter) are in national parks so cannot be milled. They grow in a tiny area of the south west of Western Australia and mostly were milled out last century. The wood is actually pretty ordinary compared to most other eucalypts.


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## Brmorgan (Apr 1, 2009)

Backwood said:


> Thats a mosnter for sure.
> 
> This was the biggest thing I tackled last year. 1/4 white oak



My back hurts from here...


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## Rockfarmer (Apr 1, 2009)

*Cool pics!*

Wow!


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## Brmorgan (Apr 1, 2009)

Found this one too:






That's a little closer to home. Just the furrows in the bark on that tree were probably 8" deep. We have quite a few big Douglas Firs around here that were left as seed trees when areas were first logged during the 20s-50s. They're pretty much all dying now from drought fatigue and/or pests. There's a patch practically a stone's throw behind my parents' place with at least 18 (I may have lost count) big dead Douglas Firs between 24" - 60" diameter in less than an acre of space. There's enough firewood in those trees to last me literally the rest of my life, but I don't want to waste them for that. I plan to mill the bottoms and cut the knotty tops for firewood.


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## Burlhunter13 (Apr 2, 2009)

BobL said:


> Here's a nice one for you'all.
> 
> 
> 
> ...


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## Brmorgan (Apr 26, 2009)

Went for a walk with the family today out behind my parents' place and took the camera. This is one of the big firs I'll be going after this summer:






It's almost up to my chest at the very butt end. The five larger trees off the end of the one on the ground are also all dead. The official count is up from last fall - I counted at least 24 dead total all within maybe two acres' area. Too bad it's absolutely impossible to get a bandmill in & out of where they are though (without heavy equipment, anyway). I might try to get a salvage license for them, but I'm not sure if they would allow it. There's a big movement right now to leave big dead trees like this in the bush as "wildlife trees" even though it's completely obvious that there is a pest in the area killing them. Also a small scale salvage permit only covers 50 cubic meters, which would be equivalent to two or three of the biggest of these trees.


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## RPM (Apr 26, 2009)

Brmorgan said:


> Went for a walk with the family today out behind my parents' place and took the camera. This is one of the big firs I'll be going after this summer:
> 
> 
> 
> ...



Root rot and douglas-fir beetle are probably the responsible factors for giving you such a nice find. Talk to the small scalle salvage people at the FS. One method for geting all of that timber is to have each of your family members put in for a salvage permit as well....you, your dad, mum...etc. You want a cash sale for the wood and a quick look at the pictures says it looks like grade 4 wood to me which will be $.25/m3. Grade 4 wont make a sawlog grade due to defects (checks,twist, rot). If they are in better shape - grade 2 which is dry sawlog then you'll pay more. They have table rates for that - maybe $15-20/m3. The piece on the ground is grade 4 for sure. The other thing with cash sales is that they should only require a volume estimate and not an official scale (weight or hand scale). 

Someone from the FS will more than likely want to come out and see what your after. If you have to create access for a skidder then the process will get more complicated so make sure you have a plan in place for getting at the timber before someone comes out to look or you apply for the licence. Existing trails are your friends and don't mention making new bladed trails to the FS at all. The other thing they (FS) don't want to see are openings > 1ha created - 24 stems over a 1 ha shouldn't be an issue either.

As for management objectives, unless they are in an identified area already like a riparian management zone or wildlife tree patch, or other retention area there shouldn't be an issue. But thats part of the back ground work the FS will do in approving the licence. The only other road block these days seems to be the natives and thats an entirely differnet game there. If you can get them offically thats great.......if 1 or 2 go missing over the summer - I don't think anyone will notice either :greenchainsaw:


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## Brmorgan (Apr 26, 2009)

Yeah i wouldn't need a skid trail. There's already an ATV trail right to them, and I'd be taking the Alaskan in there and canting them down to where I can haul them out with the quad. So, the environmental impact of removal would be minimal, about the same as horse logging.

The one on the ground is probably the worst log of the whole bunch, it has big ~6" branches pretty much all the way down to the ground. There are some there though approaching 5' diameter (with bark) and pretty much clear for 50-80 feet, and poker straight for that length. One has a split top about 60 feet up and each top is still at least 30" dia. after that.


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## pastryguyhawaii (Apr 26, 2009)

I thought I'd add this picture of my wife next to the biggest mango tree I've seen. It's down in Waipio Valley here on the Big Island.


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## chainsawboy1996 (Apr 26, 2009)

*i came through on my word*


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## BobL (Apr 26, 2009)

pastryguyhawaii said:


> I thought I'd add this picture of my wife next to the biggest mango tree I've seen. It's down in Waipio Valley here on the Big Island.



Awesome - how big are the mangos?


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## pastryguyhawaii (Apr 27, 2009)

The mango on this tree looked normal size. I don't think anyone picked them because the branches are so high up. We do have a variety called "kite" that grows south of Kona that gets huge. I've seen five pounders and have heard of up to eight. And they tell me the tree is small.


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## Can8ianTimber (Apr 28, 2009)

*Big Trees*

Here is a couple of mine,


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## Can8ianTimber (Apr 28, 2009)

Big Oak


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## wavefreak (Apr 28, 2009)

Can8ianTimber said:


> Here is a couple of mine,




HOLY CRAP. That's one big tree. It would have been easier to move the house.


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## BIG JAKE (Apr 28, 2009)

Can8ianTimber said:


> Big Oak



Gad dang that's quite a log! What are you going to mill it with?


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## Can8ianTimber (Apr 28, 2009)

It has already been slabbed with a Lucus mill. Here is one of the slabs


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## PLAYINWOOD (Apr 28, 2009)

gorgeous slab, nice job.
Is there a market for such pieces ?


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## AndyR (Apr 28, 2009)

Can8ianTimber said:


> It has already been slabbed with a Lucus mill. Here is one of the slabs




That's a slab and a half! Nice color too!


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## SilverBox (Apr 28, 2009)

Can8ianTimber said:


> It has already been slabbed with a Lucus mill. Here is one of the slabs



Wow!


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## wavefreak (Apr 28, 2009)

Can8ianTimber said:


> It has already been slabbed with a Lucus mill. Here is one of the slabs



That is an amazingly beautiful piece of wood. I could hang it on a wall just like that and look at it forever.


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## arbadacarba (Apr 28, 2009)

Can8ianTimber said:


> It has already been slabbed with a Lucus mill. Here is one of the slabs



Now *that* is a nice piece of wood. Love the grain!


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## BIG JAKE (Apr 29, 2009)

Would make one heckuva live edge table!


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## pastryguyhawaii (Apr 29, 2009)

I didn't know oak could look so beautiful. That's a heck of a slab!


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## Can8ianTimber (Apr 29, 2009)

Sorry that one is not oak. That is a Walnut slab. Yeah Oak can't hold a candle to walnut in my opinion. :greenchainsaw:


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## dallasm1 (Apr 29, 2009)

:jawdrop:


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## Brmorgan (Apr 29, 2009)

Can8ianTimber said:


> Sorry that one is not oak. That is a Walnut slab. Yeah Oak can't hold a candle to walnut in my opinion. :greenchainsaw:



I was going to say, that is unlike any oak I've ever seen! Amazing slab though. You got a team of midgets on the other side propping it up for you?


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## wavefreak (Apr 30, 2009)

Can8ianTimber said:


> Sorry that one is not oak. That is a Walnut slab. Yeah Oak can't hold a candle to walnut in my opinion. :greenchainsaw:




I thought that was some pretty odd looking oak but I'm such a noob I was afraid to ask for fear of looking noobish. Was it sanded or finished or is that just the raw cut?


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## Brmorgan (Jul 11, 2010)

Dug up and scanned some old photos from about 10-11 years ago when my uncle took a bunch of the church youth group up to Quesnel Lake, and we hiked in to see the big Cedars:











I'm at the far left, about 17 or 18 y.o. here.







No tape measure on hand unfortunately but it appears to be about 10' DBH. This is not the same tree as in the first photo. That tree, and many others, appeared to be even larger, but we didn't feel like fighting through the Devil's Club undergrowth to get there. The one we're standing around is right beside the trail. It was actually broken off not too far above the top of the photo - you can see a couple of the splits coming down through the bark. I'm not kidding you, the butt of the spar of the tree was a good 40-50' away from the stump, and this is on perfectly flat ground. Talk about falling momentum!

Not too many folks, even in town here, are aware that we have trees like this in the northern BC interior. It's really something to walk through them.


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## mtngun (Jul 11, 2010)

Awesome cedars !

Are they protected from logging ?

The name Quesnel sounds familiar. Is that close to Rich Hobson/Pan Phillips country ?


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## ChainsawmanXX (Jul 11, 2010)

View attachment 143542


View attachment 143543


The one is a Huge Burr Oak taken last winter.
(The one laying on the ground) is a Post Oak taken down in a fence line, iv seen a few more that i wish i would have taken pictures of


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## Brmorgan (Jul 11, 2010)

mtngun said:


> Awesome cedars !
> 
> Are they protected from logging ?
> 
> The name Quesnel sounds familiar. Is that close to Rich Hobson/Pan Phillips country ?



Yeah I don't think they'll be getting logged; they're right down in the bottom of the valley in a riparian area near creeks. Plenty like this have been taken out of nearby areas over the years and barged down the lake though. 

The Quesnel River that flows out of the lake where these photos were taken flows into the Fraser River at Quesnel about an hour's drive north of here, where those guys used to drive their cattle to put them on the train years ago. Their ranch was a couple hundred miles to the northwest of where I live on the other side of the Fraser; this lake is 50-60 miles east of here up in the mountains.


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