Falling pics 11/25/09

Arborist Forum

Help Support Arborist Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.
You guys may be right about pine prices. I am on the east coast of Florida at the moment. Several 40 acre tracts of good size pine being converted to commercial development. Trees all uprooted and stacked like cordwood. No mechanical cutters and not even a chainsaw in sight just multiple tub grinders. Ron
 
You guys may be right about pine prices. I am on the east coast of Florida at the moment. Several 40 acre tracts of good size pine being converted to commercial development. Trees all uprooted and stacked like cordwood. No mechanical cutters and not even a chainsaw in sight just multiple tub grinders. Ron

I always hate to see forest land developed for commercial use. We can always plant more trees after logging but once you cover up ground with asphalt or cement it's gone forever.

And no, I'm not turning into a tree hugger in my old age. I'm just no fan of malls, shopping centers, and endless acres of tract housing that remind me of the houses in Monopoly.
 
Local told me one of the tracts is for a 1200 home development; sure hope I underestimated the size. About half of one was covered with water - not sure how they classify wetlands around here where heavy rains stand for days before being absorbed, but I am sure this one will result in permanent ponds and landscaped areas probably to be inhabited by gators where there were none. Sad to see piles of trees that were planted 50 or more years ago tossed into a tub grinder.

Not a tree hugger either and not opposed to development but I hate to see productive soil used especially when there are miles and miles of much less productive scrub land nearby. Location location can be a short sighted use of real estate.

Ron
 
It could be worse I guess the land could get locked up by the states or feds, a local government here is buying up tons of productive timber lands to lock us all out.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
Sounds pretty sad that a local government would have enough reserves and power to buy as you described.

Reminds me of the cross Florida canal fiasco. Before I was born some politicians thought it a good idea to build a deep channel sea canal across central Florida to connect the Gulf of Mexico with the Atlantic Ocean. Took thousands of acres from private hands, including my family. Some sold their property cheap on the prospect that their remaining lands would be real valuable. My family fought it in court and lost. Received $3 per acre. Didn’t take long to figure a deep canal would be a disaster so plans were changed to barge canal. Latter determined that a barge channel would be an environmental disaster. President Nixon called a halt and property was transferred to the State as opposed to being offered back to the original owners. We leased some of our property back at $4 per acre per year for cattle pasture. In the meantime time, the pine forest were turpentined and were cut twice. The State collected over $2mm on the second cut in the 70s much of which from what was our property. Just one step of many that took our family from living off the land. Makes me sad to think about it. Used to be really depressing to me. Bothers me to see government unnecessarily interfering with a way of life.

Ron
 
Sounds pretty sad that a local government would have enough reserves and power to buy as you described.

Reminds me of the cross Florida canal fiasco. Before I was born some politicians thought it a good idea to build a deep channel sea canal across central Florida to connect the Gulf of Mexico with the Atlantic Ocean. Took thousands of acres from private hands, including my family. Some sold their property cheap on the prospect that their remaining lands would be real valuable. My family fought it in court and lost. Received $3 per acre. Didn’t take long to figure a deep canal would be a disaster so plans were changed to barge canal. Latter determined that a barge channel would be an environmental disaster. President Nixon called a halt and property was transferred to the State as opposed to being offered back to the original owners. We leased some of our property back at $4 per acre per year for cattle pasture. In the meantime time, the pine forest were turpentined and were cut twice. The State collected over $2mm on the second cut in the 70s much of which from what was our property. Just one step of many that took our family from living off the land. Makes me sad to think about it. Used to be really depressing to me. Bothers me to see government unnecessarily interfering with a way of life.

Ron
This is one of the stands Ron, we had to take it down to a 100 trees an acre excluding 6 snags to an acre as well as “wildlife” I mean wildfire piles. This piece was productive ground that had a bidder till the government paid 5x the value of the property. I will say that was the first job I’ve ever done where we got paid more the the price of logs to the mill. Forgot to mention this is now a bird park for city people to walk around in.
330175dd609e96893f630197eea519d1.jpg
a1ddba4ab34c01421aafbf9c1dd7f9ef.jpg




Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
Pictures not showing up on my end. Sounds like folks got compensated. Still troubling that more likely than not cities were established on the basic of abundant local resources which is understandable at the time but continue to expand in many areas through burying/destroying resources unnecessarily when going down the road a little would have less impact.

Ron
 
Skeans having a kid? Reggie posting pics of actual fresh stumps? What the hell is going on around here?

Just did a clear cut for a farmer so he wouldn't lose control of his land to the local govt. It'll be ag next and then he'll sell and retire.
 
Skeans having a kid? Reggie posting pics of actual fresh stumps? What the hell is going on around here?

Just did a clear cut for a farmer so he wouldn't lose control of his land to the local govt. It'll be ag next and then he'll sell and retire.

Yep got a little one spent the last three weeks in and out of the hospital.
e38efd5fd7cba8887aecf1b50b17ef54.heic



Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
f7d249c53f4d943da572acd18877aff2.heic
Nice to be home for a week to do a small clear cut of a corner of dying 60 year fir, here’s one of the smaller ones out of the patch I’ll hand cut maybe 20. At 60 they’re pushing 150 to 180 ft tall sure don’t want to handle these all the way to ground with the head or boom.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
I’ll always remember bucking bales for
a one armed farmer a couple summers
back in Jr. Hi after lunch his saying...
Okay Boys!!
Off your a$$ &
Onto your feet
Out of the shade &
Into the heat!
 
DB62AE7D-D40B-49F2-AFD6-F443D9F21244.jpeg 05349EBB-6BE8-4769-92BD-124988E7FC7E.jpeg https://youtu.be/t0IoZcD9kCo

Time to beat me up boys! Here’s what I know I could improve on in this video:

Dead snag, leaning towards intended lay. Problem is, it’s being used as firewood and I’d get skinned if I brushed out where I’m dropping it. I did brush a few trees pretty hard on the way down. Also it’s pretty thick in around the stump. I had enough room to get back a little but not far enough and my best escape path is a bit less than 90* to the intended lay as well, and it’s on the downhill side. Also my saw was really fat and the chain was wayyy less than stellar. I had brought in a roadside spruce the night before and didn’t notice how dull it was. Not sure why it was so pig fat.

Anyway, I left a big fat hinge on this one because it was a dry snag, steep & deep face. No pounding on it and the intended lay across the old sight line was the way it wanted to go anyway.

Please guys, if you have anything to add I’m all ears. I’m still only falling a day or two a month so I’m still heavily wet behind the ears here.

And to prove my saw doesn’t always suck this bad...



And the stump shot up top of course. All in an hours work. I love long weekend camping trips!
 
Back
Top