Murphy goes milling, and visits a "real" logging site

[RPM]

Slash reduction inthe interior of BC is usually regulated / mandated by gov't for fuel reduction / wildfire abatement and forest health reasons. Silvilculture and reforestation also play into how much slash is reduced. All of our conventional ground based systems (skidder) are site prepped after harvest - mostly machine piled and then burned in the fall. Higher elevation zones may have different site prep prescriptions due to cold and / or wet soils - mounding.

The cable and heli blocks usually have more slash as it is not physcially possible to machine site prep these areas.

As for utilization .... we suck at that. Round here only the best goes on the truck and I have burnt some massive slash / debris piles. I'll post some pics later.

As for your delimber .... we call them strokers or jammers around here. Not many used as most contractors use the Waratah processor heads on track mounted hydraulic log loaders of excavators (shovels?).

Stokers are best suited for road side harvesting (no landings) where the skidder brings the drags to within 2 tree lengths of the road and the stoker processes the logs to the road side. That way all of your slash is set back from the road edge and all of your logs are processed and decked at the roadside. Roadside works best where all the timber is the same (Lodgepole) or where all of the timber is bing processed to one sort (sawlog/pulp, etc.) We can have up to 7 species and and 2-4 sorts per species so we rely on landings more and the Waratah processors. We sort and process everything in the bush and then straight to the mill (bush run).

Some contractors are running special feller / processor heads so that can fall a bunch of wood and then limb and process to length at the stump. The the wood is forwarded to road side. Your slash is then left in the block and again gets piled and burned later.

 

[Burvol]

Old Pierce Limber with a dco head. Good for small stems (many at once, can shut butt plate) but not as fast as proccesor in medium to big wood. No offense to anyone, but I always enjoy a non-logger's view of stuff when they walk through a site. From equipment to raping the mother, it's interesting.

 

[Burvol]

Slash reduction inthe interior of BC is usually regulated / mandated by gov't for fuel reduction / wildfire abatement and forest health reasons. Silvilculture and reforestation also play into how much slash is reduced. All of our conventional ground based systems (skidder) are site prepped after harvest - mostly machine piled and then burned in the fall. Higher elevation zones may have different site prep prescriptions due to cold and / or wet soils - mounding.

The cable and heli blocks usually have more slash as it is not physcially possible to machine site prep these areas.

As for utilization .... we suck at that. Round here only the best goes on the truck and I have burnt some massive slash / debris piles. I'll post some pics later.

As for your delimber .... we call them strokers or jammers around here. Not many used as most contractors use the Waratah processor heads on track mounted hydraulic log loaders of excavators (shovels?).

Stokers are best suited for road side harvesting (no landings) where the skidder brings the drags to within 2 tree lengths of the road and the stoker processes the logs to the road side. That way all of your slash is set back from the road edge and all of your logs are processed and decked at the roadside. Roadside works best where all the timber is the same (Lodgepole) or where all of the timber is bing processed to one sort (sawlog/pulp, etc.) We can have up to 7 species and and 2-4 sorts per species so we rely on landings more and the Waratah processors. We sort and process everything in the bush and then straight to the mill (bush run).

Some contractors are running special feller / processor heads so that can fall a bunch of wood and then limb and process to length at the stump. The the wood is forwarded to road side. Your slash is then left in the block and again gets piled and burned later.

That's almost exact oppossite of here, we can use no landings with the Warratah due to NO LONG BOOM. The stroke machine has to sit front and center with a long boom. Much harder to find a hole here and there to fit a stroke machine into. The Warratah head can be used anywhere easy, landing or not. Strokers are not a roadside show here at all, but a front and center, need a big landing where the strokers go into any hole or crack ...

But the stroke machine will handle nasiter, rougher wood, especially them being in Pine country, and on the East side. Those nasty pine limbs are not pleasant going through the dangle heads, Warratah or Keto. Rough, gnarly wood is handled better by the stoker.

 

[mtngun]

As for your delimber .... we call them strokers or jammers around here. Not many used as most contractors use the Waratah processor heads on track mounted hydraulic log loaders of excavators (shovels?).

That delimber is the fanciest logging machine I've ever seen up here. All their other equipment was in good shape, as well. I didn't recognize the outfit, but I'm pretty sure they are not local, 'cuz the locals run ancient, low-tech equipment that leaks oil by the bucket.

I'll try to take some pics of some old logging sites next time I head to the woods. A few years back, the state clearcut a steep hillside that was mostly white fir. The loggers hauled off what little doug fir there was, but the white fir was simply burned. It seemed wasteful and pointless to clearcut the forest, only to burn the logs. Everyone who saw the operation was outraged, including myself. But, in hindsight, the state was probably trying to get rid of the white fir, which they consider a weed, and stimulate the growth of douglas.

 

[BIG JAKE]

That delimber is the fanciest logging machine I've ever seen up here. All their other equipment was in good shape, as well. I didn't recognize the outfit, but I'm pretty sure they are not local, 'cuz the locals run ancient, low-tech equipment that leaks oil by the bucket.

I'll try to take some pics of some old logging sites next time I head to the woods. A few years back, the state clearcut a steep hillside that was mostly white fir. The loggers hauled off what little doug fir there was, but the white fir was simply burned. It seemed wasteful and pointless to clearcut the forest, only to burn the logs. Everyone who saw the operation was outraged, including myself. But, in hindsight, the state was probably trying to get rid of the white fir, which they consider a weed, and stimulate the growth of douglas.

I'll bypass the white fir for firewood even. Not dense enough-seems like a waste of labor for the returns.

 

[RPM]

I know this is the milling site but now you got me talking about logging and I see Burvol here too. A couple of pics to put names to and what we do around these parts. In the end its all about putting logs on the truck and making lumber!

The slash / cull piles are lodgepole pine. Dead and checked and so the mill does not want it. The criteria was if you could stick a credit card into a check more than half way - say 2" it was junk and so into the pile. Bioenergy, stove pellets ... sure. But this location and others were typically 50 miles or so to a paved highway and then you need to get it to a central processing area. Big $$$$ and other countries get upset when we subsidize the industry so up in smoke it goes.

A couple of shots of dangle head (Waratah) processors and some bunchers (also putting lots of hand fallers out of work).

 

[mtngun]

RPM's pics.

Some of my local slash piles have been just as big as yours. Other times they didn't even bother to put it in a pile, just felled it and burnt it where it lay.

It seems wasteful, but it's just a controlled way of doing what mother nature has always done.

 

[Burvol]

I know this is the milling site but now you got me talking about logging and I see Burvol here too. A couple of pics to put names to and what we do around these parts. In the end its all about putting logs on the truck and making lumber!

The slash / cull piles are lodgepole pine. Dead and checked and so the mill does not want it. The criteria was if you could stick a credit card into a check more than half way - say 2" it was junk and so into the pile. Bioenergy, stove pellets ... sure. But this location and others were typically 50 miles or so to a paved highway and then you need to get it to a central processing area. Big $$$$ and other countries get upset when we subsidize the industry so up in smoke it goes.

A couple of shots of dangle head (Waratah) processors and some bunchers (also putting lots of hand fallers out of work).

We are on the same page, there are many ways to log depending on the ROAD situation mostly, or the ground. Lots of spurs through the unit with shovels chucking logs is common too. Depends on what people have to work with I guess, but the Warratah 628 Big Wood head mounted to a 322 Cat is sick. Process a log as big or bigger than you can bar a 32 into!