Thinning: It Aint easy (with pictures)

[slowp]

I headed up to a sale with a unit along the major tourist road. The road is closed but soon to open. The logger was trying to get the trees along the road down while the road was closed. This is a father son operation. The father has logged all his life, and is one heck of a cutter but is also banged up from accidents. He also knows his yarding--he's now down to an "antique" yarder which I'll get pictures of if he gets it going. He's shovel logging this thinning unit some.

The son has learned cutting from his dad and it has been his main job.
Here's dad shovel logging.

Too many trees but here's a bunch of logs going in to the landing.

I wandered up to see how the cutting was going. I started taking pictures.
My camera is very slow and I have to brighten up the pictures on the computer as it is dark in the Western Warshington woods.

He was trying to drive a small tree over with a larger one. Here he is wedging.

The tree he was wedging went over, but I heard a shout of WATCH OUT, SHE'S COMING BACK AT US. I shifted over to another spot--branches were flying. Next......

 

[slowp]

Part 2

The smaller tree had gone towards us but hung up. There weren't any marked trees handy to drive it with and walking the shovel up was not an option. I marked a tree so he could use it. The tree's natural lean was uphill to the road. He was going to have to make it go in the opposite direction. While we were looking, his dad came sauntering up the road with a cup of coffee in hand to see what was going on.

He went up to his son's gear and got more wedges.

The son went to work.

The dad spelled his son, and started pounding. They would use 4 PLASTIC wedges.

The tree was stubborn. Next.....

 

[slowp]

Part 3

The tree was stubborn. They pounded. Here's a picture of the two trees. The hangup is on the left side.

Then the son cut a bit more and there was a little disagreement over the method. The son had cut off a corner of the hinge to try to get the tree to turn. The dad motioned me to go to the other side and started asking why he cut off the hinge, now bad things would happen, (not exact phrasing).
The dad kept pounding and talking...

The tree finally went over, and in the direction it was supposed to--knocked down the hangup and I screwed up the toppling picture. Just a few to show a bit of the work it takes in a first entry thinning. Later--helicopter thinning (I hope).

 

[mile9socounty]

Nice pictures Slowp. I wish we dealt with thinning like that down here. Most of are stuff gets bucked up to 4ft sections, stacked and burned. Great pics though!

 

[forestryworks]

nice pictures, thanks for sharing

have fun and take some more!

 

[Zackman1801]

lol looks like just another day in maine! that looks alot like what goes on around here all the time.

 

[reachtreeservi]

Great pics, Thnks for posting them!

 

[Bushler]

Question, does thining an established stand like that really enhance growth? I tried it on my timber and decided it wasn't worth the effort, (better to clear cut and replant.)

I understand that politics can dictate policy, but from a forester's point of view, doesn't late thinning actually set the stand back, (from resultant scars and increased blow down)?

I'm clear cutting a unit about that age that I thinned 15 years ago, I checked the growth rings on the trees I'm cutting now and could see no accelerated growth pattern from the previous release.

I didn't fertilize. Maybe that would have helped? Just seems like that once trees reach the 30-50 year old age they don't respond like younger reprod to thinning.

 

[slowp]

Im not sure how thinning will work in this stand, it is a higher elevation and has lots of hemlock. It doesn't seem to slow down growth. I've looked at stuff we thinned 20 years ago and it has really put on the growth. One thing on this sale, the wind hit it hard and blew down quite a bit. It blew down trees in this part PRIOR to thinning too. That would have to do with it being mostly hemlock, which has shallower roots. What I would do, if I were in charge of the world, is clearcut this area and get some huckleberries going for a while. This unit is high enough that it is huckleberry friendly. Oh well, I'm not even in charge of a county.

 

[Bushler]

I'm in charge, but only of a half section of logged over third growth. Hemlock, spruce, white fir, doug fir, p.o. cedar, red alder and tan oak, and all of it rough.

On the stuff you said was thinned twenty years ago did you bore sample? I'm curious maybe the wind factor here on the coast negatively impacted my thinning, by allowing more salt laden NW wind into the stand. I was pretty dissapointed in my thinnng.

As for the huckelberry, shouldn't you plant a mixed stand, by throwing in some rhododendrm and maybe some coyote brush?

 

[slowp]

We are inland and not hit so much by winds as on the coast. No, I didn't bore sample but the crowns have closed in, it is tall and nice diameter. Probably Site II for Doug-fir as it is in a valley bottom. It makes one salivate, but won't get cut until policies change. It is in riparian and or lsr and or winter range etc.

 

[Humptulips]

On the thinning from what I have seen, keeping damage to a minimum is critical. I clearcut a patch near Hood Canal that had been thinned 18 years before. Nice second growth fir, run about two foot on the stump. From the growth rings I would say it did speed up the growth considerably but trees that had been scarred at ground level were rotten all the way to 16" to 20' height.
We cleaned up some blowdown on a patch of hemlock that had been thinned only 4 or 5 years previously and it was as bad or worse. Even a small damage spot the size of your hand will cause rot to run way up the tree. You might lose the best log of the tree to pulp by the time you get ready to harvest again.
The other thing is you cannot thin hemlock on the coast. Just asking for blowdown. I wouldn't thin hemlock even inland. They just depend on the stand for support against the wind. Open it up and asking for trouble. Seen it too many times.

 

[1I'dJak]

Is there any standing stem harvesting going on down stateside?

 

[Bushler]

1Td'jak, not much around here. I'm cutting my own timber, and the market is way off. I'm just trading stumpage for a job...but it's paying the bills and I'm glad for that.

Hump, noticed that about the hemlock. Scar the butt and the rot runs clear to the bud. I finished up the part that was previously thinned and am working on a patch of trees adjacent. The timber seems a lot more sound and judging from the growth rings has grown as much as the thinned part.