Secret Source of Quality Trim Material

[madhatte]

Noticed last week in the unit I'm laying out that there are many suppressed trees. Drilled a few. Found nice, tight, old-growth looking grain (like as in 50-75 grains per inch). Some of these are clear 16"-24" diameter up past the second log without a knot in sight. Live crowns are averaging about 10% including epicormics. These guys are gonna die soon if we don't thin 'em, and I think they'd make SUPERB peelers. Evidently we don't have a mechanism for selling unusually-high-quality timber and it'd just go by the bf, and as small as they are, I doubt the average logging outfit would know to treat this stuff differently before it hit the ground. Suggestions?

 

[Jacob J.]

You're on DOD ground so I imagine there's looser restrictions on soil compaction and riparian intrusion? I'm thinking you could broker a deal similar to what we did at the BLM a few years ago in a study area we had for owl nesting sites. It was similar timber type- doghair second growth PSEMEN and CALMAC with small percentile crown and clear stems for one long log.

We hired a local guy with a feller buncher and forwarder to bring the pieces out and deck them (this was fairly flat ground.) Then we did small sales contracts to three local mills who wanted to buy specific species and sizes. They took care of hauling and we took care of clean up on a fuels reduction contract with the feller-buncher contractor. Everyone involved made a little money and there was no large timber sale and no logging plan. This only encompassed about eleven acres total.

 

[madhatte]

You're on DOD ground so I imagine there's looser restrictions on soil compaction and riparian intrusion?

Meh. Hardly. We're FSC-Certified, so we have to exceed state and federal regs. What the strykers and humvees do is out of our jurisdiction.

I do like the idea of brokering directly to the mills. That would be a new process, and I don't imagine the Corps would be too happy about it, but I can just about see the dollar signs in their eyes when they seee that fine grain. Guess I better make some calls.