Thanks!

[slowp]

Thanks for the alder advice. We had a wind go through yesterday and last night so Twinkle and I were put to work opening roads up. I think one road originally had somebody go through in a Mini-Cooper with saw because they cut the road open just enough for that and my F250 couldn't fit. Well, I came upon an Alder at lunch time. Dread. I worked on my sandwich and coffee and contemplated it. Got out and looked at it, looked at where the top was.
The top was on some pretty flat ground with trees for me to hide behind, and unlike the scary one of last week, this one was totally blown over. So, I heeded the advice and after cutting out room to work in, started in on it from the top in, even though I had to cut twice as much to do this. I hacked it into chunks, and it went very smoothly. Thanks. Here's a picture, it was bigger than last week's but in a better lie. Then I took some pictures of some big trees we missed cutting in the last century and being a former timber cruiser, noticed the butt swell and looked up and found conks. These are smaller than we used to send down the road, only about 4' diameter.

http://www.arboristsite.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=62919&stc=1&d=1200449877

Needless to say, I haven't been working out much with Twinkle so it was hard to get out of the hot tub tonight! Anyway, thanks guys for all the alder assistance. Gotta do more tomorrow. Here's the semi-punkin pictures.

 

[2dogs]

Help me out here. Do the conks mean the tree was bad when the area was logged over in the past or did the butt swell mean the tree wasn't worth the effort?


Most of the redwoods that were left here were either too big and the loggers knew the tree would bust up when it hit the ground or the butt was burned out and hollow so the tree was just too dangerous to fall. There are a few fuzzy tops ( mountain tops with trees left on the very top) that the loggers claimed were left for seed but in reality it was just too difficult to log.

 

[slowp]

Nope. That area just wasn't logged. I wouldn't consider that an "ancient" stand either. The trees are older, and decay has set in. Prior to the Northwest Forest Plan, that area would have been clearcut. The conky trees would have been felled, but depending on the contract, either yarded in or left on the ground if total cull. Some were sent to a pulp mill if the pulp market was good, most were burned either in a pile or when the unit was broadcast burned. Butt swell is an indicator that you might take a really close look (even put on glasses if me) for conks. Sometimes none are apparent, other times the tree is full of conks.

 

[2dogs]

Thanks! But I'm none too bright so type slowly here. What is the relation between conks and butt swell? When did the NFR go into effect?

 

[slowp]

An old cruiser, who taught me, said whenever you see a bit of a swell in the butt of old growth, it CAN be an indicator of rot. So, you should look the tree over very carefully for other indicators...conks are a sure sign. Then you deduct volume from the affected logs in the tree. It has been a while but I'm thinking it was 8 feet above and below the conk in a 32 foot log and if there were multiple conks, the tree was culled...zilch volume..a 99 on the cruise card which migrated into the cruising lingo, "He is a 99." An insult.

 

[2dogs]

Got it now. Thank you for the explanation. Bill

 

[treejunkie13]

I was taught also, that the side of the tree Conks grow on, has bad, no, or decayed root structure.