Depressing discovery (at least for me) - wood related

[Engineer]

I probably should not have done this on a Monday morning... :(

There is a company beginning to clearcut about 8-10 acres of land behind our local Wal-mart, in order to build a brand new Wal-mart of twice the size.  This land has been untouched for at least 50 years and is flat floodplain adjacent to a river.  I noticed over the weekend that there is already a large pile of wood chips, a big grinder and several pieces of equipment already in use.  There's a lot of trees down and ready to be fed into the grinder (whole).

So I stopped at dawn this morning, as the crew was warming up their equipment, and spoke to the foreman (a really nice guy, anyway).  The minute I got out of my truck he said "I know what you're gonna ask, and I can't do it".  I said "what was I gonna ask?" and he said "firewood".  Actually, I said, I'm looking for sawlogs, not firewood, and I noticed that there's some cherry and locust in there.  He said, you're about the sixth guy to stop and ask about the wood.  He told me that it's about 90% locust (although you can't see most of it, there's a lot of cottonwood on the fringes) and he has already pulled out a bunch of 30"+ diameter cherry trees AND RUN THEM THROUGH THE CHIPPER.   

Apparently the market for pulp is so big that there was no financial benefit to separating out any of the sawlogs, even a few here and there, or keeping the locust for lumber or fence posts.  He said it's all being trucked from here (southwestern Vermont) to Boston (!) for use as biomass, it's part of his contract, and there's nothing he could do, he has to refuse everyone that asks.

Heck, I would have paid for a truckload of that stuff - never mind getting it for free.  Load a log truck up with 30" cherry butt logs and a bunch of locust and I'll stop eating for a month just to afford it.  :D

[fishpharmer]

Man that is depressing.  Maybe go back and talk to the foreman about buying logs from their next job. 

[r.man]

With a big company like that I expect everything is decided ahead of time and unchangeable by the crews or their bosses. You can't even make a fuss about them being environmentally unfriendly if they are shipping the bio mass to be used.

[beenthere]

Disappointing to say the least, but very understandable that the foreman cannot make a decision to let logs go. All the decisions and contracts were made long before this job was turned over to the foreman to get the work done - on time, on schedule.
Can only imagine the chaos that letting log pickers in to pull even firewood out... let alone liability if someone was injured while operating equipment.
Very sad, but likely someone higher up made the decision to let the contract out for the wood that was on that acreage.. might even have been let out on bid for the wood. Way to much "water over the dam" to intercept now.

[easymoney]

around here on road widening projects the trees are usually piled up and burned. i have wondered if they would object if someone was to pull out some saw logs or firewood on weekends or after they leave for the day. i guess they would say no if you was to ask because of liability issues.

[Ljohnsaw]

I probably should not have done this on a Monday morning... :(

There is a company beginning to clearcut about 8-10 acres of land behind our local Wal-mart, in order to build a brand new Wal-mart of twice the size.  This land has been untouched for at least 50 years and is flat floodplain adjacent to a river.  I noticed over the weekend that there is already a large pile of wood chips, a big grinder and several pieces of equipment already in use.  There's a lot of trees down and ready to be fed into the grinder (whole).

Sorry, but typical of WallyWorld.  Anything for a profit.  I used to shop there several times a week before work (no lines) but got tired of the shrinking product sizes and their big signs saying Low Price.  They set the standard now for other companies to downsize.  Now I avoid them in favor of Winco (employee owned).  Ok, I'll step down from the soapbox...

[Engineer]

Sorry, but typical of WallyWorld.

I could have used any company name - the land is owned by a dirtbag real-estate developer from Ohio (first-hand experience speaking here) and he will be constructing the building and leasing it to Wal-Mart.   In this case, I probably could have gotten logs if I had thought to contact the GC a few weeks ago.  It really is a shame because a triaxle full of even low-grade cherry and locust is worth ten times what a chip van filled with little pieces of cherry and locust is worth.  Problem is that I did not take a close look at the trees, I only looked from a distance and saw all the cottonwood and poplar on the fringes.  Didn't think it was worth anything, and so I lose.   :-\

[TeaW]

I salvaged some spruce logs from Ontario Hydro last week, thanks to the landowner. Hydro came in about a week before with a timberjack with a man lift on it and cut the tops off just under the lines. They came back with a big JD feller cut the trees down, then they moved in with three floats. One with a big JD tracked hoe and two bulldozers to bury it all. This was all for about 12 trees. The landowner got the fellow with the harvester to set the main stems aside and I got there just before they burried them, I guess speed means more to them than money.

[Jhenderson]

What in the world do you think Wal Mart has to do with the land clearing operation? Man, some people will say anything to reinforce their politics.

[Cedarman]

Every piece of land next to commercial property is probably commercial property also and at some time in the future will be cleared.  Be proactive.  Find out who owns these properties and see if the timber can be purchased well before the land is cleared.  If you wait until clearing starts, time is up.  Be licensed, be professional.  The worst you will hear is no.  Guys are used to that anyway.  But you might get lucky by being first.