What time of year to cut?

[logger]

The years I have been logging I have been cutting mostly in the winter, only some in the summer.  Does the time of the year the log was cut affect the lumber in any way?  I was just wondering because it seems to me that the sap flows the same year round.  I need to know because people have been asking me and I couldn't give them a straight answer, because I don't have a sawmill.  It seems to me that maple sap flows year round because a stump I cut in the winter flows the same amount of sap as they do in summer, just faster. 8) :D ;D

[Ianab]

It makes little difference to the wood itself, but cutting in winter can be better because the log / boards don't stain as quickly. Its called sapstain, but it's usually caused by fungus feeding on the sugars in the wood. In the winter it's too cold for the fungus to grow, so you have much more time to process and dry the wood. But if you leave the log untill the weather warms up, it will stain just the same.

Another reason may be better access over frozen ground as opposed to mud in warmer weather.

So yes there is often good reasons to cut in winter, but it doesn't have anything to do with sap flowing or being 'up'. In the warmer weather some species need to be sawn and dried quickly to avoid problems.

Cheers

Ian

[Bob Smalser]

There's an amazing number of old wives' tales still out there.

Logs cut in winter weigh exactly the same as  logs cut in summer. 

All girdling a tree achieves is drying out the sapwood faster and inviting beetles to destroy it.

Sap stain isn't much of an issue here, but beetles are.  All cutting in winter means is you can store the logs without ponding until the temps hit 55 degrees in April.  Then without ponding, you have a very short time to either debark or mill them before the sapwood is destroyed by ambrosia beetles.

[Woodhog]

I think you are mentioning only Maple ..

Here they wont buy white pine between about May to October, if you saw out the boards
it has that blue stain all through it...

[logger]

I was talking about all pennsylvania hardwood, I was just using maple as an example.  I knew about the sapstain. Thanks! ;D

[Gary_C]

Another thing to consider is the bark is not adhered very well in the spring and early summer. That can be good if you want the bark to peel off easily and bad if you are making decorative items with the bark still on.

Also you can do a lot of damage to the leave trees in the woods when the bark is loose. The DNR here will not let you work in the woods from spring break up till about the middle of July because of wet soils and loose bark.

[nyforester]

Another benefit - Summer/fall skidding will scarify the soil resulting in better regeneration of new tree seedlings.