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Logging is Misunderstood by Foresters

Started by ppine, October 07, 2018, 11:40:48 AM

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ppine

I never thought I would ever consider this concept.  I spend a lot of time talking with foresters, and the modern ones are all caught up in global warming, sustainability, collaboration and other crap.  Some of them seem to think forests are best managed by controlling fire.  It is very disturbing and needs to change.  I encourage anyone in the logging business, to stand up and make your opinions known.  Attend hearings, send letters, and emails. 

Logging is obviously, to anyone worth their maple syrup, the only way out of the mess we are in.  One hundred years of fire suppression and reduced logging since the early 90s, has left with tremendous overstocking, especially on public lands.  Get the word out.  It is time to start thinning, harvesting, and removing timber like we mean it.  The technology is well understood.  Clear cutting, selection cuts, seed tree and shelterwood methods can all be used depending on the application. 

The wood products infrastructure has shrunk in many areas where it is hard to find a mill.  Haul distance makes some site uneconomical.  Start with the ones where you can make some money.  Taking the large trees is how you pay for taking the smaller trees.  Down the Road. 
Forester

bushmechanic

I think you are correct there ppine, but unfortunately we are subject to public opinion. I'm not allowed to roll a tire through a stream but when I watch tv I see gold miners tearing up streams and creeks, diverting water and that's all ok. It's strange how we are harvesting a renewable resource and oil seems way more important! Now they want to ban plastic bag use, I wonder why they went away from paper in the first place! I'd better stop now, next thing I may offend someone :o     

Texas Ranger

I disagree, politely, logging is one tool in our tool box, as is fire, chemicals, etc.  Poor forestry at the federal level is a good source to find the problem.
The Ranger, home of Texas Forestry

Skeans1

I agree having worked for foresters that do create fire hazards with down wood piles and snags for the PC crowd.

Runningalucas

I agree a lot with the OP, imho, the problem arises at the educational level, and how lobbying from corporate conglomerates have some of their strongest effects at the education, or developmental level. 

Life is short, tragedy is instant, it's what we do with our time in between that matters.  Always strive to do better, to be better.

thecfarm

@bushmechanic,how right you are with the plastic bags. One city in Maine will charge you 5 cents for every plastic bag. ::)  Just go back to paper. Oh I forgot,cutting trees is bad. ::)  I wonder how many paper bags have ever killed a critter that lives in water.
As I keep saying I would like these people to live one year without using a wood product.
Model 6020-20hp Manual Thomas bandsaw,TC40A 4wd 40 hp New Holland tractor, 450 Norse Winch, Heatmor 400 OWB,YCC 1978-79

BargeMonkey

Oh boy 🤣🤣🤣  This is like the classic "Chevy / Ford" or "Husky / Stihl" war. I've found that 3/4 of foresters I work with here are very good, I've seen alot of guys who would rather argue and cry than explain "Why" they dont feel something is right on a job. Anymore jobs here marked by state or private foresters are BIG and what wasnt acceptable yrs ago for smash / barking up is normal, the little guy is being pushed out here. My gripe with foresters has more to do with which ones can be bought or how collusion is rampant, my competion is literally sleeping with the forester who is marking jobs for him, I'm going to pull the rug out on both of them one day. 🤣 

mike_belben

Going to war with your forestry adversaries will only make them dig in further.  Win them over with proof.  

Find a terrible site, find landmarks to take pictures from (numbered stumps would work great) and fix the site with a chainsaw.  Go back every year and take the same pictures.  Post the results wherever you can, bring people to the site for tours etc etc.   

Ive been bringing my 5 acres back from a highgrading wreck for 2 years now and the results are incredible.  More growth, more ground cover, better moisture retention, more wildlife by far. Cut cut cut.  When in doubt, cut it out. Anything iffy comes down.  Heavier i cut a patch, the faster and straighter it comes racing back. 
Praise The Lord

asw1974

Don't put all fosters in the same boat. I am a forester who makes his living cutting timber. My mentor told me once there are two types of forestry schools, the ones in the south where they teach production forestry and the ones in the west where they teach how to take care of national land. I agree with you there are foresters in your area that don't know how to manage a forest properly. Think of all the resources wasted by just letting it burn up. For the life of me I can't understand why they don't harvest trees out there.

mike_belben

Id tell ya, but that would venture into politics which is forbidden here. 
Praise The Lord

Ljohnsaw

Quote from: thecfarm on October 07, 2018, 07:23:36 PMOne city in Maine will charge you 5 cents for every plastic bag.

Which one?  I'll go there and buy them all!  They sell for 10 cents here.  I could double my investment overnight! :D
John Sawicky

Just North-East of Sacramento...

SkyTrak 9038, Ford 545D FEL, Davis Little Monster backhoe, Case 16+4 Trencher, Home Built 42" capacity/36" cut Bandmill up to 54' long - using it all to build a timber frame cabin.

Skeans1

Quote from: BargeMonkey on October 07, 2018, 08:05:13 PM
Oh boy 🤣🤣🤣  This is like the classic "Chevy / Ford" or "Husky / Stihl" war. I've found that 3/4 of foresters I work with here are very good, I've seen alot of guys who would rather argue and cry than explain "Why" they dont feel something is right on a job. Anymore jobs here marked by state or private foresters are BIG and what wasnt acceptable yrs ago for smash / barking up is normal, the little guy is being pushed out here. My gripe with foresters has more to do with which ones can be bought or how collusion is rampant, my competion is literally sleeping with the forester who is marking jobs for him, I'm going to pull the rug out on both of them one day. 🤣
Have you had this one yet on say a thin they want you to across a hillside sideways vs up and down? Or another favorite of mine when cutting they marked all this out with 90 degree corners on tree length wood.

barbender

Yes and yes😂 "That won't work" "yes it will" "ok🙄🙄". They start to figure it out when you scrape every tree with the stakes on the forwarder on the low side of the trail. That 9' wide machine is about 11' wide when you tilt it, you see🙄 I make every effort to work with the foresters, and honestly, I haven't realy ever butted heads with any of them. Once they realize I am trying to do my job the way the want it, they also recieve my advice and complaints more willingly. 
Too many irons in the fire

ppine

Natural resource management in the US is now dominated by politics over science.  It is a sad state of affairs. 
I fear that our knowledge base for how to harvest forests is being lost. 
Forest engineering used to be a common major in universities.  Now it hardly exists at all. 
Forester

timberking

I so glad the forester I work with everyday (me) is level headed.  

BradMarks

How about getting charged for PAPER bags :o. Yep, the city across the river from me. Majority of those city council and county commissioners OPPOSE logging on Federal land.  And this is in a county that receives timber receipts from fed timber sales. And is also a county that is broke and constantly dreaming up new tax revenue schemes. As far as forestry schools out west, a person does have a choice in which path they follow. There still are schools with "real" forestry (harvest and grow) programs and certainly ones with "policy" forestry available. Often times the same school, different course regimen.

Maine logger88

Quote from: ljohnsaw on October 07, 2018, 11:04:51 PM
Quote from: thecfarm on October 07, 2018, 07:23:36 PMOne city in Maine will charge you 5 cents for every plastic bag.

Which one?  I'll go there and buy them all!  They sell for 10 cents here.  I could double my investment overnight! :D
There is another city in Maine that fines stores for using plastic bags lol
79 TJ 225 81 JD 540B Husky and Jonsered saws

Riwaka

Probably only part of the above topic.
Juan covers some aspects of the californian wild-fires in this - started half way through as the 2nd half has some appropriate observations.

California Wildfires 2018 - California's Unsustainable Legacy - YouTube

Autocar

Well I might as well add my two cents ! I am not a big on foresters I have always felt that a forester should go in the logging business a few years before coming a forester. Then maybe they would mark some good timber besides all the low dollar trees. A fellow can not pay bills cutting pallet logs only. And I am not putting all of them in a pile I know there are some good foresters out there. Just saying if they cut timber they would figure out in a hurry what logging all about and what it takes to survive .
Bill

mike_belben

Quote from: ppine on October 08, 2018, 01:56:57 PM
Natural resource management in the US is now dominated by politics over science.  
You are getting warmer. 
Praise The Lord

Ljohnsaw

Quote from: BradMarks on October 08, 2018, 06:11:03 PMHow about getting charged for PAPER bags
Well, we get charged 10 cents whether plastic or paper.  They want everyone to reuse bags.
John Sawicky

Just North-East of Sacramento...

SkyTrak 9038, Ford 545D FEL, Davis Little Monster backhoe, Case 16+4 Trencher, Home Built 42" capacity/36" cut Bandmill up to 54' long - using it all to build a timber frame cabin.

John Mc

My take: Yes, there are some foresters who don't understand logging. There are also some loggers who don't understand forestry. As a landowner, there are some in either profession that I sure don't want on my property. Some because they are just plain incompetent or dishonest (thankfully, they seem to be a small minority of both professions), others because what they happen to be good at is not what I am interested in for my land (nothing against them or their skill-set, they are just not what I need/want).
If the only tool you have is a hammer, you tend to see every problem as a nail.   - Abraham Maslow

Texas Ranger

Just an observation:  I have testified in court against loggers, so far, not against a forester. We have been on opposite sides of the question, but never against.  What has this got to do with logging?  A forester is a third party in a business where you may make one or two sales in your lifetime.  Most small land owners have not a clue on timber values, so when it comes to logging, they take the money offer, and not the future return.  Foresters understand logging, many loggers don't  understand the benefit of stand planning.   Foresters depend on loggers, most are honest, and there are dishonest foresters, landowners can increase their income by using a forester, that income comes from the logger, so the two should work hand in hand.  It gets real sticky when a dishonest forester and a dishonest logger team up, and the landowner pays the price.

My last post on this, it is to no ones benefit to argue the values of one or the other.
The Ranger, home of Texas Forestry

Skeans1

There's both sides of each that's for sure

barbender

I've certainly ran into foresters that don't understand or care about the logger's ability to do the job profitably. They're a small minority. I've also seen more than a couple of loggers who expect they should be able to high grade and rut up jobs, "because they have to make money". If I am a property owner or the forester representing them, why should I expected to let you destroy the property so you can make a buck? I guess I'm saying, I see both sides of this, but I don't like foresters getting painted with a broad brush. I've heard a few horror stories about Federal foresters, that seems to be where more of the granola munchers end up in our area. However, I have found the Fed foresters I've worked with to be good as well. Most agencies here, especially the state and county, are in it to cut wood so someone that wants to gum up the works tends to end up out of work.
Too many irons in the fire

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