Beach Combing & Milling

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That seems to work here are a couple more.
The trunk was taken for firewood many years ago. The stump is a crotch of two trees. It is poplar, not a commercially marketable species, just fancied running the saw.
I hope the cutting angle is ergonomically correct:rolleyes:
The truck in the background is a neighbor collecting firewood.

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The big log in the back ground is doug fir. It is cracked and rotted right through. The radius is right around 30 inches, it has approx 18 rings per inch.
The "owners" stamp is still visible.

600 year old trees left to rot on the beach.

I will work on embedding the pictures next time.

That is as far as i got before dark. If it does not float away tonight I will finish it tomorrow. If I dont get arrested:dizzy:

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Wow this thread has gone in a totally differently way than I had expected when I started it. Interesting to see how people from other locations view things.

Very interesting.

Still trying not to get political.
 
The big log in the back ground is doug fir. It is cracked and rotted right through. The radius is right around 30 inches, it has approx 18 rings per inch.
The "owners" stamp is still visible.

600 year old trees left to rot on the beach.

I will work on embedding the pictures next time.

That is as far as i got before dark. If it does not float away tonight I will finish it tomorrow. If I dont get arrested:dizzy:

Big doug fir would have made some nice FOHC beams or VG lumber. Would have been fun to mill.

There are still some remnants of big old firs on the beach at my dads place that have been there for as long as I can remember at least 30 years and are still there even after all the big winter storms. Some of them were more than 6 feet across.
 
The big log in the back ground is doug fir. It is cracked and rotted right through. The radius is right around 30 inches, it has approx 18 rings per inch.
The "owners" stamp is still visible.

600 year old trees left to rot on the beach.

I will work on embedding the pictures next time.

That is as far as i got before dark. If it does not float away tonight I will finish it tomorrow. If I dont get arrested:dizzy:

Oh Ya what part of the Island are you from if you don't mind me asking?
 
I am not actually on Vancouver Island, The snow capped mountains in the background are on Vancouver island.
I am in the gulf islands. Mudge to be precise.
Today was 8 degrees Celsius, sunny in the morning and overcast this afternoon.



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Looks like you'll get some real nice boards out of that stump.

Shame about the fir log. Maybe the stamps should have a date code and if they haven't collected it in six months time it is fair game. Truth is once that log got seperated in the water there was a fairly slim chance it would ever be recovered.



Mr. HE:cool:
 
I am not actually on Vancouver Island, The snow capped mountains in the background are on Vancouver island.
I am in the gulf islands. Mudge to be precise.
Today was 8 degrees Celsius, sunny in the morning and overcast this afternoon.



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Must be a nice area I am sure. I have been all over the coast but not to the gulf islands.

I grew up living on ocean front property looking across to Texada and Vancouver Island for 20 years. Did not really know what I had till I moved away from the ocean we just took it for granted it was always there.
 
Yeah, the laws for the woods and wood cutting here are all messed up. It is a hodgepodge of stuff that big timber companies wanted at one time or another, then filtered through what a man in an office back east thought it should read like. Taken all together you have a mess.

Despite all that you still have hard working men and women making a living and taking care of their families. Good people trying to make the rules work in a sensible manner, apply them fair and just for all involved.

You still have theft of forest products too. People will steal anything.

We tease our forest patrol guys "Did you catch anyone today smuggling the endangered wooly rock?"

Most timber companies have their own security people and they patrol land owned by the timber companies. Mostly they are keeping the violent tree huggers from destroying trees and machines. They also keep out the party kids and poachers, but those seem to be a minor problem overall.

A few years back we had a running war over mushrooms, the legal kind.:dizzy:
Competing families of mushroom hunters were shooting it out in the woods over the best picking grounds. That is what happens when stuff is worth a lot of money.

Not really forest products related but you know the number one reason to take a gun when hunting? To protect yourself from the people who shoot hunters.

Might sound crazy, but it has happened a few times and the eco-freaks are training more people to do it. There is some indication that they plan to target loggers too. Stay safe out there.:cheers:



Mr. HE:cool:

and not much more needs to be said what to do to those eco freaks--:mad:
 
I got back to finish off the poplar stump;
It was a little spalted and there was bark through the center, I got some nice little boards out of it .


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I wish I had a little longer bar so I could get the full 36 inches out of the mill.
 
I really like milling stumps, never know what you are going to find in them. I've gotten some smaller pieces with amazing patterns that work good for jewelry boxes and other small projects.



Mr. HE:cool:
 
Looks like you'll get some real nice boards out of that stump.

Shame about the fir log. Maybe the stamps should have a date code and if they haven't collected it in six months time it is fair game. Truth is once that log got seperated in the water there was a fairly slim chance it would ever be recovered.


I wonder if the same rules apply for log salavage as boat salvage.
With boat salvage if you salvage a boat the owner is responsable for all cost to remove the boat from the water this includes hourly wages expenses ie fuel and loss of equipment in the salvaging process. so if your boat sinks you are responsible for the cost to resurface it. In most cases the vessal is insured and that cost will be transferred to the insurrer.
Once said vesel is resurfaced the salvager must notify owner most cases insurance company. The salvager has the option to ask the owner to surender the vessal for the cost or to bill and turn over the vessel or dispose of the vessal ot the owners expense.
In most cases the insurance companys hope noone discovers the vessal becouse the cost of salvage is usally more expensive then the repairs and resale.
So maybe you can apply this to any driftwood. Its alot of bs paperwork but once you figure out the channels it mite be usefull as most logging companys are not going to want to pay the expence to transport one log
all full salvage laws can be found through the canada gov site i will look to see if i can find the link and post it
 
http://www.tc.gc.ca/marinesafety/oep/nwpp/wreck.htm#01-03
hers the link to the info and it applys to cargo ie logs which would be cargo. and this really works i salvaged a freinds sailboat after it drifted into a small rocky outcrop on harrison lake and the insurance company had already paid the claim on the boat turned over all title and ownership. the only problem i had was all paper work was done before i salvaged the boat so i would have been responsible for salvage costs if someone decided to salvage before i did
 
Looks like you'll get some real nice boards out of that stump.

Shame about the fir log. Maybe the stamps should have a date code and if they haven't collected it in six months time it is fair game. Truth is once that log got seperated in the water there was a fairly slim chance it would ever be recovered.


I wonder if the same rules apply for log salavage as boat salvage.
With boat salvage if you salvage a boat the owner is responsable for all cost to remove the boat from the water this includes hourly wages expenses ie fuel and loss of equipment in the salvaging process. so if your boat sinks you are responsible for the cost to resurface it. In most cases the vessal is insured and that cost will be transferred to the insurrer.
Once said vesel is resurfaced the salvager must notify owner most cases insurance company. The salvager has the option to ask the owner to surender the vessal for the cost or to bill and turn over the vessel or dispose of the vessal ot the owners expense.
In most cases the insurance companys hope noone discovers the vessal becouse the cost of salvage is usally more expensive then the repairs and resale.
So maybe you can apply this to any driftwood. Its alot of bs paperwork but once you figure out the channels it mite be usefull as most logging companys are not going to want to pay the expence to transport one log
all full salvage laws can be found through the canada gov site i will look to see if i can find the link and post it

Nope, the log salvage regulations in BC were designed by the Provincial Government, Ministry of Forests. They were developed back in a time when there was LOTS of coastal logging activity and much of the wood was transported by flat boom to the mills (primarily in Vancouver). Now, most wood is transported in bundle booms (logs are bundled together, about the same amount as a logging truck and banded - then the bundles are formed into a boom), which do not have the same amount of log loss in storms or by log barge. Flat booms (where outside containment logs are chained together and then the centre logs float free without being tied up) were notorious for breaking up or losing logs in storms. However, they were also susceptible to theft and it is the theft that was trying to be controlled.

Why was theft important to the Government, because the logs weren't scaled and stumpage revenue to the Government calculated until they reached booming grounds near the mills. So, if logs were lost from the booms in the ocean, the Government would lose revenue (and we can't have that). Hence the need for strict control.

These rules usually weren't developed by some multinational company, 1000's of miles away, the concepts were usually originated by some field guy looking to correct a problem. The solution was then championed by some manager/director through the bureauracy. Often many changes were made, to meet various laws and policy, but usually it had it's origin with some field guy with an idea.

Log stamps for the industrial companies designate the company and what cut block that log came from. Now a days, stumpage is determined for each cut block (and will vary cut block to cut block), so the log needs to identifiable back to that cut block.

The reason log stamps are used, is that after the logs are hammered, fibres are disturbed quite a distance into the log and can be read even if the log end is cut off with a saw. CSI BC coast.
 
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The odd guy cutting beach logs or windfalls in BC is not going to have an issue with the BC Forest Service (BCFS). Salvage rules and regulations are focused more so at the guy with the skidder, hook truck and small commercial mill b/c he may end up taking some signiifcant volume that should have stumpaged (royalties) paid to the gov't.

DRB's take of 650 bdf might represent 2-3 m3 of wood. Being that it is on the beach and if scaled it probably wouldn't make more than a pulp grade ($.25/m3) its worth $.50 - $.75 to the gov't - even though I know DRB got some choice boards out of it. In the day you used to be able to draw an x on a map and say that you were taking so many trees (dead standing / down) and they would come out and check the volume and grade and you might pay (or not) a flat fee for the permit. The BCFS doesn't have enough people to be running around and checking every persons salvage permit so they don't anymore.

If someone in BC is truely concerned about doing what they are doing with regards to salvage then they should go to their local forest district office and ask to speak with the small scale salvage technician or Forester. I don't bother. In this area the only thing they are funny about is cedar and you technically you are not allowed to cut it to any length....especially shake bolt length (24"). If you cut on a road make sure the ditches and culvert inlets are clean when you leave and if you cut near a creek don't put any sh*t in them.
 
The big log in the back ground is doug fir. It is cracked and rotted right through. The radius is right around 30 inches, it has approx 18 rings per inch.
The "owners" stamp is still visible.

600 year old trees left to rot on the beach.

I will work on embedding the pictures next time.

That is as far as i got before dark. If it does not float away tonight I will finish it tomorrow. If I dont get arrested:dizzy:

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techniqually couldnt the logging company be fined for "littering" ,if its thier property tossed out on public/government land,they should be responsible for the cleanup or turn over the rights?
 
techniqually couldnt the logging company be fined for "littering" ,if its thier property tossed out on public/government land,they should be responsible for the cleanup or turn over the rights?

In the past on the west coast of BC one of the major modes of log transportation was via the water in log booms. Logs are always slipping out of the booms and hence another reason for the timber marks. A permited log salvager could salvage that log and sell it back into the market. I think the owner of the timber mark would also get something back for the log as well.

Logs like this are littered up and down the west coast from Oregon up to Alaska and all in between. Logs are not boomed much anymore and are now carried on barges.

Its not littering, its lost opportunity. Lost opportunity b/c the logging company has most likely already paid the stumpage / royalty fees on that log and paid its logger and all the costs associated with getting it to that point. Stumpage is the fee paid to gov't for the right to harvest that piece of timber. The logging company may or may not have sold that log to a mill yet but is still on the hook for all of its costs.
 
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You still needed a timber mark to salvage merchantable timber. Might be wise to take those pics off the web.

Also the Dept Fisheries and Oceans might not be impressed with the introduction of substances (sawdust) deleterious to fish into the ocean.

Yeah what is with that! How do you obtain the ability to do this legally I have been considering doing this too man?
 

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