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New fangled Forest Service Fellers

Started by wdtik, May 31, 2012, 07:52:08 AM

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wdtik

http://missoulian.com/news/local/u-s-forest-service-workers-fell-day-s-worth-of/article_71f4354a-a550-11e1-b5c2-001a4bcf887a.html

Your tax dollars at work.....The powder house is down the road from me, came in on a $emi with an
excavator.....I wonder if the logs are any good for lumber making.. Comments???

Dave VH

who would of thought that it's safer to just blow everything up.

I've blown a couple of stumps with black powder, and I didn't feel very safe at all. (that might of been due to my lack of knowledge, experience, training, at the time common sense, but who can say)
I cut it twice and it's still too short

hardtailjohn

Wow... who'd have known it takes 10 hours to knock 37 trees down?! It's not easy to work at their "pace" I guess!!
Yep, our tax dollars at work....
John
I'm so far behind, I think I'm ahead!

reride82

I like the part about one sawyer would take 10 hours, but we used five guys and got it done in 2 hours. Isn't that the same amount of man hours? But that doesn't make headlines or let the forest circus use explosives. I wonder what the cost difference difference is between this method and just using chainsaws would be?
'Do it once, do it right'

'First we shape our buildings, then our buildings shape us'
Living life on the Continental Divide in Montana

hackberry jake

I'd be willing to bet the explosive costs more than beetle kill pine is worth.
https://www.facebook.com/TripleTreeWoodworks

EZ Boardwalk Jr. With 20hp Honda, 25' of track, and homemade setworks. 32x18 sawshed. 24x40 insulated shop. 30hp kubota with fel. 1978 Massey ferguson 230.

clww

"10 hours for 37 trees"?
"100 pounds of explosives for 37 beetle-killed trees"?
This may be a highly efficient method for removing dangerous trees, but I cannot help but think about our tax dollars spent on this.
Many Stihl Saws-16"-60"
"Go Ask The Other Master Chief"
18-Wheeler Driver

Jeff

I know if I had the choice of using a chainsaw or explosives to knock down some dead trees exactly what my choice would be. BOOM! 8)
Just call me the midget doctor.
Forestry Forum Founder and Chief Cook and Bottle Washer.

Commercial circle sawmill sawyer in a past life for 25yrs.
Ezekiel 22:30

Texas Ranger

I'm wit  you, I got to play with some of the banging stuff in the service, fun to make noise and blow stuff up.
The Ranger, home of Texas Forestry

wdtik

Quote from: hardtailjohn on May 31, 2012, 12:16:59 PM
Wow... who'd have known it takes 10 hours to knock 37 trees down?! It's not easy to work at their "pace" I guess!!
Yep, our tax dollars at work....
John

Yep someone must be crackin a pretty sharp whip, 3.7 trees/hr, and I thought slavery was abolished.
  Pretty wierd stuff comes outa Missoula anymore.   Can you just drive around with a few
hundred lbs of explosives in your pickup these days?  CBD

chevytaHOE5674

Sounds like a fun day in the woods to me...  8)


Magicman

That is what I was thinking.  Looks like more fun than work.   ;D
Knothole Sawmill, LLC     '98 Wood-Mizer LT40SuperHydraulic   WM Million BF Club Member   WM Pro Sawyer Network

It's Weird being the Same Age as Old People

Never allow your "need" to make money to exceed your "desire" to provide quality service.....The Magicman

wdtik

Quote from: Magicman on June 01, 2012, 08:00:53 AM
That is what I was thinking.  Looks like more fun than work.   ;D
That the perception locally, unemployment in the local timber sector is 20%+ the forest
condition is a disaster, only 3 larger mills state wide still open and the gov boys are out goofing
around, wasting taxpayer money, while the local loggers who could do 37 trees a day with one hand tied behind their
back are enduring severe economic hardship.  Then add insult to injury the FS brings out the press for
a feel good story  wow look at us aren't great.  The Helena Nat Forest is the most litigated forest in the whole
country, ground zero for all the enviro lawsuits.  I couldn't name a single landowner who would want
a bunch of splintered stumps on thier ground waiting to "jille" some critter/person.  CBD

texican

Have to remember, these dead trees are on some slopes, with no safe zones.  I worked a year with the Forest Service, and on some trail clearance work, we did everything but rope up to keep our balance on some steep slopes above and below the trails...  I would've loved me some blasting power!

If I cut trees in my pine plantation, I can cut a 14" tree down in just a few minutes... and off to the next and the next... but, I've had three >3' dbh oaks die close enough to the house to fall on it.  I guess I spent at least four hours each measuring angles, getting cables and chains, wenches etc., to get them to fall someplace safe.

That said, money isn't really that important... till you've burned thru the budget, then it's an issue.

beenthere

Quote from: texican on June 17, 2012, 10:38:39 PM
Have to remember, these dead trees are on some slopes, with no safe zones.  .................

I've also thought about that, but the dynamite crew has to go on those slopes to set the dynamite charge....so am puzzled how it is too steep for a cutter but not for a blasting expert.

And I've been on slopes in AK where the difference in elevation from the upper side of a 20" tree and the lower side was 6'. It wasn't fast work, but it was done while cutting down 100 or so trees. Much tougher trying to buck the down trees to length.
south central Wisconsin
It may be that my sole purpose in life is simply to serve as a warning to others

wdtik

When you live and work in the mountains a 45deg slope (100%grade) is just another day in the woods.
Even while falling trees.  And in late winter with firm snow pack ya just kick a step into the hillside and
climb up.  A good reason to log in the winter, esp on steep ground.


  I have respect for the rank and file FS  workers but the upper management
seems to be completly tone deaf.  Hahn Creek road is a dead end road to nowhere.  I will admit
the 500+ trees they shot out down along Wise River road was a good use of the technology as it was
  shear vertical along a highway

The Hahn Creek deal could have been cut in Feb/March in my opinion when frozen
and theres snow on the ground..  end rant





hardtailjohn

Quote from: wdtik on June 18, 2012, 08:22:44 AM
When you live and work in the mountains a 45deg slope (100%grade) is just another day in the woods.
Even while falling trees.  And in late winter with firm snow pack ya just kick a step into the hillside and
climb up.  A good reason to log in the winter, esp on steep ground.



Yep, just cut for a line skidding side sometime... 
I'm so far behind, I think I'm ahead!

Cedarman

I don't mind that kind of R&D.  The expense isn't that great in the scheme of things.  These were widow maker type trees, leaning and such as I understand it.
But what do I know, just what you folks tell me. :D :D
I am in the pink when sawing cedar.

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