Salvaging downed trees. is news report true?

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4pwr

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Saw a blurb on the news that stated loggers in the path of hurricane Katrina are scrambling to salvage the downed trees. The news report said if the trees are not harvested in 3 weeks they can only be used for pulp and not lumber. Is this true.
 
Timber can go bad pretty quick in hot weather unless the tree stays intact ie it tips over, rootball and all.
I bet most of the wood down there will get hauled to a landfill or co-generation plant. Log trucks from this area have already went down there to haul debris.
 
Pine blues fast in the heat, during the ice storm in 2000 the us forest service did all the red tape the government usually does and most of it was left to rot, and were talking hundreds of loads.
 
bwalker said:
Timber can go bad pretty quick in hot weather unless the tree stays intact ie it tips over, rootball and all.
I bet most of the wood down there will get hauled to a landfill or co-generation plant. Log trucks from this area have already went down there to haul debris.

I am up here in SE WA. Talk around is that people are showing up at ag dealers buying trucks as FEMA is paying 1800/day for flatbed single/dual axle truck plus driver. Doesn't take long to pay off a truck at those rates. Rumor is that all you have to do is show up down there and you are on the clock.

Harry K
 
Some friends of mine helped in the ice storm clean up in NC three years ago and the state still has not payed my friends! Point to ponder.
 
There is a Massive salvage effort underway in Mississippi to get the downed or broken timber to market. As time goes by the use of the Pine timber degrades in value from Veneer and lumber (harvest in 4 - 6 weeks before blue stain sets in) to Framing lumber (harvest in 3-4 months) to pulpwood (harvest in 12 months and mix with sound wood).

These times are taken from the Mississippi Forestry Commission web-site.

There is estimated to be about 1.25 Billion in Timber damage in Mississippi alone. This number is for timberland and does not include urban trees.

The Mills have raised the standard for small end size of logs from 8" to 10", reduced the price paid, and restricted the number of loads taken in because there is not capacity to process the volume.

Georgia Pacific is opening several sites to wet logs to preserve them longer and is also in the process of opening two previously closed plants to increase production and make use of more of the damaged timber.

My timberland is 110 miles from the coast and still sustained major timber damage. The winds were still 100 MPH + this far inland. It is bad here, but much worse from Hattiesburg south to the coast.

In this area, the winds primarily damaged the good large pines and hardwoods. The younger pine plantations that had not yet been thinned survived better as a general observation, but were totally destroyed in spots.

There are only enough loggers and outlets for the logs to salvage a portion of the downed timber.
 
The American Loggers Council and Louisana Forestry Association has a toll free number to get help from loggers everywhere for the timber recovery, for anyone interested its 1-866-706-8869, this is a three state recovery mostly in Mississippi, but Louisiana and Alabama too.
 

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